So, beginners, we are here with another interesting and technical 101 guides for you about one of the most powerful and effective mobile app development tools React Native.
React Native allows developers to create native-like mobile applications for both iOS and Android platforms with the same source code.
Whether you are running a business or a development beginner who wants to excel in mobile application development, opt for React Native. As it makes you the jack of all trades and elevates your demand in the market.
Moreover, it eliminates the hassle of hiring dual teams for Android and iOS development as a single React Native developer can build mobile applications for both platforms.
So, whenever you hire dedicated React developers, opt for the ones having expertise in React Native too. It gives huge technical as well as financial benefits.
In this React Native 101 guide, beginners will get to learn the fundamentals of the popular tool. Below things are the small steps that will help you learn React Native most easily.
Why Learn React Native?
Before we dive into the things a new React Native developer must learn, let’s understand why learning React Native is joyful and important at the same time.
- Cross-platform development: You can build apps for both iOS and Android with one codebase.
- Community support: React Native is open-source and backed by Facebook, with a large community that creates helpful libraries, tools, and tutorials.
- Hot reloading: You can see the results of your code changes instantly without restarting the app.
- Native performance: Unlike hybrid apps that rely on web technologies, React Native apps render native components for superior performance.
Must Learn things for React Native
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JavaScript
Beginners aiming to learn React Native must have an understanding of JavaScript as React Native is developed on top of JS. With a solid foundation of JS concepts like variables, data types, objects, arrays, loops, etc, one can learn React Native.
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React Basics
To learn React Native, one must possess a basic knowledge of React. Learn the working or React, adopt the concepts about components, JSX, state management, and props.
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Basic Terminal and CLI Skills
To work in React Native, the newbies must learn the concept of command line interface (CLI) as most of the React Native setup, development, and deployment process is done via CLI.
Moreover, you will use terminal commands to navigate your computer file system. A big advantage of understanding CLI is that it enables you to troubleshoot issues effectively and makes the development process faster.
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Node.js
React Native needs a platform to run JavaScript. For this, Node.js furnishes its services. Beginners can download and install Node.js from the website. Along with this, Node Package Manager (npm) needs to be installed for Node.js. It helps in managing the dependencies of the React Native project.
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React Native Components
There are built-in components in React Native that render native elements on mobile platforms like iOS and Android. Some of the important components include:
- View
- Text
- Image
- ScrollView
- FlatList and SectionList
It is extremely important to learn the following components to build a React Native application.
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Navigation in React Native
Navigation is the most important thing in a mobile application. Mobile applications require navigation between screens; for this React Navigation is the library that you can use.
A few concepts that will demand your attention are:
- Stack navigation
- Tab navigation
- Drawer navigation
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State Management
In React Native, when you come across larger applications, managing state can get complex. For this, React provides you with built-in state management tools like Redux or Context API. These tools will help you manage the global state across the application.
Conclusion
Learning React Native can be extremely fruitful for developers who are to enter the development field. It is not good for career development but for financial reasons too. If you want to learn React Native and make it your partner, learn the above fundamentals.
