Help with React Native dev
Hi everyone I don't know if I can post something like this but tell me if not, I'll delete it.
I want to get into mobile development with React Native, but I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by all of it. I followed this course on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sm5Y7Vtuihg
After that, I tried to dive into the developpment of my own app, but maybe I was trying too hard to do everything perfectly. I did a lot of research on the best stack, the best architecture, etc., but I really don't know enough about it. The course was quite basic, although I learned a lot. It's been a few months now since I've put my project on hold because of the mental hurdle.
Even Expo, which is supposed to help with development, seems quite complicated to me, especially when it comes to fixing build issues, simulators, etc.
Do you have any recommendations or resources on how to build a production-ready React Native app (not sure if that's the right term), things to know, etc.?
Thanks in advance!
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YouTube
React Native Full Course for Beginners
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6 Replies
If you're new, I would recommend first getting familiar with traditional web development. The React documentation is a great learning resource and tools like Vite or Next.js will take you a long way to understanding React's models and the JavaScript ecosystem.
After that, it's probably best to jump right into Expo. You mentioned problems with build issues and simulators ā I would just stick with Expo Go app for as long as possible and try to rebuild stuff you made on the web in native.
After you become more familiar with React Native and Expo's tooling, it'll become easier to expand into more native territory like simulators and more advanced React Native concepts.
You could also check out a guide from roadmap.sh if you'd like to follow a very step-by-step curriculum.
roadmap.sh
Learn to become a modern React Native developer
Community driven, articles, resources, guides, interview questions, quizzes for react native development. Learn to become a modern React Native developer by following the steps, skills, resources and guides listed in this roadmap.
thank you !
So I'm going to slightly disagree with @bikedspiritlakes, and ask some followup questions to explain why. First off, Bike is 100% correct if the goal in all this is just to learn. That is hands down the best course of action to become an expert in both react and react native. And honestly, if your app can get away with being a PWA (Progressive web app) you should probably just do that initially and then when you get whatever you're building to a good state, go full app with React Native.
THAT SAID, if your goal is "I want this thing to exist" and not "I also wanna learn react along the way" screw learning just basic react and go straight to react native. There are a few noticable differences, and some packages don't work on RN where as they do on web, and there are different dynamics that are important (Namely the idea that you have a local database in an app, but not on a website) Just dive in, and do it. DO NOT focus too much on "Stack" you'll get it wrong, but hey! That just means you can rewrite it as you learn.
I say the above because that's what I'm doing. I have been a dev for like, 13 years, but never touched webdev before this, and just went straight into react native. I say the above to say "I at a high level know what I'm doing, I have a ton of dev experience, which gives me a huge amount of experience to fall back on even if its not react experience" But I just decided I kinda needed my thing to be a mobile app to not suck, so went for it.
One thing you very much should do that would be a really good "middle ground" between the two solutions: Make an expo web project.
don't focus on native, as it is weird.
learn a bunch of react, but using a framework that is designed to do all 3
hopefully that will make the process of switching to on device easier
To the "You'll get your stack wrong" I say that cause I've iterated on a key component of my react native solution like 5 times.
Choice paralysis is real, the best way to deal with it is to say "Screw it, I'll try X and see if it works" if it doesn't work, you learn why, and have more react knowledge.
so far best tips for developing, not even just for react native learning.
@xLeay here is one more addtional thing for you. I don't know it's helpful,but save words
if your aim is to learning just react native, their working flow, bridge knowledge... then I agree with @Waffleophagus
But if you want to be sr level of mobile enginer, you must learn about native side as well java/kotlin, swift.
how android sdk/ndk work, androidmanifest.xml, package manage, device sensitive motions and so on. how to compatible with devices as well. in most cases, lots of web developers are saying he is senior react native devloper. react native coding is almost same with reactjs. So moving to mobile engineer is easy for react devs. but mobile is not web. without native side skill, they will be stick in future when they dig in mobile sensitive issue, and stay in only chatgpt. it will make your manager disappointed. to become sr. mobile engineer, it's good to start with java study first. native develop is not difficult, after getting main points.
in future development, it could be helpful.
Thank you !
Thanks also !