Hi, I was wondering if there are any plans to support the use of this new Kotlin Maps SDK 200.x series for Kotlin Multiplatform (KMM) shared code? Is this something that might be possible in the future? From the outside perspective it seems like this might be possible since the SDK is now written in Kotlin, but maybe there are major dependencies that cannot easily be changed to Kotlin.
I just tried utilizing it as shared code and wouldn't allow me, presumably because the SDK, including all dependencies, are not 100% Kotlin code.
Any insight would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Hi,
Thanks for enquiring about KMM. As you rightly mentioned, the ArcGIS Maps SDK for Kotlin 200.x is purely targeting Kotlin/JVM, as it uses a variety of JVM-only dependencies.
However, we are keen to hear about requirements and use cases for KMM with regard to the ArcGIS Maps SDKs. Could you give us some details on your requirements with regards to using Maps SDK features in shared code? I.e. which particular features would you like to be able to share between platforms? In what ways would KMM simplify integration of ArcGIS into your apps?
Thanks
Hello @GuntherHeppner, we are currently migrating all the projects of my current company to Compose/Kotlin Multiplatform, it would be very good to have a multiplatform sdk, it would save us a lot of integration and maintenance time.
Would it be possible to have it? If possible, how long do you think it could take to be in production?
Every day there are more companies that want to migrate their apps to multiplatform technologies and according to various analyzes that we have done in my current company, the most efficient so far is without a doubt Kotlin Multiplatform.
Hello @GuntherHeppner
I leave here the answers to what you told me.
Q/ In what way do you think Kotlin Multiplatform is more efficient than
other cross-platform technologies like .Net Maui or Flutter? (Esri has an SDK offering for .Net Maui and support for Flutter is underway)
A/ When I talk about efficiency I mean that since we are obtaining multiplatform technologies, the integration/configuration of GIS using a single multiplatform library saves us much more time and not having to maintain a configuration for each technology that we support. Taking into account the massive dismissal of the Flutter team by Google and its commitment to cross-platform Kotlin, I think it would be good to prioritize it over Flutter.
Q/ What platforms are you targeting, i.e. Android, iOS, desktop, web?
A/ Currently we are only supporting Android and iOS, we have Desktop mapped later, web we are not sure yet.
Q/ What limitations do you currently encounter when adopting Kotlin Multiplatform?
A/ The limitation is that we need to implement code in Swift to be able to integrate the map, if we had it cross-platform we would only be using 100% Kotlin.
Q/ Do you need/consider Compose Multiplatform in addition to Kotlin Multiplatform or does cross-platform support for a business logic layer (non-UI layer) satisfy your requirements?
A/ I don't know if I fully understood the question but compose multiplatform would be enough. The development on their part shouldn't be too complex because they already have the ios and kotlin sdk, it would just be to integrate them into a cross-platform kotlin/compose lib and they could have it productive in a few weeks.
Hi @GuntherHeppner,
This is our use case:
Our goal was to bring our existing Android apps, built using the ArcGIS Kotlin SDK, to desktop platforms. We successfully transitioned to Kotlin Multiplatform with Compose, enabling our applications to run on Windows, Mac, and Linux using ArcGIS Java SDK.
However, we face several challenges:
A Kotlin Multiplatform Compose Maps SDK would be the perfect solution to address all of these issues.
Thanks,
Thomas