Swipe Your Way to Success: 5 Essential React Native Components
Get Ready to Swipe
We’re living in a world where swiping has become second nature. From finding love to ordering food, our phones have become an extension of our hands. In this tutorial, we’ll dive into the world of React Native and explore five essential swiper components that will take your app to the next level.
Creating an Expo Project
To get started, initialize your project and select the “tabs” template (TypeScript). Fire up your preferred IDE, and let’s get going!
Building an Intro Screen That Wows
First impressions count, and an intro screen is the perfect place to start. We’ll use React Native App Intro Slider to create a stunning intro screen that sets the tone for your app. This library uses React Native FlatList to render four random images. You can add your own images or download the examples provided.
The Magic of renderItem and renderPagination
The AppIntroSlider component is where the magic happens. renderItem takes an item from the data array and renders it into the list, while renderPagination uses the same data array to track the current item on the list. We’ll provide the activeIndex and current value from the mutable useRef object, along with a callback function.
FlatList: The Unsung Hero
FlatList is used under the hood for many swiper libraries, making it an essential component to master. We’ll create a FlatList component that turns our standard scrollable list into a swipeable (left/right) component.
Generating Mock Data with Faker
To provide familiarity across components, we’ll create a mock data function using Faker. This will generate an array of 20 objects for us to play with, each with an id, title, and image property.
material-top-tabs: Smooth Swiping Between Tabs
React Navigation comes with a great top tabs component that facilitates a smooth swiping experience between tabs. We’ll install material-top-tabs and create a TopTabsBar component that animates the style of the Text component opacity, taking the active index from 1 (full opacity) to 0.2.
react-native-snap-carousel: The Popular Choice
With over 8.6K GitHub stars, react-native-snap-carousel is a popular library that offers three built-in layouts: default, stack, and tinder. We’ll create a reusable Carousel component and three screens to display different built-in layouts.
react-native-swipe-list-view: Swipeable Lists Made Easy
If you’re building an app with swipeable lists, react-native-swipe-list-view is the library for you. We’ll install it and create a SwipeList component that uses Animated Values to initialize rowSwipeAnimatedValues and create a new Animated Value for each object in our initialList array object.
Putting it All Together
By now, you should be feeling very comfortable creating animated swiper components with libraries that use React Native FlatList. With these five essential components, you’ll be well on your way to creating an app that users will love. Happy swiping!