Note: This README is only relevant to the latest version of our plugin. If you are using an older version, please switch to the relevant tag on our GitHub repo to view the docs for that particular version.
This plugin provides client-side integration for the CodePush service, allowing you to easily add a dynamic update experience to your React Native app(s).
- How does it work?
- Supported React Native Platforms
- Supported Components
- Getting Started
- Plugin Usage
- Releasing Updates
- Multi-Deployment Testing
- Dynamic Deployment Assignment
- API Reference
- Debugging / Troubleshooting
- Example Apps / Starters
- Continuous Integration / Delivery
- TypeScript Consumption
A React Native app is composed of JavaScript files and any accompanying images, which are bundled together by the packager and distributed as part of a platform-specific binary (i.e. an .ipa
or .apk
file). Once the app is released, updating either the JavaScript code (e.g. making bug fixes, adding new features) or image assets, requires you to recompile and redistribute the entire binary, which of course, includes any review time associated with the store(s) you are publishing to.
The CodePush plugin helps get product improvements in front of your end users instantly, by keeping your JavaScript and images synchronized with updates you release to the CodePush server. This way, your app gets the benefits of an offline mobile experience, as well as the "web-like" agility of side-loading updates as soon as they are available. It's a win-win!
In order to ensure that your end users always have a functioning version of your app, the CodePush plugin maintains a copy of the previous update, so that in the event that you accidentally push an update which includes a crash, it can automatically roll back. This way, you can rest assured that your newfound release agility won't result in users becoming blocked before you have a chance to roll back on the server. It's a win-win-win!
Note: Any product changes which touch native code (e.g. modifying your AppDelegate.m
/MainActivity.java
file, adding a new plugin) cannot be distributed via CodePush, and therefore, must be updated via the appropriate store(s).
- iOS (7+)
- Android (4.1+)
- Windows (UWP)
We try our best to maintain backwards compatability of our plugin with previous versions of React Native, but due to the nature of the platform, and the existence of breaking changes between releases, it is possible that you need to use a specific version of the CodePush plugin in order to support the exact version of React Native you are using. The following table outlines which CodePush plugin versions officially support the respective React Native versions:
React Native version(s) | Supporting CodePush version(s) |
---|---|
<0.14 | Unsupported |
v0.14 | v1.3.0 (introduced Android support) |
v0.15-v0.18 | v1.4.0-v1.6.0 (introduced iOS asset support) |
v0.19-v0.28 | v1.7.0+ (introduced Android asset support) |
v0.29-v0.30 | v1.13.0+ (RN refactored native hosting code) |
v0.31-v0.33 | v1.14.6+ (RN refactored native hosting code) |
v0.34-v0.35 | v1.15.0+ (RN refactored native hosting code) |
v0.36-v0.39 | v1.16.0+ (RN refactored resume handler) |
v0.40-v0.41 | v1.17.0+ (RN refactored iOS header files) |
v0.42+ | TBD :) We work hard to respond to new RN releases, but they do occasionally break us. We will update this chart with each RN release, so that users can check to see what our "official" support is. |
When using the React Native assets system (i.e. using the require("./foo.png")
syntax), the following list represents the set of core components (and props) that support having their referenced images updated via CodePush:
Component | Prop(s) |
---|---|
Image |
source |
MapView.Marker (Requires react-native-maps >=O.3.2 ) |
image |
ProgressViewIOS |
progressImage , trackImage |
TabBarIOS.Item |
icon , selectedIcon |
ToolbarAndroid (React Native 0.21.0+) |
actions[].icon , logo , overflowIcon |
The following list represents the set of components (and props) that don't currently support their assets being updated via CodePush, due to their dependency on static images (i.e. using the { uri: "foo" }
syntax):
Component | Prop(s) |
---|---|
SliderIOS |
maximumTrackImage , minimumTrackImage , thumbImage , trackImage |
Video |
source |
As new core components are released, which support referencing assets, we'll update this list to ensure users know what exactly they can expect to update using CodePush.
Once you've followed the general-purpose "getting started" instructions for setting up your CodePush account, you can start CodePush-ifying your React Native app by running the following command from within your app's root directory:
npm install --save react-native-code-push@latest
As with all other React Native plugins, the integration experience is different for iOS and Android, so perform the following setup steps depending on which platform(s) you are targeting. Note, if you are targeting both platforms it is recommended to create separate CodePush applications for each platform.
If you want to see how other projects have integrated with CodePush, you can check out the excellent example apps provided by the community. Additionally, if you'd like to quickly familiarize yourself with CodePush + React Native, you can check out the awesome getting started videos produced by Bilal Budhani and/or Deepak Sisodiya .
Once you've acquired the CodePush plugin, you need to integrate it into the Xcode project of your React Native app and configure it correctly. To do this, take the following steps:
In order to accommodate as many developer preferences as possible, the CodePush plugin supports iOS installation via three mechanisms:
-
RNPM - React Native Package Manager (RNPM) is an awesome tool that provides the simplest installation experience possible for React Native plugins. If you're already using it, or you want to use it, then we recommend this approach.
-
CocoaPods - If you're building a native iOS app that is embedding React Native into it, or you simply prefer using CocoaPods, then we recommend using the Podspec file that we ship as part of our plugin.
-
"Manual" - If you don't want to depend on any additional tools or are fine with a few extra installation steps (it's a one-time thing), then go with this approach.
-
As of v0.27 of React Native,
rnpm link
has already been merged into the React Native CLI. Simply run:react-native link react-native-code-push
If your app uses a version of React Native that is lower than v0.27, run the following:
rnpm link react-native-code-push
Note: If you don't already have RNPM installed, you can do so by simply running
npm i -g rnpm
and then executing the above command. If you already have RNPM installed, make sure you have v1.9.0+ in order to benefit from this one step install. -
You will be prompted for the deployment key you'd like to use. If you don't already have it, you can retrieve this value by running
code-push deployment ls <appName> -k
, or you can choose to ignore it (by simply hitting<ENTER>
) and add it in later. To get started, we would recommend just using yourStaging
deployment key, so that you can test out the CodePush end-to-end.
And that's it! Isn't RNPM awesome? :)
-
Add the CodePush plugin dependency to your
Podfile
, pointing at the path where NPM installed itpod 'CodePush', :path => '../node_modules/react-native-code-push'
CodePush depends on an internal copy of the
SSZipArchive
library, so if your project already includes it (either directly or via a transitive dependency), then you can install a version of CodePush which excludes it by depending specifically on theCore
subspec:pod 'CodePush', :path => '../node_modules/react-native-code-push', :subspecs => ['Core']
NOTE: The above paths needs to be relative to your app's
Podfile
, so adjust it as nec cessary. -
Run
pod install
NOTE: The CodePush .podspec
depends on the React
pod, and so in order to ensure that it can correctly use the version of React Native that your app is built with, please make sure to define the React
dependency in your app's Podfile
as explained here.
-
Open your app's Xcode project
-
Find the
CodePush.xcodeproj
file within thenode_modules/react-native-code-push/ios
directory (ornode_modules/react-native-code-push
for <=1.7.3-beta
installations) and drag it into theLibraries
node in Xcode -
Select the project node in Xcode and select the "Build Phases" tab of your project configuration.
-
Drag
libCodePush.a
fromLibraries/CodePush.xcodeproj/Products
into the "Link Binary With Libraries" section of your project's "Build Phases" configuration. -
Click the plus sign underneath the "Link Binary With Libraries" list and select the
libz.tbd
library underneath theiOS 9.1
node.Note: Alternatively, if you prefer, you can add the
-lz
flag to theOther Linker Flags
field in theLinking
section of theBuild Settings
.
NOTE: If you used RNPM or react-native link
to automatically link the plugin, these steps have already been done for you so you may skip this section.
Once your Xcode project has been setup to build/link the CodePush plugin, you need to configure your app to consult CodePush for the location of your JS bundle, since it is responsible for synchronizing it with updates that are released to the CodePush server. To do this, perform the following steps:
-
Open up the
AppDelegate.m
file, and add an import statement for the CodePush headers:#import <CodePush/CodePush.h>
-
Find the following line of code, which loads your JS Bundle from the app binary for production releases:
jsCodeLocation = [[NSBundle mainBundle] URLForResource:@"main" withExtension:@"jsbundle"];
-
Replace it with this line:
jsCodeLocation = [CodePush bundleURL];
This change configures your app to always load the most recent version of your app's JS bundle. On the first launch, this will correspond to the file that was compiled with the app. However, after an update has been pushed via CodePush, this will return the location of the most recently installed update.
NOTE: The bundleURL
method assumes your app's JS bundle is named main.jsbundle
. If you have configured your app to use a different file name, simply call the bundleURLForResource:
method (which assumes you're using the .jsbundle
extension) or bundleURLForResource:withExtension:
method instead, in order to overwrite that default behavior
Typically, you're only going to want to use CodePush to resolve your JS bundle location within release builds, and therefore, we recommend using the DEBUG
pre-processor macro to dynamically switch between using the packager server and CodePush, depending on whether you are debugging or not. This will make it much simpler to ensure you get the right behavior you want in production, while still being able to use the Chrome Dev Tools, live reload, etc. at debug-time.
NSURL *jsCodeLocation;
#ifdef DEBUG
jsCodeLocation = [NSURL URLWithString:@"http://localhost:8081/index.ios.bundle?platform=ios&dev=true"];
#else
jsCodeLocation = [CodePush bundleURL];
#endif
To let the CodePush runtime know which deployment it should query for updates against, open your app's Info.plist
file and add a new entry named CodePushDeploymentKey
, whose value is the key of the deployment you want to configure this app against (e.g. the key for the Staging
deployment for the FooBar
app). You can retrieve this value by running code-push deployment ls <appName> -k
in the CodePush CLI (the -k
flag is necessary since keys aren't displayed by default) and copying the value of the Deployment Key
column which corresponds to the deployment you want to use (see below). Note that using the deployment's name (e.g. Staging) will not work. That "friendly name" is intended only for authenticated management usage from the CLI, and not for public consumption within your app.
In order to effectively make use of the Staging
and Production
deployments that were created along with your CodePush app, refer to the multi-deployment testing docs below before actually moving your app's usage of CodePush into production.
In order to integrate CodePush into your Android project, perform the following steps:
In order to accommodate as many developer preferences as possible, the CodePush plugin supports Android installation via two mechanisms:
-
RNPM - React Native Package Manager (RNPM) is an awesome tool that provides the simplest installation experience possible for React Native plugins. If you're already using it, or you want to use it, then we recommend this approach.
-
"Manual" - If you don't want to depend on any additional tools or are fine with a few extra installation steps (it's a one-time thing), then go with this approach.
*Note: Due to a code change from the React Native repository, if your installed React Native version ranges from 0.29 to 0.32, we recommend following the manual steps to set up correctly. *
-
As of v0.27 of React Native,
rnpm link
has already been merged into the React Native CLI. Simply run:react-native link react-native-code-push
If your app uses a version of React Native that is lower than v0.27, run the following:
rnpm link react-native-code-push
Note: If you don't already have RNPM installed, you can do so by simply running
npm i -g rnpm
and then executing the above command. -
If you're using RNPM >=1.6.0, you will be prompted for the deployment key you'd like to use. If you don't already have it, you can retreive this value by running
code-push deployment ls <appName> -k
, or you can choose to ignore it (by simply hitting<ENTER>
) and add it in later. To get started, we would recommend just using yourStaging
deployment key, so that you can test out the CodePush end-to-end.
And that's it for installation using RNPM! Continue below to the Plugin Configuration section to complete the setup.
-
In your
android/settings.gradle
file, make the following additions:include ':app', ':react-native-code-push' project(':react-native-code-push').projectDir = new File(rootProject.projectDir, '../node_modules/react-native-code-push/android/app')
-
In your
android/app/build.gradle
file, add the:react-native-code-push
project as a compile-time dependency:... dependencies { ... compile project(':react-native-code-push') }
-
In your
android/app/build.gradle
file, add thecodepush.gradle
file as an additional build task definition underneathreact.gradle
:... apply from: "../../node_modules/react-native/react.gradle" apply from: "../../node_modules/react-native-code-push/android/codepush.gradle" ...
NOTE: If you used RNPM or react-native link
to automatically link the plugin, these steps have already been done for you so you may skip this section.
After installing the plugin and syncing your Android Studio project with Gradle, you need to configure your app to consult CodePush for the location of your JS bundle, since it will "take control" of managing the current and all future versions. To do this:
For React Native >= v0.29
Update the MainApplication.java
file to use CodePush via the following changes:
...
// 1. Import the plugin class.
import com.microsoft.codepush.react.CodePush;
public class MainApplication extends Application implements ReactApplication {
private final ReactNativeHost mReactNativeHost = new ReactNativeHost(this) {
...
// 2. Override the getJSBundleFile method in order to let
// the CodePush runtime determine where to get the JS
// bundle location from on each app start
@Override
protected String getJSBundleFile() {
return CodePush.getJSBundleFile();
}
@Override
protected List<ReactPackage> getPackages() {
// 3. Instantiate an instance of the CodePush runtime and add it to the list of
// existing packages, specifying the right deployment key. If you don't already
// have it, you can run "code-push deployment ls <appName> -k" to retrieve your key.
return Arrays.<ReactPackage>asList(
new MainReactPackage(),
new CodePush("deployment-key-here", MainApplication.this, BuildConfig.DEBUG)
);
}
};
}
For React Native v0.19 - v0.28
Update the MainActivity.java
file to use CodePush via the following changes:
...
// 1. Import the plugin class (if you used RNPM to install the plugin, this
// should already be done for you automatically so you can skip this step).
import com.microsoft.codepush.react.CodePush;
public class MainActivity extends ReactActivity {
// 2. Override the getJSBundleFile method in order to let
// the CodePush runtime determine where to get the JS
// bundle location from on each app start
@Override
protected String getJSBundleFile() {
return CodePush.getJSBundleFile();
}
@Override
protected List<ReactPackage> getPackages() {
// 3. Instantiate an instance of the CodePush runtime and add it to the list of
// existing packages, specifying the right deployment key. If you don't already
// have it, you can run "code-push deployment ls <appName> -k" to retrieve your key.
return Arrays.<ReactPackage>asList(
new MainReactPackage(),
new CodePush("deployment-key-here", this, BuildConfig.DEBUG)
);
}
...
}
This section is only necessary if you're explicitly launching a React Native instance without an Activity
(for example, from within a native push notification receiver). For these situations, CodePush must be told how to find your React Native instance.
In order to update/restart your React Native instance, CodePush must be configured with a ReactInstanceHolder
before attempting to restart an instance in the background. This is usually done in your Application
implementation.
For React Native >= v0.29
Update the MainApplication.java
file to use CodePush via the following changes:
...
// 1. Declare your ReactNativeHost to extend ReactInstanceHolder. ReactInstanceHolder is a subset of ReactNativeHost, so no additional implementation is needed.
import com.microsoft.codepush.react.ReactInstanceHolder;
public class MyReactNativeHost extends ReactNativeHost implements ReactInstanceHolder {
// ... usual overrides
}
// 2. Provide your ReactNativeHost to CodePush.
public class MainApplication extends Application implements ReactApplication {
private final MyReactNativeHost mReactNativeHost = new MyReactNativeHost(this);
@Override
public void onCreate() {
CodePush.setReactInstanceHolder(mReactNativeHost);
super.onCreate();
}
}
For React Native v0.19 - v0.28
Before v0.29, React Native did not provide a ReactNativeHost
abstraction. If you're launching a background instance, you'll likely have built your own, which should now implement ReactInstanceHolder
. Once that's done:
// 1. Provide your ReactInstanceHolder to CodePush.
public class MainApplication extends Application {
@Override
public void onCreate() {
// ... initialize your instance holder
CodePush.setReactInstanceHolder(myInstanceHolder);
super.onCreate();
}
}
In order to effectively make use of the Staging
and Production
deployments that were created along with your CodePush app, refer to the multi-deployment testing docs below before actually moving your app's usage of CodePush into production.
Once you've acquired the CodePush plugin, you need to integrate it into the Visual Studio project of your React Native app and configure it correctly. To do this, take the following steps:
-
Open the Visual Studio solution located at
windows\<AppName>\<AppName>.sln
within your app -
Right-click the solution node in the
Solution Explorer
window and select theAdd -> Existing Project...
menu item -
Browse to the
node_modules\react-native-code-push\windows
directory, select theCodePush.csproj
file and clickOK
-
Back in the
Solution Explorer
, right-click the project node that is named after your app, and select theAdd -> Reference...
menu item -
Select the
Projects
tab on the left hand side, check theCodePush
item and then clickOK
After installing the plugin, you need to configure your app to consult CodePush for the location of your JS bundle, since it will "take control" of managing the current and all future versions. To do this, update the AppReactPage.cs
file to use CodePush via the following changes:
...
// 1. Import the CodePush namespace
using CodePush.ReactNative;
...
class AppReactPage : ReactPage
{
// 2. Declare a private instance variable for the CodePushModule instance.
private CodePushReactPackage codePushReactPackage;
// 3. Update the JavaScriptBundleFile property to initalize the CodePush runtime,
// specifying the right deployment key, then use it to return the bundle URL from
// CodePush instead of statically from the binary. If you don't already have your
// deployment key, you can run "code-push deployment ls <appName> -k" to retrieve it.
public override string JavaScriptBundleFile
{
get
{
codePushReactPackage = new CodePushReactPackage("deployment-key-here", this);
return codePushReactPackage.GetJavaScriptBundleFile();
}
}
// 4. Add the codePushReactPackage instance to the list of existing packages.
public override List<IReactPackage> Packages
{
get
{
return new List<IReactPackage>
{
new MainReactPackage(),
...
codePushReactPackage
};
}
}
...
}
With the CodePush plugin downloaded and linked, and your app asking CodePush where to get the right JS bundle from, the only thing left is to add the necessary code to your app to control the following policies:
-
When (and how often) to check for an update? (e.g. app start, in response to clicking a button in a settings page, periodically at some fixed interval)
-
When an update is available, how to present it to the end user?
The simplest way to do this is to "CodePush-ify" your app's root component. To do so, you can choose one of the following two options:
-
Option 1: Wrap your root component with the
codePush
higher-order component:import codePush from "react-native-code-push"; class MyApp extends Component { } MyApp = codePush(MyApp);
-
Option 2: Use the ES7 decorator syntax:
NOTE: Decorators are not yet supported in Babel 6.x pending proposal update. You may need to enable it by installing and using babel-preset-react-native-stage-0.
import codePush from "react-native-code-push"; @codePush class MyApp extends Component { }
By default, CodePush will check for updates on every app start. If an update is available, it will be silently downloaded, and installed the next time the app is restarted (either explicitly by the end user or by the OS), which ensures the least invasive experience for your end users. If an available update is mandatory, then it will be installed immediately, ensuring that the end user gets it as soon as possible.
If you would like your app to discover updates more quickly, you can also choose to sync up with the CodePush server every time the app resumes from the background.
let codePushOptions = { checkFrequency: codePush.CheckFrequency.ON_APP_RESUME };
class MyApp extends Component {
}
MyApp = codePush(codePushOptions)(MyApp);
Alternatively, if you want fine-grained control over when the check happens (e.g. a button press or timer interval), you can call CodePush.sync()
at any time with your desired SyncOptions
, and optionally turn off CodePush's automatic checking by specifying a manual checkFrequency
:
let codePushOptions = { checkFrequency: codePush.CheckFrequency.MANUAL };
class MyApp extends Component {
onButtonPress() {
codePush.sync({
updateDialog: true,
installMode: codePush.InstallMode.IMMEDIATE
});
}
render() {
<View>
<TouchableOpacity onPress={this.onButtonPress}>
<Text>Check for updates</Text>
</TouchableOpacity>
</View>
}
}
MyApp = codePush(codePushOptions)(MyApp);
If you would like to display an update confirmation dialog (an "active install"), configure when an available update is installed (e.g. force an immediate restart) or customize the update experience in any other way, refer to the codePush()
API reference for information on how to tweak this default behavior.
NOTE: If you are using Redux and Redux Saga, you can alternatively use the react-native-code-push-saga module, which allows you to customize when sync
is called in a perhaps simpler/more idiomatic way.
NOTE: While Apple's developer agreement fully allows performing over-the-air updates of JavaScript and assets (which is what enables CodePush!), it is against their policy for an app to display an update prompt. Because of this, we recommend that App Store-distributed apps don't enable the updateDialog
option when calling sync
, whereas Google Play and internally distributed apps (e.g. Enterprise, Fabric, HockeyApp) can choose to enable/customize it.
Once your app has been configured and distributed to your users, and you've made some JS and/or asset changes, it's time to instantly release them! The simplest (and recommended) way to do this is to use the release-react
command in the CodePush CLI, which will handle bundling your JavaScript and asset files and releasing the update to the CodePush server.
In it's most basic form, this command only requires two parameters: your app name and the platform you are bundling the update for (either ios
or android
).
code-push release-react <appName> <platform>
code-push release-react MyApp-iOS ios
code-push release-react MyApp-Android android
The release-react
command enables such a simple workflow because it provides many sensible defaults (e.g. generating a release bundle, assuming your app's entry file on iOS is either index.ios.js
or index.js
). However, all of these defaults can be customized to allow incremental flexibility as necessary, which makes it a good fit for most scenarios.
# Release a mandatory update with a changelog
code-push release-react MyApp-iOS ios -m --description "Modified the header color"
# Release an update for an app that uses a non-standard entry file name, and also capture
# the sourcemap file generated by react-native bundle
code-push release-react MyApp-iOS ios --entryFile MyApp.js --sourcemapOutput ../maps/MyApp.map
# Release a dev Android build to just 1/4 of your end users
code-push release-react MyApp-Android android --rollout 25% --dev true
# Release an update that targets users running any 1.1.* binary, as opposed to
# limiting the update to exact version name in the build.gradle file
code-push release-react MyApp-Android android --targetBinaryVersion "~1.1.0"
The CodePush client supports differential updates, so even though you are releasing your JS bundle and assets on every update, your end users will only actually download the files they need. The service handles this automatically so that you can focus on creating awesome apps and we can worry about optimizing end user downloads.
For more details about how the release-react
command works, as well as the various parameters it exposes, refer to the CLI docs. Additionally, if you would prefer to handle running the react-native bundle
command yourself, and therefore, want an even more flexible solution than release-react
, refer to the release
command for more details.
If you run into any issues, or have any questions/comments/feedback, you can ping us within the #code-push channel on Reactiflux, e-mail us and/or check out the troubleshooting details below.
In our getting started docs, we illustrated how to configure the CodePush plugin using a specific deployment key. However, in order to effectively test your releases, it is critical that you leverage the Staging
and Production
deployments that are auto-generated when you first created your CodePush app (or any custom deployments you may have created). This way, you never release an update to your end users that you haven't been able to validate yourself.
NOTE: Our client-side rollback feature can help unblock users after installing a release that resulted in a crash, and server-side rollbacks (i.e. code-push rollback
) allow you to prevent additional users from installing a bad release once it's been identified. However, it's obviously better if you can prevent an erroneous update from being broadly released in the first place.
Taking advantage of the Staging
and Production
deployments allows you to achieve a workflow like the following (feel free to customize!):
-
Release a CodePush update to your
Staging
deployment using thecode-push release-react
command (orcode-push release
if you need more control) -
Run your staging/beta build of your app, sync the update from the server, and verify it works as expected
-
Promote the tested release from
Staging
toProduction
using thecode-push promote
command -
Run your production/release build of your app, sync the update from the server and verify it works as expected
NOTE: If you want to get really fancy, you can even choose to perform a "staged rollout" as part of #3, which allows you to mitigate additional potential risk with the update (e.g. did your testing in #2 touch all possible devices/conditions?) by only making the production update available to a percentage of your users (e.g. code-push promote <APP_NAME> Staging Production -r 20%
). Then, after waiting for a reasonable amount of time to see if any crash reports or customer feedback comes in, you can expand it to your entire audience by running code-push patch <APP_NAME> Production -r 100%
.
You'll notice that the above steps refer to a "staging build" and "production build" of your app. If your build process already generates distinct binaries per "environment", then you don't need to read any further, since swapping out CodePush deployment keys is just like handling environment-specific config for any other service your app uses (e.g. Facebook). However, if you're looking for examples on how to setup your build process to accommodate this, then refer to the following sections, depending on the platform(s) your app is targeting.
The Android Gradle plugin allows you to define custom config settings for each "build type" (e.g. debug, release), which in turn are generated as properties on the BuildConfig
class that you can reference from your Java code. This mechanism allows you to easily configure your debug builds to use your CodePush staging deployment key and your release builds to use your CodePush production deployment key.
To set this up, perform the following steps:
-
Open your app's
build.gradle
file (e.g.android/app/build.gradle
in standard React Native projects) -
Find the
android { buildTypes {} }
section and definebuildConfigField
entries for both yourdebug
andrelease
build types, which reference yourStaging
andProduction
deployment keys respectively. If you prefer, you can define the key literals in yourgradle.properties
file, and then reference them here. Either way will work, and it's just a matter of personal preference.android { ... buildTypes { debug { ... buildConfigField "String", "CODEPUSH_KEY", '"<INSERT_STAGING_KEY>"' ... } release { ... buildConfigField "String", "CODEPUSH_KEY", '"<INSERT_PRODUCTION_KEY>"' ... } } ... }
NOTE: As a reminder, you can retrieve these keys by running
code-push deployment ls <APP_NAME> -k
from your terminal. -
Pass the deployment key to the
CodePush
constructor via the build config you just defined, as opposed to a string literal.
For React Native >= v0.29
Open up your MainApplication.java
file and make the following changes:
@Override
protected List<ReactPackage> getPackages() {
return Arrays.<ReactPackage>asList(
...
new CodePush(BuildConfig.CODEPUSH_KEY, MainApplication.this, BuildConfig.DEBUG), // Add/change this line.
...
);
}
For React Native v0.19 - v0.28
Open up your MainActivity.java
file and make the following changes:
@Override
protected List<ReactPackage> getPackages() {
return Arrays.<ReactPackage>asList(
...
new CodePush(BuildConfig.CODEPUSH_KEY, this, BuildConfig.DEBUG), // Add/change this line.
...
);
}
Note: If you gave your build setting a different name in your Gradle file, simply make sure to reflect that in your Java code.
And that's it! Now when you run or build your app, your debug builds will automatically be configured to sync with your Staging
deployment, and your release builds will be configured to sync with your Production
deployment.
NOTE: By default, the react-native run-android
command builds and deploys the debug version of your app, so if you want to test out a release/production build, simply run `react-native run-android --variant release. Refer to the React Native docs for details about how to configure and create release builds for your Android apps.
If you want to be able to install both debug and release builds simultaneously on the same device (highly recommended!), then you need to ensure that your debug build has a unique identity and icon from your release build. Otherwise, neither the OS nor you will be able to differentiate between the two. You can achieve this by performing the following steps:
- In your
build.gradle
file, specify theapplicationIdSuffix
field for your debug build type, which gives your debug build a unique identity for the OS (e.g.com.foo
vs.com.foo.debug
).
buildTypes {
debug {
applicationIdSuffix ".debug"
}
}
-
Create the
app/src/debug/res
directory structure in your app, which allows overriding resources (e.g. strings, icons, layouts) for your debug builds -
Create a
values
directory underneath the debug res directory created in #2, and copy the existingstrings.xml
file from theapp/src/main/res/values
directory -
Open up the new debug
strings.xml
file and change the<string name="app_name">
element's value to something else (e.g.foo-debug
). This ensures that your debug build now has a distinct display name, so that you can differentiate it from your release build. -
Optionally, create "mirrored" directories in the
app/src/debug/res
directory for all of your app's icons that you want to change for your debug build. This part isn't technically critical, but it can make it easier to quickly spot your debug builds on a device if its icon is noticeable different.
And that's it! View here for more details on how resource merging works in Android.
Xcode allows you to define custom build settings for each "configuration" (e.g. debug, release), which can then be referenced as the value of keys within the Info.plist
file (e.g. the CodePushDeploymentKey
setting). This mechanism allows you to easily configure your builds to produce binaries, which are configured to synchronize with different CodePush deployments.
To set this up, perform the following steps:
-
Open up your Xcode project and select your project in the
Project navigator
window -
Ensure the project node is selected, as opposed to one of your targets
-
Select the
Info
tab -
Click the
+
button within theConfigurations
section and selectDuplicate "Release" Configuration
-
Name the new configuration
Staging
(or whatever you prefer) -
Select the
Build Settings
tab -
Click the
+
button on the toolbar and selectAdd User-Defined Setting
-
Name this new setting something like
CODEPUSH_KEY
, expand it, and specify yourStaging
deployment key for theStaging
config and yourProduction
deployment key for theRelease
config.NOTE: As a reminder, you can retrieve these keys by running
code-push deployment ls <APP_NAME> -k
from your terminal. -
Open your project's
Info.plist
file and change the value of yourCodePushDeploymentKey
entry to$(CODEPUSH_KEY)
And that's it! Now when you run or build your app, your staging builds will automatically be configured to sync with your Staging
deployment, and your release builds will be configured to sync with your Production
deployment.
Note: If you encounter the error message ld: library not found for ...
, please consult this issue for a possible solution.
Additionally, if you want to give them seperate names and/or icons, you can modify the Product Name
and Asset Catalog App Icon Set Name
build settings, which will allow your staging builds to be distinguishable from release builds when installed on the same device.
The above section illustrated how you can leverage multiple CodePush deployments in order to effectively test your updates before broadly releasing them to your end users. However, since that workflow statically embeds the deployment assignment into the actual binary, a staging or production build will only ever sync updates from that deployment. In many cases, this is sufficient, since you only want your team, customers, stakeholders, etc. to sync with your pre-production releases, and therefore, only they need a build that knows how to sync with staging. However, if you want to be able to perform A/B tests, or provide early access of your app to certain users, it can prove very useful to be able to dynamically place specific users (or audiences) into specific deployments at runtime.
In order to achieve this kind of workflow, all you need to do is specify the deployment key you want the current user to syncronize with when calling the codePush
method. When specified, this key will override the "default" one that was provided in your app's Info.plist
(iOS) or MainActivity.java
(Android) files. This allows you to produce a build for staging or production, that is also capable of being dynamically "redirected" as needed.
// Imagine that "userProfile" is a prop that this component received
// which includes the deployment key that the current user should use.
codePush.sync({ deploymentKey: userProfile.CODEPUSH_KEY });
With that change in place, now it's just a matter of choosing how your app determines the right deployment key for the current user. In practice, there are typically two solutions for this:
-
Expose a user-visible mechanism for changing deployments at any time. For example, your settings page could have a toggle for enabling "beta" access. This model works well if you're not concerned with the privacy of your pre-production updates, and you have power users that may want to opt-in to earlier (and potentially buggy) updates at their own will (kind of like Chrome channels). However, this solution puts the decision in the hands of your users, which doesn't help you perform A/B tests transparently.
-
Annotate the server-side profile of your users with an additional piece of metadata which indicates the deployment they should sync with. By default, your app could just use the binary-embedded key, but after a user has authenticated, your server can choose to "redirect" them to a different deployment, which allows you to incrementally place certain users or groups in different deployments as needed. You could even choose to store the server-response in local storage so that it becomes the new default. How you store the key alongside your user's profiles is entirely up to your authentication solution (e.g. Auth0, Firebase, custom DB + REST API), but is generally pretty trivial to do.
NOTE: If needed, you could also implement a hybrid solution that allowed your end-users to toggle between different deployments, while also allowing your server to override that decision. This way, you have a hierarchy of "deployment resolution" that ensures your app has the ability to update itself out-of-the-box, your end users can feel rewarded by getting early access to bits, but you also have the ability to run A/B tests on your users as needed.
Since we recommend using the Staging
deployment for pre-release testing of your updates (as explained in the previous section), it doesn't neccessarily make sense to use it for performing A/B tests on your users, as opposed to allowing early-access (as explained in option #1 above). Therefore, we recommend making full use of custom app deployments, so that you can segment your users however makes sense for your needs. For example, you could create long-term or even one-off deployments, release a variant of your app to it, and then place certain users into it in order to see how they engage.
// #1) Create your new deployment to hold releases of a specific app variant
code-push deployment add [APP_NAME] test-variant-one
// #2) Target any new releases at that custom deployment
code-push release-react [APP_NAME] ios -d test-variant-one
NOTE: The total user count that is reported in your deployment's "Install Metrics" will take into account users that have "switched" from one deployment to another. For example, if your Production
deployment currently reports having 1 total user, but you dynamically switch that user to Staging
, then the Production
deployment would report 0 total users, while Staging
would report 1 (the user that just switched). This behavior allows you to accurately track your release adoption, even in the event of using a runtime-based deployment redirection solution.
The CodePush plugin is made up of two components:
-
A JavaScript module, which can be imported/required, and allows the app to interact with the service during runtime (e.g. check for updates, inspect the metadata about the currently running app update).
-
A native API (Objective-C and Java) which allows the React Native app host to bootstrap itself with the right JS bundle location.
The following sections describe the shape and behavior of these APIs in detail:
When you require react-native-code-push
, the module object provides the following top-level methods in addition to the root-level component decorator:
-
allowRestart: Re-allows programmatic restarts to occur as a result of an update being installed, and optionally, immediately restarts the app if a pending update had attempted to restart the app while restarts were disallowed. This is an advanced API and is only necessary if your app explicitly disallowed restarts via the
disallowRestart
method. -
checkForUpdate: Asks the CodePush service whether the configured app deployment has an update available.
-
disallowRestart: Temporarily disallows any programmatic restarts to occur as a result of a CodePush update being installed. This is an advanced API, and is useful when a component within your app (e.g. an onboarding process) needs to ensure that no end-user interruptions can occur during its lifetime.
-
getCurrentPackage: Retrieves the metadata about the currently installed update (e.g. description, installation time, size). NOTE: As of
v1.10.3-beta
of the CodePush module, this method is deprecated in favor ofgetUpdateMetadata
. -
getUpdateMetadata: Retrieves the metadata for an installed update (e.g. description, mandatory).
-
notifyAppReady: Notifies the CodePush runtime that an installed update is considered successful. If you are manually checking for and installing updates (i.e. not using the sync method to handle it all for you), then this method MUST be called; otherwise CodePush will treat the update as failed and rollback to the previous version when the app next restarts.
-
restartApp: Immediately restarts the app. If there is an update pending, it will be immediately displayed to the end user. Otherwise, calling this method simply has the same behavior as the end user killing and restarting the process.
-
sync: Allows checking for an update, downloading it and installing it, all with a single call. Unless you need custom UI and/or behavior, we recommend most developers to use this method when integrating CodePush into their apps
// Wrapper function
codePush(rootComponent: React.Component): React.Component;
codePush(options: CodePushOptions)(rootComponent: React.Component): React.Component;
// Decorator; Requires ES7 support
@codePush
@codePush(options: CodePushOptions)
Used to wrap a React component inside a "higher order" React component that knows how to synchronize your app's JavaScript bundle and image assets when it is mounted. Internally, the higher-order component calls sync
inside its componentDidMount
lifecycle handle, which in turns performs an update check, downloads the update if it exists and installs the update for you.
This decorator provides support for letting you customize its behaviour to easily enable apps with different requirements. Below are some examples of ways you can use it (you can pick one or even use a combination):
-
Silent sync on app start (the simplest, default behavior). Your app will automatically download available updates, and apply them the next time the app restarts (e.g. the OS or end user killed it, or the device was restarted). This way, the entire update experience is "silent" to the end user, since they don't see any update prompt and/or "synthetic" app restarts.
// Fully silent update which keeps the app in // sync with the server, without ever // interrupting the end user class MyApp extends Component {} MyApp = codePush(MyApp);
-
Silent sync everytime the app resumes. Same as 1, except we check for updates, or apply an update if one exists every time the app returns to the foreground after being "backgrounded".
// Sync for updates everytime the app resumes. class MyApp extends Component {} MyApp = codePush({ checkFrequency: codePush.CheckFrequency.ON_APP_RESUME, installMode: codePush.InstallMode.ON_NEXT_RESUME })(MyApp);
-
Interactive. When an update is available, prompt the end user for permission before downloading it, and then immediately apply the update. If an update was released using the
mandatory
flag, the end user would still be notified about the update, but they wouldn't have the choice to ignore it.// Active update, which lets the end user know // about each update, and displays it to them // immediately after downloading it class MyApp extends Component {} MyApp = codePush({ updateDialog: true, installMode: codePush.InstallMode.IMMEDIATE })(MyApp);
-
Log/display progress. While the app is syncing with the server for updates, make use of the
codePushStatusDidChange
and/orcodePushDownloadDidProgress
event hooks to log down the different stages of this process, or even display a progress bar to the user.// Make use of the event hooks to keep track of // the different stages of the sync process. class MyApp extends Component { codePushStatusDidChange(status) { switch(status) { case codePush.SyncStatus.CHECKING_FOR_UPDATE: console.log("Checking for updates."); break; case codePush.SyncStatus.DOWNLOADING_PACKAGE: console.log("Downloading package."); break; case codePush.SyncStatus.INSTALLING_UPDATE: console.log("Installing update."); break; case codePush.SyncStatus.UP_TO_DATE: console.log("Up-to-date."); break; case codePush.SyncStatus.UPDATE_INSTALLED: console.log("Update installed."); break; } } codePushDownloadDidProgress(progress) { console.log(progress.receivedBytes + " of " + progress.totalBytes + " received."); } } MyApp = codePush(MyApp);
The codePush
decorator accepts an "options" object that allows you to customize numerous aspects of the default behavior mentioned above:
-
checkFrequency (codePush.CheckFrequency) - Specifies when you would like to check for updates. Defaults to
codePush.CheckFrequency.ON_APP_START
. Refer to theCheckFrequency
enum reference for a description of the available options and what they do. -
deploymentKey (String) - Specifies the deployment key you want to query for an update against. By default, this value is derived from the
Info.plist
file (iOS) andMainActivity.java
file (Android), but this option allows you to override it from the script-side if you need to dynamically use a different deployment. -
installMode (codePush.InstallMode) - Specifies when you would like to install optional updates (i.e. those that aren't marked as mandatory). Defaults to
codePush.InstallMode.ON_NEXT_RESTART
. Refer to theInstallMode
enum reference for a description of the available options and what they do. -
mandatoryInstallMode (codePush.InstallMode) - Specifies when you would like to install updates which are marked as mandatory. Defaults to
codePush.InstallMode.IMMEDIATE
. Refer to theInstallMode
enum reference for a description of the available options and what they do. -
minimumBackgroundDuration (Number) - Specifies the minimum number of seconds that the app needs to have been in the background before restarting the app. This property only applies to updates which are installed using
InstallMode.ON_NEXT_RESUME
, and can be useful for getting your update in front of end users sooner, without being too obtrusive. Defaults to0
, which has the effect of applying the update immediately after a resume, regardless how long it was in the background. -
updateDialog (UpdateDialogOptions) - An "options" object used to determine whether a confirmation dialog should be displayed to the end user when an update is available, and if so, what strings to use. Defaults to
null
, which has the effect of disabling the dialog completely. Setting this to any truthy value will enable the dialog with the default strings, and passing an object to this parameter allows enabling the dialog as well as overriding one or more of the default strings. Before enabling this option within an App Store-distributed app, please refer to this note.The following list represents the available options and their defaults:
-
appendReleaseDescription (Boolean) - Indicates whether you would like to append the description of an available release to the notification message which is displayed to the end user. Defaults to
false
. -
descriptionPrefix (String) - Indicates the string you would like to prefix the release description with, if any, when displaying the update notification to the end user. Defaults to
" Description: "
-
mandatoryContinueButtonLabel (String) - The text to use for the button the end user must press in order to install a mandatory update. Defaults to
"Continue"
. -
mandatoryUpdateMessage (String) - The text used as the body of an update notification, when the update is specified as mandatory. Defaults to
"An update is available that must be installed."
. -
optionalIgnoreButtonLabel (String) - The text to use for the button the end user can press in order to ignore an optional update that is available. Defaults to
"Ignore"
. -
optionalInstallButtonLabel (String) - The text to use for the button the end user can press in order to install an optional update. Defaults to
"Install"
. -
optionalUpdateMessage (String) - The text used as the body of an update notification, when the update is optional. Defaults to
"An update is available. Would you like to install it?"
. -
title (String) - The text used as the header of an update notification that is displayed to the end user. Defaults to
"Update available"
.
-
Called when the sync process moves from one stage to another in the overall update process. The event hook is called with a status code which represents the current state, and can be any of the SyncStatus
values.
Called periodically when an available update is being downloaded from the CodePush server. The method is called with a DownloadProgress
object, which contains the following two properties:
-
totalBytes (Number) - The total number of bytes expected to be received for this update (i.e. the size of the set of files which changed from the previous release).
-
receivedBytes (Number) - The number of bytes downloaded thus far, which can be used to track download progress.
codePush.allowRestart(): void;
Re-allows programmatic restarts to occur, that would have otherwise been rejected due to a previous call to disallowRestart
. If disallowRestart
was never called in the first place, then calling this method will simply result in a no-op.
If a CodePush update is currently pending, which attempted to restart the app (e.g. it used InstallMode.IMMEDIATE
), but was blocked due to disallowRestart
having been called, then calling allowRestart
will result in an immediate restart. This allows the update to be applied as soon as possible, without interrupting the end user during critical workflows (e.g. an onboarding process).
For example, calling allowRestart
would trigger an immediate restart if either of the three scenarios mentioned in the disallowRestart
docs occured after disallowRestart
was called. However, calling allowRestart
wouldn't trigger a restart if the following were true:
-
No CodePush updates were installed since the last time
disallowRestart
was called, and therefore, there isn't any need to restart anyways. -
There is currently a pending CodePush update, but it was installed via
InstallMode.ON_NEXT_RESTART
, and therefore, doesn't require a programmatic restart. -
There is currently a pending CodePush update, but it was installed via
InstallMode.ON_NEXT_RESUME
and the app hasn't been put into the background yet, and therefore, there isn't a need to programmatically restart yet. -
No calls to
restartApp
were made since the last timedisallowRestart
was called.
This behavior ensures that no restarts will be triggered as a result of calling allowRestart
unless one was explictly requested during the disallowed period. In this way, allowRestart
is somewhat similar to calling restartApp(true)
, except the former will only trigger a restart if the currently pending update wanted to restart, whereas the later would restart as long as an update is pending.
See disallowRestart for an example of how this method can be used.
codePush.checkForUpdate(deploymentKey: String = null): Promise<RemotePackage>;
Queries the CodePush service to see whether the configured app deployment has an update available. By default, it will use the deployment key that is configured in your Info.plist
file (iOS), or MainActivity.java
file (Android), but you can override that by specifying a value via the optional deploymentKey
parameter. This can be useful when you want to dynamically "redirect" a user to a specific deployment, such as allowing "early access" via an easter egg or a user setting switch.
This method returns a Promise
which resolves to one of two possible values:
-
null
if there is no update available. This can occur in the following scenarios:- The configured deployment doesn't contain any releases, and therefore, nothing to update.
- The latest release within the configured deployment is targeting a different binary version than what you're currently running (either older or newer).
- The currently running app already has the latest release from the configured deployment, and therefore, doesn't need it again.
- The latest release within the configured deployment is currently marked as disabled, and therefore, isn't allowed to be downloaded.
- The latest release within the configured deployment is in an "active rollout" state, and the requesting device doesn't fall within the percentage of users who are eligible for it.
-
A
RemotePackage
instance which represents an available update that can be inspected and/or subsequently downloaded.
Example Usage:
codePush.checkForUpdate()
.then((update) => {
if (!update) {
console.log("The app is up to date!");
} else {
console.log("An update is available! Should we download it?");
}
});
codePush.disallowRestart(): void;
Temporarily disallows programmatic restarts to occur as a result of either of following scenarios:
- A CodePush update is installed using
InstallMode.IMMEDIATE
- A CodePush update is installed using
InstallMode.ON_NEXT_RESUME
and the app is resumed from the background (optionally being throttled by theminimumBackgroundDuration
property) - The
restartApp
method was called
NOTE: #1 and #2 effectively work by calling restartApp
for you, so you can think of disallowRestart
as blocking any call to restartApp
, regardless if your app calls it directly or indirectly.
After calling this method, any calls to sync
would still be allowed to check for an update, download it and install it, but an attempt to restart the app would be queued until allowRestart
is called. This way, the restart request is captured and can be "flushed" whenever you want to allow it to occur.
This is an advanced API, and is primarily useful when individual components within your app (e.g. an onboarding process) need to ensure that no end-user interruptions can occur during their lifetime, while continuing to allow the app to keep syncing with the CodePush server at its own pace and using whatever install modes are appropriate. This has the benefit of allowing the app to discover and download available updates as soon as possible, while also preventing any disruptions during key end-user experiences.
As an alternative, you could also choose to simply use InstallMode.ON_NEXT_RESTART
whenever calling sync
(which will never attempt to programmatically restart the app), and then explicity calling restartApp
at points in your app that you know it is "safe" to do so. disallowRestart
provides an alternative approach to this when the code that synchronizes with the CodePush server is separate from the code/components that want to enforce a no-restart policy.
Example Usage:
class OnboardingProcess extends Component {
...
componentWillMount() {
// Ensure that any CodePush updates which are
// synchronized in the background can't trigger
// a restart while this component is mounted.
codePush.disallowRestart();
}
componentWillUnmount() {
// Reallow restarts, and optionally trigger
// a restart if one was currently pending.
codePush.allowRestart();
}
...
}
NOTE: This method is considered deprecated as of v1.10.3-beta
of the CodePush module. If you're running this version (or newer), we would recommend using the codePush.getUpdateMetadata
instead, since it has more predictable behavior.
codePush.getCurrentPackage(): Promise<LocalPackage>;
Retrieves the metadata about the currently installed "package" (e.g. description, installation time). This can be useful for scenarios such as displaying a "what's new?" dialog after an update has been applied or checking whether there is a pending update that is waiting to be applied via a resume or restart.
This method returns a Promise
which resolves to one of two possible values:
-
null
if the app is currently running the JS bundle from the binary and not a CodePush update. This occurs in the following scenarios:- The end-user installed the app binary and has yet to install a CodePush update
- The end-user installed an update of the binary (e.g. from the store), which cleared away the old CodePush updates, and gave precedence back to the JS binary in the binary.
-
A
LocalPackage
instance which represents the metadata for the currently running CodePush update.
Example Usage:
codePush.getCurrentPackage()
.then((update) => {
// If the current app "session" represents the first time
// this update has run, and it had a description provided
// with it upon release, let's show it to the end user
if (update.isFirstRun && update.description) {
// Display a "what's new?" modal
}
});
codePush.getUpdateMetadata(updateState: UpdateState = UpdateState.RUNNING): Promise<LocalPackage>;
Retrieves the metadata for an installed update (e.g. description, mandatory) whose state matches the specified updateState
parameter. This can be useful for scenarios such as displaying a "what's new?" dialog after an update has been applied or checking whether there is a pending update that is waiting to be applied via a resume or restart. For more details about the possible update states, and what they represent, refer to the UpdateState reference.
This method returns a Promise
which resolves to one of two possible values:
-
null
if an update with the specified state doesn't currently exist. This occurs in the following scenarios:-
The end-user hasn't installed any CodePush updates yet, and therefore, no metadata is available for any updates, regardless what you specify as the
updateState
parameter. -
The end-user installed an update of the binary (e.g. from the store), which cleared away the old CodePush updates, and gave precedence back to the JS binary in the binary. Therefore, it would exhibit the same behavior as #1
-
The
updateState
parameter is set toUpdateState.RUNNING
, but the app isn't currently running a CodePush update. There may be a pending update, but the app hasn't been restarted yet in order to make it active. -
The
updateState
parameter is set toUpdateState.PENDING
, but the app doesn't have any currently pending updates.
-
-
A
LocalPackage
instance which represents the metadata for the currently requested CodePush update (either the running or pending).
Example Usage:
// Check if there is currently a CodePush update running, and if
// so, register it with the HockeyApp SDK (https://github.com/slowpath/react-native-hockeyapp)
// so that crash reports will correctly display the JS bundle version the user was running.
codePush.getUpdateMetadata().then((update) => {
if (update) {
hockeyApp.addMetadata({ CodePushRelease: update.label });
}
});
// Check to see if there is still an update pending.
codePush.getUpdateMetadata(UpdateState.PENDING).then((update) => {
if (update) {
// There's a pending update, do we want to force a restart?
}
});
codePush.notifyAppReady(): Promise<void>;
Notifies the CodePush runtime that a freshly installed update should be considered successful, and therefore, an automatic client-side rollback isn't necessary. It is mandatory to call this function somewhere in the code of the updated bundle. Otherwise, when the app next restarts, the CodePush runtime will assume that the installed update has failed and roll back to the previous version. This behavior exists to help ensure that your end users aren't blocked by a broken update.
If you are using the sync
function, and doing your update check on app start, then you don't need to manually call notifyAppReady
since sync
will call it for you. This behavior exists due to the assumption that the point at which sync
is called in your app represents a good approximation of a successful startup.
NOTE: This method is also aliased as notifyApplicationReady
(for backwards compatibility).
codePush.restartApp(onlyIfUpdateIsPending: Boolean = false): void;
Immediately restarts the app. If a truthy value is provided to the onlyIfUpdateIsPending
parameter, then the app will only restart if there is actually a pending update waiting to be applied.
This method is for advanced scenarios, and is primarily useful when the following conditions are true:
-
Your app is specifying an install mode value of
ON_NEXT_RESTART
orON_NEXT_RESUME
when calling thesync
orLocalPackage.install
methods. This has the effect of not applying your update until the app has been restarted (by either the end user or OS) or resumed, and therefore, the update won't be immediately displayed to the end user. -
You have an app-specific user event (e.g. the end user navigated back to the app's home route) that allows you to apply the update in an unobtrusive way, and potentially gets the update in front of the end user sooner then waiting until the next restart or resume.
codePush.sync(options: Object, syncStatusChangeCallback: function(syncStatus: Number), downloadProgressCallback: function(progress: DownloadProgress)): Promise<Number>;
Synchronizes your app's JavaScript bundle and image assets with the latest release to the configured deployment. Unlike the checkForUpdate method, which simply checks for the presence of an update, and let's you control what to do next, sync
handles the update check, download and installation experience for you.
This method provides support for two different (but customizable) "modes" to easily enable apps with different requirements:
-
Silent mode (the default behavior), which automatically downloads available updates, and applies them the next time the app restarts (e.g. the OS or end user killed it, or the device was restarted). This way, the entire update experience is "silent" to the end user, since they don't see any update prompt and/or "synthetic" app restarts.
-
Active mode, which when an update is available, prompts the end user for permission before downloading it, and then immediately applies the update. If an update was released using the
mandatory
flag, the end user would still be notified about the update, but they wouldn't have the choice to ignore it.
Example Usage:
// Fully silent update which keeps the app in
// sync with the server, without ever
// interrupting the end user
codePush.sync();
// Active update, which lets the end user know
// about each update, and displays it to them
// immediately after downloading it
codePush.sync({ updateDialog: true, installMode: codePush.InstallMode.IMMEDIATE });
Note: If you want to decide whether you check and/or download an available update based on the end user's device battery level, network conditions, etc. then simply wrap the call to sync
in a condition that ensures you only call it when desired.
While the sync
method tries to make it easy to perform silent and active updates with little configuration, it accepts an "options" object that allows you to customize numerous aspects of the default behavior mentioned above. The options available are identical to the CodePushOptions, with the exception of the checkFrequency
option:
-
deploymentKey (String) - Refer to
CodePushOptions
. -
installMode (codePush.InstallMode) - Refer to
CodePushOptions
. -
mandatoryInstallMode (codePush.InstallMode) - Refer to
CodePushOptions
. -
minimumBackgroundDuration (Number) - Refer to
CodePushOptions
. -
updateDialog (UpdateDialogOptions) - Refer to
CodePushOptions
.
Example Usage:
// Use a different deployment key for this
// specific call, instead of the one configured
// in the Info.plist file
codePush.sync({ deploymentKey: "KEY" });
// Download the update silently, but install it on
// the next resume, as long as at least 5 minutes
// has passed since the app was put into the background.
codePush.sync({ installMode: codePush.InstallMode.ON_NEXT_RESUME, minimumBackgroundDuration: 60 * 5 });
// Download the update silently, and install optional updates
// on the next restart, but install mandatory updates on the next resume.
codePush.sync({ mandatoryInstallMode: codePush.InstallMode.ON_NEXT_RESUME });
// Changing the title displayed in the
// confirmation dialog of an "active" update
codePush.sync({ updateDialog: { title: "An update is available!" } });
// Displaying an update prompt which includes the
// description associated with the CodePush release
codePush.sync({
updateDialog: {
appendReleaseDescription: true,
descriptionPrefix: "\n\nChange log:\n"
},
installMode: codePush.InstallMode.IMMEDIATE
});
In addition to the options, the sync
method also accepts two optional function parameters which allow you to subscribe to the lifecycle of the sync
"pipeline" in order to display additional UI as needed (e.g. a "checking for update modal or a download progress modal):
-
syncStatusChangedCallback ((syncStatus: Number) => void) - Called when the sync process moves from one stage to another in the overall update process. The method is called with a status code which represents the current state, and can be any of the
SyncStatus
values. -
downloadProgressCallback ((progress: DownloadProgress) => void) - Called periodically when an available update is being downloaded from the CodePush server. The method is called with a
DownloadProgress
object, which contains the following two properties:-
totalBytes (Number) - The total number of bytes expected to be received for this update (i.e. the size of the set of files which changed from the previous release).
-
receivedBytes (Number) - The number of bytes downloaded thus far, which can be used to track download progress.
-
Example Usage:
// Prompt the user when an update is available
// and then display a "downloading" modal
codePush.sync({ updateDialog: true },
(status) => {
switch (status) {
case codePush.SyncStatus.DOWNLOADING_PACKAGE:
// Show "downloading" modal
break;
case codePush.SyncStatus.INSTALLING_UPDATE:
// Hide "downloading" modal
break;
}
},
({ receivedBytes, totalBytes, }) => {
/* Update download modal progress */
}
);
This method returns a Promise
which is resolved to a SyncStatus
code that indicates why the sync
call succeeded. This code can be one of the following SyncStatus
values:
-
codePush.SyncStatus.UP_TO_DATE (4) - The app is up-to-date with the CodePush server.
-
codePush.SyncStatus.UPDATE_IGNORED (5) - The app had an optional update which the end user chose to ignore. (This is only applicable when the
updateDialog
is used) -
codePush.SyncStatus.UPDATE_INSTALLED (6) - The update has been installed and will be run either immediately after the
syncStatusChangedCallback
function returns or the next time the app resumes/restarts, depending on theInstallMode
specified inSyncOptions
. -
codePush.SyncStatus.SYNC_IN_PROGRESS (7) - There is an ongoing
sync
operation running which prevents the current call from being executed.
The sync
method can be called anywhere you'd like to check for an update. That could be in the componentWillMount
lifecycle event of your root component, the onPress handler of a <TouchableHighlight>
component, in the callback of a periodic timer, or whatever else makes sense for your needs. Just like the checkForUpdate
method, it will perform the network request to check for an update in the background, so it won't impact your UI thread and/or JavaScript thread's responsiveness.
The checkForUpdate
and getUpdateMetadata
methods return Promise
objects, that when resolved, provide acces to "package" objects. The package represents your code update as well as any extra metadata (e.g. description, mandatory?). The CodePush API has the distinction between the following types of packages:
-
LocalPackage: Represents a downloaded update that is either already running, or has been installed and is pending an app restart.
-
RemotePackage: Represents an available update on the CodePush server that hasn't been downloaded yet.
Contains details about an update that has been downloaded locally or already installed. You can get a reference to an instance of this object either by calling the module-level getUpdateMetadata
method, or as the value of the promise returned by the RemotePackage.download
method.
- appVersion: The app binary version that this update is dependent on. This is the value that was specified via the
appStoreVersion
parameter when calling the CLI'srelease
command. (String) - deploymentKey: The deployment key that was used to originally download this update. (String)
- description: The description of the update. This is the same value that you specified in the CLI when you released the update. (String)
- failedInstall: Indicates whether this update has been previously installed but was rolled back. The
sync
method will automatically ignore updates which have previously failed, so you only need to worry about this property if usingcheckForUpdate
. (Boolean) - isFirstRun: Indicates whether this is the first time the update has been run after being installed. This is useful for determining whether you would like to show a "What's New?" UI to the end user after installing an update. (Boolean)
- isMandatory: Indicates whether the update is considered mandatory. This is the value that was specified in the CLI when the update was released. (Boolean)
- isPending: Indicates whether this update is in a "pending" state. When
true
, that means the update has been downloaded and installed, but the app restart needed to apply it hasn't occurred yet, and therefore, it's changes aren't currently visible to the end-user. (Boolean) - label: The internal label automatically given to the update by the CodePush server, such as
v5
. This value uniquely identifies the update within it's deployment. (String) - packageHash: The SHA hash value of the update. (String)
- packageSize: The size of the code contained within the update, in bytes. (Number)
- install(installMode: codePush.InstallMode = codePush.InstallMode.ON_NEXT_RESTART, minimumBackgroundDuration = 0): Promise<void>: Installs the update by saving it to the location on disk where the runtime expects to find the latest version of the app. The
installMode
parameter controls when the changes are actually presented to the end user. The default value is to wait until the next app restart to display the changes, but you can refer to theInstallMode
enum reference for a description of the available options and what they do. If theinstallMode
parameter is set toInstallMode.ON_NEXT_RESUME
, then theminimumBackgroundDuration
parameter allows you to control how long the app must have been in the background before forcing the install after it is resumed.
Contains details about an update that is available for download from the CodePush server. You get a reference to an instance of this object by calling the checkForUpdate
method when an update is available. If you are using the sync
API, you don't need to worry about the RemotePackage
, since it will handle the download and installation process automatically for you.
The RemotePackage
inherits all of the same properties as the LocalPackage
, but includes one additional one:
- downloadUrl: The URL at which the package is available for download. This property is only needed for advanced usage, since the
download
method will automatically handle the acquisition of updates for you. (String)
- download(downloadProgressCallback?: Function): Promise<LocalPackage>: Downloads the available update from the CodePush service. If a
downloadProgressCallback
is specified, it will be called periodically with aDownloadProgress
object ({ totalBytes: Number, receivedBytes: Number }
) that reports the progress of the download until it completes. Returns a Promise that resolves with theLocalPackage
.
The CodePush API includes the following enums which can be used to customize the update experience:
This enum specifies when you would like an installed update to actually be applied, and can be passed to either the sync
or LocalPackage.install
methods. It includes the following values:
-
codePush.InstallMode.IMMEDIATE (0) - Indicates that you want to install the update and restart the app immediately. This value is appropriate for debugging scenarios as well as when displaying an update prompt to the user, since they would expect to see the changes immediately after accepting the installation. Additionally, this mode can be used to enforce mandatory updates, since it removes the potentially undesired latency between the update installation and the next time the end user restarts or resumes the app.
-
codePush.InstallMode.ON_NEXT_RESTART (1) - Indicates that you want to install the update, but not forcibly restart the app. When the app is "naturally" restarted (due the OS or end user killing it), the update will be seamlessly picked up. This value is appropriate when performing silent updates, since it would likely be disruptive to the end user if the app suddenly restarted out of nowhere, since they wouldn't have realized an update was even downloaded. This is the default mode used for both the
sync
andLocalPackage.install
methods. -
codePush.InstallMode.ON_NEXT_RESUME (2) - Indicates that you want to install the update, but don't want to restart the app until the next time the end user resumes it from the background. This way, you don't disrupt their current session, but you can get the update in front of them sooner then having to wait for the next natural restart. This value is appropriate for silent installs that can be applied on resume in a non-invasive way.
This enum specifies when you would like your app to sync with the server for updates, and can be passed to the codePushify
decorator. It includes the following values:
-
codePush.CheckFrequency.ON_APP_START (0) - Indicates that you want to check for updates whenever the app's process is started.
-
codePush.CheckFrequency.ON_APP_RESUME (1) - Indicates that you want to check for updates whenever the app is brought back to the foreground after being "backgrounded" (user pressed the home button, app launches a seperate payment process, etc).
-
codePush.CheckFrequency.MANUAL (2) - Disable automatic checking for updates, but only check when
codePush.sync()
is called in app code.
This enum is provided to the syncStatusChangedCallback
function that can be passed to the sync
method, in order to hook into the overall update process. It includes the following values:
- codePush.SyncStatus.CHECKING_FOR_UPDATE (0) - The CodePush server is being queried for an update.
- codePush.SyncStatus.AWAITING_USER_ACTION (1) - An update is available, and a confirmation dialog was shown to the end user. (This is only applicable when the
updateDialog
is used) - codePush.SyncStatus.DOWNLOADING_PACKAGE (2) - An available update is being downloaded from the CodePush server.
- codePush.SyncStatus.INSTALLING_UPDATE (3) - An available update was downloaded and is about to be installed.
- codePush.SyncStatus.UP_TO_DATE (4) - The app is fully up-to-date with the configured deployment.
- codePush.SyncStatus.UPDATE_IGNORED (5) - The app has an optional update, which the end user chose to ignore. (This is only applicable when the
updateDialog
is used) - codePush.SyncStatus.UPDATE_INSTALLED (6) - An available update has been installed and will be run either immediately after the
syncStatusChangedCallback
function returns or the next time the app resumes/restarts, depending on theInstallMode
specified inSyncOptions
. - codePush.SyncStatus.SYNC_IN_PROGRESS (7) - There is an ongoing
sync
operation running which prevents the current call from being executed. - codePush.SyncStatus.UNKNOWN_ERROR (-1) - The sync operation encountered an unknown error.
This enum specifies the state that an update is currently in, and can be specified when calling the getUpdateMetadata
method. It includes the following values:
-
codePush.UpdateState.RUNNING (0) - Indicates that an update represents the version of the app that is currently running. This can be useful for identifying attributes about the app, for scenarios such as displaying the release description in a "what's new?" dialog or reporting the latest version to an analytics and/or crash reporting service.
-
codePush.UpdateState.PENDING (1) - Indicates than an update has been installed, but the app hasn't been restarted yet in order to apply it. This can be useful for determining whether there is a pending update, which you may want to force a programmatic restart (via
restartApp
) in order to apply. -
codePush.UpdateState.LATEST (2) - Indicates than an update represents the latest available release, and can be either currently running or pending.
The Objective-C API is made available by importing the CodePush.h
header into your AppDelegate.m
file, and consists of a single public class named CodePush
.
Contains static methods for retreiving the NSURL
that represents the most recent JavaScript bundle file, and can be passed to the RCTRootView
's initWithBundleURL
method when bootstrapping your app in the AppDelegate.m
file.
The CodePush
class' methods can be thought of as composite resolvers which always load the appropriate bundle, in order to accommodate the following scenarios:
-
When an end-user installs your app from the store (e.g.
1.0.0
), they will get the JS bundle that is contained within the binary. This is the behavior you would get without using CodePush, but we make sure it doesn't break :) -
As soon as you begin releasing CodePush updates, your end-users will get the JS bundle that represents the latest release for the configured deployment. This is the behavior that allows you to iterate beyond what you shipped to the store.
-
As soon as you release an update to the app store (e.g.
1.1.0
), and your end-users update it, they will once again get the JS bundle that is contained within the binary. This behavior ensures that CodePush updates that targetted a previous app store version aren't used (since we don't know it they would work), and your end-users always have a working version of your app. -
Repeat #2 and #3 as the CodePush releases and app store releases continue on into infinity (and beyond?)
Because of this behavior, you can safely deploy updates to both the app store(s) and CodePush as necesary, and rest assured that your end-users will always get the most recent version.
-
(NSURL *)bundleURL - Returns the most recent JS bundle
NSURL
as described above. This method assumes that the name of the JS bundle contained within your app binary ismain.jsbundle
. -
(NSURL *)bundleURLForResource:(NSString *)resourceName - Equivalent to the
bundleURL
method, but also allows customizing the name of the JS bundle that is looked for within the app binary. This is useful if you aren't naming this filemain
(which is the default convention). This method assumes that the JS bundle's extension is*.jsbundle
. -
(NSURL *)bundleURLForResource:(NSString *)resourceName withExtension:(NSString *)resourceExtension: Equivalent to the
bundleURLForResource:
method, but also allows customizing the extension used by the JS bundle that is looked for within the app binary. This is useful if you aren't naming this file*.jsbundle
(which is the default convention). -
(void)overrideAppVersion:(NSString *)appVersionOverride - Sets the version of the application's binary interface, which would otherwise default to the App Store version specified as the
CFBundleShortVersionString
in theInfo.plist
. This should be called a single time, before the bundle URL is loaded. -
(void)setDeploymentKey:(NSString *)deploymentKey - Sets the deployment key that the app should use when querying for updates. This is a dynamic alternative to setting the deployment key in your
Info.plist
and/or specifying a deployment key in JS when callingcheckForUpdate
orsync
.
The Java API is made available by importing the com.microsoft.codepush.react.CodePush
class into your MainActivity.java
file, and consists of a single public class named CodePush
.
Constructs the CodePush client runtime and represents the ReactPackage
instance that you add to you app's list of packages.
-
CodePush(String deploymentKey, Activity mainActivity) - Creates a new instance of the CodePush runtime, that will be used to query the service for updates via the provided deployment key. The
mainActivity
parameter should always be set tothis
when configuring your React packages list inside theMainActivity
class. This constructor puts the CodePush runtime into "release mode", so if you want to enable debugging behavior, use the following constructor instead. -
CodePush(String deploymentKey, Activity mainActivity, bool isDebugMode) - Equivalent to the previous constructor, but allows you to specify whether you want the CodePush runtime to be in debug mode or not. When using this constructor, the
isDebugMode
parameter should always be set toBuildConfig.DEBUG
in order to stay synchronized with your build type. When putting CodePush into debug mode, the following behaviors are enabled:-
Old CodePush updates aren't deleted from storage whenever a new binary is deployed to the emulator/device. This behavior enables you to deploy new binaries, without bumping the version during development, and without continuously getting the same update every time your app calls
sync
. -
The local cache that the React Native runtime maintains in debug mode is deleted whenever a CodePush update is installed. This ensures that when the app is restarted after an update is applied, you will see the expected changes. As soon as this PR is merged, we won't need to do this anymore.
-
-
getBundleUrl() - Returns the path to the most recent version of your app's JS bundle file, assuming that the resource name is
index.android.bundle
. If your app is using a different bundle name, then use the overloaded version of this method which allows specifying it. This method has the same resolution behavior as the Objective-C equivalent described above. -
getBundleUrl(String bundleName) - Returns the path to the most recent version of your app's JS bundle file, using the specified resource name (e.g.
index.android.bundle
). This method has the same resolution behavior as the Objective-C equivalent described above. -
overrideAppVersion(String appVersionOverride) - Sets the version of the application's binary interface, which would otherwise default to the Play Store version specified as the
versionName
in thebuild.gradle
. This should be called a single time, before the CodePush instance is constructed.
The React Native community has graciously created some awesome open source apps that can serve as examples for developers that are getting started. The following is a list of OSS React Native apps that are also using CodePush, and can therefore be used to see how others are using the service:
- F8 App - The official conference app for F8 2016.
- Feline for Product Hunt - An Android client for Product Hunt.
- GeoEncoding - An app by Lynx IT Digital which demonstrates how to use numerous React Native components and modules.
- Math Facts - An app by Khan Academy to help memorize math facts more easily.
Additionally, if you're looking to get started with React Native + CodePush, and are looking for an awesome starter kit, you should check out the following:
Note: If you've developed a React Native app using CodePush, that is also open-source, please let us know. We would love to add it to this list!
The sync
method includes a lot of diagnostic logging out-of-the-box, so if you're encountering an issue when using it, the best thing to try first is examining the output logs of your app. This will tell you whether the app is configured correctly (e.g. can the plugin find your deployment key?), if the app is able to reach the server, if an available update is being discovered, if the update is being successfully downloaded/installed, etc. We want to continue improving the logging to be as intuitive/comprehensive as possible, so please let us know if you find it to be confusing or missing anything.
The simplest way to view these logs is to run the code-push debug
command for the specific platform you are currently working with (e.g. code-push debug ios
). This will output a log stream that is filtered to just CodePush messages, for the specified platform. This makes it easy to identify issues, without needing to use a platform-specific tool, or wade through a potentially high volume of logs.
Additionally, you can also use any of the platform-specific tools to view the CodePush logs, if you are more comfortable with them. Simple start up the Chrome DevTools Console, the Xcode Console (iOS), the OS X Console (iOS) and/or ADB logcat (Android), and look for messages which are prefixed with [CodePush]
.
Note that by default, React Native logs are disabled on iOS in release builds, so if you want to view them in a release build, you need to make the following changes to your AppDelegate.m
file:
-
Add an
#import "RCTLog.h"
statement -
Add the following statement to the top of your
application:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions
method:RCTSetLogThreshold(RCTLogLevelInfo);
Now you'll be able to see CodePush logs in either debug or release mode, on both iOS or Android. If examining the logs don't provide an indication of the issue, please refer to the following common issues for additional resolution ideas:
Issue / Symptom | Possible Solution |
---|---|
Compilation Error | Double-check that your version of React Native is compatible with the CodePush version you are using. |
Network timeout / hang when calling sync or checkForUpdate in the iOS Simulator |
Try resetting the simulator by selecting the Simulator -> Reset Content and Settings.. menu item, and then re-running your app. |
Server responds with a 404 when calling sync or checkForUpdate |
Double-check that the deployment key you added to your Info.plist (iOS), build.gradle (Android) or that you're passing to sync /checkForUpdate , is in fact correct. You can run code-push deployment ls [APP_NAME] -k to view the correct keys for your app deployments. |
Update not being discovered | Double-check that the version of your running app (e.g. 1.0.0 ) matches the version you specified when releasing the update to CodePush. Additionally, make sure that you are releasing to the same deployment that your app is configured to sync with. |
Update not being displayed after restart | If you're not calling sync on app start (e.g. within componentDidMount of your root component), then you need to explicitly call notifyApplicationReady on app start, otherwise, the plugin will think your update failed and roll it back. |
Images dissappear after installing CodePush update | If your app is using the React Native assets system to load images (i.e. the require(./foo.png) syntax), then you MUST release your assets along with your JS bundle to CodePush. Follow these instructions to see how to do this. |
No JS bundle is being found when running your app against the iOS simulator | By default, React Native doesn't generate your JS bundle when running against the simulator. Therefore, if you're using [CodePush bundleURL] , and targetting the iOS simulator, you may be getting a nil result. This issue will be fixed in RN 0.22.0, but only for release builds. You can unblock this scenario right now by making this change locally. |
In addition to being able to use the CodePush CLI to "manually" release updates, we believe that it's important to create a repeatable and sustainable solution for contiously delivering updates to your app. That way, it's simple enough for you and/or your team to create and maintain the rhythm of performing agile deployments. In order to assist with seting up a CodePush-based CD pipeline, refer to the following integrations with various CI servers:
- Visual Studio Team Services - NOTE: VSTS also has extensions for publishing to HockeyApp and the Google Play store, so it provides a pretty great mobile CD solution in general.
- Travis CI
Additionally, if you'd like more details of what a complete mobile CI/CD workflow can look like, which includes CodePush, check out this excellent article by the ZeeMee engineering team.
This module ships its *.d.ts
file as part of its NPM package, which allows you to simply import
it, and receive intellisense in supporting editors (e.g. Visual Studio Code), as well as compile-time type checking if you're using TypeScript. For the most part, this behavior should just work out of the box, however, if you've specified es6
as the value for either the target
or module
compiler option in your tsconfig.json
file, then just make sure that you also set the moduleResolution
option to node
. This ensures that the TypeScript compiler will look within the node_modules
for the type definitions of imported modules. Otherwise, you'll get an error like the following when trying to import the react-native-code-push
module: error TS2307: Cannot find module 'react-native-code-push'
.
This project has adopted the Microsoft Open Source Code of Conduct. For more information see the Code of Conduct FAQ or contact [email protected] with any additional questions or comments.