Should You Use React Native For Web App Development?

In the world of mobile app development, React Native has been a popular option due to its ability to create near-native user experiences. Its use of JavaScript, a popular and powerful platform, has also made it a developer favorite. The demand for cross-platform applications is growing fast, and React native has responded to this by providing an extension that can be used for the development of web applications: React native for web.

The true power of React Native lies in its ability to run on multiple platforms using a single codebase. Developers need only write code once and it can be deployed on both mobile and web. This makes the React Native framework ideal for the development of both mobile and web applications that provide a seamless and intuitive experience for users.

Benefits Of Using React Native For Web App Development

There are a multitude of benefits to using React Native for web; the most notable of which is code reusability. This saves a significant amount of time during application development because a large portion of the mobile app codebase can be used to develop web apps and vice versa. Inconsistencies and bugs are also minimized because the code used in different versions of the application is nearly identical, if not completely so.

Creating web applications that look and feel like native applications is, of course, another of React Native’s main draws. Developers can design web interfaces similar to that of mobile apps through the use of CSS, providing a consistent look and feel when users switch from one platform to another.

React Native also provides pre-built components optimized for both mobile and web, reducing development time. This allows developers to focus on new features and the core logic of the application instead of wasting time re-implementing common features on different platforms.

Developers can also leverage the power of React Native’s virtual DOM (document object model) to allow for efficient updating of the application’s UI. This leads to a smoother user experience and improved performance. The virtual DOM is a “virtual” representation of the UI that’s kept in memory but lacks the actual power of the real DOM. React Native reconciles the virtual DOM with the real one, eliminating the need for event handling, attribute manipulation, and manual DOM updating while building your app.

React Native For Web App Development Considerations

Before building your web app using React Native, you should ensure that you have all the necessary tools and software. There are React Native packages available online that offer web support. Web frameworks like Next.js, Razzle, and Gatsby allow you to use built-in components and integrate them into React Native. Below are the other things you should consider.

• Setting up React Native for web: Before developing your web app, you need to install the necessary tools. Two of the things you need to install first are Node.js and the node package manager (NPM). NPM is used to install the Create React app command-line interface (CLI) tool that bootstraps a new React Native for web projects. Installing these tools allows you to create a new project with all the necessary files and dependencies just by running a simple command line.
• Writing components for React Native: Writing components for React Native web apps is very similar to writing components for React Native mobile app development. The main difference lies in the styling approach. While React Native uses inline styling with a custom StyleSheet API, React Native allows you to write CSS stylesheets to style your components. Using the familiar JSX syntax, you can define the structure of your app components. You can also build complex interfaces easily by nesting components within each other.
• Testing and debugging React Native Web applications: Several tools can be used when testing and debugging React Native web applications Among these tools, React Native Debugger stands out as the most popular because it allows you to dive deep into the inner workings of your web app and inspect the React component hierarchy. It provides a visual representation of the app UI, giving you the ability to identify any issues and address them promptly. Alternatively, you can also debug your app using a web browser’s built-in developer tools.

Best Practices For React Native Web Development

Building an optimized and organized React Native web application isn’t always easy. It requires proper planning, smart goal setting, and proper resource allocation. Follow the best practices listed below to ensure that you provide the best user experience possible with your React Native web app.

• Organize your codebase to reusable components. This maximizes the maintainability and reusability of the codebase and allows for easy debugging. Using design patterns like the Flux architecture also keeps your codebase clean.
• Optimize performance. One advantage of React Native for web is that it comes with performance optimizations out of the box. However, supplementary techniques like lazy loading, code splitting, and caching can improve overall performance by reducing load times.
• Consider accessibility issues. Ensuring that your React Native web app is accessible to people with disabilities is one of your ethical responsibilities as a company. Alt text for images and semantic HTML are just a few of the ways that can help you make your web app available to a broader audience.

Ample Uses of React Native in Business   

Web development is an imminent need for most businesses. The reason is simple. Most brands want to take their business online.   

Customers love the multi-channel brands more.   

However, both existing and new online businesses need web development. When the sites are upgraded, revamped, or advanced, web development helps the most.   

Which Businesses Can Use React Native?  

Experts say you may use React Native to build the best ecommerce websites.   

Speaking of that, most retail businesses want their ecommerce sites now. In the US, there are 13.98 million ecommerce channels online. Ecommerce accounts for 15.9% of the US retail business.   

However, there is a market gap in the department store sector. In this sector, the use of ecommerce is relatively low. So, we will see how you can build an ecommerce platform using React Native for your ecommerce store here.   

Using React Native for ecommerce app/site development  

To speed up project delivery, developers often use cross-platform frameworks. It frequently happens during ecommerce site development for department stores.   

So, developers rely on React Native as the basis of cross-platform mobile app development.   

You can easily create a native app through the React-based platform of React Native.   

However, most developers rely on available templates for open-source ecommerce sites/apps on React Native.   

The template lets them make a basic layout of the app. After that, they can always customize according to the customer’s demands. However, most available templates of ecomm stores on React Native have a complex Redux.   

Though it helps centralized state management, there are also some issues. For example, the complex redux involves many things you may not need as an ecomm site developer.  

The Steps Involved  

First, we can use npm to set up our global React Native UI.   

My main work is to start a fresh React Native project. After that, I will enter the new project folder.   

However, be careful when setting up Firebase while starting the ecommerce app development project.   

Here are the steps:  

• Enter Firebase console   

• Select Project Settings   

• Go to ‘Your Apps’  

• Add your new web app  

• Copy your Firebase configuration  

The new file named Firebase.js will be created. Then, I can easily copy my config object under that root inventory.   

Creating Navigation of your Dept Store App  

React Navigation can be used for routing. Let’s say your dept store app has three primary sections- home page, product categories, and cart.   

To create them, I will make a folder named “screens.” After that, I will create three .js extensions of the three sections inside the screens folder.   

The Home screen  

I will collect the product details from the Firebase inventory. After that, I will put all the products on display.   

Product details   

I will decorate the ProductDetails.js page at this stage. Meanwhile, I will insert details on all product categories. You may also add an option to add products to your cart at this stage.   

Cart page   

This page is named cart.js. Here, I will export suitable products from my cart collection. After that, I will display them.   

Finally, I will add navigation to the pages. But you need to update the App.js file to add it.   

Now, I have a fully prepared ecommerce app for your department store. This is a basic ecommerce app version suitable for small department stores. 

Unifying Experiences With React Native For Web

React Native for web is essentially an extension of a mobile framework that allows a seamless experience for users when using mobile and web apps. The native-like performance of apps developed using this framework blurs the line between mobile and web apps and shows that, in the future, there may not be a distinction between the two.

Ultimately, the goal is to create seamless experiences for users regardless of the device or platform used. React Native for web helps achieve this by extending the mobile capabilities of React Native into the realm of web apps. By making app development quicker and easier, it hits two birds with one stone—and two types of users with one codebase.

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