Hi everyone! I've been grappling with the intrica...

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[ComposeFlow]

Hi everyone!

I've been grappling with the intricate task of turning design mockups directly into Jetpack Compose code. This led me to experiment with a visual editor for Compose. Imagine something inspired by platforms like FlutterFlow or Webflow, but sculpted specially for Kotlin and Compose.

One of the core aims I've set is for this tool to generate idiomatic Kotlin code, making any output fully extensible and in harmony with Kotlin and Jetpack Compose's best practices. Beyond just a UI interface, I've also dabbled in integrating logic handling and backend connections, starting with Firebase as a test bed.

I'm leaning towards calling it ComposeFlow. So, I'm reaching out: what would you envision in such a tool? My overarching goal is to streamline the development experience, particularly for those who are deeply entrenched in Jetpack Compose.

Check it out here: https://composeflow.io/

[Pablichjenkov]

Time ago I worked in a similar project, nothing to do with compose just plain custom Views/Layouts and Activities. This is a case of server driven UI somehow.
What I see challenging and at the same time important, is to make the components customizable to business logic. The UI part in the components is important but making them interact with different APIs is essential. You can tailor the components to a particular type of business and make the whole thing simple. Or you can go with a more ambitious architecture where a component implements any API out there. So the tool could be used to build any type of App

[ComposeFlow]

Thanks for the feedback! Yeah, how to connect the UI part with business logic or backend can be challenging indeed. I'm imagining like a hybrid approach where there are predefined type of business logic which can be easily connected while allowing it to connect with a custom logic. I'll see how it goes. Thanks for the feedback anyway!

[Panu]

Totally agree with @Pablichjenkov . That's probably the most important thing determining how easy it is to update the design/UI and integrate it with the rest of the application.

[Aditya Bhawsar]

Why not use relay?

[ComposeFlow]

Relay is great indeed, but I think a standalone tool has some advantages such as:
• Seamless workflow into working preview/app even direct upload to app stores or export code to GitHub without plugins
• The generated code is designed to articulate your intentions in a manner that's finely tuned to Compose's intricacies. For comparison:
◦ Tools like Relay/Figma often can't capture the nuances of a chain of Modifiers
◦ Relay, for instance, typically outputs sizes as fixed dimensions (e.g., .size(width = xxx.dp, height = yyy.dp)). This approach isn't conducive to the diverse screen sizes real-world apps encounter.