Book Image

Getting Started with React Native

Book Image

Getting Started with React Native

Overview of this book

React Native is a game-changing approach to hybrid mobile development. Web developers can leverage their existing skills to write mobile applications in JavaScript that are truly native without using cross-compilation or web views. These applications have all of the advantages of those written in Objective-C or Java, combined with the rapid development cycle that JavaScript developers are accustomed to. Web developers who want to develop native mobile applications face a high barrier to entry, because they are forced to learn platform-specific languages and frameworks. Numerous hybrid technologies have tried to simplify this process, but have failed to achieve the performance and appearance that users expect. This book will show you all the advantages of true native development that React Native has without the steep learning curve, leveraging the knowledge you already have. We do this by getting you up and running quickly with a sample application. Next, we’ll introduce you to the fundamentals of creating components and explain how React Native works under the hood. Once you have established a solid foundation, you will dive headfirst into developing a real-world application from start to finish. Along the way, we will demonstrate how to create multiple screens and navigate between them,use layout and style native UI components, and access native APIs such as local storage and geolocation. Finally, we tackle the advanced topic of Native modules, which demonstrates that there are truly no limits to what you can do with React Native.
Table of Contents (10 chapters)

Chapter 1. Exploring the Sample Application

React Native is beginning to change the game in the mobile development world. Using the skills you already have, as a web developer, you can get a set of familiar methods to build user interfaces for mobile devices. In this book, we'll walk you through many React Natives features while developing a note-taking application, which we call React Notes. While building the essential features, such as creating notes, saving notes to the device, viewing a list of saved notes, and navigating between screens, you'll learn the fundamental skills you need to develop an app of your own. You'll also have the opportunity to go beyond the basics by adding the ability to store images and geolocation data with notes. Functionality is only a part of what makes a great app — it has to be great looking as well, so we've made sure to equip you with a thorough understanding of layout and styles. By the end of the book, you will have developed a fully featured application from start to finish and have all the skills you need to share your React Native applications with the world!

In this chapter, we'll introduce you to React Notes, the sample application that you'll learn how to build. We'll even point you in the right direction if you're anxious to start tinkering with the sample app to see what happens.

This chapter will focus on the following:

  • Installing Xcode on Mac OS X
  • Running the sample application in the iOS simulator
  • Taking a look at the sample application features
  • Modifying the sample application