Blog
Engineering notes.
Things we learned building Englo, written down so we don't relearn them on the next project.
REST API Design
Designing PHP REST APIs for Shared Hosting Constraints
getallheaders() isn't always available. DELETE requests don't always route cleanly. Here's how we designed around real shared-hosting limitations instead of fighting them.
Read more →SQLite Offline Strategy
Designing for Bad Connectivity as the Default Case
For Englo, offline support wasn't a feature bolted on at the end — it was a starting assumption. Here's the caching pattern and the trade-off we accepted.
Read more →Firebase Authentication
When Your Android App Doesn't Need a Login Screen
Firebase Auth is easy to reach for by default. Here's why we kept it out of Englo's first release, and the anonymous-auth pattern we'd use when it's actually needed.
Read more →Android Performance
Fixing RecyclerView Jank in a Content-Heavy Screen
102 vocabulary chapters and a BCS-prep question bank exposed real frame drops on mid-range devices. Here's the pagination and quiz-loading fix that solved it.
Read more →Java Best Practices
Structuring a Single-Activity Android App Without Losing Your Mind
Why Englo moved to a Single Activity architecture with fragment-based navigation, and the one rule that kept 11 modules from turning into 11 different codebases.
Read more →Facing a similar problem?
We've hit most of these walls already — happy to talk through yours.
Get in Touch