Book Image

Getting Started with NativeScript

By : Nathanael J. Anderson
Book Image

Getting Started with NativeScript

By: Nathanael J. Anderson

Overview of this book

NativeScript allows you to build a fast cross-platform application that has a native UI. NativeScript is a true cross-platform framework that generates native speed applications using the native components of the host platform, all using JavaScript. Although NativeScript allows you to build your application in JavaScript, you have full access to the host OS from your code, allowing you to easily tweak or use new platform features instantly at native code speeds. Whether you have already developed multiple applications or zero applications, this book will help you to develop your next application in a cross-platform framework quickly, saving you a massive amount of time and money. This book concisely shows you NativeScript’s built-in framework that allows you to rapidly develop a fully-working compiled cross-platform application in just a few chapters. It starts by laying the foundation of NativeScript and working through the fundamentals to create a basic shell of the application. Moving on, you’ll see how to build a full-fledged application step by step. We’ll show you how to use plugins, and how to communicate with the native OS libraries easily so that you can customize your application as if your app was created in Java or Objective C. We then deal with the issues that arise from being cross platform and compensate for the different screen sizes, screen resolutions, and device abilities. Finally, we progress to testing and deploying your app.
Table of Contents (15 chapters)
Getting Started with NativeScript
Credits
Foreword
About the Author
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Foundational components


Now that we have explored all the project files that were automatically created for you, let's examine several foundational components that have already been referenced in the main page. These components are the glue of the application, and without them, we would have no application.

Application component

If you recall, earlier in the chapter, we discussed the app.js file. It basically contains only the code that is responsible for setting up the properties of your application and then finally, it starts the application component. So, you probably have guessed that this is the primary component for your entire application lifecycle. Part of the features that this component provides us with is access to all the application-wide events. Frequently, in an app, you will want to know when your app is no longer the foreground application or when it finally returns to being the foreground application. To get this information, you can attach to two of the events that it provides...