CODEWITHSUNDEEP
react-nativeappceleratornativescript
Storm
Storm

Reputation: 3242

Different UI for Android/iOS in interpreted JS cross-platform tools

Some cross-platform tools (like Xamarin native and RubyMotion) allow the development of two separate views for Android and iOS, while keeping the business logic shared for both of them. Others (like Apache Cordova or Xamarin.Forms) share both UI and business layer, with the option to use platform-specific overrides when necessary.

What is the state of the interpreted JavaScript frameworks (NativeScript, React Native or Appcelerator)? Are they all focused on creating single UI with platform overrides, or do they allow creating two separate views for each platform? For example, is it possible to create a view using Fragments in Android, but a different view on iOS (since Fragments do not exist there)?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 792

Answers (2)

Maxim Shoustin
Maxim Shoustin

Reputation: 77910

Cordova uses WebView, that mean GUI level will be the same for both Android and iOS but different per Device version. In case of Android each client has own Chronium version and it can break UI behaviour. So developers use Crosswalk to set fixed Chronium version. (extra 20M to your application).

BTW Ionic that uses Cordova architecture uses native behaviour per platform. For example for Android Tabs located at the top, on iOS - at the bottom

On other hand Xamarin (C#), React-Native(JS) and NativeScript(JS) call native APIs. They don't use WebView but generate Native code.

For example if you create button - it will look different: on Android - material theme, on iOS - iPhone theme

Anyways, the bottom line is: everything depends on resources and time. If you want to build application fast, with the same view - I would go on Ionic2+ Angular2 + Cordova.

If you you have more time - go on React-Native or NativeScript (Still has poor documentation) or Xamarin (C#).

Upvotes: 2

Abdellah Stands with Gaza
Abdellah Stands with Gaza

Reputation: 5168

React-native's slogan is Learn once, write everywhere. So, you can choose what suits your needs, you can:

  • Share UI between platforms.
  • Share Only business logic.

So, the answer for react-native is yes. You can create separate UIs or you can share it. Since you are writing components, one way of separating this logic is to write component.android.js and component.ios.js and the platform loads the appropriate one for you. Note that you can also do that programmatically.

You can see that in action in the official f8 app made by facebook using react-native

Upvotes: 1

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