Kotlin Multiplatform is an extension of the Kotlin programming language that lets you share code between multiple platforms. Both languages have vibrant communities and strong support from their respective companies (Apple and JetBrains/Google). Ultimately, developers should consider the specific requirements of their projects and weigh the advantages and disadvantages of each language before making a decision. As the mobile development landscape continues to evolve, the strengths of Swift and Kotlin make them formidable choices for creating cutting-edge and robust applications on their respective platforms. By implementing these advanced techniques, developers can maximize the potential of Kotlin for multiplatform mobile development, ensuring efficient and effective application development across platforms.
Setting Up Kotlin Multiplatform in Android Studio
You need to ensure that the multiplatform mobile development framework of your choice provides the required level of security. One way to do this is to browse the security tickets on the framework’s issue tracker if it has one that’s publicly available. It allows developers to create native mobile and desktop apps with C# and XAML. Compose Multiplatform for iOS is currently in Alpha, which also means there are a number of areas that are still works in progress.
Step 1: Create a new Kotlin project
In iOS this means importing a .frameworkfile – originally written in KMP – into your Xcode project, just like any other external library. You still need Swift to use KMP on iOS, so KMP is not the end of Swift. Kotlin is a statically-typed programming language that bears a striking resemblance to Swift, and is 100% interoperable with Java. KMP is a feature of Kotlin which shares code between an app’s various platforms, so that each platform’s natively programmed UI calls into the common code.
- Kotlin is a statically-typed programming language that bears a striking resemblance to Swift, and is 100% interoperable with Java.
- This module is an Xcode project that builds as an iOS application and consumes our shared KMM module as a framework.
- Imagine that you are an expert Android developer with an idea for a killer app.
- It enables developers to share UIs across Android, iOS, web, and desktop (via the JVM) and is based on Kotlin and Jetpack Compose.
- It reduces time spent writing and maintaining the same code for different platforms while retaining the flexibility and benefits of native programming.
- There is a gradle task called embedAndSignAppleFrameworkForXcode that executes each time the iOS app is built to generate a new framework.
NativeScript
Kotlin Multiplatform provides a way to simplify their creation with a default hierarchy template. It includes a pre-defined list of intermediate source sets that are created based on the targets you specified in your project. Ultimately, the success of KMP hinges not only on the technology itself but on how effectively teams collaborate and communicate. A well-coordinated approach — fostering strong communication and defining clear boundaries — ensures that both platform-specific and shared modules work harmoniously together.
It includes nullable and non-nullable types, helping developers avoid null pointer exceptions, a common issue in Java. Kotlin’s smart casts and extension functions contribute to a more streamlined and safer type system. Swift boasts a clean and expressive syntax that minimizes code verbosity. Its syntax is designed to be beginner-friendly, making it easier for developers to read and write code. Swift’s readability is enhanced by features like optionals, type inference, and concise syntax.
- This data class can be used in both Android and iOS applications, showcasing the power of code sharing.
- If you rename the folder with Xcode open, you’ll get a warning and may corrupt your project.
- Developers may get bored at work when having to perform repetitive and routine tasks, such as JSON parsing.
- KMP can also be introduced iteratively, so you can implement it with no disruption to your current project.
By leveraging Compose Multiplatform, Senior iOS developer job developers can seamlessly write and share both UI and business logic across platforms, while still ensuring native performance and platform-specific functionality. On the UI side, Compose Multiplatform, built on top of Kotlin Multiplatform, allows developers to share UI logic written in Jetpack Compose across various platforms. Essentially, Compose Multiplatform functions as a dedicated client, following a similar approach to Android’s Jetpack Compose UI, and is built on top of the existing Compose compiler and runtime system. This framework enables the creation of UIs for Android, iOS, desktop, and web, all using the same declarative Kotlin-based syntax. SQLDelight also needs the last block to define the database name and the package/path where queries are defined. The dependencies needed for code written in the androidMain of the shared module are declared in the androidMain block inside sourceSets.
Type System
However, Kotlin Multiplatform provides additional mechanisms for building final native binaries. The build.gradle.kts file for the library includes important configurations for creating a multiplatform library. This concludes our exploration of techniques, full-stack developer from Shared code to iosApp code, aimed at enhancing the developer experience for iOS platform teams.
Install Android Studio and IntelliJ IDEA
This means that the Shared framework includes all external dependencies from SharedModel and generates new types to reference those external types. As a result, we end up having Shared_modelsHello instead of just Hello. One key discussion was whether to opt for a single-module or multi-module approach and how to structure it.
