1586736 - iOS: Implement DebugActivity-like functionality

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Data Platform and Tools :: Glean: SDK, task, P1)

Description

[Jan-Erik Rediger [:janerik]]

We need to decide on which way we want to make this happen:

• command-line argument
• URL schema
• something else?

Comment 1

[Travis Long [:travis_]]

From the Glean-iOS implementation doc:
The GleanDebugActivity in Glean for Android gives us the capability of passing information to the application from a command line launch in order to tag pings for debug use, as well as other situations.

While there is not really a parallel for this functionality in iOS, it is not necessarily needed as we can pass command line parameters directly to the app which are accessible through the UserDefaults API (similar to the SharedPreferences of Android) or CommandLine API through a mechanism called launch arguments. See here for information on how this is accomplished.

Another possibility would be to implement a custom URL scheme or through universal links which can be used to manipulate the application from another app or website. This is typically used to link to content within the app but appears to be able to be modified to suit our purpose. This would potentially allow us to control the debug functions by entering a URL in a web browser on the device.

Comment 2

[Travis Long [:travis_]]

I strongly feel we should start with the CLI support first, and consider adding the custom URL scheme support to both iOS and Android later.

Comment 3

[Travis Long [:travis_]]

Attachment: GitHub Pull Request