React and React Native

Get up to speed with React, React Native, GraphQL and Apollo for building cross-platform native apps with the help of practical examples

Key Features

• Covers the latest features of React such as Hooks, Suspense, NativeBase, and Apollo in this updated third edition
• Get to grips with the React architecture for writing easy-to-manage web and mobile applications
• Understand GraphQL and Apollo for building a scalable backend for your cross-platform apps

Book Description

React and React Native, Facebook's innovative User Interface (UI) libraries, are designed to help you build robust cross-platform web and mobile applications. This updated third edition is improved and updated to cover the latest version of React. The book particularly focuses on the latest developments in the React ecosystem, such as modern Hook implementations, code splitting using lazy components and Suspense, user interface framework components using Material-UI, and Apollo. In terms of React Native, the book has been updated to version 0.62 and demonstrates how to apply native UI components for your existing mobile apps using NativeBase.

You will begin by learning about the essential building blocks of React components. Next, you'll progress to working with higher-level functionalities in application development, before putting this knowledge to use by developing user interface components for the web and for native platforms. In the concluding chapters, you'll learn how to bring your application together with a robust data architecture.

By the end of this book, you'll be able to build React applications for the web and React Native applications for multiple mobile platforms.

What you will learn

• Delve into the React architecture, component properties, state, and context
• Get to grips with React Hooks for handling functions and components
• Implement code splitting in React using lazy components and Suspense
• Build robust user interfaces for mobile and desktop apps using Material-UI
• Write shared components for Android and iOS mobile apps using React Native
• Simplify layout design for React Native apps using NativeBase
• Write GraphQL schemas to power web and mobile apps
• Implement web and mobile components that are driven by Apollo

Who this book is for

This book is for any JavaScript developer who wants to start learning how to use Facebook's UI libraries, React and React Native, for mobile and web application development. Although no prior knowledge of React is needed, working knowledge of JavaScript programming will help you understand the concepts covered in the book more effectively.

Table of Contents

1. Why React?
2. Rendering with JSX
3. Component Properties, State, and Context
4. Getting Started with Hooks
5. Event Handling - The React Way
6. Crafting Reusable Components
7. The React Component Life Cycle
8. Validating Component Properties
9. Handling Navigation with Routes
10. Code Splitting Using Lazy Components and Suspense
11. Server-Side React Components
12. User Interface Framework Components
13. Why React Native?
14. Kick-Starting React Native Projects
15. Building Responsive Layouts with Flexbox
16. Navigating Between Screens
17. Rendering Item Lists
18. Showing Progress
19. Geolocation and Maps
20. Collecting User Input
21. Displaying Modal Screens
22. Responding to User Gestures
23. Controlling Image Display
24. Going Offline
25. Native UI Components Using NativeBase
26. Handling Application State
27. Why Apollo?
28. Building an Apollo React App

Adam Boduch has been involved in large-scale JavaScript development for nearly 10 years. Before moving to the frontend, he worked on several large-scale cloud computing products using Python and Linux. No stranger to complexity, Adam has practical experience with real-world software systems and the scaling challenges they pose. He is the author of several JavaScript and React books and is passionate about innovative user experiences and high performance.

Roy Derks is a serial start-up CTO, conference speaker, and developer from Amsterdam. He has been actively programming since he was a teenager, starting as a self-taught programmer using online tutorials and books. At the age of 14, he founded his first start-up, a peer-to-peer platform where users could trade DVDs with other users for free. This marked the start of his career in web development, which back then primarily consisted of creating web applications using an MVC architecture with the LAMP stack.

In 2015, he was introduced to React and GraphQL at a hackathon in Berlin, and after winning a prize for his project, he started to use these technologies professionally. Over the next few years, he helped multiple start-ups create cross-platform applications using React and React Native, including a start-up that he co-founded. He also started giving workshops and talks at conferences around the globe. In 2019, he gave over 20 conference talks about React, React Native, and GraphQL, inspiring over 10,000 developers worldwide.