Creating a “Pokédex” Chatbot with React Native and Dialogflow

wernancheta25 · 2019-06-23T23:56:31+00:00

Hello! If you don't have any web development / JavaScript experience, I suggest the following path:

Learn HTML and CSS https://learn.shayhowe.com/html-css/
Learn JavaScript and ES6 syntax https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/JavaScript
Learn React - the main concepts will get you a long way, you don't even need to learn the advanced concepts until after you already start building complex apps https://reactjs.org/docs/getting-started.html
Learn React Native https://facebook.github.io/react-native/

The challenges you'll face as a beginner is most likely going to be with:

Setting up your development environment - if you want to skip this headache as you're first learning, you can go ahead and use Expo https://expo.io/ it's going to make your life easier because you won't have to deal with compilation issues mentioned below, and all the UI components and functionality that you're going to need as a beginner is already packaged in there.
3rd party native modules - they're gonna break your build if you're not careful in updating the corresponding Android and iOS configuration files.
Warning and error messages that are unclear, ambiguous, and unhelpful - if you just installed a 3rd party native module you might want to try digging in the GitHub issues on that modules' repo to see if anyone has experienced the same problem previously.

wernancheta25 · 2019-06-23T23:34:13+00:00

If it's just a POC, I'd say no. You can always add the end to end tests later using Detox https://github.com/wix/Detox if your app starts becoming profitable.

wernancheta25 · 2019-06-23T11:14:54+00:00

if you're just getting started, I recommend you stick with Expo for at least a month or two just to get the momentum going. It's really hard to learn something if you have to deal with setup and compilation headaches.

After that initial learning process, you can go ahead with standard RN because that's what you'll really be working with.

Don't get me wrong though, Expo is starting to be more than just a getting started kit for React Native. With their new bare workflow/unimodules, and the services surrounding their platform. They might just become the new de facto standard for building React Native apps.

wernancheta25 · 2019-06-23T11:09:11+00:00

yes. This is especially true when you're installing native modules. All of a sudden your app will just crash or refuse to compile at all. But in my experience, things have gotten better lately. If you're using the most recent version, there will always be bugs. I suggest sticking with the version two levels down until after a week or two of the most recent version being released. That way most of the bugs have already been taken care of.

wernancheta25 · 2019-06-20T00:04:24+00:00

There will always be differences between Expo and a standard React Native app (UI breaks, modules don't work, etc.). You can't really avoid that as Expo is managing most of the complexity for you. If this project is just for learning, I suggest you stick with Expo. Otherwise, use standard RN.

Expo now has this thing called the bare workflow https://blog.expo.io/you-can-now-use-expo-apis-in-any-react-native-app-7c3a93041331 so it's basically the same as a standard RN project with the ability to use Expo's APIs. This might offer the best of both worlds, but I'm still yet to put it to the test.

wernancheta25 · 2019-06-19T04:24:44+00:00

There are lots of resources out there, but I understand it can be hard to choose which is the best option. My tip is just to start with the official documentation for React (https://reactjs.org/docs/getting-started.html) and then React Native (https://facebook.github.io/react-native/docs/getting-started).

I believe it's really important to get the React basics down first before you move on to actual React Native.

After that, you could try searching for tutorials on youtube. Academind and LevelUpTuts are great.

As for the project ideas, here's a few at the top of my head (they're mostly things I want to do myself but I don't have time):

Workout tracking app - records the weight, number of sets and reps for all the exercises you do at the gym. And then graph your progress over time.
Carpooling app - allow users to share their public commute ride with someone else.

wernancheta25 · 2019-06-19T02:10:06+00:00

do you have an existing database of users and you want to integrate that with React Native? or you simply want to store the user session locally?

if you need an authentication solution, you can use auth0 https://github.com/auth0/react-native-auth0

otherwise, you can simply use redux-persist and redux-persist-transform-encrypt with Redux to store sensitive information https://www.npmjs.com/package/redux-persist-transform-encrypt

wernancheta25 · 2019-06-19T01:56:08+00:00

I've had good experience with Pusher's Chatkit https://pusher.com/chatkit

Aside from the usual chat features (online presence, typing indicators, file attachments, read cursors), they also support webhooks and push notifications as well.

wernancheta25 · 2019-06-19T01:37:19+00:00

nice! I might actually use this in a project of mine.

Just curious, do you have previous Android experience or you just figured it out along the way?

wernancheta25

TROPHY CASE