react-native VS Next.js

There was always a tiny sparkle in me telling me that I want to develop mobile apps but I never pursued it. It always felt a bit complicated for me to learn development processes in a completely different industry. I did try developing mobile apps using React Native but it never felt right for me. Also, I already tried to write some Kotlin code and so far I like it, but the whole Android ecosystem is still pretty new to me and I feel there will be a lot to learn. Nevertheless, I will try to learn it in parallel with Elixir but Elixir will be my primary goal, and Kotlin / Android will go along depending on how much time I will have.

This is a modified version of the file from the react native cli template

Recently, there has been a notable shift in mobile application development practices. Rather than creating separate applications for each native platform, many developers are opting for hybrid mobile frameworks like React Native.

React Native [ https://reactnative.dev/ ]

Versatility: JavaScript is not limited to web browsers. It's used in a variety of environments, including mobile app development (using frameworks like React Native), game development (using libraries like Phaser), and even serverless computing (using platforms like AWS Lambda).

In the competitive landscape of mobile app development, user experience (UX) has emerged as a critical differentiator. React Native, with its robust framework and versatile capabilities, offers developers a powerful toolkit to create seamless and engaging user experiences. This blog post delves into the design principles and best practices in React Native app development, uncovering how developers can elevate user experience to new heights and drive success in the digital realm.

You can find the React Native documentation here and Flutter Documentation here.

Additionally, React Native, an extension of React.js, enables developers to create hybrid mobile applications with ease.

You don’t know what to do with your time while applying the 5th rule? Start small, tiny steps. If you can’t read much, start small, 15 minutes a day reading a technical article or even a book like Effective Java, by Joshua Bloch. You don’t like to read? Create small projects by using a framework you want to learn. Check for example: React framework.

https://github.com/vercel/next.js/discussions/27666 One of them said 'renaming folder to uppercase' might cause trouble. git might not recognize case-sensetive changes by default.

Next.js has long cemented itself as one of the front runners in the web framework world for JavaScript/TypeScript projects so we’re going to be using that. More specifically we’re going to be using V14 of Next.js which allows us to use some exciting new features like Server Actions and the App Router.

Web frameworks like Next.js will usually include this feature, but do check that they set the caching headers correctly!

Vite and Next.js are both top 5 modern development framework right now. They are both great depending on your use case so we’ll discuss 4 areas: Architecture, main features, developer experience and production readiness. After learning about these we’ll have a better idea of which one is best for your project.

> It’s important to be aware of what you are getting if you go with React, and what you are getting is a far cry from what a framework would offer, with all the corresponding pros and cons.

Would you like to elaborate on that?

In my experience, with something as great, size/ecosystem-wise as React, there will almost always be at least one "mainstream" package for whatever you might want to do with it, that integrates pretty well. Where a lot of things might come out of the box with a framework, with a library I often find myself just needing to install the "right" package, and from there it's pretty much the same.

For example, using https://angular.io/guide/i18n-overview or installing and using https://react.i18next.com/

Or something like https://angular.io/guide/form-validation out of the box, vs installing and using https://formik.org/

Or perhaps https://angular.io/guide/router vs https://reactrouter.com/en/main

Even adding something that's not there out of the box is pretty much the same, like https://primeng.org/ or https://primereact.org/

React will typically have more fragmentation and therefore also choice, but I don't see those two experiences as that different. Updates and version management/supply chain will inevitably be more of a mess with the library, admittedly.

Now, projects like Next https://nextjs.org/ exist and add what some might regard as the missing pieces and work well if you want something opinionated and with lots of features out of the box, but a lot of those features (like SSR) are actually pretty advanced and not always even necessary.

Next.js: For the website and the admin dashboard

Until the time of writing, there is no official example of how to enable runtime environmental variables in a Dockerized Next.js app, as utilizing unstable_noStore would only dynamically evaluate variables on the server (node.js runtime). There is also an interesting discussion regarding this topic on GitHub.

next.js is a very popular React framework. remix-adonisjs includes more functionality through the AdonisJS backend ecosystem, and should be easier to self-host and self-manage.

Cheryl Murphy is not only a dedicated full-stack web developer skilled in technologies like React, Next.js, and NestJs but also a community-driven professional who recently took on the role of volunteer project team lead at Web Dev Path. With a dual Bachelor's degree in Computing and Chemical Engineering from Monash University, Cheryl’s journey in tech is marked by a passion for building accessible solutions and a commitment to fostering community within tech.

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