Driving React-Native Architecture, Novel Features, and Practical Use Cases

By Prafull Sharma

With my recent implementation experience across multiple enterprises, the personalized user experience was one of the critical successes of hyper-personalized delivery.

What I have seen is that in today’s online shopping world, it’s very critical and a challenge to offer hyper-user experiences while staying adaptable to the modern digital experience world. Among the many UI multi-channel frameworks we know on the market, React Native is one of the most adoptable in the field of experience development due to its flexible, scalable, and adoptive features.

I am sharing my experience on how React Native is reshaping the online experience, focusing on its technical strengths, unique features, and real-world applications.

React Native Architecture

As everyone knows, React Native is a powerful tool for creating mobile applications. It utilizes a unique architecture, underpinning its ability to deliver high-quality, efficient apps on multiple platforms.

React Native’s architecture includes key elements like the Dev Menu, a developer tool in the app; the Fabric Renderer, which enables React to render to platform views; and the Host Platform, where React Native is embedded.

The Host View Tree represents views on the platform, while JavaScript Interfaces (JSI) and Java Native Interface (JNI) allow communication between JavaScript and the host platform.

React Components instruct how to create a React Element, which is part of the React Element Tree. The React Shadow Tree, created by the Fabric Renderer, consists of React Shadow Nodes, which represent a React Host Component to be mounted. The Yoga Tree calculates layout information for the React Shadow Tree. These components together form the unique and efficient architecture of React Native.

Typical Use Cases and Solutions

React Native’s cross-platform compatibility, community support, and code reusability make it a suitable choice for app development. Companies like Flipkart, Amazon, Kindle, Microsoft Office Suite, Skype, Shopify, Wix, and Facebook Marketplace are already reaping the benefits.

1. Improving User Experience: The asynchronous interaction of React Native with the native environment ensures a smooth, high-quality user experience akin to native apps.
2. Faster Development Cycle: React Native allows code reusability, meaning developers can use the same code for different platforms. This significantly reduces the development time.
3. Cost-Effective: With the need for separate iOS and Android developers eliminated, React Native proves to be a cost-effective solution for businesses.

Key Features of React Native

React Native provides a host of features that make it a popular choice among developers. Here, we explore the key features of React Native that set it apart.

1. Fast Refresh: One of the standout features of React Native is Fast Refresh. This feature allows developers to see the results of the latest change immediately after saving. It combines the benefits of hot reloading and full application reloading, providing a first-rate development experience without losing component state.
2. Auto Linking: React Native simplifies the process of linking libraries with Auto Linking. It automatically links native dependencies, reducing the need for manual linking. This feature saves developers valuable time, allowing them to focus more on coding and less on configuration.
3. Cross-Platform Development: React Native shines in its ability to create apps for multiple platforms. With it, developers can create applications for Android, iOS, Web, and the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) using the same codebase. This cross-platform capability significantly reduces development time and resources.
4. Native Development: React Native enables developers to write some components in Swift, Objective-C, or Java when they need to optimize a few aspects of the application. This flexibility means developers can incorporate native code when necessary, providing the best possible performance and experience for users.
5. Big Library: React Native comes with a large library of pre-developed components. These components speed up the development process, as developers can leverage these pre-built elements to craft their applications swiftly rather than building everything from scratch.
6. Native Modules and Components: React Native allows developers to use native modules and components, helping them to tap into the device’s native capabilities like the camera, accelerometer, etc. This results in improved performance and a more authentic user experience.
7. Vast Community: React Native boasts a large and active community of developers. This open-source framework benefits from continuous inputs and improvements from this community, making it ever-evolve. The vast community also provides a rich resource for troubleshooting and learning, making it beginner friendly.

Quick Reference — React Native Libraries

React Native offers a rich collection of libraries to streamline app development. https://reactnative.directory/

https://github.com/react-native-community/

https://docs.expo.dev/versions/latest/

While these typically support various platforms, it’s essential to check compatibility with your specific project. If you can’t find a suitable library in the directory, the NPM registry — https://www.npmjs.com/ offers a broader range of JavaScript libraries, although not all may be compatible with React Native.

In addition to these resources, here are some of the recommended libraries that we have seen useful in React Native development:

Lottie: For adding high-quality animation to your app.

OTP Input: A customizable one-time password input component.

React Native Navigation: Offers a robust solution for in-app navigation.

React Native Vector Icons: A comprehensive library for utilizing icons in your app.

Redux Persist: Great for persisting and rehydrating the Redux store.

Detox: A powerful tool for end-to-end testing in a simulated environment.

In summary, React Native is a proven game-changer in the cross-platform application industry, offering a seamless user experience, faster development cycles, and cost-effective solutions.

The use of key modules like @react-navigation/native, Redux, Redux-Persist, Lottie-React-Native, and Detox not only enhances the user experience but also simplifies the development process.