When building an app in React Native, it’s important to make it compatible with dozens of devices. Check out our tips to make the job easier!
Native App development
Compared to the traditional Web world, the mobile world includes a vastly larger number of devices available on the market. This therefore leads to a wide variety of screen resolutions, storage capacities, connectivity, sensors and functionalities available. As a result, creation of an application requires a good understanding of all the specificities of the mobile world and the support of the two main operating systems: iOS and Android.
React Native is a JavaScript framework that both enables building native applications and proposes the use of a single JavaScript source code to build two applications instead of separately developing an iOS application and an Android application. In this article, we’ll share some tips to help you take advantage of the possibilities offered by React Native. You may also check out this article to learn more about react native dimensions. Now, let’s begin with the most important tips for creating responsive layouts in React Native!
When to use React Native’s default components
This is a fairly simple, but nevertheless, very important piece of advice and a major step towards understanding how React Native helps you build apps with beautiful UI and well-adjusted responsive layouts.
Using the default components proposed by React Native is secure and ensures the ability to manage all the specificities of different mobile devices, while ensuring perfect porting on both OSs. As a result, the development of an application is greatly accelerated, as it is based on solutions that are already functional.
The React Native component library saves your time, by adding only a touch of custom development. This way you can be sure that all of the necessary elements like size, rotation and dimensions are going to be much easier to adjust. The default components are more than enough to help you build a perfect responsive layout and all the tools are easy to learn quickly. It also allows you to build your app more intuitively, giving you an opportunity to check new ideas and innovations. The whole process is much quicker and much more effective because you don’t need to test it for every type of mobile device each time.
To meet more complex needs, not covered by the default components, the React Native ecosystem offers many very stable libraries on which it is recommended to rely.
Example: in order to create a calendar, there are multiple possibilities, implementations and designs available that you can choose from to make the whole process much easier.
Not only does this save time, but you can be sure that your chosen libraries will make your layout fully responsive and well adjusted. Anyway, you can test it yourself at any moment and decide which design best suits your project.
Making the right React architecture choices
Some projects require that you plan the architecture beforehand. This is particularly the case when a solution is to be deployed in several countries or when it has to respond to several use cases.
Depending on the functionalities of the application to be developed, one can create either: a) an application with a single base code covering all needs, hiding specific functionalities for certain uses when they are not required, or b) several applications, each with different functionalities.
Remember, an initial consultation with the development team is always recommended. To develop multiple applications, it is preferable to use reusable and tracked components, and then release them to the Open Source community to ensure their maintenance.
At some point, you might also ask yourself if it is a good idea to use Expo technology? Yes, but only for creation of a small application. In such a situation it’s very useful and speeds up upstream development.
In the case of a large application, Expo doesn’t allow you to control all the development processes. So, if you have the time, it’s better to do it yourself. It is essential to choose the right components and libraries to develop a solid React Native application. Likewise, the strategy and architecture you adopt will greatly condition the success of your project, as will a successful and well-adapted responsive layout. To find even more useful information, you can check out the other articles we have written about Native React development.
Interesting Related Article: “The 5 Main Differences Between Flutter And React Native“