Upgrade to Pro
— share decks privately, control downloads, hide ads and more …
Speaker Deck
Features
Speaker Deck
PRO
Sign in
Sign up for free
Search
Search
React Native: Under the Hood
Search
Alexander Kotliarskyi
June 09, 2015
Programming
31
22k
React Native: Under the Hood
Alexander Kotliarskyi
June 09, 2015
Tweet
Share
More Decks by Alexander Kotliarskyi
See All by Alexander Kotliarskyi
Building Stellar User Experiences with React Native
frantic
2
1.1k
React Native Tutorial - NYC'15
frantic
5
1.4k
Other Decks in Programming
See All in Programming
CSC307 Lecture 04
javiergs
PRO
0
660
組織で育むオブザーバビリティ
ryota_hnk
0
180
AIによる開発の民主化を支える コンテキスト管理のこれまでとこれから
mulyu
3
360
AI & Enginnering
codelynx
0
110
KIKI_MBSD Cybersecurity Challenges 2025
ikema
0
1.3k
AIによる高速開発をどう制御するか? ガードレール設置で開発速度と品質を両立させたチームの事例
tonkotsuboy_com
7
2.4k
CSC307 Lecture 10
javiergs
PRO
1
660
2026年 エンジニアリング自己学習法
yumechi
0
140
AIエージェント、”どう作るか”で差は出るか? / AI Agents: Does the "How" Make a Difference?
rkaga
4
2k
疑似コードによるプロンプト記述、どのくらい正確に実行される?
kokuyouwind
0
390
AI によるインシデント初動調査の自動化を行う AI インシデントコマンダーを作った話
azukiazusa1
1
740
AIで開発はどれくらい加速したのか?AIエージェントによるコード生成を、現場の評価と研究開発の評価の両面からdeep diveしてみる
daisuketakeda
1
2.5k
Featured
See All Featured
How to Create Impact in a Changing Tech Landscape [PerfNow 2023]
tammyeverts
55
3.2k
JavaScript: Past, Present, and Future - NDC Porto 2020
reverentgeek
52
5.8k
Principles of Awesome APIs and How to Build Them.
keavy
128
17k
No one is an island. Learnings from fostering a developers community.
thoeni
21
3.6k
Large-scale JavaScript Application Architecture
addyosmani
515
110k
Exploring the relationship between traditional SERPs and Gen AI search
raygrieselhuber
PRO
2
3.6k
Into the Great Unknown - MozCon
thekraken
40
2.3k
Site-Speed That Sticks
csswizardry
13
1.1k
HU Berlin: Industrial-Strength Natural Language Processing with spaCy and Prodigy
inesmontani
PRO
0
220
Joys of Absence: A Defence of Solitary Play
codingconduct
1
290
Fashionably flexible responsive web design (full day workshop)
malarkey
408
66k
Fight the Zombie Pattern Library - RWD Summit 2016
marcelosomers
234
17k
Transcript
React Native: Under the hood Alex Kotliarskyi Facebook
Plan 1. Why native apps matter? 2. How ReactJS works
3. Running ReactJS on native platforms
Why do we ❤ native apps?
Native Apps • Fast, responsive • Complex gestures and smooth
animations • Consistent with platform
None
Building native apps is hard • Different stacks of technologies
• No knowledge and code sharing • Slow iteration speed • Hard to scale
Web got this right
Web • Different stacks of technologies • No knowledge and
code sharing • Slow iteration speed • Hard to scale HTML / CSS / JS Same code and tech F5 / ⌘R React!
Web apps on the phone are not great • Very
hard to provide smooth experiences • Not designed for complex interactions • Impossible to embed native components
Development experience Awesome apps
React Native
None
UI = ƒ*(data) * No side effects
None
UI = ƒ(count)
UI = ƒ(count) = div( span('Count ' + count), button('Add
+1') )
render() { return (
div( span( 'Count: ' + b(this.state.count) ), button( 'Add +1' ) ) ) }
render() { return (
<div> <span> Count: <b>{this.state.count}</b> </span> <button> Add +1 </button> </div> ) } HTML VirtualDOM
render() { return (
<div> <span> Count: <b>{this.state.count}</b> </span> <button onClick={() => ??? }> Add +1 </button> </div> ) }
TextView text = (TextView)findViewByID(R.layout.label); text.setText('10'); _label.text = @"10"; too
complex Android Objective-C JavaScript document.getElementByID('count').children[1].innerHTML = '10'; $('#counter b').html('10');
render() { var count = this.state.count;
return ( <div> <span> Count: <b>{count}</b> </span> <button onClick={() => ??? }> Add +1 </button> </div> ) }
render() { var count = this.state.count;
return ( <div> <span> Count: <b>{count}</b> </span> <button onClick={() => this.setState({count: count + 1})}> Add +1 </button> </div> ) } setState
setState
<div> <span>
Count: <b>9</b> </span> <button> Add +1 </button> </div> <div> <span> Count: <b>10</b> </span> <button> Add +1 </button> </div> state = {count: 9} state = {count: 10} <b>9</b> <b>9</b> <b>10</b> findDOMNode(b).innerHTML = '10';
Components Browser DOM UIKit Components Components Components VirtualDOM
1. Runtime 2.Base components 3. Calling native functions
ECMAScript 5
JavaScript Core • Part of WebKit project • Open Source
• Ships with iOS Runtime
<div> <span> <img> <View> <Text> <Image>
<ScrollView> <MapView> <TabBar> <DatePicker> ... Base components
create(view, parent, attributes)* update(view, attributes) delete(view) * actually React is
more complex that that
Just call native functions? nope
Synchronous
Native Method JavaScript time Waiting…
JavaScript time Native JavaScript Native
Synchronous Asynchronous
Overhead of every native call
JavaScript time
time JavaScript
Overhead of every native call Batch native calls
Shared mutable data
Native Objects JavaScript Objects
Shared mutable data Exchange serializable messages
Asynchronous Batched Serializable
The Bridge
Native Bridge JavaScript
Native Bridge JavaScript Event (touch, timer, networks, etc.) 1 Collect
data and notify JS 2 Serialized payload 3 Process event 4 Call 0 – ∞ native methods 5 Update UI (if needed) 8 Serialized response 6 Process commands 7
JS is event-driven
Events Commands
Example
• Updates counter • Sends data to web service
render() { return (
<View style={styles.container}> <Text style={styles.value}> {this.state.count} </Text> <Button title="Add +1" onPress={() => this.inc()} /> </View> ); }
inc() { var newCount =
this.state.count + 1; this.setState({count: newCount}); fetch( 'https://api.conunter.io/', { method: 'post', body: 'value=' + newCount } ); }
Native UITouch [_bridge enqueueJSCall:@"EventEmitter.receiveTouches" args:@[@"end", @{@"x": @42, @"y": @106}]]; x,
y, view, ...
Native Bridge JavaScript [ 'EventEmitter', 'receiveTouches', ['end', {'x': 42, 'y':
106}] ] [_bridge enqueueJSCall:@"RCTEventEmitter.receiveTouches" args:@[@"end", @{@"x": @42, @"y": @106}]]; call('EventEmitter', 'receiveTouches', [{x: 42, y: ...}])
function call(moduleName, methodName, args) { MessageQueue.init();
var module = require(moduleName); module[methodName].apply(module, args); return MessageQueue.flush(); } // EventEmitter // receiveTouches Message queue
Touch processing
What element should respond to a given event?
Button Button pressed!
Button Cancelled
Button Cancelled Scrollview
Button Scrolling stops Scrollview
Button Scrollview Horizontal Scrollview Navigator
Responder System
onStartShouldSetResponder onResponderTerminationRequest onResponderGrant onResponderMove onResponderRelease onResponderTerminate …
<TouchableOpacity> <TouchableHighlight> <TouchableBounce> <TouchableWithoutFeedback> onPress
inc() { var newCount =
this.state.count + 1; this.setState({count: newCount}); fetch( 'https://api.conunter.io/', { method: 'post', body: 'value=' + newCount } ); }
<View style={...}>
<Text style={...}> 42 </Text> <Button title="Add +1" onPress={...} /> </View> <View style={...}> <Text style={...}> 43 </Text> <Button title="Add +1" onPress={...} /> </View> 42 43
var UIManager = require('NativeModules').UIManager; UIManager.update(18, {text: '43'}); Somewhere in
React's internals:
NativeModules
NativeModules.UIManager = { ... update: function(viewID,
attributes) { MessageQueue.push( ['UIManager', 'update', [viewID, attributes]] ); } ... }; Message queue UIManager update ..
inc() { var newCount =
this.state.count + 1; this.setState({count: newCount}); fetch( 'https://api.conunter.io/', { method: 'post', body: 'value=' + newCount } ); } Message queue UIManager update .. DataManager query ....
function call(moduleName, methodName, args) { MessageQueue.init();
var module = require(moduleName); module[methodName].apply(module, args); return MessageQueue.flush(); } Message queue UIManager update .. DataManager query ....
Native Bridge JavaScript [UIManager updateView:18 props:@{@"text": @"43"}] [DataManager query:@"post" url:@"http://..."]
[ ['UIManager', 'update', [18, {text: '43'}]], ['DataManager', 'query', ['post', 'http://...']] ] Message queue UIManager update .. DataManager query ....
Native [UIManager updateView:18 props:@{@"text": @"43"}] addUIBlock:^() { UILabel *label =
viewRegistry[18]; label.text = @"43"; [label markAsDirty]; }
Layout Layout github.com/facebook/css-layout
{ margin: 20, borderBottomWidth: 2, flex: 1, alignContent: 'center', }
{ left: 120, top: 220, width: 60, height: 60, } Flexbox Coordinates
• User taps the button • Counter is updated
Native Bridge JavaScript Event (touch, timer, networks, etc.) 1 Collect
data and notify JS 2 Serialized payload 3 Process event 4 Call 0 – ∞ native methods 5 Serialized response 6 Process commands 7 Update UI (if needed) 8
Benefits
Fast
Native Bridge JavaScript Event (touch, timer, networks, etc.) 1 Update
UI (if needed) 8 Collect data and notify JS 2 Serialized payload 3 Process event 4 Call 0 – ∞ native methods 5 Serialized response 6 Process commands 7
Record / Replay
Flexible JS runtime
Native Bridge JavaScript
Native Bridge JavaScript Awesome App
Native Bridge JavaScript Awesome App WebKit process IPC
Native Bridge JavaScript Awesome App Chrome Debugger WebSockets
Live demo iPhone -> Chrome
None
None
Heroku iPhone
Streaming
None
UI = ƒ(data)
Thank you! github.com/frantic/tlv-2015 @alex_frantic