Migrating to JNative: Step-by-Step Strategy for Existing Projects
Overview
A practical migration plan that minimizes disruption, preserves functionality, and leverages JNative’s native integration features.
1. Assess current project
- Inventory: List platforms, languages, native modules, plugins, and third-party dependencies.
- Critical paths: Identify features tightly coupled to platform-native code (e.g., camera, sensors, payments).
- Compatibility risks: Note dependencies without JNative support or native APIs that differ across platforms.
2. Define migration scope & goals
- Goal examples: Full migration, hybrid (specific modules only), or performance-critical rewrite.
- Success criteria: Pass existing test suite, maintain performance within X%, preserve UX, and deployment timelines.
3. Create a prototype module
- Pick a low-risk feature (e.g., device info, simple storage) and implement it in JNative.
- Validate: Confirm build process, bridging, and runtime behavior on all target platforms.
- Measure: Record compile times, bundle size, and runtime performance for baseline comparison.
4. Plan architecture changes
- Module boundaries: Define clear interfaces between app logic and JNative native modules.
- Abstraction layer: Implement adapter/wrapper patterns so the rest of the codebase depends on interfaces, not implementations.
- Backward compatibility: Keep legacy code paths swappable until migration is complete.
5. Update build & CI/CD
- Tooling: Add JNative build steps, platform-specific toolchains, and necessary SDKs to CI runners.
- Automated checks: Integrate unit tests, linting, and platform integration tests in CI.
- Staged releases: Enable per-platform rollout (canary/beta) to catch regressions early.
6. Migrate incrementally by feature
- Prioritize: Move platform-sensitive and high-value modules first (performance hotspots, security).
- One module at a time: Replace a single module, run full tests, then deploy.
- Rollback plan: For each migration step, have a tested rollback path to the legacy implementation.
7. Testing strategy
- Unit tests: Cover interface contracts and business logic.
- Integration tests: Verify interactions between JNative modules and app layers.
- End-to-end tests: Use device/cloud farms to run real-device scenarios across platforms.
- Performance regression tests: Compare latency, memory, and CPU before/after migration.
8. Handle platform-specific differences
- Abstract quirks: Surface a unified API in JNative wrappers while encapsulating platform-specific behavior inside native implementations.
- Feature flags: Use runtime flags to toggle platform-specific code for testing and rollout.
9. Documentation & developer onboarding
- API docs: Document JNative module interfaces, data formats, error handling, and lifecycle.
- Migration guide: Write per-module migration notes and common troubleshooting steps.
- Training: Short sessions or example projects for engineering teams.
10. Monitor and iterate post-migration
- Telemetry: Track crashes, error rates, performance metrics, and user-facing regressions.
- Feedback loop: Triage issues, prioritize fixes, and continuously improve wrappers and tests.
- Finalize cleanup: Remove legacy code and unused dependencies once stable.
Quick rollout checklist
- Inventory complete ✓
- Prototype validated ✓
- CI tooling updated ✓
- First module migrated & tested ✓
- Performance and E2E checks green ✓
- Staged rollout started ✓
If you want, I can convert this into a per-week migration timeline, a detailed CI config checklist, or a sample adapter interface for one module—tell me which.
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