React Native Visual Studio

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React Native has a built-in command line interface. Rather than install and manage a specific version of the CLI globally, we recommend you access the current version at runtime using npx, which ships with Node.js. With npx react-native, the current stable version of the CLI will be downloaded and executed at the time the command is run.

  1. Get Started with React Native 1. You're using a React Native project that runs React Native 0.34 or later. You're targeting devices. Create your app in the App Center Portal to obtain the App Secret. If you've already created your app in the App. Add the App Center SDK.
  2. Dynamic & responsive. Users nowadays expect a first-class experience across a range of screen sizes from 4 to 40 inches. React Studio has an advanced visual layout engine that lets you create smart keylines, use relative sizes together with device-independent offsets, and position elements on screen relative to screen edges, keylines, or preceding elements.
  3. React is a popular JavaScript library developed by Facebook for building web application user interfaces. The Visual Studio Code editor supports React.js IntelliSense and code navigation out of the box. Welcome to React # We'll be using the create-react-app generator for this tutorial.
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The App Center SDK uses a modular architecture so you can use any or all of the services.

Let's get started with setting up App Center React Native SDK in your app to use App Center Analytics and App Center Crashes.

1. Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure that the following prerequisites are met:

  • You're using a React Native project that runs React Native 0.34 or later.
  • You're targeting devices that are running on Android Version 5.0/API level 21 or later, or iOS version 9.0 or later.
  • You're not using any other library that provides Crash Reporting functionality on iOS.
  • For iOS, the default way to use the SDK requires CocoaPods. (If you haven't installed CocoaPods, follow the CocoaPods Getting Started to do so). Nonetheless, it's possible to link the SDK manually.

2. Create your app in the App Center Portal to obtain the App Secret

If you've already created your app in the App Center portal, you can skip this step.

  1. Head over to appcenter.ms.
  2. Sign up or log in and hit the blue button on the top right corner of the portal that says Add new and select Add new app from the dropdown menu.
  3. Enter a name and an optional description for your app.
  4. Select the appropriate OS (Android or iOS) and select React Native as the platform.
  5. Hit the button at the bottom right that says Add new app.

Once you've created an app, you can obtain its App Secret on the Settings page on the App Center Portal. At the top right hand corner of the Settings page, click on the triple vertical dots and select Copy app secret to get your App Secret.

3. Add the App Center SDK modules

The default integration of the SDK uses CocoaPods for iOS. If you're not using CocoaPods in your app, you need to integrate the React Native SDK manually for your iOS app.

Open a Terminal and navigate to the root of your React Native project, then enter the following line to add App Center Analytics and Crashes to the app:

In case you prefer yarn over npm, use the following command to install App Center:

The App Center SDK uses a modular approach, where you just add the modules for App Center services that you want to use. appcenter-analytics and appcenter-crashes make sense to add to almost every app, as they provide value with no additional setup required. appcenter provides general purpose App Center APIs, useful for multiple services.

3.1 Integrate the SDK automatically for React Native 0.60

React Native Visual Studio Code

3.1.1 Integrate React Native iOS

  1. Run pod install --repo-update from iOS directory to install CocoaPods dependencies.

  2. Create a new file with the name AppCenter-Config.plist with the following content and replace {APP_SECRET_VALUE} with your app secret value. Don't forget to add this file to the Xcode project (right-click the app in Xcode and click Add files to ...).

  3. Modify the app's AppDelegate.m file to include code for starting SDK:

    • Add these lines to import section above the #if DEBUG or #ifdef FB_SONARKIT_ENABLED declaration (if present):
    • Add these lines to the didFinishLaunchingWithOptions method

3.1.2 Integrate React Native Android

  1. Create a new file with the name appcenter-config.json in android/app/src/main/assets/ with the following content and replace {APP_SECRET_VALUE} with your app secret value.

Note: If the folder named assets doesn't exist, it should be created under 'project_root/android/app/src/main/assets'

  1. Modify the app's res/values/strings.xml to include the following lines:

3.2 Integrate the SDK automatically for React Native lower than 0.60

Note

If you have your React modules linked using relative path inside your Podfile but not referenced in the project, the linking script will fail because it links App Center using static pod versions. You either must follow the steps from the React Native troubleshooting section if you've already run the linking script, or link it yourself

  1. Link the plugins to the React Native app by using the react-native link command.

    For iOS, it will try to download the App Center SDK for iOS and macOS from CocoaPods, if you see an error like:

    Run the following command:

    And then retry running react-native link.

    Note

    App Center SDK doesn't set up mocks automatically for App Center modules during the linking process. If you're using Jest test framework in your application and experience errors caused by the App Center SDK while running tests with Jest, add the following to the jest section of package.json file (include only modules in use):

    Note

    Whether processing of crashes is automatic or triggered by Javascript methods, crashes are always processed after the restart of the application. Crashes can't be processed at the time the application crashes.

  2. Edit the project's android/app/src/main/assets/appcenter-config.json and replace the YOUR_APP_SECRET placeholder value with your App Center project's application secret.

  3. Edit the project's ios/{YourAppName}/AppCenter-Config.plist file, and replace the YOUR_APP_SECRET placeholder value with your App Center project's application secret. If AppCenter-Config.plist already exists but not part of your Xcode project, you must add it to the Xcode project manually (right-click the app in XCode and click Add files to ...).

3.3 [iOS only] Integrate the SDK manually for React Native without react-native link or CocoaPods

Do this integration, if you don't want to use CocoaPods.We strongly recommend integrating the SDK via CocoaPods as described above. Nonetheless, it's also possible to integrate the iOS native SDK manually.

Note

The latest App Center React Native SDK doesn't necessarily depend on the latest App Center iOS SDK, because the iOS SDK is updated and released before the React Native one.

The consequence is that you must know which version of the iOS SDK the React Native SDK depends on.

  1. Download the App Center SDK for React Native frameworks provided as a zip file and unzip it.

  2. You'll see a folder named AppCenterReactNativeShared which contains a single framework for the required React Native iOS bridge.

  3. Download the corresponding App Center SDK for iOS frameworks provided as a zip file and unzip it.

  4. You'll see a folder called AppCenter-SDK-Apple/iOS that contains different frameworks for each App Center service. The framework called AppCenter is required in the project as it contains code that's shared between the different modules.

  5. [Optional] Create a subdirectory for 3rd-party libraries.

    • As a best practice, 3rd-party libraries usually reside inside a subdirectory (it's often called Vendor), so if you don't have your project organized with a subdirectory for libraries, create a Vendor subdirectory now (under the ios directory of your project).
    • Create a group called Vendor inside your Xcode project to mimic your file structure on disk.

  6. Open Finder and copy the previously unzipped AppCenter-SDK-Apple/iOS and AppCenterReactNativeShared folders into your project's folder at the location where you want it to reside.

  7. Add the SDK frameworks to the project in Xcode:

    • Make sure the Project Navigator is visible (⌘+1).
    • Drag and drop the AppCenter.framework, AppCenterAnalytics.framework, AppCenterCrashes.framework and AppCenterReactNativeShared.framework files from the Finder (in the location from the previous step) into Xcode's Project Navigator. The AppCenter.framework and AppCenterReactNativeShared.framework files are required to start the SDK, make sure they're added to your project, otherwise the other modules won't work and your app won't compile.
    • A dialog will appear, make sure your app target is checked, then click Finish.

  8. Link AppCenter React Native plugins projects to your app's project:

    • Make sure the Project Navigator is visible (⌘+1).

    • For each AppCenter React Native plugin navigate to the folder containing source code. Paths respectively will be

      • /node_modules/appcenter/ios
      • /node_modules/appcenter-analytics/ios
      • /node_modules/appcenter-crashes/ios
      • /node_modules/appcenter-push/ios

    • Drag and drop .xcodeproj files from the Finder into Xcode's Project Navigator. Typically under Libraries group.

  9. Link libraries for AppCenter React Native plugins.Open your project settings and under General tab in the Linked Frameworks and Libraries section add new items referencing target libraries added on the previous step:

    • libAppCenterReactNative.a
    • libAppCenterReactNativeAnalytics.a
    • libAppCenterReactNativeCrashes.a
    • libAppCenterReactNativePush.a

  10. Modify Header Search Paths to find headers from the AppCenter React Native plugins projects.Open your project settings and under Build Settings tab in the Header Search Paths section add new locations for header files:

  • $(SRCROOT)/../node_modules/appcenter/ios/AppCenterReactNative
  • $(SRCROOT)/../node_modules/appcenter-analytics/ios/AppCenterReactNativeAnalytics
  • $(SRCROOT)/../node_modules/appcenter-crashes/ios/AppCenterReactNativeCrashes
  • $(SRCROOT)/../node_modules/appcenter-push/ios/AppCenterReactNativePush

  1. Modify the app's AppDelegate.m file to include code for starting SDK:

    • Add these lines to import section above the #if DEBUG or #ifdef FB_SONARKIT_ENABLED declaration (if present):
    • Add these lines to the didFinishLaunchingWithOptions method

  2. Create new file with the name AppCenter-Config.plist with the following content and replace {APP_SECRET_VALUE} with your app secret value. Don't forget to add this file to the XCode project (right-click the app in XCode and click Add files to ...).

Note

The next two steps are only for the apps that use React Native 0.60 and above.

React Native Visual Studio Code

  1. Disable autolinking for React Native 0.60 and above:

    • Inside the node_modules folder in each App Center package open react-native.config.js and set dependency.platforms.ios to null:

  2. Modify Header Search Paths to find React Native headers from the App Center React Native plugins projects:

    • Make sure the Project Navigator is visible (⌘+1).
    • For each AppCenter React Native plugins project that you've added to the Libraries group in step 8:
      • Select the project and under Build Settings tab in the Header Search Paths section add new locations for header files with a recursive option: ${SRCROOT}/../../../ios/Pods/Headers

3.4 [Android only] Integrate the SDK manually for React Native lower than 0.60 without react-native link

Integration steps without the react-native link command.

  1. Open android/settings.gradle file and insert the following lines. Include the dependencies that you want in your project. Each SDK module needs to be added as a separate dependency in this section. If you want to use App Center Analytics and Crashes, add the following lines:

Note

Due to termination of jCenter support all our assemblies were moved to the Maven Central repository. Please follow this guide about migration from jCenter to Maven Central.

  1. Open the project's app level build.gradle file (android/app/build.gradle) and add the following lines into dependencies section:

  2. Modify the app's MainApplication.java file to include code for starting SDK:

    • Add these lines to the import section
    • Add AppCenter packages to the List<ReactPackage> getPackages() method

  3. Open strings.xml file (android/app/src/main/res/values) and add the following lines inside <resources></resources> tags:

  4. Create a new file with the name appcenter-config.json in android/app/src/main/assets/ with the following content and replace APP_SECRET_VALUE with your app secret value.

3.5 If you use auto-backup to avoid getting incorrect information about device, follow the next steps:

Note

Apps that target Android 6.0 (API level 23) or higher have Auto Backup automatically enabled.

Note

If you already have a custom file with backup rule, switch to the third step.

a. Create appcenter_backup_rule.xml file in the android/app/src/main/res/xml folder.

b. Open the project's AndroidManifest.xml file. Add the android:fullBackupContent attribute to the <application> element. It should point to the appcenter_backup_rule.xml resource file.

c. Add the following backup rules to the appcenter_backup_rule.xml file:

4. Start the SDK

Now you can build and launch your application either from command line or Xcode/Android Studio.

4.1 Build and run your application from command line

You may build and launch your iOS application by the following command:

Tip

You can launch it on an iOS simulator or iOS device by specifying the iOS device name in react-native run-ios --device 'myDeviceName'.

You may build and launch your Android application by the following command:

Tip

You can launch it on an android emulator or android device by specifying the device id in react-native run-android --deviceId 'myDeviceId' (deviceId from adb devices command).

4.2 Build and run your application from Xcode or Android Studio

For iOS, open your project's ios/{appname}.xcworkspace or ios/{appname}.xcodeproj file in Xcode and build from there.

Note

If you linked App Center automatically via react-native link (as in step 3.1), you should open the project's ios/{appname}.xcworkspace file in Xcode. Because App Center CocoaPods dependencies only works with xcworkspace not xcodeproj, and the ios/{appname}.xcodeproj file won't have App Center CocoaPods dependencies linked.

For Android, import your android project in Android Studio and build from there.

You're all set to visualize Analytics and Crashes data on the portal that the SDK collects automatically. There's no additional setup required. Look at Analytics and Crashes section for APIs guides and walkthroughs to learn what App Center can do.

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React Native for Windows allows you to create a Universal Windows Platform (UWP) app using React.

Overview of React Native

React Native is an open-source mobile application framework created by Facebook. It is used to develop applications for Android, iOS, Web and UWP (Windows) providing native UI controls and full access to the native platform. Working with React Native requires an understanding of JavaScript fundamentals.

For more general information about React, see the React overview page.

Prerequisites

The setup requirements for using React Native for Windows can be found on the System Requirements page. Ensure Developer Mode is turned ON in Windows Settings App.

Install React Native for Windows

You can create a Windows desktop app using React Native for Windows by following these steps.

  1. Open a command line window (terminal) and navigate to the directory where you want to create your Windows desktop app project.

  2. You can use this command with the Node Package Executor (NPX) to create a React Native project without the need to install locally or globally install additional tools. The command will generate a React Native app in the directory specified by <projectName>.

  3. Switch to the project directory and run the following command to install the React Native for Windows packages:

  4. To run the app, first launch your web browser (ie. Microsoft Edge), then execute the following command:

Debug your React Native desktop app using Visual Studio

  • Install Visual Studio 2019 with the following options checked:

    • Workloads: Universal Windows Platform development & Desktop development with C++.
    • Individual Components: Development activities & Node.js development support.

  • Open the solution file in the application folder in Visual Studio (e.g., AwesomeProject/windows/AwesomeProject.sln if you used AwesomeProject as ).

  • Select the Debug configuration and the x64 platform from the combo box controls to the left of the Run button and underneath the Team and Tools menu item.

  • Run yarn start from your project directory, and wait for the React Native packager to report success.

  • Select Run to the right of the platform combo box control in VS, or select the Debug->Start without Debugging menu item. You now see your new app and Chrome should have loaded http://localhost:8081/debugger-ui/ in a new tab.

  • Select the F12 key or Ctrl+Shift+I to open Developer Tools in your web browser.

Debug your React Native desktop app using Visual Studio Code

  • Open your applications folder in VS Code.

  • Install the React Native Tools plugin for VS Code.

  • Create a new file in the applications root directory, .vscode/launch.json and paste the following configuration:

  • Press F5 or navigate to the debug menu (alternatively press Ctrl+Shift+D) and in the Debug dropdown select 'Debug Windows' and press the green arrow to run the application.

Additional resources

Studio
  • Try the Microsoft Learn online course: React