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

Declarative UI


We are going to look at how the Declarative UI makes our lives much simpler in that we typically only have to create a single XML file to cover the way our app looks on all the platforms.

In this section, we will be exploring how the XML system works behind the scenes. We'll dissect more components, check out the event system, and finally, look at the component hierarchy and what it offers us. So, let us dive right into the main-page.xml file and figure out how it all works.

XML parser

Whoa! Bet you thought we were going to dive right into the main-page.xml file, didn't you? Well, not so fast; we have to take a small detour. We need to look at how the XML parser works to understand what is going on when NativeScript handles a Declarative UI XML file. So, let's get this show on the road.

Now, if you are coming from an HMTL background, you can probably teach me some really cool HTML tricks. But, since all of us are not so blessed, we will cover it for those who aren't familiar with...