React Native Navigation v2 (WIP)

We are rebuilding react-native-navigation

• Why?
• Where is it standing now?
• Getting Started
• Usage

Why Rebuild react-native-navigation?

A New Improved Core Architecture

react-native-navigation has a few issues which are unsolvable in it’s current architecture.
These issues originate from the same problem: you cannot specify on which screen you wish to make an action. Whenever you want to push a screen, show a modal or any other action, the action defaults to originate from your current screen. This covers most use cases but there are some edge cases:

• What if you want to update your navbar icons and the user pops the screen? Your icons might update on the wrong screen.
• What if you want to push a screen as a result of a redux action?

There are ways to solve some of these problems in v1 but they are not straightforward. We want to change that.

New API

To solve this problem in v2, every screen receives as a prop it’s containerId. Whenever you want to perform an action from that screen you need to pass the containerId to the function:

Navigator.pop(this.props.containerId)

Built for Contributors

Currently, it requires a lot of work to accept pull requests. We need to manually make sure that everything works before we approve them because v1 is not thoroughly tested.
v2 is written with contributors in mind from day one.

Written In TDD

v2 is written in Test Driven Development. We have a test for every feature including features that are not implemented yet. This makes accepting pull requests extremely easy: If our tests pass, your pull request is accepted.

Where is it standing now?

v2 currently supports most of react-native-navigation’s basic functions but it is still behind v1. Here is the full comparison of features between v1 and v2 (will be updated regulary):

Top Level API

Screen API

Styles

Note: properties who begin with 'navBar' in v1 are now named 'topBar' to avoid confusion with the android native bottom nav bar.

Element tranisitions, adding buttons and styles are not yet implemented. Contribute

Getting started with v2

If v2 supports everything you need for your app we encourage you to use it.

Installation

1. Download react-native-navigation v2

yarn add react-native-navigation@alpha

iOS

2. In Xcode, in Project Navigator (left pane), right-click on the Libraries > Add files to [project name]. Add ./node_modules/react-native-navigation/lib/ios/ReactNativeNavigation.xcodeproj (screenshots)

3. In Xcode, in Project Navigator (left pane), click on your project (top) and select the Build Phases tab (right pane). In the Link Binary With Libraries section add libReactNativeNavigation.a (screenshots)

4. In Xcode, in Project Navigator (left pane), click on your project (top) and select the Build Settings tab (right pane). In the Header Search Paths section add $(SRCROOT)/../node_modules/react-native-navigation/lib/ios. Make sure on the right to mark this new path recursive (screenshots)

5. In Xcode, under your project files, modify AppDelegate.m. add:

#import <ReactNativeNavigation/ReactNativeNavigation.h>

remove everything in the method didFinishLaunchingWithOptions and add:

NSURL *jsCodeLocation = [[RCTBundleURLProvider sharedSettings] jsBundleURLForBundleRoot:@"index.ios" fallbackResource:nil];
[ReactNativeNavigation bootstrap:jsCodeLocation launchOptions:launchOptions];

Android

2. Add the following in android/settings.gradle.

   include ':react-native-navigation'
   project(':react-native-navigation').projectDir = new File(rootProject.projectDir, '../node_modules/react-native-	navigation/lib/android/app/')

3. Update project dependencies in android/app/build.gradle.

   android {
       compileSdkVersion 25
       buildToolsVersion "25.0.1"
       ...
   }
   
   dependencies {
       compile fileTree(dir: "libs", include: ["*.jar"])
       compile "com.android.support:appcompat-v7:23.0.1"
       compile "com.facebook.react:react-native:+"
       compile project(':react-native-navigation')
   }

4. In MainActivity.java it should extend com.reactnativenavigation.controllers.SplashActivity instead of ReactActivity.

   This file can be located in android/app/src/main/java/com/yourproject/.

   import com.reactnativenavigation.controllers.SplashActivity;
   
   public class MainActivity extends SplashActivity {
   
   }

   If you have any react-native related methods, you can safely delete them.

5. In MainApplication.java, add the following

   import com.reactnativenavigation.NavigationApplication;
   
   public class MainApplication extends NavigationApplication {
   
       @Override
       public boolean isDebug() {
           // Make sure you are using BuildConfig from your own application
           return BuildConfig.DEBUG;
       }
   
       protected List<ReactPackage> getPackages() {
           // Add additional packages you require here
           // No need to add RnnPackage and MainReactPackage
           return Arrays.<ReactPackage>asList(
               // eg. new VectorIconsPackage()
           );
       }
   
       @Override
       public List<ReactPackage> createAdditionalReactPackages() {
           return getPackages();
       }
   }

   Make sure that isDebug and createAdditionalReactPackages methods are implemented.

6. Update AndroidManifest.xml and set android:name value to .MainApplication

   <application
       android:name=".MainApplication"
       ...
   />

Usage

Top Screen API

Navigation

import Navigation from 'react-native-navigation';

Events - On App Launched

How to initiate your app.

Navigation.events().onAppLaunched(() => {
    Navigation.setRoot({
      container: {
        name: 'navigation.playground.WelcomeScreen'
      }
    });
  });

registerContainer(screenID, generator)

Every screen component in your app must be registered with a unique name. The component itself is a traditional React component extending React.Component.

Navigation.registerContainer(`navigation.playground.WelcomeScreen`, () => WelcomeScreen);

setRoot({params})

Start a Single page app with two side menus:

Navigation.setRoot({
      container: {
        name: 'navigation.playground.WelcomeScreen'
      },
      sideMenu: {
        left: {
          container: {
            name: 'navigation.playground.TextScreen',
            passProps: {
              text: 'This is a left side menu screen'
            }
          }
        },
        right: {
          container: {
            name: 'navigation.playground.TextScreen',
            passProps: {
              text: 'This is a right side menu screen'
            }
          }
        }
      }
    });

Start a tab based app:

Navigation.setRoot({
      tabs: [
        {
          container: {
            name: 'navigation.playground.TextScreen',
            passProps: {
              text: 'This is tab 1',
              myFunction: () => 'Hello from a function!'
            }
          }
        },
        {
          container: {
            name: 'navigation.playground.TextScreen',
            passProps: {
              text: 'This is tab 2'
            }
          }
        }
      ]
    });

Screen API

push(params)

Push a new screen into this screen's navigation stack.

Navigation.push(this.props.containerId, {
      name: 'navigation.playground.PushedScreen',
      passProps: {}
    });

pop(containerId)

Pop the top screen from this screen's navigation stack.

Navigation.pop(this.props.containerId);

popTo(params)

Navigation.popTo(this.props.containerId, this.props.previousScreenIds[0]);

popToRoot()

Pop all the screens until the root from this screen's navigation stack

Navigation.popToRoot(this.props.containerId);

showModal(params = {})

Show a screen as a modal.

Navigation.showModal({
      container: {
        name: 'navigation.playground.ModalScreen',
        passProps: {
            key: 'value'
        }
      }
    });

dismissModal(containerId)

Dismiss modal.

Navigation.dismissModal(this.props.containerId);

dismissAllModals()

Dismiss all the current modals at the same time.

Navigation.dismissAllModals();

Screen Lifecycle - onStop() and onStart()

The onStop() and onStart() functions are lifecycle functions that are added to the screen and run when a screen apears and disappears from the screen. To use them simply add them to your component like any other react lifecycle function:

class LifecycleScreen extends Component {
  constructor(props) {
    super(props);
    this.state = {
      text: 'nothing yet'
    };
  }

  onStart() {
    this.setState({ text: 'onStart' });
  }

  onStop() {
    alert('onStop'); //eslint-disable-line
  }

  componentWillUnmount() {
    alert('componentWillUnmount'); //eslint-disable-line
  }

  render() {
    return (
      <View style={styles.root}>
        <Text style={styles.h1}>{`Lifecycle Screen`}</Text>
    <Text style={styles.h1}>{this.state.text}</Text>
      </View>
    );
  }
}