Problem
A coastal development programme that needs a public web platform and a mobile app showing the same content. Two clients reading from one source of truth, and nobody wants to find out in six months that they have drifted.
Approach
The backend is Umbraco 17.5 on ASP.NET MVC with SQL Server, and I am building both ends of it: the content models and controllers on the server, and the React Native client that consumes them.
Building both sides changes how the API gets designed. The contract is written once, against a consumer I am also writing, so the mobile app never has to negotiate with an endpoint shaped for the website.
Hard decision
Still open. The web platform and the app do not want identical payloads, and the choice is between one endpoint that over-serves the app or separate shapes per client. Leaning towards one endpoint until the mobile payload size actually hurts.
Status
Early. Started September 2026, and the honest summary is that the content model is further along than the mobile client.
Source
Client work for a government body, published here under an anonymised name. No repository link, and no live URL until the programme is announced.