Learning React Native, 2nd Edition

Chapter 7. Modules and Native Code

Project with Native Code Required

The examples in this section apply only to projects created with react-native-init and ejected projects created with create-react-native-app. For more information, see Appendix C.

In Chapter 6, we looked at some of the APIs that React Native exposes for interacting with the host platform. Because support for those APIs is built into React Native, they’re quite easy to use. What happens when we want to use an API that isn’t supported by React Native?

In this chapter, we’ll look at how to install modules written by members of the React Native community using npm. We’ll also take a closer look at one such module, react-native-video, and learn how the RCTBridgeModule can allow you to add JavaScript interfaces to existing Objective-C APIs. We’ll also look at importing pure JavaScript libraries into your project, and how to manage dependencies.

Though we will be looking at some Objective-C and Java code this chapter, don’t be alarmed! We’ll be taking it slowly. A full introduction to mobile development for iOS and Android is beyond the scope of this book, but we’ll walk through some examples together.

Installing JavaScript Libraries with npm

Before we discuss how native modules work, first we should cover how to install external dependencies in general. React Native uses npm to manage dependencies. npm is the package manager for Node.js, but the npm registry includes packages for all sorts of JavaScript projects, ...