Technology, Page 13 Category

React Native, ‘the minimalistic JavaScript framework’, was actually discovered as a side-project while working on ‘React.js’- Facebook’s another important project. The principal motive behind React Native’s discovery was to find a comprehensive solution for creating cross-platform applications with native properties.

But surprisingly, this framework became way more popular than anyone thought, despite having some flaws. To make it more powerful, it was strongly backed by the huge open-source community of Facebook. Also, in the year 2018, the Facebook team announced the re-architecture of this framework for addressing all the existing issues faced by engineers during React Native development. Today, the React Native framework has become one of the most preferred choices of developers for creating modern-day SPAs and mobile apps.

React Native is still progressing and a host of React Native development companies have emerged across the globe, due to a massive demand for this framework.

So what’s new in React Native in 2020? Well, the framework is about to release its new architecture in the market. In this article, we will have a glimpse at React Native’s enhancements in 2019, the basic React Native architecture, and its new update in 2020.

In 2019, React Native introduced several versions with some amazing modifications and tools for React native development. Let’s explore them.

Main objective of this framework is to help React Native developers to write JavaScript React code so that UI can be displayed correctly at the same time developer can access the native capabilities in the app. Mechanism for Android/iOS ecosystem typically looks like this:

There are 3 threads running in parallel in the React Native apps like JS thread, Native thread and, Shadow thread.

JS Thread is where the code of JavaScript is read fully and then compiled. Here the business logic of the app also resides.

Shadow Thread does the layout calculation. It makes use of Facebook’s layout engine named Yoga for calculating flexbox layout and then sends this information to the UI thread.

Native Thread does handling of the user interface. When the app needs to access native capabilities or UI needs to be updated, communication takes place between this thread and JS thread.

In this older architecture, C++ Module Bridge had to be used to make the communication possible between JS thread and Native. Every time data received from JS thread or Native had to serialized as JSON and then had to be sent to the queue and then after arrival had to be decoded. Due to the bridge that is being used for communication, there was an inherent delay in the synchronization between the native and JS code.

To address some of the existing issues related to the bridge in React Native, Facebook has taken the important step of going for a revamp in the architecture of this framework. There will be enhancements done in some of the React Native Modules. For instance, a Type-safety feature would be introduced for improved safety between JavaScript and Native-side code. There will be default lazy initialization of Native Modules for faster startup. Also, there will be the implementation of a new thread-safe of the React Native UI layer. It will help in better native interoperability, faster startup, elevated UX of core components, etc.

Another update will focus on a new set of APIs for the initialization of React Native. It will be dependent on the new native module system and the new renderer. The overall aim is the improvement of the startup time.

JavaScript Interface- JSI will be another important update that will be useful during native development. For this, the Bridge feature will be deprecated gradually. JSI act as an enabler for TurboModules and Fabric. Now, the JS bundle can make use of any JavaScript engine and is not limited to just JSC. The JSC engine can be replaced with a JS engine like V8 for instance.

Also, JS can now hold the reference to C++ Host Objects and call methods on them with the use of JSI. This will ensure that the Native and JavaScript realms will be aware of each other. So we can say that complete interoperability will be possible between all threads. Also, React Native developers will now be able to handle very large panels of systems.

A concept of shared ownership is being introduced in this new architecture which allows the JS code to directly communicate with the native code from the JS thread. So the serializing to JSON the messages won’t be required to pass across and all the asynchronous issues, congestion, etc. on the bridge would be removed.

This new React Native app architecture also allows better control over native modules as developers can use native modules when the need arises instead of loading all of them at the start-up level. Consequently, there is a huge performance improvement during the start-up phase.

Do you want to design a modern-day React Native app for your next project?

Since its inception, React Native has accumulated several features and functionalities that have become redundant today. So, to match the needs of next-gen apps, and other software products, the framework is cleaning away the unnecessary and outdated sections. This new architecture is an attempt to make the React Native development services highly efficient to create performant apps. Some features have even been replaced by their advanced counterparts. The core modules like AsyncStorage and Webview have been gradually removed and changed into the community managed repositories.

Besides this update, the React Native developer tools will make the development process much easier and impactful. All this is going to help the React Native developers a big time in improving the overall work-flow, time-frames, development process, predictability, reliability, and much more.

The re-architecture of React Native is expected to get completed in the coming few years and the future of this technology definitely looks bright.

We hope this blog provided you with some useful insights.

Do share your thoughts on this in the comments section.

We would love to hear from you.

React Native has become the most talked-about technology in the last couple of years and its popularity as a cross-platform framework owing to cost efficiency has made React Native Development the most preferred development technology in mobile app development companies. Due to the ever-growing demand, it is expected from the developers to build highly performant apps. One of the challenging decisions while architecting React Native apps is to select the right database for the project. The good news is, that the React Native framework comes with some really good choices available for data storage. So, in this blog, we will shed light on top React Native databases for 2021. Let’s explore them in detail. But before that, let’s quickly run through the significant factors that a React Native app development company should consider while choosing the apt database for React Native App Development.

Data and App Complexity: complex data sets in the applications can cause severe app performance issues. So, databases that can store complex data should be chosen. Apps that have lower complexity can use simple databases so that such apps can be easily synced with the server. But complicated apps with multiple-user collaboration requirements require a complex database for ensuring seamless syncing.

Memory Handling: inadequate database memory management can lead to the crashing of apps. Hence, it should be ensured that memory management is done efficiently through processes like compaction, garbage collection, etc.

Line of Codes: if a higher number of code lines are used in a project for CRUD like operations, then an advanced database should not be the choice as the coding gets more cumbersome. This code complication deteriorates the performance of the app significantly.

Data Conflicts: the possibility of data conflicts increases when more collaboration related features are added to the app and data is being used concurrently. So, it is always good to select a database that handles data conflicts and concurrency and shares the conflict handling policies on the website or at least on repository pages.

Realm is an object-oriented database that enables the creation of real-time and offline applications that run on both- wearable devices as well as smartphones. It is one of the top React Native databases amongst all the available ones. This database is highly preferred when the end goal of the project is building high-performance apps that can deal with a huge data flow. The database benefits both platforms- iOS and Android. It doesn’t depend on key-value stores as it has its own database engine. Realm allows the React Native app developers to frequently undergo tables, mapping classes, fields, foreign keys, etc.

For React Native development, Firebase supports real-time NoSQL DB. This database is known for its offline data modifications and data synchronization capabilities. Besides, it can handle M (model) and C (controller) of the MVC that is needed while building React Native applications.

SQLite is a relational database management system developed for offering local storage to React Native applications. ‘Lite’ in SQLite depicts the light-weight nature of this database. Also, this database is very easy to setup. It can be directly integrated with the mobile applications for accessing the database. For data encryption, SQLite can be used with an extension called SQLite Encryption Extension (SEE).

This is a Java script database developed using a storage mechanism and CouchDB protocols. It stores the data in JSON format. This open-source database enables the React Native developers to read, create, delete, update, and query the objects using a singleJS API. Furthermore, PouchDB is compatible with MongoDB, CouchDB, PostgreSQL, and MySQL.

This is an open-source, lightweight, and fast database used for React Native based application development for both- Android and iOS. It is developed with a robust server-side language-Golang, created by Google. Vasern’s API can also be utilized for syncing across app clients, local storage, and for cloud storage.

This database is built on top of SQLite. It can scale a myriad number of records without impacting the application speed. This is perfectly optimized for the creation of complicated React Native apps with real-world performance.

This is a high-performing backend and allows the React Native developers to handle data in several ways. It comes with an API that is compatible with numerous languages and several platforms like Android and iOS.

This is a local storage database and comes in-built with React Native. It enables React Native developers to persist data between reboots of the apps. It acts as an outstanding solution for saving the data that the app required, even when the app is being closed by the users.

Apart from the local databases mentioned here, there are several other databases available for the React Native app developers to utilize in their projects. But, the choice of a database used for React Native mobile app development ultimately depends on the project requirement, its scope, and end goals. For instance, Firebase suits perfectly when one has to develop real-time apps. Realm is great for almost every possible requirement, but comparatively, SQLite doesn’t provide the same level of performance, scalability, and security. Rather SQLite is good to go with when one requires to leverage the abilities of a relational database. So, the one that suits your requirements is the best choice for you.