Tophatting in React Native - Shopify

What this post added

This post details the development of a tool to streamline tophatting for React Native applications at Shopify. It extends the existing mobile tophatting process by focusing on the efficient handling of JavaScript bundles. The system triggers a CI pipeline upon new PRs or commits, which builds, compresses, and uploads the JavaScript bundle to cloud storage. Metadata is stored in a SQL database via a backend service. Developers can then download the bundle via QR codes, bundle IDs, or direct links, which are processed by a React Native component library that loads the new bundle and restarts the app. The backend service abstracts third-party SDK interactions and provides a scalable solution for storing bundle metadata, enabling features like pre-download confirmation and querying.