sanengineer/rnn-starter

This starter is a collection of libraries and approaches needed for fast start and productive maintainance of React Native App.

Getting Started

Quick start with cli-rn

npx cli-rn new App -t rnn

As cli-rn uses react-native-rename script for renaming under the hood, please refer to Rename section to apply necessary changes to Android part.

If you have any troubles running the app with yarn ios or yarn android, open XCode or Android Studio and run the project from there.

Manual setup

Clone the repo

npx degit kanzitelli/rnn-starter app

Install packages and pods

cd app && yarn && yarn ios:pods

Run it

Open XCode or Android Studio to run the project (recommended) or do

yarn ios
yarn android

Rename

If you need to rename the app, do the following (based on react-native-rename):

yarn rename "NewApp" -b com.yourcompany.newapp
yarn ios:pods

⚠️ Troubleshooting on Android. You can see that after running rename script, it doesn't change package name and imports for files under newarchitecture folder.

You will need do these steps manually

Open all .java files under android/app/src/main/java/your/bundle/newarchitecture/ folder.
Open MainApplication.java.
Find all packages and imports which contain com.rnnstarter and change them to yours.

What's inside

React Native Navigation - truly native navigation experience for iOS and Android.
Expo Modules - libraries and modules from Expo ecosystem.
RNN Screens - simplifed and predictable Navigation for React Native. Built on top of React Native Navigation.
RN UI lib - amazing Design System, UI toolset & components library for React Native. Dark Mode is implemented using this library.
Reanimated 2 - React Native's Animated library reimplemented.
Flash List - a better list for React Native (by Shopify).
MMKV - efficient, small mobile key-value storage framework developed by WeChat. ~30x faster than AsyncStorage!
Fast Image - performant React Native image component.
MobX - simple, scalable state management, with mobx-persist-store for persisting your stores.

Extra helpful libraries

React Native Navigation Hooks - a set of hooks for React Native Navigation.
React Native Vector Icons - customizable icons for React Native.
React Native Gesture Handler - native touches and gesture system for React Native.
Hermes Engine - a JavaScript engine optimized for running React Native apps.
ESLint + Prettier - keep your code neat and structured.
Patch Package - useful for fixing node modules instantly.
Release It - automate versioning and publishing of your app.
Typescript - strict syntactical superset of JavaScript.

Useful services/methods

navigation - a service where some of navigation configuration takes place in (such as default options).
translate - a service that brings an easy integration of localization for an app by using i18n-js and expo-localization.
api - a service where API-related methods are located.
onStart - a service where you can write your own logic when app is launched. For example, you can increment number of appLaunches there.

Design system

This starter is using RN UI lib as a design system, UI toolset and a source of ready-to-go components.

configureDesignSystem() - a method where all settings for an app's design system is taking place. You can customize colors, schemes, typegraphy, spacings, etc. Located at src/utils/designSystem.tsx.

RPReplay_Final1641606734.MP4

Advantages

Describe app screens in one place

All setup for your screens takes place in one file src/screens/index.ts:

import {generateRNNScreens} from 'rnn-screens';

import {Main} from './main';
import {Settings} from './settings';

export const screens = generateRNNScreens(
  {
    Main: {
      component: Main,
      options: {
        topBar: {
          ...withTitle('Main'),
          ...withRightButtons('inc', 'dec'),
        },
      },
    },
    Settings: {
      component: Settings,
      options: {
        topBar: {...withTitle('Settings')},
      },
    },
    // ...
  },
  [withGestureHandler, withStores, withServices, withAnotherProvider],
);

Navigate with predictability

import {screens} from '.';

const SomeScreen = ({componentId}) => {
  const {nav} = useServices();

  return (
    <View>
      <Button
        label="Open screen"
        onPress={() => {
          // IDE will autocomplete with registered screens
          screens.push(componentId, 'AnotherScreen');
        }}
      />
    </View>
  );
};

Build root component with ease

// single screen app
const App = () => Root(Screen(screens.get('Main')));

// tab based app
const TabsApp = () =>
  Root(
    BottomTabs([
      Screen(screens.get('Main')),
      Screen(screens.get('Playground')),
      Screen(screens.get('Settings')),
    ]),
  );

Dark mode support

You can define modes in utils/designSystem.tsx.

Samples for new screens, services, stores and components.

So you have one structure within the project. You can find them in corresponding folders. Just copy&paste it and make the necessary changes.

Enhancements

There are still some things I would like to add to the starter:

Auth flow
Notifications — wix/react-native-notifications or/and invertase/notifee
E2E tests - wix/Detox
Permissions — zoontek/react-native-permissions
FB SDK — thebergamo/react-native-fbsdk-next
Appodeal — appodeal/react-native-appodeal
In-app purchases — dooboolab/react-native-iap?

Feel free to open an issue for suggestions.

Known issues (warnings)

Large title is not shown on 2nd+ tab. This issue exists. So you can find the patch file for fixing that in patches/react-native+0.69.5.patch. It will be autorun when you do yarn add/remove/etc.
Issue after renaming on Android. This happens when you rename the app using yarn rename script. Check Rename section for possible solution.
Broken Dark mode. This happens if appearance is system and the app's appearance is toggled. This is connected to RNUILib's View component and this issue particularly.

Worth checking

Other starters

rnn-with-expo - 🛹 Minimalistic React Native App Starter with React Native Navigation, Expo Modules and RNN Screens.
expo-starter - 🦥 Production-ready starter for Expo (React Native) App! Powered by cli-rn, React Navigation (v6), RN UI lib, Mobx, Reanimated 2, Dark Mode, Localization, and much more.
rn-starter - 🦄 Production-ready starter for React Native App! Powered by cli-rn, React Navigation (v6), RN UI lib, Mobx, Reanimated 2, Dark Mode, Localization, Notifications, Permissions, and much more.

Articles

"Build React Native Apps with Simplified and Predictable Navigation" - Medium, Dev.to
"Testing React Native apps with zero effort" - Medium, Dev.to
"Expo + React Native Navigation? Yes!" - Medium, Dev.to

Why

...do we need yet another starter/boilerplate? Well, I work with React Native for more than 3 years and during the time I started having my own project structure which was a good fit for almost all of the delivered apps. Also, I have come up with some custom useful services/methods which simplify usage of React Native Navigation and other libraries. Check out Advantages section.

License

This project is MIT licensed

sanengineer / rnn-starter