Popular React Native Development Tools

It is no surprise the way React Native gained popularity among software developers and firms considering all it has to offer. Many software firms choose React Native because of its many tools, including text editing, cross-platform editing, static code analysis, code reusability, high-speed development, and many more. You will also find it hard to ignore the access it grants to hundreds of frameworks and libraries.

Popular React Native Development Tools

The development process is simplified and advanced with the aid of the React Native tools and plugins. Here are some of the most popular and effective React Native development tools available to help you create React Native apps quickly and easily.

CI/CD & Release Management

Here are React Native tools that you can use for CI/CD release management.

AppCenter

You can automate and manage your iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS apps’ lifecycles using App Center. It also lets you ship apps more often, with better quality, and with more assurance. By connecting your repository, you can automate builds in a matter of minutes, test apps on actual hardware in the cloud, distribute them to beta testers, and track actual usage through crash and analytics data.

Bitrise

Bitrise is a Platform as a Service (PaaS) for Continuous Integration and Delivery (CI/CD) that primarily focuses on the creation of mobile applications (iOS, Android, React Native, Flutter, and so on). It is a set of resources that will assist you in creating and automating your software projects.

After initial configuration, Bitrise’s system can manage certificates and provisioning profiles automatically. This enables automated iOS code signing. It also provides specific, user-friendly connectors for Android code signing. Cross-platform apps can also use these connectors.

CircleCI

CircleCI allows teams to create fully automated pipelines, enabling them to concentrate on the actual work of innovation. Engineers may use CircleCI to automate all of their testings for new commits, which lowers the risk of human mistakes, and orbs to automate releases.

CircleCI is the only CI/CD platform that complies with SOC 2 Type II and is FedRAMP certified. You have total control over your code thanks to built-in capabilities like audit logs, OpenID Connect, third-party secrets management, and LDAP.

Fastlane

Fastlane is an open-source platform that helps ease Android and iOS deployment. With the help of the open-source Fastlane toolkit, you can automate the release of your iOS or Android mobile application, potentially saving you hours of development time. It is run on a Ruby configuration file known as a Fastfile, where lanes can be added to satisfy various needs.

If you’re looking to deploy a React Native application on Fastlane, see our article on React Native deploying using  React Native Android Deploys using Fastlane and CircleCI.

GitHub Actions

GitHub allows you to automate your build, test, and deployment workflow using continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) technology. You may design workflows that deploy merged pull requests to production or build and test each pull request before adding it to your repository.

GitHub Actions allows connections of your tools for easier step automation of your development workflow. There is an action for everything, including creating containers, deploying web services, and automating the process of welcoming new users to open-source projects.

React Native Code Push

The React Native CodePush plugin helps deliver product upgrades in front of your end consumers instantly by keeping your JavaScript and images synchronized with updates you push to the CodePush server. Your app will gain the advantages of an offline mobile experience as well as the agility of side-loading updates as soon as they become available, giving it a “web-like” feel.

The CodePush plugin keeps a record of the prior update so that if you unintentionally push an update that includes a crash, it may instantly roll back. This ensures that your end users always get a working version of your app. You can be sure that your improved release agility won’t lead to user blocking before you have a chance to roll back on the server in this fashion.

Code Quality

Code quality tools are automated tools or programs that scan the code for common issues or problems that could develop as a result of poorly or badly written programs. These programs look for recurring errors and problems in the code. Here are some popular code quality tools.

ESLint

ESLint is a tool for finding patterns in ECMAScript/JavaScript code and reporting them to make the code more dependable and prevent errors. With a few exceptions, it is very similar to JSLint and JSHint: Espree is the JavaScript parser used by ESLint.

ESLint is an open-source project that aids in identifying and resolving issues with JavaScript code. ESLint can help your code live its best life, whether you’re writing JavaScript for the server or the browser and whether you’re using a framework or not.

Prettier

Prettier is a partisan code format that guarantees a single, uniform code format. By installing it from the VS Code Marketplace, it can be utilized in VS Code. Prettier can be configured to format your files when you save them or commit them to a version control system once it has been integrated into Visual Studio Code.

Prettier ignores the original styling by extracting it and re-printing the parsed AST using its own rules, taking the maximum line length into consideration, and wrapping code when necessary. This way, Prettier enforces a consistent code style (i.e., creating a code formatting that will not the AST) across the entire codebase.

Developer Efficiency

Developer productivity relates to how productive a developer is over a period of time or per any criteria. To be able to assess developer productivity, a company would create goals to achieve, metrics to track, and a baseline of what is acceptable.

Expo

Expo is a collection of tools built around React Native that will let you launch an app extremely quickly. It supplies you with a selection of tools that facilitate the construction and testing of React Native app. It provides you with the services and user interface elements.

You don’t require Xcode or Android Studio to distribute your program because Expo takes care of the technical aspects of creating for each app store.

React Native Debugger

The Chrome debugger tools can be used to debug React Native applications. JavaScript for your app will execute within a web worker in Chrome rather than on your phone. When debugging a web application, you can then set breakpoints, check variables, run code, etc.

Reactotron

Reactotron is a macOS, Windows, and Linux program for examining your React JS and React Native apps. It examines the state of your application, shows API requests & performs quick performance benchmark.

VS Code Extension: ES7+ React/Redux/React-Native/JS snippets

The VS Code Extension: ES7+ React/Redux/React-Native/JS snippets is a code snippet for JavaScript development using Redux, React, and React Native. These code snippets offer a quick and simple method to create code for React Native components, Redux actions, and reducers. The snippets are made to function with the most recent JavaScript versions, including ES7 syntax. The fact that they offer pre-written code for frequent tasks and are immediately accessible from within VS Code might speed up your development process.

VS CODE EXTENSION: React Native Tools

The React Native Tools plugin provides a set of tools for creating and troubleshooting React Native applications for Visual Studio Code. With this addon, you may use VS Code as your main code editor to create React Native code and debug it using the tools that are already there. This addon offers a convenient and comfortable programming environment, which can be especially helpful for JavaScript developers who are new to React Native. Furthermore, the add-on offers syntax highlighting, code completion, and other code editing capabilities that may facilitate and speed up the creation of React Native code.

Text Editors

React Native supports a variety of text editors. These text editors include tools that can make writing and debugging React Native code simpler, like code completion, syntax highlighting, and error checking. Here are a few of them.

Atom

A cross-platform editing program like Atom can be used on several operating systems, including Windows, Android, iOS, and Linux. It has nice themes, a built-in package manager, cross-platform editing, intelligent auto-completion, and editing features. It enables programmers to add the features and functions they want by selecting from various open-source packages.

Visual Studio Code

Visual Studio Code is a compact source-code editor that is nevertheless powerful. It is written in CSS, JavaScript, and TypeScript and is open-source and cost-free to use. Platforms like Windows, Mac, Linux, etc., all operate nicely with it.

There is built-in support for JavaScript, TypeScript, and Node.js in Visual Studio Code. Additionally, it supports a vast ecosystem of extensions for languages like C#, Python, C++, Java, PHP, Go, etc. Additionally, it supports runtimes like.NET and Unity.

Popular React Native Libraries

React Native libraries are collections of pre-written programs that may be utilized to enhance a React Native application’s functionality or features. These libraries can help developers save time and work by offering pre-made solutions for typical problems encountered while creating mobile apps. Here are a few popular ones.

Internationalization

Internationalization or i18n is the design and development of a product, application, or document’s content for easy localization for target audiences with varying cultures, regions, or languages. React i18n’s focus is on adapting React apps to various regional contexts.

Expo Localization

You can localize your app using expo-localization to create a unique user experience for particular areas, languages, or cultures. Also, it gives access to the native device’s localization data. You may give consumers a very accessible experience by combining the well-known library i18n-js with expo-localization.

Fbt

FBT is a framework for converting JavaScript user interfaces into other languages. It is intended to be simple and straightforward strong and adaptable. Native module to make it possible for React Native apps to use the FBT translation framework.

React Native Localize

You can use react-localization if you wish to exchange code with a React project. Localization is localizing or constraining character to a certain location. Application development involves making the application in accordance with the regional tongue. You can make use of the LocalizedStrings section of the react-native-localization library for localization.

Storage & State Management

Small quantities of information, such as user preferences or app settings that must be retained across program launches, can be kept in storage tools. Utilizing a third-party state management library is an additional choice for managing intricate application states and data flows. These libraries offer a central location for keeping track of application data and make it possible to manage it effectively using a straightforward state container.

React Native Storage

A straightforward, unencrypted, asynchronous, permanent, key-value storage system is offered via the built-in AsyncStorage API. For this purpose, it also enables local storage. The stored data should not be confused with the state data because it is not a replacement for it. Once the app is closed, State Data is always deleted.

Redux

Redux is an open-source program frequently used to create user interfaces with libraries like React, Angular, etc. It is an extremely compact utility with a file size of just 2kB, even with dependencies. It facilitates the development of applications that operate in a variety of settings, including native platforms, front-end, back-end, etc., and are relatively simple to test. Additionally, it has capabilities like live code editing and a time-traveling debugger. As a result, using this tool for your projects is strongly advised for React Native development services.

Redux Sage

Redux is a stand-alone state management library that works with any other view library or framework, including React, React Native, and others. It often known as a Redux store, is a state container for JavaScript applications. In an immutable object tree, it preserves the complete state of the application. The function createStore([initialState], reducer, [enhancer]), which creates a new store, is utilized.

RxDB

Reactive Database, or RxDB, is a NoSQL database designed for JavaScript applications such as websites, Electron apps, hybrid apps, Progressive Web Apps, and Node. js.

With RxDB, you may observe everything, from the outcomes of a query to a single field of a document. You can quickly and reliably create real-time apps thanks to this. Your UI updates to reflect any changes to your data.

Testing

Small mistakes and unexpected edge cases can grow into bigger problems as your codebase grows. Bugs result in a poor user experience, which ultimately costs businesses money. Testing your code before putting it into the open is one method to avoid fragile programming. Here are some popular test tools.

Detox

Introduction Detox is an End-to-End testing library for React Native applications. Detox is designed from the bottom up to enable both pure native and React Native apps. It creates end-to-end tests that are cross-platform with JavaScript. Supports iOS and Android at the moment. Breakpoints in asynchronous tests can function as expected, thanks to the async-await API.

Jest

A react-native repository will have a few default mocks applied as part of the Jest preset included with the framework. However, some third-party or react-native components need native code to be rendered. Jest’s manual mocking approach can assist in these situations by simulating the underlying implementation.

React Testing Library

React Testing Library is a collection of tools that make it possible to test React components independently of the specifics of their implementation. This method simplifies refactoring and guides you toward accessibility best practices.

UI and Styling Libraries

React Native offers various UI components and libraries to speed up and streamline developers’ work during program development. You can incorporate a variety of extremely helpful components from the libraries to create stunning user interfaces for your web or mobile application. Here are some popular libraries.

Emotion

JavaScript CSS styles can be written with the library Emotion. With features like source maps, labels, and testing utilities, it offers a fantastic developer experience and strong and predictable style composition. The supported styles are string and object.

Formik

To develop forms in React and React Native, Formik is a condensed set of React components and hooks. It alleviates the three most grating aspects: Values entering and leaving the form state, signals of validation and errors, and processing the form submission.

NativeBase

An effective user interface (UI) design tool that is available for free is called NativeBase. It can be characterized as a stylish, clever, and utility-focused component library that enables the creation of cross-platform Android and iOS mobile applications. It accomplishes this using generic React Native components. Additionally, NativeBase can assist developers in utilizing cross-platform UI elements that significantly positively influence productivity.

React Hook Form

The library, React Hook Form, makes it easier to validate forms in React. It is a lightweight library with no external dependencies, making it easier to use and more efficient for developers to create than other form libraries.

React Native Elements

Building on React Native components, React Native Elements is a styling library with pre-built components. Each component in React Native Elements is encased in the React Native View /> component, which has styling based on the props you specify.

React Native Vector Icons

The most used custom icons in the NPM GitHub library are React Native Vector Icons. It has a collection of more than 3K (3000) icons. The use of each of these icons is free. The React Native Vector icons allow many stylistic options as well as complete customization of the icon size and color.

Redux Form

The most effective approach to handle form state in Redux. Redux-powered form management is made easy with redux-form. It is a Higher-Order Component (HOC) that makes use of react-redux to ensure that all of the data from HTML forms in React is stored in Redux.

Redux Hook Form

React Hook Form is a library that makes validating forms in React easier. While being performant and simple, it is a minimal library with no extra dependencies, forcing developers to write fewer lines of code than other types of libraries.

Redux Persist

Developers can save the Redux store in persistent storage, such as the local storage, by using the Redux Persist package. As a result, the site state will still be retained even after refreshing the browser.

Styled Components

You can define your styles with styled-components by building a new component from an existing component. You can make a Layout component that inherits properties from the View component in React Native. To style your components, use styled-components, which use tagged template literals. The mapping between components and styles is eliminated.

Navigation

These are navigation and routing tools for react native and Expo apps.

React Navigation

Using React Native for the Web is presently required for React Navigation’s web functionality. You can reuse the same code using this method for both React Native and Web. The following features are currently accessible: browser integration of URLs. Every layer of React Navigation is extendable, allowing you to create custom navigators or even replace the user-facing API.

React Native Navigation

The presentation is managed, and the transition between several screens is done using React Native Navigation. In mobile applications, there are two different methods of navigation available. These are the tabbed and stack navigational patterns.

Other

Here are other unclassified popular React Native tools.

React Native Maps

React Native Maps is a component system for maps that come with platform-native code that must be generated with React Native. Markers, polygons, and other map elements are incorporated into this MapView component so that they are provided as children of the MapView component itself.

React Native Firebase

Each module in React Native Firebase is a lightweight JavaScript layer that connects you to the native Firebase SDKs for both iOS and Android. It is a collection of official React Native modules for connecting to Firebase services. The officially recommended set of packages, React Native Firebase, enables React Native compatibility for all Firebase services on Android and iOS.

React Native Push Notification

With a uniform library API, libraries like react-native-push-notification and react-native-alerts make it simple for native modules to display local notifications and receive distant notifications. The Sendbird Chat SDK for JavaScript enables the sending of push notifications to Android and iOS users of hybrid mobile applications. Only React Native is currently compatible with the JavaScript SDK’s push notification feature.

React Native Device Info

A device is uniquely identified using its unique device ID. You can use a device-unique ID to track the single device login, for instance, if you’re creating an application like WhatsApp that needs a distinct device-dependent login mechanism and only allows users to log in from a single device simultaneously.

React Native Vision Camera

React Native Camera is a fantastic toolkit that enables developers to utilize the device camera in React Native-built iOS and Android apps. A React Native camera library is called VisionCamera. When it comes to the product’s design, the emphasis is on functionality.

Summary

React Native is a very useful and popular programming tool, with reason considering the tools it has made available to web and mobile software developers. The tools are easy to use, making the development process smooth and quick. The tolls above, show the summary of benefits React Native brings to you.