React Native – Building Native Mobile Apps using JavaScript and React

Introduction

Mobile phone users across the world are expected to pass the five billion mark by the end of 2019 (a report by Statista). As per the industry experts, the mobile phone penetration is forecasted to continue to grow.

Additionally, on an average mobile phone users spend more than five hours a day on their smartphones. Mobile phones have become half soul of every individual.

With advancement in mobile app development technologies, there are an array of options available for those who want to a mobile app for their business. However, businesses often gets confused whether they should offer their customers a mobile app with better user interface and user experience or a mobile app compatible with multiple platforms.

React Native is a perfect solution for businesses to build a mobile app that is compatible with iOS and Android platforms and has impeccable UI and UX.

What is React Native?

Based on React, JavaScript library of Facebook, React Native is a JavaScript framework for coding natively rendering mobile applications for multiple platforms; iOS and Android.

React Native enable web developers to build mobile apps that look and even feel completely “Native”, all by using the easy-to-write and accustomed JavaScript Library; targeting mobile platforms instead of web.

Using React Native, developers can reuse most of the code and can simultaneously develop for both iOS and Android.

React Native apps are written using a mixture of JavaScript and XML-esque markup, known as JSX. Then, the React Native “bridge” invokes the native rendering APIs in Objective-C (for iOS) or Java (for Android). Instead of webviews, the application renders via real mobile User Interface components; making the app look and feel like any other mobile apps. Additionally, React Native also enables developers for using platform APIs to use platform features such as location or the phone camera.

Why is REACT Native Framework Popular?

React Native Development is popular among developers and app owners mainly because it is comparatively quick, simple and efficient. If the developer has expertise in JavaScript, there is no need to learn iOS specific Swift or Android specific Java.

Other than its simplicity, React Native is a User Interface focused – making applications load quickly and giving a smoother feel to the users.

Another reason behind the popularity of the REACT Native framework is that the framework helps write applications for both the platforms at one go. This is why giants like Walmart, Facebook, Tesla, Skype, and Airbnb uses React Native for their mobile applications.

React Native stands out from most methods of cross-platform application development, like Ionic, mainly because it renders using its host platform’s standard rendering APIs.

Build native mobile apps using JavaScript and React

React Native lets you build mobile apps using only JavaScript. It uses the same design as React, enabling developers compose a rich mobile UI using declarative components.

import React, {Component} from 'react';
import {Text, View} from 'react-native';
class HelloReactNative extends Component {
render() {
return (
<View>
<Text>
If you like React, you'll also like React Native.
</Text>
<Text>
Instead of 'div' and 'span', you'll use native components
like 'View' and 'Text'.
</Text>
</View>
);
}}


A React Native app is a real mobile app

The applications build with React Native aren’t mobile web applications. React Native uses the same fundamental User Interface building blocks as regular Android and iOS. Instead of using Kotlin, Swift or Java, developers put building blocks together using JavaScript and React.


import React, {Component} from 'react';
import {Image, ScrollView, Text} from 'react-native';
class ScrollingImageWithText extends Component {
render() {
return (
<ScrollView>
<Image
source={{uri: 'https://facebook.github.io/react-native/img/header_logo.png'}}
style={{width: 66, height: 58}}
/>
<Text>
On iOS, a React Native ScrollView uses a native UIScrollView.
On Android, it uses a native ScrollView.
On iOS, a React Native Image uses a native UIImageView.
On Android, it uses a native ImageView.
React Native wraps the fundamental native components, giving you the performance of a native app using the APIs of React.
</Text>
</ScrollView>
);
}}


Don’t waste time recompiling

React Native lets developers build app faster. Instead of recompiling, they can reload the app instantly. With Hot Reloading, developers can even run new code while retaining your application state.

Use native code when you need to

React Native combines smoothly with components written in Java, Swift, or Objective-C. It’s easy to drop down to native code if you need to optimize some aspects of your appl. It’s also easy to build part of your app in React Native, and part of your app using native code

import React, {Component} from 'react';
import {Text, View} from 'react-native';
import {MapViewComponent} from './your-native-map-implementation';
class CustomMapView extends Component {
render() {
return (
<View>
<MapViewComponent />
<Text>
MapViewComponent could use native Swift, Java, or Objective-C -
the product development process is the same.
</Text>
</View>
);
}
}


Building “Hello World” App Using React Native

React Native is like React, but instead of web components, it uses native components as building blocks. So before getting started with the React Native app, a developer needs to understand few basic React concepts, such as JSX, components, props, and state.

If the developer is already familiar with React, he still needs to learn some React-Native-related stuff, such as the native components.

Here’s the code to write a “Hello world” app that does nothing but just display “Hello World!”


import React, { Component } from 'react';
import { Text, View } from 'react-native';
export default class HelloWorldApp extends Component {
render() {
return (
<View style={{ flex: 1, justifyContent: "center", alignItems: "center" }}>
<Text>Hello world!</Text>
</View>
);
}
}


You can play around with the above sample code directly in the web simulators. You can also paste it into your App.js file to create a real app on your local machine.

If you want to build an application with Vue.js, get in touch with our team. We will help you build the best application for you and your business.

Source: facebook.github.io/react-native/