Welcome to Building React Native Apps for Mac

Introduction

Walkthrough

What is React Native? The Mac and Mobile Web App Framework

React Native Pros and Cons for Building macOS Apps

How to Setup a New React Native Mac App

Getting started

State Management in React Native for Mac With MobX Library

How to Solve JavaScript Module Resolution with File Structure

How to Fetch Data From a REST API in a React Native Mac App

How to Create an API Store in React Native with Axios

How to Add Tailwind CSS to a React Native Mac App

How to Use and Customize Tailwind CSS in React Native

Behavior Encapsulation and React Native Reusable Components

Add React Native Navigation on macOS with React Navigation

Building bones of the application

Add Conditional Styles to React Native With Classnames

Optimize React Native with FlatLists and Native Webview

Advanced JavaScript topics

How React and macOS Communicate with React Native Bridge

How to Add React Native Vector Icons and Custom Fonts

How to Build a macOS Menu Bar App With React Native

How to Store Data on macOS Keychain with React Native Bridge

How to Expose macOS Native Modules to React JavaScript

How to Quit a React Native App on macOS

How to Add Hover and Focus States to a React Native Mac App

Limitations of Building Mac Apps With React Native

Build and Publish a React Native App on the Mac App Store

MacOS specific functionality

Advanced macOS functionality

How to Support Multiple Windows in React Native

Auto Launch a React Native Mac App With Swift Dependencies

How to Send macOS Notifications From a React Native App

Add macOS Drag and Drop Support to a React Native App

How to Handle Events in a React Native Mac App

Advanced topics

Good bye

Links and further reading

Links and references

react-native

node.js

typescript

tailwind-rn

In this course we will explore react-native as a framework for building macOS applications. Unlike web based tools, react-native offers a lot of benefits when it comes to performance and the ability to leverage native functionality.

React-native is not without its difficulties and the jump to a desktop environment requires not only novel technical solutions but also a different way of dealing with APIs and UI patterns.

In 30 lessons we cover setting up a scalable application architecture, connecting with native macOS APIs and exploring some workarounds. The course comes with a lot of new techniques, code samples and detailed instructions to develop React Native apps that are truly equal to native alternatives.

Taught by Oscar Franco, who has worked in several companies as team lead and CTO, released a bunch of React Native apps and has contributed many of the newest latest techniques for react-native-macos.

In this course we will learn how to create modern macOS applications using react-native, take advantage of all the goodies react-native provides on the mac.

Building React Native Apps for Mac

How to set up a scalable architecture for your application

How to leverage native APIs with JavaScript

How to create great desktop native experiences

Before moving on to the final part of the module, we need to discuss some other limitations of React-Native-macOS.  Whilst some of these are not show-stoppers it is worth mentioning before you dive headfirst into building your app.

Hermes is a JavaScript engine created by Facebook to cut loading times on Android. It does so by storing your JavaScript code as bytecode - this helps by not having to parse it in-device as it can be directly loaded, particularly useful on lower-end android devices and indeed on all platforms where you can ship bundled JavaScript. It should be released soon for iOS (with React Native 0.64), but it is available right now for macOS.

Enabling it is super simple; follow the instructions on the Podfile and uncomment the following line:

# macos/Podfile

# To use Hermes, install the `hermes-engine-darwin` npm package, e.g.:
#   $ yarn add 'hermes-engine-darwin@~0.5.3'
#
# Then enable this option:
#   :hermes_enabled => true

 (even though right now they are a bit outdated).

A word of caution! This is very new technology and in my experience there are subtle bugs. I had an issue where it completely froze my app when handling a large number of promises, meaning I had to revert to jscore (the default engine on apple devices). However if you have a very large JavaScript bundle it might help you cut your app's launch time.

---
title: Limitations of Building Mac Apps With React Native
isPublicLesson: false
---

Before moving on to the final part of the module, we need to discuss some other limitations of React-Native-macOS.  Whilst some of these are not show-stoppers it is worth mentioning before you dive headfirst into building your app.

### Hermes

Hermes is a JavaScript engine created by Facebook to cut loading times on Android. It does so by storing your JavaScript code as bytecode - this helps by not having to parse it in-device as it can be directly loaded, particularly useful on lower-end android devices and indeed on all platforms where you can ship bundled JavaScript. It should be released soon for iOS (with React Native 0.64), but it is available right now for macOS.

Enabling it is super simple; follow the instructions on the Podfile and uncomment the following line:

```ruby
# macos/Podfile

# To use Hermes, install the `hermes-engine-darwin` npm package, e.g.:
#   $ yarn add 'hermes-engine-darwin@~0.5.3'
#
# Then enable this option:
#   :hermes_enabled => true
```

Remember always to check the [official docs](https://microsoft.github.io/react-native-windows/docs/hermes) (even though right now they are a bit outdated).

A word of caution! This is very new technology and in my experience there are subtle bugs. I had an issue where it completely froze my app when handling a large number of promises, meaning I had to revert to jscore (the default engine on apple devices). However if you have a very large JavaScript bundle it might help you cut your app's launch time.

### Other UI components

Learn

The newline Guide to Building Your First GraphQL Server with Node and TypeScript

Teach

Amelia Wattenberger

Author of Fullstack D3

Community

Building React Native Apps for Mac

Module 1: Introduction

Introduction:

Start Here

Introduction: (0:58)

Welcome to Building React Native Apps for Mac

Module 2: Getting started

Lesson 1: (1:25)

Walkthrough

Lesson 2:

What is React Native? The Mac and Mobile Web App Framework

Lesson 3: (2:36)

React Native Pros and Cons for Building macOS Apps

Lesson 4: (11:18)

How to Setup a New React Native Mac App

Module 3: Building bones of the application

Lesson 1: (16:15)

State Management in React Native for Mac With MobX Library

Lesson 2: (7:57)

How to Solve JavaScript Module Resolution with File Structure

Lesson 3: (4:53)

How to Fetch Data From a REST API in a React Native Mac App

Lesson 4: (16:39)

How to Create an API Store in React Native with Axios

Lesson 5: (7:17)

How to Add Tailwind CSS to a React Native Mac App

Lesson 6: (10:43)

How to Use and Customize Tailwind CSS in React Native

Lesson 7: (10:18)

Behavior Encapsulation and React Native Reusable Components

Lesson 8: (14:56)

Add React Native Navigation on macOS with React Navigation

Module 4: Advanced JavaScript topics

Lesson 1: (6:56)

Add Conditional Styles to React Native With Classnames

Lesson 2: (9:40)

Optimize React Native with FlatLists and Native Webview

Module 5: MacOS specific functionality

Lesson 1:

How React and macOS Communicate with React Native Bridge

Lesson 2: (7:31)

How to Add React Native Vector Icons and Custom Fonts

Lesson 3: (18:35)

How to Build a macOS Menu Bar App With React Native

Lesson 4: (10:35)

How to Store Data on macOS Keychain with React Native Bridge

Lesson 5: (13:25)

How to Expose macOS Native Modules to React JavaScript

Lesson 6: (7:44)

How to Quit a React Native App on macOS

Lesson 7: (7:23)

How to Add Hover and Focus States to a React Native Mac App

Lesson 8:

Limitations of Building Mac Apps With React Native

Lesson 9: (5:00)

Build and Publish a React Native App on the Mac App Store

Module 2: Advanced topics

Lesson 1:

Advanced macOS functionality

Lesson 2: (15:45)

How to Support Multiple Windows in React Native

Lesson 3: (13:29)

Auto Launch a React Native Mac App With Swift Dependencies

Lesson 4: (11:58)

How to Send macOS Notifications From a React Native App

Lesson 5: (23:58)

Add macOS Drag and Drop Support to a React Native App

Lesson 6: (15:37)

How to Handle Events in a React Native Mac App

Module 6: Links and references

Lesson 1: (0:34)

Good bye

Lesson 2:

Links and further reading