Discourse Mobile App for a Single Site (with support for Push Notifications)

Whitelisted iOS and Android app for a single Discourse site that supports Push Notifications via OneSignal.

Built with React Native. Inspired by DiscourseMobile.

For a demonstration check out SWAPD or TekInvestor on the App Store or Google Play.

Getting Started

Install React Native.

npm install -g react-native-cli

Within the repository folder, install your packages:

npm install

Copy the contents of default.variables.js to app.variables.js to set your app's variables (site URL, app name, colors, marketing text, etc.).

To run the app locally, try either one of these commands:

react-native run-ios
react-native run-android

See the React Native docs for more details.

OneSignal setup

You need to open an account at OneSignal to be able to send Push Notifications (PNs) from your Discourse site, and receive them in the app. Steps:

• Register an App ID on the Apple portal (developer.apple.com)
• Open an account with OneSignal (free), create a new app, and generate certificates for iOS and Android
• Create the provisioning profiles on the Apple portal. You need a distribution profile for pushing to TestFlight and the App Store, and likely an ad-hoc profile for testing quickly on your device. (Note that you may also need a development certificate for testing the app on your device. Step 2 above creates only the production certificate.)
• Create an iCloud container and associate it with your App ID.

OneSignal Discourse Setup

• Add the discourse-onesignal plugin to your Discourse instance and configure it: enable notifications, add your OneSignal App ID and the OneSignal REST API key.
• In your Discourse settings, add your site's home URL to allowed user api auth redirects (the app will redirect to your home URL once the user authorizes access for the app in Discourse).
• And add the OneSignal API Endpoint https://onesignal.com/api/v1/notifications to allowed user api push urls. This step is no longer needed, because it causes Discourse to send a second request to OneSignal (which fails). If you have previously added this to your configuration, you should remove it once your app has been updated to include this commit.

OneSignal updates to native code

In your app code for either iOS or Android, you need to replace the placeholder OneSignal App ID with your app's OneSignal App ID.

• For iOS, look for ONESIGNAL_APP_ID in ios/DiscoSingle/AppDelegate.m.
• For Android, look for DISCOSINGLE_ONESIGNAL_APP_ID and DISCOSINGLE_GOOGLE_PROJECT_NUMBER in android/app/build.gradle. (You will get the Google Project Number while setting up OneSignal for your Android app.)

You should now be ready to build and test the app. Note that in iOS, Push Notifications can only be tested on a real device, but the OneSignal console will show attempts to enable Push Notifications from a simulator.

Helpful Tools

Generating assets

Use generator-rn-toolbox to setup icons and splash screens for the app:

npm install -g yo generator-rn-toolbox

yo rn-toolbox:assets --icon icon.png
yo rn-toolbox:assets --splash splash.png --android
yo rn-toolbox:assets --splash splash.png --ios

Logo for login screen

The logo file for the login screen is under js/logo.png. Replace it with your logo.

Android build using Gradle

Follow the official React Native instructions on generating a key and an APK for release. Then run

cd android && ./gradlew assembleRelease

and find your release file under android/app/build/outputs/apk/app-release.apk.

Renaming your App

You can rename the app using react-native-rename. This is necessary for Android, because it's the only way to change the bundle ID.

npm install react-native-rename -g
react-native-rename "NewName" -b com.yourco.yourappid

(The bundle name specified by -b above only applies to Android, to change your iOS bundle ID, use Xcode.)

After renaming the app, you need to manually edit some files in subfolders under android/app/src/main/java, and replace com.discosingle; at the beginning of every file with your new bundle ID. The rename script does it for MainActivity.java and MainApplication.java, you need to manually do this for the remaining files.

Troubleshooting

• If you are having a ld: library not found for -lRNDeviceInfo-tvOS error, try manually deleting libRNDeviceInfo-tvOS.a in Xcode -> [Your iOS build target] -> Build Phases -> Link Binary with Libraries.
• Android file uploads may fail. The app uses https://github.com/dahjelle/react-native-android-webview-file-image-upload to enable file uploads in WebView, but it's not tested with all versions of Android.
• If you have already checked out the project, and renamed the app, you may run into a variety of file conflicts if you pull updates. This is especially the case if the React Native version in the project has been updated. This is normal, and a better course of action is to check out a fresh copy, and reapply your changes and the rename.

Upcoming Features Wishlist

A list of potential upcoming features (if interested to fund, please contact me via email or on meta):

• reply directly to a Push Notification
• ipad/tablet UI
• in-app signup form
• ios: swipe to go back/forward
• test and support logins via other services (app currently works with Facebook, Patreon, Linkedin)