Unlock the Power of JavaScript: Building Cross-Platform Mobile Apps with Vue.js and NativeScript
JavaScript has come a long way since its inception as a browser-based language. Today, it’s a versatile tool that can be used to build almost anything, from websites to mobile apps. In this article, we’ll explore how to harness the power of JavaScript to build cross-platform mobile apps using Vue.js and NativeScript.
What is Cross-Platform App Development?
Cross-platform app development is the process of creating native applications that can run on different mobile platforms, sharing a single codebase. This approach eliminates the need to develop separate apps for each platform, saving time and resources.
Introducing NativeScript
NativeScript is an open-source framework for building truly native mobile apps. It allows developers to use modern web technologies like Angular, Vue.js, or just HTML, CSS, and JavaScript/TypeScript to build mobile apps. NativeScript takes away the need to learn native technologies like Swift or Objective-C for iOS and Java or Kotlin for Android, enabling developers to develop for iOS, Android, and the web from a single JavaScript codebase.
Prerequisites
To follow along with this tutorial, you’ll need:
- Node.js 10x or higher
- Yarn/npm 5.2 or higher installed on your PC
- Basic knowledge of JavaScript and how Vue.js works
- Vue CLI installed on your PC
- Set up the Android and/or iOS requirements on your PC
- NativeScript CLI installed on your PC
Building Our App
We’ll be using the Vue CLI and NativeScript CLI to bootstrap a new project. First, we’ll install support for Vue CLI 2.x templates using the @vue/cli-init package. Then, we’ll create a new project using the NativeScript-Vue starter template and the init command.
Understanding NativeScript Components
NativeScript uses native user interface components, which serve as building blocks for the app. Some of the key components we’ll be using to build our app include:
<Page>: represents an application screen<Image>: shows an image from an ImageSource or a URL<Label>: displays read-only text<ListView>: shows items in a vertical list<ActionBar>: provides a toolbar at the top of the application screen
Styling Components
There are four major ways to style these components:
- Platform-specific CSS: styles a specific platform the app is served on
- Application-wide CSS: defined in the app.css and used across all application pages
- Page-specific CSS: defined in the
<style>tag of a specific page component UI view - Inline CSS: defined in the markup of a component and takes the highest precedence
Getting Started
We’ll start by installing support for Vue CLI 2.x templates and creating a new project using the NativeScript-Vue starter template. Then, we’ll install the project dependencies and spin up the project using the tns run command.
Making HTTP Requests with Axios
We’ll install the Axios library to make HTTP requests and import it in the main.js file. Then, we’ll define the array where we’ll store the data retrieved from the API and create a method object that will contain the function that makes the API request.
Setting Up the User Interface
We’ll write the markup (XML) for our application to set up the user interface. We’ll loop over the items in the characters array and display information for each item in the list.
Bundling the App
Finally, we’ll create a build for both iOS and Android using the following commands:
tns build iostns build android
The resulting app should look similar to this:
Conclusion
In this article, we’ve learned how to build native mobile apps with NativeScript and Vue.js. We’ve also seen how to bundle for both iOS and Android devices. With NativeScript, you can unlock the full potential of JavaScript and build cross-platform mobile apps with ease.