Show HN: Prodscape.net – Map your mobile app

[illahi]

Hello HN,

Long-time lurker, first-time poster here. I've created a service that creates a "flow map" of your mobile app.

Check it out at: https://prodscape.net.

The goal is to reduce last-minute regressions, promote holistic discussion, and help develop more ownership within an organization. This is something that I would have liked to have had when I was working at a big company.

Some caveats:

  1.) Only iOS is currently supported but Android-support will be coming soon.
  2.) You need a developer-signed IPA file (see the guide on creating an IPA file here: https://prodscape.net/finding-ipa.html).

I would appreciate your thoughts on:

  1.) your barriers to trying it
  2.) your impressions of the map
  3.) whether you're interested in applying this within your team
  4.) anything else.

Don't have access to an IPA file? Email me at [e-mail] and I will send you one to try.

Thanks!

[thomasqbrady]

Been looking for something like this for years, however I can’t imagine any of the places I’ve worked being okay with uploading an IPA. A paid on-site license/plan would serv you (and potential enterprise customers) well…

[CamelRocketFish]

Why wouldn’t they be okay with uploading an IPA? Wouldn’t they already be uploading IPAs to distribution platforms?

[johlindenbaum]

Quite different uploading your stuff to the platform distributing your app, rather than a "rando that is going to scan my app"

[CamelRocketFish]

Any rando can scan your IPA once they’ve installed your app though.

[illahi]

That's great advice. Thanks!

[mstade]

This looks amazing and I’d love to try it, but our app only works once you’ve logged in. We do have special accounts made for Apple testers etc., would that work for you as well or is this unusable in our case?

EDIT: My apologies I didn’t see the login radio button at first. That said, our aunt mechanism is a 2fa kind, and basically our “special” testing accounts means generating a code for manual input so you don’t need the second factor. You will need instructions for how to do it though, so the question still stands, could we use this?

[illahi]

Hi mstade, I appreciate the interest!

I have plans to add support for 2FA but it may be a little while before that is added - just because there are so many different types of 2FA.

May I ask whether the code you all use is a non-changing (static) string? Please feel free to send me an email at [e-mail] and I will keep you up-to-date on progress.

[jon889]

I would love this so much, but uploading the IPA would be a bit of an issue :/ it would be impossible at my previous company (a large supermarket) and now I’d have to get justification. It would be good to get a little bit more info on how it works or rather have the results of a demo app that can be accessed :)

[illahi]

The over-the-internet IPA uploading seems to be a crux. Thanks for the insight.

Also, I'll see if I can modify the landing to show an actual example map - or maybe even a video.

[illahi]

Link for convenience: https://prodscape.net

[wingerlang]

Interesting enough, I've uploaded an IPA and will post a link to the PDF once it arrives back. My app is pretty straight forward, but it has potential for circular and endlessly following links. Will be interesting to see how it handles it.

[illahi]

Hi wingerlang,

Some uploaded apps were not processed correctly. I've discovered a few issues and we're working on addressing them. Apologies for the inconvenience.

This is one of the reasons we shared here - to catch these issues.

Very much appreciate you trying it out, though.

[wingerlang]

So do I need to re-upload it?

[illahi]

It may take a fair amount of time to address the issues. Feel free to send me an email at [e-mail] and I can email you when you can try it out again.

[twodayslate]

Any background on how this works?

[tanduv]

Pretty cool! I'd appreciate a demo with a more realistic app. Also, are you able traverse a more complicated / dynamic app like Twitter?

[donclark]

Why not enter a website URL?