What are the best resources to get started with React Native?

Today there are millions of mobile applications around the world. Whether they use Android or iOS, all users use their smartphones thanks to the mobile applications that companies create. But without technologies like React Native, many of these applications would not exist, so it is well worth knowing what this tool is about and how to start using it.

Let's start with the basics: React Native is nothing more than an open source framework that allows you to develop mobile applications for operating systems such as Android, iOS, Windows, among other platforms. Being native, their performance is much more efficient, which has won over the companies that choose this technology.

“React Native is like React, but uses native components instead of web components as building blocks. So, to understand the basic structure of a React Native app, you need to understand some of the basics of React, like JSX, state components, and props", the company explained in documentation posted on its website.

Be clear that React Native can be used by both the most expert senior developers, and by juniors who are just starting to program. What you do have to have are basics of JavaScript.

What are the best resources to get started with React Native?

First, we are going to tell you the first things you should do in your learning with React Native:

• Read the official documentation
• Read about components and the lifecycle in React
• Study various tutorials
• Read code and if you don't understand something, google it
• You need to start a project to apply everything you have read and studied

Now, we will share several resources that can help you:

React Native Documentation

On the official React Native website, developers have at their disposal a complete documentation on how to start their path with this tool. It has the introductory part, where the components and basics of React Native are explained. It also explains the development environment, workflows, design, performance, among other aspects.

Basic Tutorial

If you want a clear and concise explanation to start understanding the React Native universe, full stack developer and tutor Mosh Hamedani's tutorials can help you considerably.

Courses

Reid Johnson, Lead Software Engineer at 9Sweet Studios, recommended the “Build Apps with React Native” course available on Udemy, to learn the basics and start building your own app. “Probably the best part of this course is the section on flexbox styling. Designing with flexbox in React Native is a bit more complicated than in the browser due to the lack of a robust inspector, and this course had a few tricks to handle it cleanly”, he explained on Quora.

Books

• Learning React Native Bonnie Eisenman
• React Native in action Noder Dobit
• Practical React Native Frank Zametti

Technical requirements

There are also certain technical requirements that you must take into account when starting to develop applications in React Native. For example, Sasha Andrieiev, CEO at Jelvix, recommends the following:

1. Install React Native correctly by following the corresponding documentation.
2. Install an IDE: DECO, Sublime Text 3. Atom and Visual Studio Code or VSCode.
3. Install the ESLint plugin.
4. Learn ExNav with Redux or MobXn.

Understanding mobile development

Handling all the technical aspects of React Native is essential to creating a mobile app, that's for sure, but according to freelance developer Edoardo Moreni, on Quora, it's also important to understand mobile development in general. “What I mean is that you should know the basics like Drawer, Toolbar, TabBar, ViewPager or Button. They are pretty obvious and I don't think it will take you more than a day to get familiar with the components of an Android or iOS app”, he said.

Blogs

In these blogs you can find very useful information for all those who are learning and starting to develop in React Native:

• React Native’s GitHub blog
• ReactDom
• Mike Grabowski’s Medium page
• React Native Coach
• alligator.io

React Native development tools

On the ASAP Developers portal, they recommend these tools that are very helpful for engineers during development with React Native:

• Visual Studio Code
• Android Studio y XCode
• React Native Debugger
• Reactotron
• React DevTools
• Postman 
• Zeplin
• Redux
• React Navigation

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