React Native code push by HotCodePush

@hotcodepush/react-native-code-push is the React Native module that delivers over-the-air updates to your app: a code push reaches installed apps in seconds, without a store review. Learn more at hotcodepush.com/react-native-code-push.

Installation

npx hotcodepush init installs the package and wires it into both native projects. By hand, until the package is published, install the preview build pkg.pr.new publishes for every commit on main, pinned to a commit, together with the CLI the native builds call:

npm install https://pkg.pr.new/hotcodepush-team/react-native-code-push/@hotcodepush/react-native-code-push@<sha>
npm install --save-dev https://pkg.pr.new/hotcodepush-team/cli/hotcodepush@<sha>

The module supports React Native 0.82 and later on the New Architecture, iOS 15.1 and Android 7.0 (API 24).

React Native runs the bundle its host hands it, so each app asks the SDK for it. On iOS, AppDelegate.swift returns HotCodePush.bundleURL() where it returned the embedded main.jsbundle:

import HotcodepushReactNativeCodePush

override func bundleURL() -> URL? {
#if DEBUG
  RCTBundleURLProvider.sharedSettings().jsBundleURL(forBundleRoot: "index")
#else
  HotCodePush.bundleURL()
#endif
}

On Android, MainApplication.kt imports the SDK's getDefaultReactHost in place of React Native's; it takes the same parameters:

import com.hotcodepush.reactnative.HotCodePushReactHost.getDefaultReactHost

The SDK reads hotcodepush.json from the app's resources, which the build step, the CLI's binary create, writes on every native build that bundles the JavaScript. On iOS it is a Run Script phase after "Bundle React Native code and images":

set -e

WITH_ENVIRONMENT="$REACT_NATIVE_PATH/scripts/xcode/with-environment.sh"
HOTCODEPUSH_BINARY_CREATE="$REACT_NATIVE_PATH/../@hotcodepush/react-native-code-push/scripts/binary-create-xcode.sh"

/bin/sh -c "$WITH_ENVIRONMENT $HOTCODEPUSH_BINARY_CREATE"

On Android it is one line at the end of android/app/build.gradle:

apply from: new File(["node", "--print", "require.resolve('@hotcodepush/react-native-code-push/package.json')"].execute(null, rootDir).text.trim(), "../android/hotcodepush.gradle")

The native cores are the pod HotCodePushCore and the Android library com.hotcodepush:core-android, each pinned to a commit until it is published. The Podfile pins the commit this package names under hotcodepush.coreIos in its package.json, inside the app target, then pod install:

pod 'HotCodePushCore', :git => 'https://github.com/hotcodepush-team/core-ios.git', :commit => '<sha>'

On Android the Gradle file above adds core-android's maven branch, where the pinned commit is published, to the app's repositories.

A debug build asks Metro for its JavaScript, so live updates are off there and every result says SKIPPED with DEBUG_BUILD; the build step runs in it too and writes a hotcodepush.json that names no embedded bundle, without a login. Try an update in a release build.

Usage

import { HotCodePush, useUpdates } from '@hotcodepush/react-native-code-push';

const result = await HotCodePush.sync();
if (result.status === 'UPDATED') {
  console.log(`release #${result.release.number} installs ${result.installAt}`);
}

function ReleaseLabel() {
  const { isSyncing, state } = useUpdates();
  return (
    <Text>
      {isSyncing
        ? 'syncing…'
        : (state.currentRelease?.bundleVersion ?? 'embedded')}
    </Text>
  );
}

With autoCheck on, the default, the SDK checks on start, on resume and while the app stays in the foreground, and what follows a check is the download and install strategies' business; sync() is for the moment you want an update now. Applying an update reloads the JavaScript without restarting the app. An app that asks before downloading sets downloadStrategy to manual and calls downloadUpdate() on updateAvailable; one that protects a flow sets installStrategy to manual and calls applyUpdate() when it is ready.

Documentation

The SDK reference — configuration, methods, events, types and reasons — is at hotcodepush.com/docs/react-native.

Development

nvm use
npm ci
npm run lint
npm run typecheck
npm test
npm run build

The native code compiles inside an app: ci.yml builds the demo app with the package from the commit on both platforms. The cores and their tests live in core-ios and core-android.

License

See LICENSE. An app that ships the package ships the native cores' third-party code with it: FreeBSD's bspatch under the BSD 2-clause licence on both platforms and, on Android, the decompression of bzip2 1.0.8 under the bzip2 licence. The cores' THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES, in core-ios and in core-android, carry the notices, and an app's distribution reproduces them: the BSD 2-clause licence requires it of a binary, the bzip2 licence appreciates the acknowledgment.