Dipping my toes into developing a Lemmy client.. Whats the best place to ask questions? :)

Hi folks!

I am a new convert coming over from Reddit. I want to build out a Lemmy React Native client. Woo!

I'm very familiar with frontend dev and react (been doing so for a solid chunk of my career), however I am quite new to the Fediverse and not entirely sure how to build federated applications.

I see the lemmy-js-client which will likely help me tremendously, but it's not terribly documented.

Anyone else out there hacking on a TypeScript/React based Lemmy client and willing to share notes? :)

19 comments

Just started work on an iOS client today using React Native. Honestly, the lemmy-js-client is pretty straight forward even if you're just using typehints from Typescript. Interesting issue is dealing with comments and getting those properly sorted and creating the comment chains. If you want to chat and have Discord, add me: gk#5175
- Have you created a GitHub repo where I can follow the progress?
  
  Yup, here it is.
  https://github.com/gkasdorf/memmy

I'm seeing a bunch of "me too!" comments, which is cool. Some of you should group up and really wow us plebs :)
- Agree. Also, PLEASE make the UI like the infinity reddit client. That thing is amazing.
- Just circling back on this: I've started work on a Lemmy iOS app! It's far from wow'ing right now, but maybe some day! :) https://lemm.ee/post/116554

Awesome! I'm doing the same thing. Yesterday I got login, loading the first page of posts, markdown rendering, and counts for comments and upvotes working.
It's not even to alpha level yet, but once I get something I feel is up to snuff for a first push, the repo is at https://github.com/1hitsong/AOS/
- Are you using the Javascript library or going directly to the /api/v3 calls?
  I'm playing around with SvelteKit client and I almost prefer going with the raw api calls like the smartphone clients are doing.
  
  I'm using the JS client - LemmyHttp Class.
  Here's what it currently looks like, for those interested.

I really hope your project or some of the other alternative frontend projects take off for Lemmy's sake. I really feel like lemmy is being held back by its UX right now.

Haha! I too have wanted to do the same thing! Well.. not in React - I actually wanted to use leptos because it seems neat. So ideally I'd want an API client that'd work in rust in wasm. Or maybe it's simple enough to migrate an existing one over.
As this is very likely just a side project for me, I may as well share my desires for any new client. One thing I'd really like to see in a Lemmy UX is a swipe based navigation like in Sync for reddit. Such a lovely way to navigate.
Oh oh! and some decent customisation on different views (depending on communities and whims). Like big cards with previews and smaller ones with title emphasis.
Tbh all of this is basically what Sync had. Sync was great..
Not sure if making mobile apps these days is required as web apps can get you pretty much there with service workers etc. I guess hosting is still the main issue even though offline first apps can mitigate that a lot!
Thank you for reading my rambles. It's pretty much a mind dump rather than being directed at anyone etc :)

I've also started working on my own Lemmy app (in NativeScript). Maybe we should all create a community to share insights.
- Let us know if you create a community for clients&apps

I’ve been wondering the same!
Does anyone know of any Lemmy dev communities (preferably a Lemmy community but I’d settle for a Discord) dedicated to resource for software devs to learn the protocol? I’m interested in creating bots to help Reddit users and subreddits migrate here.
- Check out Lemmy Project Chat. They link to it in the dev documentation for lemmy.
  
  thanks for this! Was looking for something similar :)

I might start my own thread, but I'm also interested in making a Lemmy client, but almost a 1:1 Apollo clone. I'm a native iOS dev, so get in contact if you'd like to work on it with me.

19 comments