react_native

Bootstrapping a React Native App: A Comparison

December 10, 2018  7 minute read  

It’s been a while since I have worked on a React Native app. In that time, create-react-native-app (CRNA) has been deprecated, and expo-cli has taken its place as the advised route. There is still react-native init, and Infinite Red has ignite. That is four different ways of bootstrapping a React Native app. Before I continue, let me be clear on what I want: I want to use “best practices” in my app architecture - for state, communication with my AWS-based backend, navigation, and so on. ...

Creating a React Native bridge library

January 19, 2018  7 minute read  

React Native is really good at straddling the line between native and JavaScript. There is a bridge between the two that allows you to call native code from JavaScript. This is awesome for including things that require a special touch. Most React Native developers will never need to worry about the bridge because libraries exist to wrap a lot of the common native libraries that you see in Android and iOS. But what if you want to create a bridge library of your own? That’s a whole other effor...

AsyncStorage, TypeScript, and Async/await in React Native

August 21, 2017  4 minute read  

In the last few posts, I’ve been working on a Notes app in a master-detail pattern for React Native using TypeScript. This is the last post about that project. So far, I’ve: Worked out how to handle orientation changes. Worked out how to implement swipe-to-delete. Figured out the best way to use TypeScript. Integrated MobX for the Flux pattern. Fixed up the project for universal iOS apps. Finally written the Master-Detail pattern. That’s a lot of stuff. This last post is about...

Building a Master-Detail Pattern in React Native

August 16, 2017  5 minute read  

I’m in the middle of writing a simple Notes app in React Native. Thus far, I’ve: Worked out how to handle orientation changes. Worked out how to implement swipe-to-delete. Figured out the best way to use TypeScript. Integrated MobX for the Flux pattern. Fixed up the project for universal iOS apps. Now it’s time to get to the master-detail pattern itself. Master-Detail is a basic pattern that incorporates a list (the master) and a detail page. On phones (and tablets in portrait m...

Universal iOS Apps with React Native

August 14, 2017  less than 1 minute read  

This is one of those short “tip” posts. I was developing a nice React Native app and blogging about it. However, I bumped into a problem where my iOS simulator runs always appeared as if they were on an iPhone. If I ran the app on an iPad, it would still act as if it were on an iPhone. The fix for this is buried inside XCode. Open XCode and then open the .xcodeproj file, which is inside the ios folder of your project. Then click on the project name. You will see a section like this: Note...

Integrating React Native, TypeScript, and MobX

August 11, 2017  5 minute read  

In my last article, I psted about getting TypeScript working with React Native. I’m building a flexible, best-practices, Notes App in React Native. This means I need a backing store, and it has to be local for offline capabilities. React has a definite way of building data into the UI and the manipulation of that data is an architecture known as Flux. Flux isn’t a concrete implementation, however. Normally, I would use Redux as the concrete implementation. However, I have recently started wor...

Debugging React Native with TypeScript and Visual Studio Code

August 09, 2017  2 minute read  

One of the things I really miss from React Native was the support for TypeScript. TypeScript helps me immensely, but it really comes into its own with React programming as the PropTypes are specified for you (no more propTypes static). I’m also getting into MobX as a flux implementation and that uses decorators, which is native in TypeScript. There is lots to love in TypeScript. However, every single guide I saw for implementing TypeScript within React Native was flawed. Specifically, there ...

Implementing swipe-right on a React Native FlatList

August 07, 2017  6 minute read  

I’m progressing on my “master-detail” pattern for a react-native app. The actual implementation of master-detail is shockingly simple (more on that later). However, I bumped into some specific issues when I was implementing it. The first of these was covered last time – how to detect orientation changes in React Native. The next is this. How do I implement swipe-right so that I can add a swipe-to-delete function to a FlatList. Let me explain a little further. The latest edition of React Nati...

Handling orientation changes in React Native

July 26, 2017  3 minute read  

I’ve just returned to my JavaScript days and am trying to learn React Native again. One of the things I like to do is to produce a “perfect” app – one that will work on both tablet and phone in any orientation and that includes all the best practices. Things like my Notes App on Android, for example, took me off to learn content providers. React Native is no different. There are a bunch of things you just have to know. One of the things I want to do is to produce a single app that does maste...

Which is better - React Native or Xamarin Forms?

May 25, 2017  5 minute read  

Let’s talk about a loaded question. After my recent forays into both React Native and Xamarin Forms, I got asked on Twitter – which is better, React Native or Xamarin Forms? Further, I should answer this for JavaScript experts, C# XAML experts and for developers with experience in both. After all, both produce native apps and both use a common codebase. The Short Version There isn’t a clear winner here. If I am a JavaScript expert, I’ll gravitate towards React Native. If I’m a C# exper...