External Libraries in React Native

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rrer noopener">JavaScript and React. One of the reasons for its success is the vast ecosystem of external libraries that extend its core functionality, making development faster, more efficient, and more powerful. In this article, we’ll explore the concept of external libraries in React Native, why they are crucial, and how to effectively use them in your projects.

What Are External Libraries?

External libraries in React Native are third-party packages or modules developers can add to their applications to introduce a functionality or feature that the core of React Native does not natively support. Such libraries are generally developed and maintained by the open-source community or individual developers.

Purpose of Using External Libraries

Using external libraries allows you to:

• Save time:Instead of building every feature from scratch, you can leverage existing libraries that offer well-tested, optimized solutions.
• Add specialized functionality: Some libraries provide specialized functions such as animations, file management, navigation, or APIs that are not covered by the core React Native modules.
• Keep your codebase lean: By using well-maintained external libraries, you avoid reinventing the wheel and reduce the overall complexity of your project.
• Benefit from community contributions: Many external libraries are updated frequently, offering new features and bug fixes based on the needs and feedback of the community.

Popular Categories of External Libraries

The React Native external libraries can be categorized in several groups that are targeted to different purposes. Here, let’s take a look at some common categories along with popular libraries within those below.

1. Navigation Libraries

React Native does not provide its own, out-of-the-box navigation system. To manage navigation within your application you may use third-party libraries that offer powerful implementations of routes, stacks, and tabs.

React Navigation

One of the most popular navigation libraries for React Native, React Navigation, provides a comprehensive set of navigators for handling both stack and tab-based navigation.

npm install @react-navigation/native
npm install react-native-screens react-native-safe-area-context

Once installed, you can set up a basic navigation system:

import { NavigationContainer } from '@react-navigation/native';
import { createStackNavigator } from '@react-navigation/stack';

const Stack = createStackNavigator();

const App = () => {
  return (
    <NavigationContainer>
      <Stack.Navigator>
        <Stack.Screen name="Home" component={HomeScreen} />
        <Stack.Screen name="Details" component={DetailsScreen} />
      </Stack.Navigator>
    </NavigationContainer>
  );
};

React Native Navigation

Another strong contender is React Native Navigation by Wix, which offers a more native-like navigation experience, with features like native navigation bars and transitions.

2. UI Component Libraries

Building a consistent, well-looking UI is super daunting. Well-designed UI libraries give you a library of pre-designed components that you can import and use on demand to meet the particular needs of your app.

React Native Paper

React Native Paper provides Material Design components, such as buttons, cards, and text fields, that are designed to be thematically consistent and easy to use.

npm install react-native-paper

Example of using a button from React Native Paper:

import { Button } from 'react-native-paper';

const MyComponent = () => (
  <Button icon="camera" mode="contained" onPress={() => console.log('Pressed')}>
    Press me
  </Button>
);

NativeBase

NativeBase is a UI library that provides a wide range of cross-platform components and supports both React Native and web-based apps.

3. State Management Libraries

State management is an essential aspect of any React Native application, and while React has built-in tools like useState and useReducer, larger apps often need more advanced solutions.

Redux

Redux is one of the most widely used libraries for managing state in large applications. It provides a predictable state container and centralizes the application state in a single store, allowing components to access data easily.

npm install redux react-redux

Example of setting up Redux:

import { createStore } from 'redux';
import { Provider } from 'react-redux';
import rootReducer from './reducers';

const store = createStore(rootReducer);

const App = () => (
  <Provider store={store}>
    <MainComponent />
  </Provider>
);

MobX

An alternative to state management is MobX, where you can use observables to manage the state. It’s more flexible and less opinionated than Redux, so easier to add to smaller projects.

4. Networking Libraries

React Native has built-in support for making network requests via the fetch API. However, some external libraries provide more features, including request cancelation and automatic retries.

Axios

Axios is a popular promise-based HTTP client that provides an easier-to-use interface than fetch and includes advanced features like interceptors and automatic JSON conversion.

npm install axios

Here’s a simple example of using Axios to make a GET request:

import axios from 'axios';

axios.get('https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/todos/1')
  .then(response => console.log(response.data))
  .catch(error => console.error(error));

How to Choose an External Library

It is challenging to pick the right external library, as there are tens of thousands of React Native libraries. Considering the confusion, here are some criteria to choose an external library:

1. Active Development

Look at the last time the library was touched in its GitHub repository. Is it actively in development? Are issues being solved? The more recent the activity, the more reliable the library will be, and you will benefit from newer features and bug fixes.

2. Community Support

A library with a large community and strong support is often better because you can easily find documentation, tutorials, and answers to your questions online.

3. Compatibility

Ensure that the library is compatible with the version of React Native you are using. Some libraries may not support newer versions of React Native or may require additional setup for compatibility.

4. Performance

Always test the performance impact of an external library. Some libraries may add a significant overhead to your application, which could affect performance, especially for apps with complex or heavy UI components.

How to Integrate External Libraries in React Native

Integrating external libraries into a React Native project is generally straightforward. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to add and use an external library:

1: Install the Library

The first step is to install the library using either npm or yarn.

npm install <library-name>

2: Link Native Dependencies (if required)

Some libraries require linking native dependencies. React Native version 0.60+ supports auto-linking, so this step is generally not needed. However, for some older libraries, you may need to manually link them using:

react-native link <library-name>

3: Import and Use the Library

Once the library is installed, import it into your JavaScript files and start using its features.

import { SomeComponent } from 'some-library';

const MyApp = () => <SomeComponent />;

Best Practices for Using External Libraries

Using external libraries in React Native is powerful, but here are a few best practices to keep in mind:

1. Don’t Overuse Libraries

While external libraries are useful, over-reliance on them can lead to dependency bloat, making your project harder to maintain and troubleshoot. Always evaluate if a library is necessary or if the functionality can be implemented with minimal effort in vanilla React Native.

2. Update Regularly

Keep your libraries up-to-date to ensure you’re benefiting from the latest features and security patches. Use tools like npm-check-updates to manage this process easily.

3. Read the Documentation

Before integrating any external library, thoroughly read its documentation to understand its API, features, and any caveats. This will help avoid issues down the line.

Advantages of External Libraries in React Native

To achieve these wider customization facilities along with an amazing and rich source of development, and the available as well as the possibilities open in an application, React Native utilizes external libraries. These libraries are majorly community-driven which means that they contain reusable code and solutions to these problems. Therefore, here are the basic benefits of these external libraries in React Native:

1. Informs Development

Pre-built Solutions: External libraries help to incorporate pre-built solutions to the most frequently occurring issues, such as navigation, form handling, animations, and API requests. This cuts the effort of writing code from scratch while greatly saving time on a development project.

2. Availability of Advanced Functionality

Availability of Extra Features: There are several kinds of external libraries that offer functionality not yet included in the React Native core framework, including specialized components, utilities designed for cross-platform use, and integration with third-party services (e.g., maps, payment gateways).

3. Community Support and Documentation

Vibrant Ecosystem: Well-liked external libraries generally find vibrant communities that support with good documentation, tutorials, and support. This gives the developer the ability to speed up the learning curve and absorb those libraries into projects quickly.

4. Easy to Implement

Ease of Use: Most external libraries are made plug-and-play, meaning that they can be added to React Native projects without much setup, making it easier for developers to add new features to their apps.

5. Cross-Platform Compatibility

Most external libraries are crafted to be used directly on both iOS and Android with a single solution that allows them to use the multi-platform approach. The other good thing about this is that uniformity is ensured in terms of function and GUI on different devices.

6. Regular Updates and Improvements

Active Maintenance: Major third-party libraries are regularly updated by their maintainers to match compatibility with recent versions of React Native and to fix bugs or performance problems. This will ensure that the app always stays updated in terms of best practices and improvements.

7. Saves Development Cost

Cost Efficiency: The external libraries aid in saving time and resources that would have been spent on building and testing a custom solution. This makes the development more cost-effective, especially to small teams and startups.

8. Customizable and Extendable

Flexibility: Most of the external libraries are open-source and highly customizable. You can change or enhance the functionality of the libraries to fulfill your individual requirements without having to construct new components from the scratch.

9. Reduces Boilerplate Code

Simplified Codebase: The repetitive, mundane activities such as form validation, state management, and fetching of data will most likely be handled by external libraries. Those libraries then help the developer get rid of the boilerplate code, focusing on application unique features instead.

10. Increases Developer Productivity

Many of those common tasks can be offloaded to external libraries, freeing developers to more focus on building in core features and user experiences, rather than spending their precious time repeating similar activities or inventing wheels.

11. Easier Integrates Faster with Native Features

Native Modules: For most apps, features such as camera access and geolocation will both be well-handled with the implementation of push notifications quite easily by the developer accessing the native API without having to write platform-specific code.

12. App Performance Improvement

Optimized Solutions: There are libraries one could use that are built for optimum performance on React Native apps. This might be in the form of heavy data handling libraries, animations, or even improving how the app’s user interface feels responsive.

13. Better testing and Debugging Tools

Better debugging support: There are several third-party libraries that provide better tools for testing and debugging React Native applications. Such tools as Jest, Enzyme or React Native Debugger streamline the testing procedure and produce higher quality code.

14. It promotes the reusability of codes

Reusable Components: In general, third-party libraries offer reusable components that can be used throughout an application. This leads to modularity and supports the overall cleanliness of the code.

15. Scales Well with Project Size

Easy to Scale for Large Applications: When built for larger proportions, applications, third-party libraries achieve the task of handling codebases by offering structured solutions in state management, routing, and component architecture.

Disadvantages of External Libraries in React Native

Although external libraries provide great benefits to the implementation of React Native, there are still associated challenges. These disadvantages may affect the overall development process, performance, and maintainability of the application. These significant disadvantages of using external libraries are described as follows:

1. Increased Dependency

Third-Party Code: Using third-party libraries would mean we are at the mercy of third-party developers for developing and updating the library. It will no longer work if it is not supported and updated anymore, which means it will cause compatibility problems with any new version of React Native.

2. Performance Overhead

Bloated Codebase: Third-party libraries can sometimes include too much code or unnecessary features that the project does not need. All this adds to the size of an application, and bad performance, especially on low-end devices.

3. Compatibility Issues

Version Incompatibility: Third-party libraries are not always guaranteed to work with the newer version of React Native or other projects depending on it. This will sometimes result in build failures, crashes, or unexpected behavior that can only be solved by leaving the developer more time.

4. Limited Customization

Lack of Flexibility: While most libraries are flexible, some external libraries may not allow enough flexibility to be tailored based on a specific project need. This will make developers create workarounds or build custom solutions, which sort of defeats the purpose of the library.

5. Increased Maintenance

Library Updates : Since third-party libraries change, it may be time consuming to follow the changes. Libraries may have breaking changes or deprecation that needs refactoring resulting in a high cost on maintenance and technical debt.

6. Fragmented Ecosystem

Poor Quality: All external libraries are not of the same grade. Few might be proper with good documentation, while others could have bad documentation or bugs in code with no proper testing. This adds difficulty to the selection of a right library in a fragmented ecosystem.

7. Reduced Control Over Code

Opaque Functionality: Library files or even some of the internal modules may clearly abstract complex functionality. This can be really handy, but also quite binding, because it limits access to the underlying workings. If things go wrong, debugging and fixing problems in the library’s code is very painful.

8. Learning Curve

Library-Specific Learning: There’s an API, configuration, and usage pattern to every external library. Developers have to spend time learning the effective use of every library that slows up the initial development stage.

9. Conflicts

Library Conflicts Using multiple external libraries may sometimes result in package conflicts, in which packages depend upon different versions of the same dependency or differ upon how they handle a piece of functionality in a different way. This can lead to app instability and bugs.

10. Hidden Technical Debt

Hidden Technical Debt The use of third-party libraries introduces unappreciated technical debt-the entire body of developers may “not see” the potential long-term impact that libraries may have on a project. Cumulatively over time, this means it gets progressively tougher to maintain or refactor the codebase .

11. Codebase Inconsistency

Different coding styles: The external libraries could use a different coding style or pattern than in the rest of the project. This leads to inconsistencies within the codebase, which becomes difficult to maintain uniform coding style among teams.

12. Debugging slowdown

Third-Party Bugs: Debugging may be difficult from an external library in the event that a bug has occurred in the code of the library. Developers may not have much visibility into the source code, thus delaying debugging.

13. Legal and Licensing Issues

Licensing Restrictions: Some external libraries have specific licenses attached to them, which might have some restrictions imposed upon their use-sometimes as a particular application may be commercial.

14. Lack of Long-Term Support

Abandon Risk: Some libraries are simply abandoned by their maintainers. As a result, the code may sit there and become outdated or even unsupported. This can particularly be disastrous if the project is long term in its nature and support and updates are a big deal.