How to start developing mobile applications.
First, I want to confess that I am a beginner in developing mobile applications, but today, I would like to share with you, my little experience and some points that you should keep in mind to start with a simple project.
To start, you should know, that you can develop mobile applications of multiple forms, you can use frameworks to build once and deploy to both platforms (Android and ios); this is great because your team can save time to deploy the application and can use a specific language to write the code.
Another way to develop mobile applications consists in use native frameworks or SDK provided for Google and Apple; the main difference is that you must learn the native language to each platform. For Example: if you want to develop an app for ios you need to learn Swift; the same happens for Android.
With the last mentioned way, you can use all native APIs to each platform, take advantage of native APIs to improve the performance of your applications, and use specific features that usually not available when you use and intermediaries to build mobile applications.
Some libraries or frameworks that can you help to develop mobile applications writing code once and next you can deploy for both platforms are:
Xamarin: This platform was developed with Microsoft, at this moment, uses C# language to write code. Remember that the purpose of these platforms is to permit that you write one time to deploy in both platforms.
Ionic: Ionic is an open-source mobile UI toolkit for building high-quality, cross-platform native and web app experiences. You can move faster with a single code base, running everywhere with JavaScript and the Web
React Native: The premise of react native is "Learn once, write anywhere", React Native combines the best parts of native development with React, a best-in-class JavaScript library for building user interfaces. You can use React Native today in your existing Android and iOS projects or you can create a whole new app from scratch.
Now that you know some ways to create a mobile app, I want to remember you that you must know the limitations of each library or framework based on your necessity, for example: if you need to use Bluetooth, camera, GPS, and any other feature, you must sure that your library supports these features, at the same time, you must know which tools provide the framework or library that can help to develop, debug and deploy your app.
At this point, maybe, you are interested in the performance of your app, some frameworks promise fast apps with features like 60 Frames per second, Down to: 1.8 Sec Time to interact, etc. again you must analyze what is the purpose and objective of your application and if this requires the best performance or is acceptable for your app.
Now, I want to show, how to create a simple project, using react native, remember that react native, use react library to control the render cycle of the app.
First, you should must sure to have installed node js and npm, if not have installed follow the next instructions.
if you are new to mobile development, the easiest way to get started is with Explo CLI. Expo is a set of tools built around React Native and, while it has many features, the most relevant feature for us right now is that it can get you writing a React Native app within minutes.
First, let's install expo-CLI.
npm install -g expo-CLI
Now, let's create a new project using expo CLI.
expo init name-for-your-app
The last command creates and prepares a folder with the libraries, and scaffolding to start a project.
Next, you should enter the folder with the name app.
example:
cd name-for-your-app
and run the project with the start command.
npm start // Or use expo start
After running expo start or npm start you can see a menu with the options to run ios or android simulator, once you can run the simulator, you should see the app.
Congratulations, you have now your first mobile application.
thanks for your attention.
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