Steps To Build Your First Mobile App with React Native By James Tredwell on April 21, 2020 Developing an app is not a single day’s task as it involves several challenges and complexities. But the need of the hour says that a company that does not have its own app can never be successful in achieving what it aims for. In March 2020, Candy Crush Saga generated approximately 44.43 million U.S. dollars in global revenues. All of the highest-grossing apps were gaming apps. – Source In March 2020, LINE had generated approximately 7.24 million U.S. dollars in global app revenues. –Source These figures are a clear reflection of how various apps can generate high revenues. To develop an app, you need to have a framework and a team of mobile app developers. Out of all the frameworks available, this article will talk about React Native and steps to build your first app with it. By hiring a React Native app development company, you can fulfil your dream of having a mobile app for your business. For the rest, if you are curious to know how an app can be developed using React Native, then this article is just so right for you. Here we begin! What is React Native? React Native is a framework for building mobile applications with the help of JavaScript and ReactJS. This framework has been created by Facebook and the most amazing part about it is that it allows you to develop a mobile app that is identical to an app that has been developed using Java or Swift. It makes use of the same fundamental UI building blocks as iOS or Android apps. Once the app is developed, it provides a rich mobile user interface by using declarative components. Now, let’s shed light on the steps to build your first mobile app using React Native. Are you excited to learn with us? Why wait then? Steps to build your first app with React Native Install React The most obvious step to begin the mobile app development process is to install that particular framework. To begin developing an app, all the professional remote React Native developers should have React installed in their systems. After installation, decide between the two ways to develop a React Native application, which are: Usage of toolchain No usage of toolchain NodeJS and Watchman React Native uses NodeJS that is a JavaScript runtime for building JavaScript code. You need to have NodeJS installed before moving further with the development process. Watchman is another tool that you need to install. It is developed by Facebook for watching file changes and it also makes way for better performance. Apart from this, you also need to install the Java SE Development Kit (JDK) irrespective of the OS that you are using. Native SDKs MacOS developers can install Xcode, which develops iOS applications. And if you are developing for Android, you can install Android Studio that is a free tool used for the development of Android apps in its native language. Always install the required tools from the official websites. React Native CLI React Native CLI tool is used to scaffold a starter project. It contains everything you need to build an app with react Native. Creating the App The first step towards the creation of the app is to run: $ create-react-native-app my-app $ cd my-app After running this code, a directory will be created by the name ‘my-app’. Further, it will generate the initial structure of the project inside ‘my-app’. You have to install all its dependencies. Some commands are to be run in the project directory: With npm start With this, you will be able to run your application in development mode with an interactive prompt and run it without a prompt. You can open it on Expo app on your mobile phone to view it. With npm test It facilitates running of the JEST test runner for your tests. With npm run iOS If you are on a Mac device, this attempts to open your app in the iOS Simulator. With npm run Android This attempts to open your app on a connected Android device or an emulator. With npm run eject This starts the process of ejecting from Create Native App’s build scripts. After that, you will be asked a few questions on how you would like to build your project. Enable Hot Reloading This feature helps in displaying any updates that occur in UI. To enable this feature, you have to press Ctrl + M/ Cmd + M depending on the OS that is being used and select Enable Hot Reloading from the popup menu. AppRegistry AppRegistry is the entry point to run the app that has been developed using React Native. App component should register by using: AppRegistry.registerComponent It is done so that the native system can load the bundle of the app and run. Wrapping Up: Digging deeper won’t be possible here but React Native is setting serious app development goals in the market. Companies are on a lookout for professional React Native app development company. If you think a professional is required for your app development process, contact Hopinfirst and hire React Native developer of our experienced team of developers. We are trusted as a reliable React Native development company. Get in touch today!
