

React Native v0.4 - dandelany
http://facebook.github.io/react/blog/2015/04/17/react-native-v0.4.html

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peterjmag
For anyone who's interested, I gave a talk called "Let's build a React Native
app in 20 minutes" [1] at the React Berlin meetup a couple weeks ago, where I
took a little example React web app and "ported" it to React Native. It was my
first time giving a talk at something like this, so it's a bit rough around
the edges (and the audio quality isn't great because the primary mic's
batteries went out a couple minutes in), but it might still be helpful if
you're looking to jump in.

Don't forget to check out the companion Gist [2].

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ArhJiMGVDc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ArhJiMGVDc)

[2]
[https://gist.github.com/peterjmag/2ef39ba5d25f3f1e0008](https://gist.github.com/peterjmag/2ef39ba5d25f3f1e0008)

~~~
jondot
Nice! added you here: [https://github.com/jondot/awesome-react-
native](https://github.com/jondot/awesome-react-native) Under "Videos".

:)

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morley
One thing that I think the HN crowd will appreciate:

* Patent Grant: Many of you had concerns and questions around the PATENTS file. We pushed a new version of the grant[1].

The updated PATENTS file is
[https://github.com/facebook/osquery/blob/master/PATENTS](https://github.com/facebook/osquery/blob/master/PATENTS).

I still think it's ridiculous that people thought the previous PATENTS file
was a Trojan horse with nefarious intent, but it's nice to see them making
their intention unambiguous.

[1] [https://code.facebook.com/posts/1639473982937255/updating-
ou...](https://code.facebook.com/posts/1639473982937255/updating-our-open-
source-patent-grant/)

~~~
dmdeller
It doesn't matter what people thought. The complaints were coming from people
at big companies with legal departments. The lawyers' job is to make sure
there are no legal vulnerabilities, the same way it's your job to make sure
your code doesn't contain any vulnerabilities. Intent is irrelevant.

~~~
peterjmag
Exactly. Looks like Google was among the companies with legal complaints:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9271331](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9271331).
I wonder if the new version of the grant was enough to get them to reconsider?
It'd be really interesting to see more of Google in the React community.

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shaohua
Join us if you are in SF, [http://www.meetup.com/SF-React-Native-
Meetup/](http://www.meetup.com/SF-React-Native-Meetup/)

We just had our first meetup last night and it was awesome!!!

~~~
ereckers
Thanks for posting. I just joined!

Oddly, I was searching for React Meetup groups just a couple weeks ago and the
group didn't show up. (From San Francisco, search for "React"). I see that you
were Founded Mar 15, 2015. I wonder if I just missed it or Meetup takes a
while to index new groups.

Anyways, looking forward to the Meetups!

~~~
shaohua
Thanks for joining... :)

I think it might be the latter case.

Anyway, we will probably have our next meetup coming up soon enough :)

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mindw0rk
Looking forward to see how it performs on Android. Even WebViews in Cordova
runs smooth on iOS.

~~~
masklinn
What webviews are you talking about? Unless you instantiate one yourself[0]
there's no webview in a reactnative application.

[0] [https://facebook.github.io/react-
native/docs/webview.html#co...](https://facebook.github.io/react-
native/docs/webview.html#content)

~~~
scotu
I think he is just saying that iOS is not proof of the native performance of
react native as also cordova on iOS is smooth

~~~
mindw0rk
Exactly, Cordova/PhoneGap works quite smooth on iOS too.

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goatforce5
I'm super excited about integration within existing apps.

[https://facebook.github.io/react-native/docs/embedded-
app.ht...](https://facebook.github.io/react-native/docs/embedded-
app.html#content)

Anyone have thoughts/comments/experience with this before I jump in and give
it a whirl?

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dntrkv
I have built some basic apps like the to-do list using Swift and Objective-C
but haven't built anything significant yet. I have an idea for an app I want
to build in the coming weeks, but I'm unsure if I should use this as an
opportunity to learn React Native or just go the Swift route and really cement
my knowledge there. Can anyone who's tried both weigh in?

~~~
iLoch
I'm the opposite. I've done about 2.5 months of React Native now. I'm pretty
certain React Native is what you want to roll with. Anything you can do in
Objective-C can be done in React Native (since you can create Native modules
anywhere RN falls short). You could see MAJOR improvement in development time.
I'm not a mobile developer and I tried writing a mobile app a while back - I'm
completely useless. With React Native, I've made huge strides in developing a
fairly complex app with a completely custom look and feel. I'm sure if I had
stuck to native coding I'd either never finish, or this app would take me an
order of magnitude more time to complete.

If you want an example of how awesome React Native is, go check out Apple's
example app "AVCam" then take a look at the example code for my react-native-
camera module on GitHub.

~~~
strife25
How do you handle the storage tier (e.g. Core Data) of your react-native apps?
Do you just write native Obj-C that handles interacting with core data and
integrate it w/ your react code?

~~~
iLoch
Yeah that would be how you'd do it. Writing modules is dead simple too. Doing
something like that would just require you making an async interface to your
Obj-C Core Data manager.

------
ManuelKiessling
I started working on a book on mobile app development with React Native, see
[http://beginning-react-native.com/](http://beginning-react-native.com/) if
you are interested.

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mandeepj
I am yet to start on mobile development. There is a concern in the industry
about writing same app 2,3 or more times - ios, android, windows etc.

React native seems to be a step in the right direction. There are lot of
options for this track besides react like ionic, phoneGap, appcelerator,
telerik, meteor and there are few more.

What you recommend out of these platforms for someone who is just getting
started with mobile development? Thx

~~~
findjashua
react native is better compared to appcelerator titanium - their thesis is
that due to the dom's limitations, hybrid apps currently can't compete with
native (compare scrolling quickly in a web vs native app), so compiling to
native components is the way to go

phonegap, ionic, meteor etc are in the hybrid app camp, and their take is that
if your app doesn't need to have native like performance, then just write one
app and deploy on multiple platform

I personally think react native is an intermediate step to the eventual goal.
I'm a supporter of the open web, hopefully we'll figure out a way around dom's
limitations, and hybrid apps will be able to match performance of their native
counterparts.

~~~
doublerebel
React is pretty good, the most promising in a while, but Appcelerator still
has far more API coverage on both major platforms than React, Telerik, or
anyone else. Pay special attention to what kind of native integrations the app
will require before choosing a framework.

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Fylight
I wonder what the prospects for RN for Android are looking like.

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drcode
Anyone working on a ReactNative cloud-based building service for linux/windows
users? (ala build.phonegap.com?)

I totally want to use this, but I haven't enjoyed my previous encounters with
Macs.

~~~
TheMakeA
If you write most of your code in JS, you technically don't even need to build
this on a Mac. For development, you could get away with just updating the
bundle and re-signing the app locally.

