Ctrip's Mobile Tech Platform (MTP) and Mobile Continuous Delivery (MCD): Design, Implementation, and Outcomes

Author bio: Harry Chen (陈浩然), Senior Director of Wireless Technology at Ctrip, leads the wireless committee and core engineering team.

In 2017 Ctrip's wireless R&D shifted from a technology‑dimension focus (performance, quality, framework, new tech, infrastructure, tools) to a lifecycle‑dimension model, addressing development, integration/testing/release, and operation stages with platform solutions.

The three key platforms built that year were the Mobile Tech Platform (MTP) and the Mobile Continuous Delivery (MCD) platform, whose design concepts and results are summarized below.

MTP – Mobile Tech Platform

The design of MTP was driven by the rapid growth of Ctrip’s app ecosystem, which includes the core travel apps (Ctrip Travel and Trip.com) as well as dozens of vertical and internal service apps.

These apps share common wireless components such as network communication, push, IM, location, VoIP, device info, authentication, A/B testing, analytics, incremental updates, and hot‑fixes. To avoid duplicated effort and ensure quality, Ctrip consolidated existing base technologies and refactored services that previously did not support multi‑app scenarios, launching the MTP platform.

MTP provides three categories of products and services:

Basic components and services (network, push, IM, location, VoIP, device info, login, gray‑release, A/B testing, behavior collection, incremental update, hot‑fix, etc.). Development frameworks: React Native (CRN) and Hybrid frameworks. R&D support: packaging, integration, testing, release, and operation functions built on the MCD platform, plus end‑to‑end performance monitoring via the APM platform.

The platform is not merely a product showcase portal; its core lies in a console where users can request, configure, manage, and operate various components and services.

Using the IM service as an example, the console offers real‑time queries, callbacks, status APIs, business and message type configurations, and log search capabilities, enabling self‑service management and significantly reducing the support workload of the wireless infrastructure team.

To date, MTP supports more than 20 Ctrip apps, playing a decisive role in standardizing wireless technology and ensuring development quality.

MCD – Mobile Continuous Delivery Platform

MCD has been in use at Ctrip for three years. Inspired initially by Taobao’s bundle technology, Ctrip built its own plug‑in system, evolving it into a platform that supports integration, testing, release, and operation phases.

Key concepts defined in MCD include:

Bundle: The binary artifact of each module. For the Ctrip Travel app, there are over 100 native iOS/Android bundles, 70+ React Native bundles, and 70+ Hybrid (JS) bundles, each built independently. L‑Version Bundle: Built after a developer submits code, automatically marked as the latest (L) version; dependencies trigger cascading builds. RC‑Version Bundle: When an L‑bundle passes testing, it can be marked as Release Candidate (RC). Test Package: Built from all L‑bundles for daily testing. Integration Package: Built from all RC‑bundles for app‑store submission and integration testing.

Both test and integration packages can be configured for hourly or daily builds and linked with MCD’s code‑scan and white‑screen detection features to achieve continuous integration.

In 2017, MCD performed nearly 100,000 builds for various bundle types in the Ctrip Travel app, producing about 25,000 iOS and Android test/integration packages, each completed in 2–3 minutes, reliably supporting daily wireless integration and testing.

During the release phase, MCD offers hot‑fix, Android bundle, React Native, and Hybrid package publishing, supporting urgent bug fixes and dynamic business updates. All release types share a unified delivery channel and multi‑environment workflow, with differential, 7z compression, and gray‑release capabilities; developers can view deployment status and usage statistics directly in the platform.

In 2017, MCD completed roughly 300 hot‑fix and bundle releases, 5,000 React Native releases, and 5,000 Hybrid releases, achieving over 95% user update rates within 12 hours and no major release incidents.

Conclusion

Platform‑based and systematic problem‑solving is essential for managing the wireless development lifecycle and output quality.

From the current usage of MTP and MCD within Ctrip, the reuse of MTP’s technical results reduces development costs, while MCD’s automation cuts communication overhead; both platforms are used daily by wireless engineers.

Future work will continue to evolve Ctrip’s wireless technology and infrastructure along the platformization path.