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

How to install a third-party plugin component


This is actually one of the more simple things to do in most cases. We will install three different plugins. The first component is just a simple plugin to vibrate the phone, which we will use for any new messages. Then, we will install a more complex plugin that we will use for real-time communication. Finally, we will install a visual component. By choosing these three examples, I hope to show you a small subset of the available features that you can easily install to gain new functionality for your application.

Installing the vibration plugin

By exploring any of those three plugin sites, you should find a plugin called nativescript-vibrate. This is the plugin we will use to handle the vibration. To install a plugin, you need to be connected to the Internet. Then, all we need to do is simply type nativescript plugin add nativescript-vibrate in the root project directory. This will automatically download and install all the code for the vibration...