Revisiting and updating a React Native app from a few years ago

A few years ago I created an app for Fife County Council to allow them to audit the bus stops they are responsible for and report any maintenance issues on the go.

With over 4000 stops, providing a system to manage manual inspections and poster updates is very important.

It turns out the app hasn’t been used since being created but they are now ready to use it on the streets. This of course means they have tested the app and provided feedback on some new features desired.

Whilst I now have a new position working in Marketing Analytics I like to always provide support for my work to previous clients. As such I pulled a copy of the app’s code from my repository and made the changes in my free time.

What really surprised me was the amount of pain just building an app from a 3 year old code base could be. I had to update the version of React Native it used, which meant updating the node version. I also had to update Xcode to build the iOS version, however that required me to update the whole OS on my MacBook Pro.

This almost required me to purchase a new machine as I didn’t have enough disk space left for the OS update and the Xcode update. Fortunately I managed to clear just enough space but it goes to show that codebases and the tech stacks they require change so rapidly that even simple changes to an old app can require a disproportionate amount of time to implement!