Remote Control your App

AndroidMakers 2018 talk

1. Remote Control your App AndroidMakers 2018 - Stan Kocken
2. Why? 2
3. Release Cycle 3
4. Different company, different style: max time between updates 4 Source: appannie.com - updates on the store between 1st April 2017 and 1st April 2018 - 75% - 95% confidence interval 5-6 days 9-16 days 7-17 days 15-21 days 63-66 days 11-15 days
5. Frequent updates is the way to go? 5
6. Daily updates […] Everybody can see it's because of too little testing - real review of a user 6
7. 7 Less frequent update: the main reasons Event-based application No dev working actively on it Expensive release
8. Our release cycle: Release Train 8 5.12.0 5.13.X 5.13.0 5.14.X Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 beta 5% 20% 100% beta 5% 20% 100% alpha alpha
9. App Release Feature Release 9 ≠ Our Release Train Engineers Product/Marketing
10. How do you do that? 10
11. Remote Control your App AndroidMakers 2018 - Stan Kocken
12. But… I need to change this text… I want to test this… - product owner 12
13. Remote Control your App AndroidMakers 2018 - Stan Kocken
14. WebView 14
15. A View that displays web pages - https://developer.android.com/reference/android/webkit/WebView.html 15
16. 16 How? 99% Hybrid Low-touch Facebook lite 1.6MB Installs: 500,000,000+ 4.3/5 ~ Mobile website vs vs Native and Web None or 
 just few pages Eurostar v1
 (2011) • Help pages • Credit card payments • …
17. 17 Advantages Full control without app update Cross-platform “I know HTML, I can make an app” Cheaper: Lower price
18. 18 Disadvantages Full control without app update Cross-platform “I know HTML, I can make an app” Cheaper: Lower price BAD quality So nobody feel at home
19. If even Facebook cannot make it great, 
 how can you? 19
20. 20 WebView: Take-away - no budget - limited part - “lite” application - everything else BAD GOOD
21. Remote Screen Configuration 21
22. Configuration 22 UI
23. 23 "render": { "card_premium": { "title": { "resource": "configurable_premium_title" }, "color": "#25B41E", "descriptionItems": [ { "title": { "resource": "configurable_premium_item_title_backup" }, "description": { "resource": "configurable_premium_item_description_backup" }, "icon": { "defaultResource": "configurable_premium_features_backup" } }, { "title": { "resource": "configurable_premium_item_title_sync" }, "description": { "resource": "configurable_premium_item_description_sync" }, "icon": { "defaultResource": "configurable_premium_features_sync" } }, …
24. 24 WebView Remote Screen
 Configuration 100% remotely controlled Cross-platform definition Native UI look&feel Cost $ $$$ remotely controlled
25. Remote Copy 25
26. I need to change this text. When can we have this live? - product owner 26
27. But… the text is within Strings.xml… Strings.xml within the app… So we need an update. - dev 27
28. 28 getString(R.string.hello_world) <string name="hello_world">Hello World</string> "Hello World" + = Strings.xml
29. What about a JSON file? - dev 29
30. jsonObject.optString("hello_world") 30 "Hello World" + = {"hello_world": "Hello World"} Simple JSON
31. Where should I put the French version? - product owner 31
32. 32 Localised JSON { "en": { "hello_world": "Hello World" }, "fr": { "hello_world": "Bonjour le monde" } } jsonObject.getJSONObject(“fr").optString("hello_world") “Bonjour le monde” + =
33. A user is Spanish should see the English version - QA 33
34. 34 Auto-select language res - values - default_strings.xml - values-fr - default_strings.xml <resources> <string name="locale">en</string> </resources> <resources> <string name="locale">fr</string> </resources> jsonObject.getJSONObject(getString(R.string.locale)) .optString("hello_world")
35. Hmmm, and from my XML layout? - dev 35
36. 36 XML Layout: the keys <TextView … android:text="hello_world" />
37. 37 Custom Layout Inflator class MyLayoutInflater(context: Context, private val translator: Translator) : LayoutInflater(context) { override fun onCreateView(parent: View?, name: String?, attrs: AttributeSet?): View { val view = super.onCreateView(parent, name, attrs) (view as? TextView)?.let { replaceTextKeyByValue(it) } return view } private fun replaceTextKeyByValue(textView: TextView) { textView.text = translator.replaceByValueIfNecessary(textView.text) textView.hint = translator.replaceByValueIfNecessary(textView.hint) }
38. 38 Custom Layout Inflator class MyLayoutInflater(context: Context, private val translator: Translator) : LayoutInflater(context) { override fun onCreateView(parent: View?, name: String?, attrs: AttributeSet?): View { val view = super.onCreateView(parent, name, attrs) (view as? TextView)?.let { replaceTextKeyByValue(it) } return view } private fun replaceTextKeyByValue(textView: TextView) { textView.text = translator.replaceByValueIfNecessary(textView.text) textView.hint = translator.replaceByValueIfNecessary(textView.hint) }
39. What about plurals? And a different text per app version? And “Welcome %s to our app” 39
40. • Standard i18n functions (plurals, context, interpolation, format) • JSON format • Created for Javascript • Android reader: https://github.com/i18next/i18next-android Written by myself 5 years ago 40 .com
41. A/B Testing 41
42. Compare two (or more) experiences to choose the best 42
43. Example 43
44. 44 https://medium.com/wolfgangbremer/amazon-is-the-king-of-a-b-testing-f46008e3b528
45. 45 Maxime Lorant - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A-B_testing_simple_example.png
46. Local or Server 46 A or B? Random().nextInt() % 2 => Save locally => Send to Analytics Cross-platform A or B
47. 47 KEEP CALM AND WAIT FOR
 IT…
48. 48 Wait
 From minutes, TO MONTHS!
49. How long should I wait? 49
50. One at the time 50
51. Feature Flip 51
52. Remotely decide when a feature is enable 52
53. App Release Feature Release 53 ≠ Store update Feature Flip
54. A/B test Feature Flip 54 ≠ Find best experiences Progressive Rollout Synchronise cross-platform Beta test
55. A/B Test, Feature Flip: tools 55 Braze (formerly Appboy), hack of newsfeed Firebase Remote Config Home-made solution
56. Dashlane usage 56
57. Dashlane Recipe • Release: every two weeks • WebView: very limited part • Remote Screen Configuration: for the premium page • Remote Copy: we don’t • A/B Test: home-made solution • Feature Flip: home-made solution, highly used 57
58. App Release Feature Release 58 ≠ Engineers Product/Marketing
59. Thank you @stan_kocken 59