Mobile app development with React Native for Kodeworks

Abstract

This report describes the completion of a project exploring the use of React Native as an alternative cross-platform technology to develop mobile applications from a single repository and project. As a result a mobile application for IoT-GPS-trackers, which makes use of an existing backend system provided by the project owner, was developed using React Native.

Two qualitative research methods were chosen to explore the problem, to explore the problem statement through developing the application and documenting the experience, and to reach out to other developers with experience in using both React Native and native languages for mobile app development. The first method yielded good results, whereas the second method failed.

The completion of the project resulted in the discovery of several advantages and disadvantages of using React Native, which was further discussed in relation to the project owners specific goals. The choice of methods was also discussed in detail, pointing out why one were successful while the other failed.

The conclusion after completing the project tells that the advantages and disadvantages should be weighed differently, depending on the nature and type of the mobile app in question. Although React Native would be a great choice for specific types of apps, apps with other requirements would require further investigations based on the choice of functional requirements set for this project.

In the end, advice and thoughts on further developments, of this project, and for similar projects, are given.