Port, by Numberless

Port is a communication app that emphasises consent. Building upon the concept of a "Port", it aims to give users a way to connect in a manner where they control how much access they give up.

Port is currently built for iOS and Android using react-native. This repository contains the source code for the apps. You can download Port here for Android or here for iOS

Environment setup

Port is a react-native app. To set up your environment for React Native development, follow their guide over on their documentation.

Port uses LFS for large file storage on git. You can find instructions and downloads on their website. If you have any issues downloading specific files using LFS, please open an issue.

Running the app

Once your environment is set up, from the root of the project, run yarn ready-all. This is a one stop shop to install dependencies and get started. Once your terminal stops panicking, you should see instructions from the metro server on how to launch the app on Android or iOS. For logs, you can use react native's dev tools, but we recommend going straight to Android Studio or XCode to get insight into native code.

Documentation

Maintaining documentation is an ongoing project.

• [] Migrate over wiki
• [] Track debt
• [] Track missing documentation

General practises:

• Function names should be descriptive. A well-named function won't need documentation. Still, include a docstring.
• In complex flows such as Chat, add in-line comments for sensitive choices that have been made during development. An example is how the Chat Flatlist uses the inverted=true flag, which means that messages need to be sent in a inverted order to the list.
• Avoid using short variable names, use descriptive names unless they are inline variables with limited operational scope.
• Typing is important, even for return types. Do not create function definitions that implicitly assume any. All functions and classes MUST include type declarations, either inline or separately.

UI Classes

• For a screen, define any sensitive choices (as mentioned above).
• Naming of the screen is important. Names such as NewGroupScreen.tsx are redundant, name it NewGroup.tsx. This has been slipping recently, we should do better. I swear there's a 'NewNewXYZ.tsx' somewhere.

Configuration:

• react-native-dotenv doesn't seem to be working very well. We intend to strip it out completely until we find a viable solution. Instead, abuse src/configs/api.ts. God knows we have. This is a bit of an antipattern, but all API urls go here. The only lines that really matter are:

const useSSL = USE_SSL ? USE_SSL === 'true' : true;
const URL = DOMAIN ? DOMAIN : 'staging.numberless.tech';

Prefer using staging.numberless.tech, but if that's unreachable or otherwise angry at you, use dev.numberless.tech.

Building and releasing to production

To build for production, you need access to the following:

1. credentials to our eas account. This will grant access to profiles and keys we use to sign builds with. Reach out to Abhi for this.
2. A sentry.properties file, to be placed both in android/ and ios/. Reach out to Abhi for access to the Sentry account if you don't already have it, and follow instructions to generate the file.

Preparation

In our api.ts file, replace staging/dev with the production URL. Additionally you want to enable sentry logging, so replace undifned with the commented out URL right below it. Don't worry, this URL is not a secret, the sentry.properties file is.

Android

The command to build for android is: % eas build --local --platform=android. This will run locally and may prompt you to log into the eas account. At the end of this, you will have a .aab file in the top level of the project.

To publish the app, log into the Play Console for the developer account and proceed with the steps outlined there. For access, reach out to Abhi.

iOS

The command to build for iOS is % eas build --local --platform=ios. This will run locally and may prompt you to enter credentials to both your eas account, and apple developer account. If you don't have a developer account, reach out to Abhi (this is a theme...). At the end of this, you will have a .ipa file at the top level of the project.

To publish, first install transporter from the App Store. Ensure the publisher is verified to be apple themselves. Sign in, and then upload the generated .ipa file. Follow instructions, to submit to App Store Connect. When complete, log into App Store Connect and go to the testflight tab. You may need to complete some compliance. If the app hasn't appeared yet, wait. You will get an email as to whether the upload succeded or failed. It occasionally takes forever.

Note: .ipa and .aab files are ignored by git. We don't want to commit them.

Extra recommendations

• At Numberless, engineers are issued Apple silicon Macbooks. This makes life challenging in many ways, but is a requirement for developing for iOS. If issues are opened on for other hardware, we aren't certain about our ability to reproduce and resolve the issue.

• We recommend, wherever possible, avoiding running the app on emulators/simulators. There are several issues with this. On iOS simulators don't support APNS or CallKit. You are likely to have to refresh the app after every message you send to the device. You are occasionally issued an APNS token on a simulator, but these are freak incidents. The experience on Android emulators are better, but not stellar either.

Contributing

We welcome contributions from the community! Please see our Contributing Guide for details on how to submit pull requests, report bugs, and suggest enhancements.

Code of Conduct

This project adheres to the Contributor Covenant Code of Conduct. By participating, you are expected to uphold this code.

License

This project is licensed under the Apache License Version 2.0 - see the LICENSE file for details.

Made with ❤️ by Numberless