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First Project - Creating a Basic To-Do List App

Having set up our environment for React Native development in the preface, let's start developing the application. Throughout this book, I'll refer to this application by the project name I began with--Tasks. In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

Planning the features that a to-do list app should have
Basic project architecture
Introducing StyleSheet, the React Native component for working with styles
An overview of Flexbox, a layout mode inspired by CSS for styling in React Native
Become acquainted with ES6, the new JavaScript syntax we will be writing our code in
Creating the building blocks of Tasks with TextInput, ListView, AsyncStorage, Input, state, and props
Learning about the iOS Simulator's Developer menu, which can help us during the writing of our app

Feature planning

Before writing any code, I'd like to take the time to plan out what I want to accomplish in my project and scope out a minimum viable product (MVP) to aim for prior to building out any advanced functionalities. This helps with the prioritization of what key components of our app are necessary to have a functioning prototype so that we can have something up and running.

For me, the MVP is a fantastic way to quantify my ideas into something I can interact with and use to validate any assumptions I have, or catch any edge cases, while spending the minimum amount of time necessary on coming to those conclusions. Here's how I approach feature planning:

What does the product I'm building do?
Ideally, what are some of the highlighting features that make this application stand out?
Which of the features on the preceding list are necessary to have a working product? Once you know the necessary features, cut out everything that doesn't give you the bare-bones functionality.
Give some thought to its design, but don't stress on every single detail just yet.

With these intentions in mind, here's what I've come up with:

This is an application that will let me create and track a list of tasks that I have. These can be as small as a shopping list or as big as long-term goals.
I'd like to set a reminder for each unique task so that I can get to each one in an orderly fashion. Ideally, the items on the list can be grouped into categories. Category grouping could perhaps be simplified by something like icons. This way, I can also sort and filter my list by icons.
The only things that are necessary from the beginning are that I can use a text input field to type a task, have it rendered onto a list of items, and mark them off as they are completed; everything else is secondary.

Now that we've got a clearer picture of our app, let's break down some actionable steps we can take to make it a reality:

Let's generate a list of default items. These don't have to be manually entered as we just want to see our list populated in the app itself.
After that, your users should be able to input their own tasks using a text field and the native keyboard.
Next, I'd like to make that list scrollable in case my list of tasks spans past an entire vertical screen's height.
Then, we should let items be marked as complete with some sort of visual indicator.

That's it! These are the four goals we currently have. As I previously mentioned, everything else is secondary for the time being. For now, we just want to get an MVP up and running, and then we will tweak it to our hearts' content later.

Let's move ahead and start thinking about architecture.

Key benefits

Work on native APIs and UI Elements using React Native

Get the best of both worlds: the power of native approach and the fluidity of JavaScript

Create increasingly complex real-world applications and dive deeper into React Native

Description

React Native's ability to build performant mobile applications with JavaScript has resulted in its popularity amongst developers. Developers now have the luxury to create incredible mobile experiences that look and feel native to their platforms with the comfort of a well-known language and the popular React.js library. This book will show you how to build your own native mobile applications for the iOS and Android platforms while leveraging the finesse and simplicity of JavaScript and React. Throughout the book you will build three projects, each of increasing complexity. You will also link up with the third-party Facebook SDK, convert an app to support the Redux architecture, and learn the process involved in making your apps available for sale on the iOS App Store and Google Play. At the end of this book, you will have learned and implemented a wide breadth of core APIs and components found in the React Native framework that are necessary in creating great mobile experiences.

What you will learn

How to create mobile-performant iOS and Android apps using JavaScript and React

The potential of each API and component, putting them into practice throughout the course of three projects

The process of integrating the Facebook SDK to build an app that connects to third-party data

Every step taken to implement Redux, a popular state management library, in your mobile apps

The requirements for building and deploying your apps to market, with detailed instructions on how to release and beta test apps on both the Apple App Store and Google Play

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Alexxis Johnson Oct 20, 2017

This book helped me understand React Native, and now I can use the technology to build my own apps. I definitely recommend checking it out!

Amazon Verified review

Peenmaster Oct 20, 2017

Very helpful book, helped clear up a lot of the problems I was having trying to learn in my own.

Eugeniu Jul 07, 2017

Compared to similar programming books I have read, this book has been the most frustrating because it is unclear and contains too many inconsistencies and errors. The book alternates for no reason between "let's implement a feature, here's the code you need" and "let's implement a feature, write the code yourself, but here's some of the code I used." For example, in the TextInput section, the author writes "Take some time to try and add this first feature into our app! In the next section, I will share some screenshots of my results and break down the code I wrote for it." and "Let's look at the code to see how I tackled it--yours may be different!"Well, his code doesn't even work. His "Tasks/app/components/TasksList/styles.js" code only contains a style for "container", but his "Tasks/app/components/TasksList/index.js" code references "styles.textInput". Without that style, the TextInput was in the wrong place. I actually had to look for the code in the accompanying GitHub repository to find the correct code.Even so, my app didn't work right. I copied everything from the book, but after inputting a task, the ListView would not get updated. Then I went to GitHub again. I copied the entire contents of index.ios.js, TasksList/index.js, and TasksList/styles.js. I still had the same problem. I am new to React Native, but given that I copy-pasted only the author's code and none of my own code, I have to conclude that it's a problem with the book and accompanying code.Maybe the problem is that I am using the wrong React Native version (I am using 0.45). If that's the case, that's still the book's problem. Nowhere in the book does it tell you what version to use. If I'm reading a book on native iOS development, it will say "this book uses Swift 3 with Xcode 8 and iOS 10. If you're using different versions, you may have problems." This book doesn't do that.Maybe the problem is that I'm not seeing something obvious to others. That's possible. But if that's the case, there is no online community around this book, like there is with Big Nerd Ranch books, so I don't have anywhere I can easily ask questions. The book also does not suggest I can contact the author. The only thing it says is: "To send us general feedback, simply e-mail feedback@packtpub.com, and mention the book's title in the subject of your message." That won't help me.If anyone can show that I'm wrong about this, I'd be happy to take this review down.

React Native By Example: Native mobile development with React

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React Native By Example

First Project - Creating a Basic To-Do List App

Initializing a new project

Feature planning

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