React Native with Nx
Nx provides a holistic dev experience powered by an advanced CLI and editor plugins. It provides rich support for common tools like Detox, Storybook, Jest, and more.
In this guide we will show you how to develop React Native applications with Nx.
Creating Nx Workspace
The easiest way to create your workspace is via npx.
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npx create-nx-workspace happynrwl \
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--preset=react-native \
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--appName=mobile
You can also run the command without arguments to go through the interactive prompts.
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npx create-nx-workspace happynrwl
Once the command completes, the workspace will look as follows:
1happynrwl/
2├── apps/
3│ ├── mobile/
4│ │ ├── app.json
5│ │ ├── metro.config.js
6│ │ ├── android/
7│ │ │ ├── app/
8│ │ │ ├── gradle/
9│ │ │ ├── build.gradle
10│ │ │ ├── gradle.properties
11│ │ │ ├── gradlew
12│ │ │ ├── settings.gradle
13│ │ ├── ios/
14│ │ │ ├── Mobile/
15│ │ │ ├── Mobile.xcodeproj/
16│ │ │ ├── Mobile.xcworkspace/
17│ │ │ ├── Podfile
18│ │ │ ├── Podfile.lock
19│ │ ├── src/
20│ │ │ ├── main.tsx
21│ │ │ └── app/
22│ │ │ ├── App.tsx
23│ │ │ └── App.spec.tsx
24│ │ ├── .babelrc
25│ │ ├── jest.config.ts
26│ │ ├── test-setup.ts
27│ │ ├── package.json
28│ │ ├── project.json
29│ │ ├── tsconfig.json
30│ │ ├── tsconfig.app.json
31│ │ └── tsconfig.spec.json
32│ └── mobile-e2e/
33│ ├── .detoxrc.json
34│ ├── src/
35│ │ └── app.spec.ts
36│ ├── .babelrc
37│ ├── jest.config.json
38│ ├── project.json
39│ ├── tsconfig.e2e.json
40│ └── tsconfig.json
41├── libs/
42├── tools/
43├── babel.config.json
44├── jest.config.ts
45├── jest.preset.js
46├── nx.json
47├── package-lock.json
48├── package.json
49└── tsconfig.base.json
50To run the application in development mode:
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npx nx start mobile
On Android simulator/device:
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npx nx run-android mobile
iOS simulator/device:
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npx nx run-ios mobile
Try out other commands as well.
nx lint mobileto lint the applicationnx test mobileto run unit test on the application using Jestnx sync-deps mobileto sync app dependencies to itspackage.json.
Release build
Android:
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npx nx build-android mobile
iOS: (Mac only)
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npx nx build-ios mobile
E2E
Android:
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npx nx test-android mobile-e2e
iOS: (Mac only)
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npx nx test-ios mobile-e2e
When using React Native in Nx, you get the out-of-the-box support for TypeScript, Detox, and Jest.
Adding React Native to an Existing Workspace
For existing Nx workspaces, install the @nx/react-native package to add React Native capabilities to it.
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npm install @nx/react-native --save-dev
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# Or with yarn
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yarn add @nx/react-native --dev
Generating an Application
To create additional React Native apps run:
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npx nx g @nx/react-native:app mobile --directory=apps/mobile
Generating a Library
Nx allows you to create libraries with just one command. Some reasons you might want to create a library include:
- Share code between applications
- Publish a package to be used outside the monorepo
- Better visualize the architecture using
npx nx graph
For more information on Nx libraries, see our documentation on Creating Libraries and Library Types.
To generate a new library run:
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npx nx g @nx/react-native:lib shared-ui-layout --directory=libs/shared-ui-layout
And you will see the following:
1happynrwl/
2├── apps/
3│ └── mobile/
4│ └── mobile-e2e/
5├── libs/
6│ └── shared-ui-layout/
7│ ├── src/
8│ │ └── index.ts
9│ ├── .babelrc
10│ ├── jest.config.js
11│ ├── project.json
12│ ├── README.md
13│ ├── test-setup.ts
14│ ├── tsconfig.json
15│ ├── tsconfig.lib.json
16│ └── tsconfig.spec.json
17├── tools/
18├── babel.config.json
19├── jest.config.js
20├── jest.preset.js
21├── nx.json
22├── package-lock.json
23├── package.json
24└── tsconfig.base.json
25Run:
npx nx test shared-ui-layoutto test the librarynpx nx lint shared-ui-layoutto lint the library
To generate a new component inside shared-ui-layout run:
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npx nx g @nx/react-native:component layout --project=shared-ui-layout --export
And you will see the following updated for shared-ui-layout:
1happynrwl/
2└── libs/
3 └── shared-ui-layout/
4 └── src/
5 ├── index.ts
6 └── lib/
7 └── layout/
8 ├── layout.tsx
9 └── layout.spec.tsx
10Using Nx Library in your Application
You can import the shared-ui-layout library in your application as follows.
1import React from 'react';
2import { SafeAreaView } from 'react-native';
3
4import { Layout } from '@happynrwl/shared-ui-layout';
5
6const App = () => {
7 return (
8 <SafeAreaView>
9 <Layout />
10 </SafeAreaView>
11 );
12};
13
14export default App;
15That's it! There is no need to build the library prior to using it. When you update your library, the React Native application will automatically pick up the changes.
Publishable libraries
For libraries intended to be built and published to a registry (e.g. npm) you can use the --publishable and --importPath options.
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npx nx g @nx/react-native:lib shared-ui-layout --directory=libs/shared-ui-layout --publishable --importPath=@happynrwl/ui-components
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npx nx g @nx/react-native:component layout --project=shared-ui-layout --export
Run npx nx build shared-ui-layout to build the library. It will generate the following:
1dist/libs/shared-ui-layout/
2├── README.md
3├── index.d.ts
4├── lib/
5│ └── layout/
6│ └── layout.d.ts
7└── package.json
8This dist folder is ready to be published to a registry.
Code Sharing
Without Nx, creating a new shared library can take from several hours to even weeks: a new repo needs to be provisioned, CI needs to be set up, etc... In an Nx Workspace, it only takes minutes.
You can share React Native components between multiple React Native applications, share business logic code between React Native mobile applications and plain React web applications. You can even share code between the backend and the frontend. All of these can be done without any unnecessary ceremony.