From iOS- to Vapor Developer (Øredev)

Diving into server-side Swift can seem straightforward at first if one knows the programming language, but it might be harder than you think since it involves developing on a new platform. I will walk you through my journey coming from iOS into Vapor, what challenges I faced, and which strengths I had coming from the iOS platform. I will talk about how these challenges can be overcome and I will share my experiences after working with Vapor in production for 6 months.

Talk given at Øredev 2017 on the 9th of November 2017.

Transcript

1. From iOS- to Vapor developer @steffendsommer
5. Pla$orm support for all Apple pla*orms as well as Linux
8. Swi$ on the server
10. !
11. ♻
12. !"
14. !"
15. !
16. • Swi% • Fast • Code share • More fullstack developers • Xcode • Big community • Be part of the development
17. Swi$ on the server
19. !
22. ☁
23. !
24. • New language • New package manager • New framework • Xcode • Limited hos9ng op9ons • Less libraries compared to other web frameworks
25. Programming languages in the making
26. • JavaScript (1995): 22 years • Java (1996): 21 years • Ruby (1996): 21 years • Swi$ (2014): 3 years
27. Web frameworks in the making 1 1 Since their version 1.0 release.
28. • Spring MVC (2002): 15 years • Ruby on Rails (2004): 13 years • Express (2010): 7 years • Kitura/Perfect/Vapor (2016): 1 year
29. The future is bright for server-side Swi/
31. Kitura Perfect Vapor
32. Kitura Perfect Vapor
33. Kitura Perfect Vapor
35. Hi, my name is Steffen D. Sommer !
36. Steffen iOS
37. Steffen ❤ iOS Swi*
38. Swi$ as a language, not iOS as a pla/orm
40. import Vapor let drop = try Droplet() drop.get("hello") { req in return "Hello, world." } try drop.run()
43. iOS != Vapor
44. iOS != Vapor Number of users
45. ! • 1
46. • It's all about the requests
47. iOS != Vapor Performance
48. ! • Not an issue
49. • Users do not want to wait for requests to return
50. • Users do not want to wait for requests to return • More performance = more money
51. iOS != Vapor Crash handling
52. ! • "We'll fix it in the next app update"
53. • Fix it now
54. iOS != Vapor Pla$orms
55. ! • One pla(orm to rule them all
56. • macOS + Linux
57. iOS != Vapor Foundation
58. ! • !
59. • !
60. iOS != Vapor The Xcode project file
61. ! • Merge madness
62. • .. what file?
63. iOS != Vapor Third party frameworks
64. ! • Which one to pick?
65. • Roll out your own
66. iOS != Vapor User Interfaces
67. ! • Storyboards and auto layout
68. • HTML, CSS, JavaScript & template languages
69. iOS != Vapor Persistence
70. ! • Used to some extent
71. • Used heavily
72. iOS != Vapor Security
73. ! • Mostly handled by the OS
74. • Needs to be taken care of
75. iOS != Vapor Consumers
76. ! • None
77. • "Hey backend dev, I can't get this endpoint to work.."
78. iOS != Vapor Releasing
79. ! • iTunes Connect
80. • Deploying
81. Tips to overcome these challenges
82. Tip #1 RTFM & get involved
83. Tip #2 Learn about databases
84. Tip #3 Consider when to use Foundation
85. Tip #4 Start repor)ng
86. Tip #5 Setup CI or a VM
87. Tip #6 Write (API) tests
88. Tip #7 Document your APIs
89. Tip #8 Use security packages
90. Tip #9 U"lize the template language
91. Tip #10 Use Vapor Cloud
92. The last 10 months in hindsight
93. Challenges
94. • Lots of moving targets (Swi2, Vapor, Vapor Cloud)
95. • Lots of moving targets (Swi3, Vapor, Vapor Cloud) • Overhead in crea,ng and maintaining open source packages
96. • Lots of moving targets (Swi3, Vapor, Vapor Cloud) • Overhead in crea?ng and maintaining open source packages • Lack of documenta.on
97. • Lots of moving targets (Swi3, Vapor, Vapor Cloud) • Overhead in crea?ng and maintaining open source packages • Lack of documenta?on • Outdated resources
98. • Lots of moving targets (Swi3, Vapor, Vapor Cloud) • Overhead in crea?ng and maintaining open source packages • Lack of documenta?on • Outdated resources • Few experts
99. • Lots of moving targets (Swi3, Vapor, Vapor Cloud) • Overhead in crea?ng and maintaining open source packages • Lack of documenta?on • Outdated resources • Few experts • Lots of boilerplate
100. • Lots of moving targets (Swi3, Vapor, Vapor Cloud) • Overhead in crea?ng and maintaining open source packages • Lack of documenta?on • Outdated resources • Few experts • Lots of boilerplate • Linux quirkiness
101. How things have improved
102. • Updates are slowing down (Swi2 and Vapor)
103. • Updates are slowing down (Swi3 and Vapor) • Vapor Cloud reached 1.0 and is stable
104. • Updates are slowing down (Swi3 and Vapor) • Vapor Cloud reached 1.0 and is stable • We don't create as many open source packages anymore
105. • Updates are slowing down (Swi3 and Vapor) • Vapor Cloud reached 1.0 and is stable • We don't create as many open source packages anymore • Documenta*on is improving
106. • Updates are slowing down (Swi3 and Vapor) • Vapor Cloud reached 1.0 and is stable • We don't create as many open source packages anymore • DocumentaDon is improving • More and more resources
107. • Updates are slowing down (Swi3 and Vapor) • Vapor Cloud reached 1.0 and is stable • We don't create as many open source packages anymore • DocumentaDon is improving • More and more resources • Bigger community - more experts
108. • Updates are slowing down (Swi3 and Vapor) • Vapor Cloud reached 1.0 and is stable • We don't create as many open source packages anymore • DocumentaDon is improving • More and more resources • Bigger community - more experts • Less boilerplate
109. • Updates are slowing down (Swi3 and Vapor) • Vapor Cloud reached 1.0 and is stable • We don't create as many open source packages anymore • DocumentaDon is improving • More and more resources • Bigger community - more experts • Less boilerplate • Swi$ on Linux is more mature
110. Our results
111. • 25+ customer projects
112. • 25+ customer projects • 30+ open source packages created
113. • 25+ customer projects • 30+ open source packages • Hos$ng fees are going down
114. • 25+ customer projects • 30+ open source packages • Hos7ng fees are going down • More and more of our iOS developers starts to catch up
115. • 25+ customer projects • 30+ open source packages • Hos7ng fees are going down • More and more of our iOS developers starts to catch up • We develop faster
116. • 25+ customer projects • 30+ open source packages • Hos7ng fees are going down • More and more of our iOS developers starts to catch up • We develop faster • Less bugs than before making the switch
117. No major issues since we made the switch
118. Resources • Vapor docs: h-ps:/ /docs.vapor.codes/2.0/ • Vapor Slack: h-p:/ /vapor.team • Vapor @Nodes: h-ps:/ /github.com/nodes-vapor • SwiBConf '17 @gtranchedone: h-ps:/ /www.youtube.com/ watch?v=IuW_hLCsIeQ