You're reading from React and React Native Build cross-platform JavaScript and TypeScript apps for web and mobile

Product type Paperback

Published in Apr 2026

Publisher Packt

ISBN-13 9781837020294

Length 578 pages

Edition 6th Edition

Languages

JavaScript

Tools

React

Concepts

Front End Web Development

Authors (3):

Mikhail Sakhniuk

Rodrigo Lobenwein

Adam Boduch

View More author details

Table of Contents (35) Chapters

Preface

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1. Part 1: React

2. Chapter 1: Why React? FREE CHAPTER

3. Chapter 2: Rendering with JSX

4. Chapter 3: Understanding React Components and Hooks

5. Chapter 4: Event Handling in the React Way

6. Chapter 5: Crafting Reusable Components

7. Chapter 6: Type-Checking and Validation with TypeScript

8. Chapter 7: Handling Navigation with Routes

9. Chapter 8: Code Splitting Using Lazy Components and Suspense

10. Chapter 9: User Interface Framework Components

11. Chapter 10: High-Performance State Updates

12. Chapter 11: Fetching Data from a Server

13. Chapter 12: State Management in React

14. Chapter 13: Server-Side Rendering

15. Chapter 14: Unit Testing in React

16. Part 2: React Native

17. Chapter 15: Why React Native?

18. Chapter 16: React Native Under the Hood

19. Chapter 17: Kick-Starting React Native Projects

20. Chapter 18: Building Responsive Layouts with Flexbox

21. Chapter 19: Navigating Between Screens

22. Chapter 20: Rendering Item Lists

23. Chapter 21: Geolocation and Maps

24. Chapter 22: Collecting User Input

25. Chapter 23: Responding to User Gestures

26. Chapter 24: Showing Progress

27. Chapter 25: Displaying Modal Screens

28. Chapter 26: Using Animations

29. Chapter 27: Controlling Image Display

30. Chapter 28: Going Offline

31. Chapter 29: AI as a Learning Partner

32. Chapter 30: Unlock Your Exclusive Benefits

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33. Other Books You May Enjoy

34. Index

15

Why React Native?

Meta (formerly Facebook) created React Native to build its mobile applications. It was started as a hackathon project in the summer of 2013 at Facebook and was open sourced for everyone in 2015. In 2025, Meta transferred React and React Native to the newly established React Foundation under the Linux Foundation, ensuring the projects' long-term independence and community governance.

The motivation to create React Native originated from the fact that React for the web was so successful. So, if React is such a good tool for UI development, and you need a native application, then why fight it? Just make React work with native mobile OS UI elements! Therefore, in the same year, Facebook divided React into two independent libraries, React and ReactDOM, and since then, React has had to work only with interfaces and not care about where these elements will be rendered. This separation of concerns was the lightbulb moment for mobile development. By decoupling the core...