Expo Kickstart Exchange

Expo module wrapping KickstartSDK — the Swift package for Kickstart Exchange, a free cross-promotion network for indie Apple-platform apps.

Ships a native SwiftUI banner advert view plus a config plugin that raises the iOS deployment target the SDK requires. iOS only: on Android and web the banner renders null.

Installation

npx expo install expo-kickstart-exchange

// app.json
{
  "expo": {
    "plugins": ["expo-kickstart-exchange"]
  }
}

Then npx expo prebuild --clean -p ios (or a fresh EAS build). This is a native module, so it does not work in Expo Go, use a development build.

Usage

import { KickstartBannerAd } from 'expo-kickstart-exchange';

<KickstartBannerAd
  apiKey={__DEV__ ? 'preview' : 'ks_live_...'}
  colorScheme="dark"
  cornerStyle="rounded"
  strokeColor="#2a2a2a"
  actionTextColor="#e11d48"
  style={{ marginHorizontal: 16 }}
/>;

The card measures its own height (React Native owns the width), so give it a width — or let it stretch — and leave the height alone.

Props

| Prop | Type | Default | Notes | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | apiKey | string \| undefined | — | Required. undefined or '' renders nothing rather than requesting an advert. | | cornerStyle | 'square' \| 'rounded' | 'rounded' | The advertised app icon keeps its own rounding either way. | | colorScheme | 'system' \| 'light' \| 'dark' | 'system' | Set the color scheme. | | strokeColor | string | none | One point wide card border. | | actionTextColor | string | SDK default | Text color of the App Store action button. | | disclosureBackgroundColor | string | SDK default | Background of the ad disclosure button. | | style | StyleProp<ViewStyle> | - | Layout only - see below. |

API key

Register the app at https://exchange.kickstart.tools to get a ks_live_… key. In debug builds and the simulator, apiKey="preview" renders the server's sample advert with no account (it shows nothing in release builds).

What the config plugin does

KickstartSDK declares .iOS(.v18) and carries no @available annotations while using iOS 18-only API (@Entry, onScrollVisibilityChange), so nothing lower compiles - and CocoaPods refuses to install this pod against a lower app deployment target. The plugin therefore raises, never lowers:

• ios.deploymentTarget in Podfile.properties.json to 18.0;
• IPHONEOS_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET on the app target in the Xcode project.

If you also configure expo-build-properties, set ios.deploymentTarget to "18.0" (or higher) there as well - depending on plugin order it can overwrite the value this plugin sets. The plugin prints a warning when it spots a lower one.

App Store obligations

The SDK ships a privacy manifest declaring Usage Data → Product Interaction and Usage Data → Advertising Data (unlinked, non-tracking). Both must also be declared in App Store Connect, and your privacy policy has to mention and link Kickstart Exchange. See https://exchange.kickstart.tools/guide#app-privacy.

Development

npm install          # runs scripts/build.js via `prepare`
npm run build        # src -> build (tsc watch mode in an interactive terminal)
npm run build:plugin # plugin/src -> plugin/build (likewise)
npm run clean        # removes build/ and plugin/build/
npm run lint

prepare and prepublishOnly both run scripts/build.js, which cleans and builds both targets with EXPO_NONINTERACTIVE=1. Without that, expo-module build adds tsc's --watch flag whenever stdout is a TTY, and npm install / npm publish hang on the build instead of finishing.

License

MIT