React Native the Hard Way

Workshop @ Wix Kyiv, April 2018

Aaron Greenwald

Intro to React Native (Talk) 10:00
Environment Setup: Create a Project 11:00
Text Inputs & Buttons 11:30
Navigation 12:00
Lunch 13:00
A Chat Screen 14:00
Styling 15:30
Animations 16:15
Wrap-up 16:45
Beer 17:00
Survey
01 / Meet React Native
A framework for building native apps with React
- Facebook
Very popular, but young and unstable and increasingly stable
Wait...this isn't new
                
let [
    PhoneGap,
    Trigger.io,
    Cordova,
    Ionic,
    Sencha Touch,
    Kendo UI,
    Appcelerator Titanium,
    Xamarin
    ...rest
] = stuffWeTriedBefore;
                
            
02 / How it Differs
Webviews vs Native UI
Write Once, Run Anywhere
Write Once, Run Nowhere
Learn Once, Write Anywhere
03 / How it Works
JS Core
Bridge
UI
JS Core
Asynchronous
Serializable
Batched
UI
04 / How it Feels
Look ma, no XCode!
05 / Advantages
We need native mobile apps
but we hate writing them

Smoother transition from the web

Use the richest ecosystem there is

Develop quickly

Deploy like you're on the web

Learn once, write anywhere

Reuse code

We need native mobile apps
but we hate writing them

UX of Native

Developer Experience of the Web

But what if it limits me?
It won't.
By definition.
(Well, maybe it will...)
(more on that later today)
06 / It's Still Not Web Development
You can't always code push
Styling is different
Platform-specific thinking
Debugging isn't the same
07 / Should I Use It?
Results speak for themselves
Do I need native developers?
Learn Once, Write Anywhere
UX of Native <> DX of Web
github.com/aarongreenwald/rn-workshop-kyiv