Step By Step Guide

Introduction

What is the expected result?

By following this guide you will build your own mobile app (iOS, Android or both) with all Ethora engine features (alternatively you may choose to disable / limit some features via Config file).

In the process you will specify your own name and do a basic branding (logo, colours).

How long does it take?

A) It takes just 0.5h for a React Native engineer experienced with Ethora engine to produce a new app build.

B) A React Native engineer without previous Ethora experience should be able to complete it within around 1 work day.

C) You may need a couple work days or more if you have done some software development but you don't have much experience with React Native.

In any case, it would take not less than 4-6 months for a team of experienced software engineers to develop a new app for your project with similar qualities and a feature set of Ethora engine. So irrespective of the option above, you are going to be saving a ton of time and investment by building on top of it.

Note: whilst Ethora can be called a "no-code" or a "low-code" product and we encourage you to use the product as is, some projects would opt for an advanced customization. Such as adding new screens, features, custom backend integrations or chat bots etc. You might need to allocate 1-2 months or more if you plan to add new functionality on top of Ethora engine, depending on the extent of additional functionalities and modifications.

Make sure to check the Config file first to see if the changes you want are not covered by parameters and switches there.

Steps to build

Step 1 - create a new React Native project

Open the terminal at your project directory and create your new project npx react-native init [proj_name]

It will download the react-native template and install cocoapods dependencies. This may take few minutes depending on your network speed.

Step 2 - activate Yarn

Now we need to go inside the project folder to execute further commands

cd [proj_name]

yarn

Step 3 - retrieve and set up the repository

Now download/clone the code from GitHub repo and update the folder structure as instructed below.

Locate "src" and "docs" folder in Ethora project directory and copy both the folders

Paste them in your project directory

Now open both the projects in your code editor side by side.

Navigate to package.json and replace dependencies, devDependencies and jest from package.json of Ethora to your project's package.json

Navigate to index.js

Now we need to change the import from default app.js to app.js from inside the src folder

In order to do this, change import App from './App'; to import App from './src/App';

Go to your terminal again and execute yarn command in your project directory because the package.json is now updated.

This will install all the required packages.

Step 4 - build for iOS

Now in your project folder execute the following commands.

cd ios

pod install

resolve the errors then in your project directory execute yarn ios

This will build the app.

Step 5 - configure and add your branding

Dismiss the notice and navigate to "docs" folder in your project directory.

Open config.js

You can now set the appTitle to your project name and add your own logo for rebranding.

You'll find all the options for the modification in this config.js for you to continue building your own product with ethora engine.

NOTE: If you're not using M1 chipset mac machine then remove the line __apply_Xcode_12_5_M1_post_install_workaround(installer) from Podfile.

Please check out the video for more details regarding the setup of Ethora.

Video guide

The video guide below demonstrates the steps listed above.

This video hasn't been edited - it took us 32 minutes to follow the process and build a new app based on Ethora engine.