Automated XML to Jetpack Compose Migration
The Challenge
The organization faced a massive debt of legacy XML-based Android layouts. Manual migration to Jetpack Compose was slow, error-prone, and risked introducing security vulnerabilities. The goal was to reduce migration time by 40% while ensuring zero security regressions.
Key Constraints
- •Zero tolerance for security regressions (hardcoded secrets, PII exposure).
- •Must support complex, nested XML structures.
- •The generated Compose code had to be idiomatic and maintainable, not just a 1-to-1 translation.
- •Limited team size (4 developers) with a strict beta release deadline.
Designed a two-stage migration pipeline.
Stage 1: Static Analysis & Security Interception Built a custom static analyzer in Kotlin that parses XML ASTs before conversion. It applies a rule set to detect pre-existing vulnerabilities (e.g., hardcoded API keys, insecure input types). If a vulnerability is found, the migration halts with a detailed report, preventing the 'garbage-in-garbage-out' problem.
Stage 2: Semantic Mapping Instead of direct tag-to-composable mapping, we implemented an intermediate semantic layer. This allows capturing intent (e.g., 'a button with a shadow') rather than just properties, enabling us to generate themable Compose components compliant with the new design system.
Engineering Tradeoffs
Context-aware parsing, significantly fewer false positives, handles nested structures robustly.
Higher initial development effort and complexity.
Guarantees no migrated code has legacy vulnerabilities. Enforces security-first culture.
Frustrates developers if legacy code is very messy; specific 'ignore' flags had to be implemented.
Impact & Outcome
Reduced UI modernization effort by ~40% in initial benchmarks.
Zero critical vulnerabilities found in the beta release code.
Successfully handled complex nested layouts that failed with standard open-source converters.