React Native, is a JavaScript framework that renders mobile applications for both IOS and Android. It is based on Facebook’s JavaScript library for building user interfaces, but it invokes all stir and attention because it targets mobile applications, instead of targeting the browser. React Native applications are written using a mixture of JavaScript and XML-esque markup, known as JSX. Then, under the hood, the React Native “bridge” invokes the native rendering APIs in Objective-C (for IOS) or Java (for Android). React Native also exposes JavaScript interfaces for platform APIs, so your React Native apps can access platform features like the phone camera, or the user’s location.
Here is a list of 7 must know details of React Native that have earned it the repute of the ‘future of hybrid apps’ ever since its launch in 2015.
1. JavaScript Libraries (Including Redux) Work Flawlessly
The surface area of React Native’s API is amazing. It stands out of your way when you want to adopt components from the React ecosystem such as Redux, Immutable.js or vanilla JavaScript libraries like lodash or moment.Since React Native is “just” JavaScript, you don’t need to rebuild your application in order to see your changes reflected; instead, you can hit Command+R to refresh your application just as you would any other web page. All those minutes spent waiting for your application to build can really add up, and in contrast React Native’s quick iteration cycle feels like ait is Godsent.
2. Developer Experience
If you’ve ever developed for mobile before, you might be surprised by how easy React Native is to work with. The React Native team has baked strong developer tools and meaningful error messages into the framework, so working with robust tools is a natural part of your development experience.Working with React Native can shrink the resources needed to build mobile applications. Any developer familiar with React can easily pick up React Native and now target both Web and mobile platforms with the same skill set.
3. Remote Update Your Code base, Silently
In your development workflow, things are already being served over the wire (that includes the JavaScript bundle and hot updates), so React Native sort of falls into a use case for remote updates.Today, you can use Code Push for free, in order to control remote updates to your app. Fix bugs, deploy new features and content without going through a tiresome app store process.
4. Debugging Tools and Error Reporting
React Native lets you take advantage of intelligent debugging tools and error reporting. If you are comfortable with Chrome or Safari’s developer tools, you will be happy to know that you can use them for mobile development, as well. Likewise, you can use whatever text editor you prefer for JavaScript editing: React Native does not force you to work in XCode to develop for IOS, or Android Studio for Android development.
5. Reinventing the Method of Writing Mobile Applications
While existing methods of writing mobile applications used combinations of JavaScript, HTML, and CSS to typically render using Web View, compromising on performance; React Native actually translates your markup to real, native UI elements, leveraging existing means of rendering views on whatever platform you are working with. Additionally, it works separately from the main UI thread, so your application can maintain high performance without sacrificing capability.
6. Options for Navigation
Navigation to React Native, we can divide them into three categories:
• React Native default implementations (Navigator IOS, React Navigation)
• JS implementations of navigation (React Navigation, react-native-router-flux)
• Native implementations(wix/react-native-navigation, airbnb/native-navigation)
All of these are fully featured and inclusive of imperative sub-components.
7. Development of Animated Lists
To create a list in React Native you can use Flat List or Section List. Rendering list action will be at the end of the asynchronous actions queue after mounting the component. So, the workaround for this is to push function that performs animation to the end of the queue.
If your team can handle the uncertainty that comes with working with a new technology and wants to develop mobile applications for more than just one platform, you should be looking at React Native.
