Check if build was sideloaded or downloaded from App/Play Store

Question

React Native uses __DEV__ internally to check whether an app is a dev or release build.

We use that to determine whether we should point to our staging or production environments.

_host = (__DEV__) ? 'https://staging-api.foo-app.com' : 'https://api.foo-app.com';

if (Platform.OS === 'ios') {
  deploymentKey = (__DEV__) // iOS
    ? '5eCkg3JX3aip-D_a77eea5c3-0MXihVlUTZ4yy45a-432a-b73e-0a844d8b8310' // Staging
    : 'zGxOja-Yhchs87eea5c3-0d5a-432aQriLlV17gI-sdj55-b73e-0a844d8b8310'; // Production
} else {
  deploymentKey = (__DEV__) // Android
    ? 'vrrKTaq08Hid77eea5c3-0d5a-432aDhXbdI8-G9CnWmqc-b73e-0a844d8b8310' // Staging
    : '8DclNAKdcQkKlQDL77eea5c3-0d5a-432aslW1SeS6sDMo-b73e-0a844d8b8310'; // Production
}

The problem is that __DEV__ evaluates to false for any builds sideloaded to a device from XCode and Android Studio. So, to test on a device, we do this in a few places:

// _host = (__DEV__) ? 'https://staging-api.foo-app.com' : 'https://api.foo-app.com';
_host = 'https://staging-api.foo-app.com';

How can we determine if an app is sideloaded vs downloaded from the App Store or Play Store?

Answer 1

Instead of having keys and data that switches based on __DEV__...might I suggest using various .env files using a, much safer, 12-factor approach with react-native-config.

This way you can have deployment keys and environment based variables within files that can be .gitignored.

You can have something like:

.env (Staging)

HOST=https://staging-api.foo-app.com
DEPLOYMENT_KEY_IOS=5eCkg3JX3aip-D_a77eea5c3-0MXihVlUTZ4yy45a-432a-b73e-0a844d8b8310
DEPLOYMENT_KEY_ANDROID=vrrKTaq08Hid77eea5c3-0d5a-432aDhXbdI8-G9CnWmqc-b73e-0a844d8b8310

.env.production (Production)

HOST=https://api.foo-app.com
DEPLOYMENT_KEY_IOS=vrrKTaq08Hid77eea5c3-0d5a-432aDhXbdI8-G9CnWmqc-b73e-0a844d8b8310
DEPLOYMENT_KEY_ANDROID=8DclNAKdcQkKlQDL77eea5c3-0d5a-432aslW1SeS6sDMo-b73e-0a844d8b8310

react-native-config instructions should be clear enough on how you'd use each file based off build type.