With the popularity of mobile development and React, more and more people want to learn React Native. This article will give you some advice on how to learn React Native by yourself, introduce you to some resources for learning React Native, and recommend some simple and useful development tools. By following the steps outlined in this article, you can become a React Native developer much faster.
If you’ve looked at The results of The State of JavaScript 2017, you’ll find a lot of interesting data.
One thing that stands out: a lot of people want to learn React Native.
JavaScript mobile state survey results
That’s great. For the past year, I’ve been teaching people how to use React Native. The team wanted to maximize their existing development resources by reaching both iOS and Android users in South Africa and India who wanted to improve the quality of life in their communities through mobile applications.
Part of the teaching process is by answering emails from developers. Many of them were just getting started with React Native, trying to figure out the best way to learn React Native.
I often answer emails. One of the most frequently asked questions is, “What’s the best way to learn ReactNative?” While there’s no really best way to do this, I’ll share some quick guides for React Native developers. I’ve told hundreds of people this. I hope this helps you, too.
advice
Before we dive into how to really become a React Native developer, I’d like to give you a few tips for self-learning in general. I find that people are generally pretty good at self-learning as long as they put in the time.
I know everyone is busy, but you can teach yourself a lot by doing very little.
To avoid interference
You’re looking at some tech media. You may have found this article by googling or subscribing to publish. This means that you are likely to see or hear a lot about technology.
This is great! The technological world we live in is changing rapidly.
But it can be exhausting, especially if you’re just getting started. My advice — as soon as you read this article, make a study plan to calm down and study.
Focus your attention on what you are learning and block out new distractions for a while. Learn those core concepts instead of constantly blindly following the latest package or way of doing things.
Make a plan and stick to it. Overcome FOMO (fear of missing out). Once you’ve learned the basics, it’s not too late to come back a few weeks later.
Don’t put what you are learning into the actual product
I often get emails from people trying to integrate complex packages into their existing apps, and then the App doesn’t work. But it needs to run — this is my favorite App!
I know you want to get into building your own App right now. But that’s not the best way to learn. This process can be frustrating because there are so many moving parts. Even worse, the next week, you find out you did something wrong and have to fix it in your App.
Learn one concept, one Packgeg, or one technology at a time. Learn in a disposable environment or sandbox.
Once you’ve mastered the new technology in a sandbox environment, you can then take it into your actual App. You’ll be happier, your code will benefit, and you’ll have a better idea of what’s actually going on.
Planning time
You’re busy, I’m busy, we’re all busy. However, we need to spend time on things that are important — maybe it’s a medical appointment, a meeting with your boss or investor, a date with your new love interest.
The point is — you make a commitment, schedule it into your day, and stick to it.
Learning and investing in yourself is so important that it’s worth planning for. You need to keep your study plan just like any other important commitment.
But I don’t have time!
Take five minutes — I know you can do it. Carve out five minutes of independent time each day. Once you feel comfortable doing this, increase the time to 10 minutes. Then, when you’re comfortable with 10 minutes, raise it to 15.
The point is, make it part of your schedule and make it visible. Trust me, it works.
My study time is 30 minutes before lunch and 15-30 minutes after dinner.
Make a study plan
I’ve mentioned this before, but I really want to restate it. It pays to have a plan. You probably already have plans for a lot of things in life — why not learn React Native?
Back to my first piece of advice – if you don’t have a plan, you’ll find yourself blindly following the latest thing in the media. Now is not the time for you to do those things. Now you need to make a study plan.
My advice: check out the learning resources I mentioned below, browse what they have to offer, and schedule this into your schedule. Just sit down and study until you get it, and then look at everything else.
Making a study plan may seem like a battle, or it may seem very complicated. But that’s not true! To eliminate distractions, I have developed a study plan for you that matches the one described in this article. You can download it directly.
Don’t neglect your optics
I find many students in my courses have this problem. They watch the video and they’re done. You should code while you’re watching the video, or write something I did in the video immediately after the video is over.
Learning and doing is how we become proficient and truly understand. You’ll have problems that you have to debug, think about why things were done the way they were done, and you’ll be impressed.
Not optics, but practice.
Learning resources
JavaScript
Simple, free and fun.
Want more resources? There are a lot of — byEric ElliottPlanning.
There are many things in any programming language. If you’re just interested in learning the ES6 features common in React Native development, I’ve put together an outline for you.
React
To use React Native, understanding React is essential. As the name suggests, the React document should be very helpful to you.
I am aDan AbramovReact is a fan of the React textbook, which teaches you everything you need to know about using React.
If you are new to JSX, this will help you:
I also often refer to various lifecycle methods because my brain refuses to remember them.
React Native
As with React, you should check the official documentation first, especially when learning the basics.
Once you’ve looked at the official website, I’ve prepared a copy for youFree classes. It teaches you step by step how to build a currency converter with React Native.
Another free dry goods resource isDevin AbbottReact Native Express.
These resources should give you a solid foundation.
tool
The hardest thing about learning something new is making sure you’ve set up the development environment so that you can actually learn. Here are some tools to make setting up your environment easier.
Expo
Expo makes developing mobile applications incredibly easy. It allows you to build mobile apps no matter what platform you’re on. There are some native technologies that might bother you, you don’t need to worry about them during this learning phase, Expo will take care of them.
Another benefit — they give you a lot of default apis (get camera, get ICONS, etc.) so you don’t have to worry about installing similar apis. It’s all available to you.
If you’ve never used React Native, or even if you have, I highly recommend giving it a try. That’s how I’m building all my apps now.
React Navigation
Your App usually has multiple screens of content. Try React Navigation. It’s very easy to use, and most of the tutorials you encounter (once you’ve completed your learning plan!) Are probably using it to handle navigation.
React Native Elements
React Native Elements is a UI library that allows you to quickly and easily create beautiful apps.
In addition to providing generic UI components, it’s a great way to learn how to use React Native. The components are well designed, and this is a great project to learn in depth how to organize and build your own UI components.
A: wow! There are so many things here. It gives you a great place to start learning React Native.
Remember, make your study plan. I’ve compiled a study guide to help you step through the resources I’ve listed. I’ve grouped them by logic and time estimate — you just need to fit it into your schedule.
Want my study plan for this article? Click download now!
About the author
Spencer Carli is a student/teacher/pizza freak. He mainly writes about React Native and Meteor. He is very enthusiastic and often helps people learn React Native through email and online courses. If you have a problem, follow up with him on Twitter.
How to Become a React Native Developer in 2018
Thanks qin Yun for the review of this article.