Top 5 Best Practices for React Native Development

React Native was developed in 2011 by Meta, with the aim to provide developers with an intuitive solution that helps them in developing hybrid applications.

There are many good reasons that make it one of the most popular choices for app development, among them is its ability to allow react native developers to create cross-platform applications using one codebase.

It works by leveraging the power of JavaScript and native components to help developers create robust and scalable applications. Speaking of JavaScript-based frameworks and libraries, there is no standard way of coding exists. But, it is recommended you should adhere to the below practices while writing react native programs.

With these practices, your code will appear clean, and if it involves two or more team members, it would be easier to understand and seamless to work with.

Why Coding Standard is important?
Even puzzled over the code you wrote an age ago due to unstructured coding you used as a beginner. It often happens with programmers and every time you wish you could have followed some sort of rules (or protocols) that could help you examine your code without any difficulty.

You have come across another situation when your code is unstable, not properly working, or throws some errors. And now it is very hard to detect as your code is not written in an organized way. It may lead to frustration and decreased productivity.

This is why major organizations that provide react native app development services

have some sort of standard protocol writing code, while the majority of coders often struggle to find the right practices that help them in writing clean and standard code.

In this article, we will discuss some React Native development practices that you can apply during programming.

Once you follow the proper guidelines, you will see the codebase is now easy to maintain, and enhanced teamwork. The biggest advantage is it reduces the effort needed to understand the code while updating or reviewing the source code.

Let’ 's see some popular practices in 2023 to follow.

1. Naming conventions: In general, naming conventions refers to a set of rules for naming anything (it could be a file or folder name, class name, function, identifiers, etc.) on your codebase. You can apply the below naming convention standards.

camelCase: camelCase refers to a writing style where the first letter of the first word is written in small while the following word starts with a capital letter.

For example; firstName, lastName, userName, etc.

Example: firstName, lastName, userName,etc.

PascalCase: PascalCase writing style refers to a method where the first and second word both starts with a capital.

Example: UserName, FirstName, LastName,etc.

Snake_Case: In this, two or more words are separated by an underscore. You can keep the words either in uppercase or lowercase. Though lower cases are more prevalent.

Example: user_name, first_name, LAST_NAME,etc.

Kebab-Case: It refers to writing style when words are separated by dashes as the followings are:

Example: user-name, first-name, last-name, etc.

Also, you can employ these rules to name your files and folders. For example; a folder name should start with a smaller case. While naming the files you choose camel or pascal case. Coming to the class, variable name declaration, you should abide by the set of rules as described by the community of developers.

1. Organize the files and folders in a proper way

Image source: medium

The above image is to give you a reference to create an ecosystem to put the files properly. For example; you can create a source and asset folder where you can put the source code and assets such as images, icons, and different folders respectively. If you have larger code, you can divide the resources and create multiple folders to travel through files and folders with ease.

In the React ecosystem, organizing and setting up folders and files in a proper way is an essential practice that you should follow so you can have a clear idea of where particular resources are located.

1. Don’t Repeat the Same Code React has features that let you create reusable components that aid programmers don’t write repetitive code again and again. Instead of repetitive code writing, you can create reusable blocks and utilize them in order to avoid repetition.

Here is an example of creating a reusable component in React Native:

import React, { Component } from 'react';

import { View, Text } from 'react-native';

export class Header extends Component {

  render() {

    return (

      <View style={styles.container}>

        <Text>React Foo 2018</Text>

        <Text>Hyderabad</Text>

      </View>

    );

  }

}

This is a simple Header component that can be reused anywhere in your React Native project 1. You can import it into another file like this:

import { Header } from './src';

And then use it like this:

<View style={styles.container}>

  <Header />

</View>

You can also customize components by passing props. For example, you could create a HeaderWithProps component that takes title and subTitle props like this:

export class HeaderWithProps extends Component {

  render() {

    return (

      <View style={styles.container}>

        <Text>{this.props.title}</Text>

        <Text>{this.props.subTitle}</Text>

      </View>

    );

  }

}

And then use it like this:

<HeaderWithProps title='ReactFoo' subTitle='Hyderabad' />

Generated through ChatGPT

1. Don’t use Inline styles
   Maintaining inline styles can be challenging. If you have to make changes, you’ll have to search and modify the code in many places. While you can externally define the code by creating a class and ID so you will have to modify only classes and IDs in order to make changes in multiple places.

2. Sort your Imports in an order

It is always a good practice to organize your imports. By doing so, it would be easier to understand what you have extracted from a particular package and also differentiate what imports are from third-party. The standard order is as follows.

1. React import
2. External library imports (in alphabetical order)
3. Import library from the project(sort in alphabetical order)

Conclusion
In this article, we have described some best practices for react native development that you should follow. These practices can help you identify the problems and maintain the app efficiently.

If you are looking for top-notch app development for a range of platforms, you can reach out to Brilworks, a top-notch react native development company that can help you migrate your app from traditional tech stacks to leverage modern frameworks such as React Native, and help you create an app for a niche market such as e-commerce, social media, and games.

So what are you waiting for? You can hire react native app developer with a no-risk trial policy.

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