Create different Targets/Flavour of the same app

[macshodan]

Hello,
I'm trying to create a different version of the same App that share most part of the code with the parent one, but for example have different resources, App Name, bundle ID etc...

On a plain iOS App I used to create a new target and give it the new properties like the bundle ID, the App name and so on. Then I could create different assets file and assign them to a specific target. Something similar is possible on Android Studio with different flavors.

Since with Skip the actual code is inside a single package, I was wondering if there's a way to achieve something similar, on Xcode I could still create a new target, but since the resource folder is inside the main package I can't find a way to address different resources in the code. And when the code is transpiled for Android how could I possibly create 2 different versions of the same app, since the skip environment files are not tied to a target?

Is it something achievable of the best option is to duplicate the project?

Thanks in advance
Simone

[marcprux]

Your observations are accurate: we unfortunately don't have any good way to do "flavors" of an app other than duplicating the app package. What I would recommend is putting the bulk of your app's logic in an external repository ("my-core-app") that you can add as a module dependency ("MyCoreApp") for your main app, and then have the multiple top-level app packages you create that depend on "my-core-app/MyCoreApp"). For example:

skip init --appid=com.app.id top-app TopApp:myorg/my-core-app/MyCoreApp

The top-level package in each app can vary the resources so that code in "MyCoreApp" that uses Bundle.main.url(forResource: …) to access a named resource will be getting the app-specific resource as packaged by the containing app.

We know this isn't the best solution compared to the simplicity of being able to just add multiple Xcode targets, but that's the best we can do for the time being.

[macshodan]

Thanks for your suggestion! I'll try to do that!
I know that with technologies like this we have to make compromises, but that's not a problem compared to the benefits we get.

So, if I have some android specific classes in the package Skip folder or the MyCoreApp (the app I've been developing now) right now they have the package name of the skip package, in your suggestion should I move (eg: duplicate) them in the top-level package? For example I have custom FileProvider that has to be declared in the Android Manifest with the complete namespace, so I assume it should be in the top-level package, right?

[marcprux]

in your suggestion should I move (eg: duplicate) them in the top-level package? For example I have custom FileProvider that has to be declared in the Android Manifest with the complete namespace, so I assume it should be in the top-level package, right?

I don't think it needs to be. The custom Kotlin code itself could exist in the Skip/ folder of the shared module. You would just need to duplicate the AndroidManifest.xml declaration for each app.

For example, I envision something like the follow 3 independent repositories summarized by this file layout:

my-core-app/
  Package.swift
  Sources/
    MyCoreApp/
      MyCoreAppLogic.swift <-- 99% of app logic goes here
      Skip/
        skip.yml
        MyCoreAppKotlinCode.kt <-- custom Kotlin code can be referenced by my.core.app.SomeKotlinClass

top-app-a/
  Package.swift <-- depends on my-core-app/MyCoreApp
  Android/
    app/
      src/
        main/
          AndroidManifest.xml <-- references my.core.app.logic.SomeKotlinClass
    …other Android app metadata…
  Darwin/
    …other iOS app metadata…
  Sources/
    TopAppA/
      MinimalCodeMostlyReferencingMyCoreApp.swift
      Resources/
        AppAImage.png <-- custom resources on a per-app basis
      Skip/
        skip.yml

top-app-b/
  Package.swift <-- depends on my-core-app/MyCoreApp
  Android/
    app/
      src/
        main/
          AndroidManifest.xml <-- references my.core.app.logic.SomeKotlinClass
    …other Android app metadata…
  Darwin/
    …other iOS app metadata…
  Sources/
    TopAppB/
      MinimalCodeMostlyReferencingMyCoreApp.swift
      Resources/
        AppBImage.png <-- custom resources on a per-app basis
      Skip/
        skip.yml

[macshodan]

Thanks a lot for your help! I'm going to try and let you know if I had to make some minor changes.
Maybe this could help others in my situation as well!