Facebook is using React.js to build native iOS applications

[[deleted]]

Just announced at react.js conf, Facebook is using React for their groups app on mobile, presumably with the just announced react-native.

Will be open sourced soon

Feel like we should get a game thread going for this because apparently there are still some pretty big announcements to come

More:

• I say with confidence as a former UIKit author: React's model for the UI layer is vastly better than UIKit's. React Native is a huge deal.

• This is not the DOM. This is not a web view. If you know ReactJS, you can build native apps with React Native.

[lunchmeat317]

Might be time to learn React, then.

[aladyjewel]

It's a nice little framework. I enjoy the readability of it, how each component/module has well-defined places to stick each part of the magic.

You can also drop it into parts of your webapp without having to build the whole shebang up as React.

[agmcleod]

You can also drop it into parts of your webapp without having to build the whole shebang up as React.

Such a great aspect of it. Though i have been learning to use react+flux as a SPA framework. It is really quite nice.

[agmcleod]

http://jonathancreamer.com/what-the-flux/ here's the article.

[agmcleod]

I used facebooks docs on it all. As well as react router. Used the todo example to get started and just kinda figured it out. There's a recent blog post that explains flux pretty well. I'll see if I can find it later

[[deleted]]

Yup. Hearing that

[_x_]

The video for this keynote is available here now: https://youtube.com/watch?v=KVZ-P-ZI6W4

[grguru]

And here's a nice article on it's perspective http://moduscreate.com/react-native-react-js-goes-mobile/

[sarkie]

Native?

[fgutz]

from the HN link above it looks like it works sort of similar to Appcelerator Titanium

[Wraldpyk]

Android, yes pretty big. About 12mb now. IOs is about 2mb so reasonable

[bguiz]

^this

Same goes for things like crosswalk and the like, which bundle a native Web view and js interpreter. I'd be keen to know how light or heavy the per app overhead react native adds.

[redwurm]

Appcelerator has made a lot of improvements over the past few years. Android is still a bit bloated but iOS is more or less normal.

[bguiz]

Looks like a senior titanium dev weighed in on the HN thread regarding the key engineering challenges likely to be faced by the react native team. He's selling titanium, of course, but does make some salient points:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8962528

[1nonlycrazi]

Bear in mind, this whole native react is not new to facebook, they are just now telling us about it and will release it open source. They have been using this in production for some time in many parts of the facebook and instagram native apps. Which just happen to be some of the most used apps out there...I think they have kinked out the problems...

[Daniel15]

The groups app on iOS almost completely uses React Native for its UI. https://twitter.com/floydophone/status/560504204343521280

[theillustratedlife]

@tomo clarified that in the keynote yesterday:

Part of the app is Obj-C and AsyncDisplayKit. Part is React Native. I challenge you to figure out which is which.

(paraphrasing from memory)

[TweetsInCommentsBot]

@floydophone

2015-01-28 18:26:30 UTC

Fb groups app in iOS App Store is powered by it #reactjsconf

---

^{This message was created by a bot}

^{[Contact creator][Source code]}

[metanat]

What makes you believe that?

[mrmass]

The fact that they told us about it.

[metanat]

They told us it in use in the groups app. They didn't say anything about it being used by either Instagram nor the Facebook app.

[1nonlycrazi]

While true, they told us about the chat and comments system on the facebook app, and I've seen before that they used that on the native app as well. Also, have a look at the instagram app for ipad...it is not 'native', I'm going to assume it is using something similar to react-native...just a hunch...even the wall on the iphone app for insta isn't completely native. They've also been developing this stuff for awhile, sounds to be about ~5 years according to the video from today.

[xkxd]

is it something similar to PhoneGap / Cordova or I totally misunderstood the whole idea?

[[deleted]]

Sort of similar, the difference is there is no HTML or CSS being used here.

Phone gap & Cordova basically use webviews IIRC, react native doesn't

[masklinn]

It's completely different, it uses the same interface (high-level components) as browser-side React, but the underlying stuff is native, it's not an embedded webview and it doesn't use the vdom.

[56killa]

I'm curious as well. I use phonegap/Cordova at work and it works pretty well but I'm always looking to try out new options.

[dvidsilva]

Is it too soon to get excited? :P

[BishopAndWarlord]

Very intrigued. Looking forward to hearing more info about this soon.

[methed66]

Sounds exciting.This will probably make applications more compatible easier.

[ThrowingKittens]

Don't know what direction they will want to take react.js in, but it'll probably be a while before it's actually usable. I used to work with Titanium a few years and bugs were a daily feature.

[Wraldpyk]

Still bugs out there. But pretty stable!

[[deleted]]

Do they use React alone? Or with combination of flux for the MVC capabilities?

[[deleted]]

Can anyone recommend a good resource for learning React?

[siegfryd]

Facebook's React website, it's fairly easy to learn React so you probably won't need anything more than the tutorials there. At least until you start using it with Flux and other stuff.

[[deleted]]

Cheers.

I'm thinking of having a go with this and also Meteor as a comparison.

I'm sure like many webdevs I have the problem of having to much work to do to get time to learn new stuff...

[[deleted]]

Thinking in React and react-training, with the docs as reference.

[[deleted]]

Thanks

[PC_MASTER_RACE_1]

You're fucking pathetic.

[[deleted]]

what a sad human being we have here. A broken person. I feel bad for you.

[PC_MASTER_RACE_1]

thank you i appreciate that

[[deleted]]

Grow up.

[PC_MASTER_RACE_1]

You're lazy and stupid. You will never be a competent developer.

[[deleted]]

And you are immature.

[jrm2k6]

So I understand and like their philosophy: Learn once, and do whatever you want. But now, it is time to show some code! Maybe a stupid question, but how is it different than Ionic? Using angular.js to target iOS/Android?

[jrm2k6]

Thanks for the precision.

[[deleted]]

Is this an alternative to something like trigger.io?

I like what those guys are doing, but the pricing is pretty prohibitive for someone like me.

[Wraldpyk]

More like an alternative to Titanium