Hey notJust Developers,
A lot of exciting things are happing in the React Native world.
But today, I want to focus on 3 things that caught my attention in the last weeks:
- How React Strict DOM is reinventing cross-platform development
- The retirement of App Center and CodePush, and what are the alternatives
- How does the new EU Digital Services Act affect mobile developers
Intimidated by GraphQL? 😱
With IBM StepZen you’ll be impressed how easy it is to build GraphQL APIs.
All you have to do is run a CLI command ($ stepzen import), and IBM StepZen does the rest. It connects with a wide range of data sources such as SQL databases, Rest APIs, and even other GraphQL APIs.
I’ve personally used it in multiple projects (Spotify, StackOverflow, LinkedIn) and it saved so much time.
Let IBM StepZen take care of the boring stuff so that you can focus on building impactful apps 🚀
React Strict Dom
Recently Meta launched a new experimental library - React Strict Dom. The goal of RSD is to help us write once, and run on any platform - be it web or native.
A bit of background
Currently, to build a web app we can use React with React DOM.
While React provides the tools and concepts to define component-based user interfaces, ReactDOM handles the task of rendering those interfaces in a web environment. Together, they form the foundation of React web applications.
If we are building a mobile app, we are using React with React Native
In this case, React Native offers us access to Native-specific views and ways to interact with Native APIs.
With this approach, if we are targeting both web and mobile, we can reuse only a part of our code base - the part related to React. But, we still have to write a lot of platform-specific code - using React DOM for the web and React Native for mobile.
For a React Native application, we have the option of using react-native-web. It allows us to write once - run everywhere. This library maps React Native components to React DOM components.
Where is React Strict Dom in this equation?
React Strict DOM is reimagining cross-platform development with the goal of unifying web and native. It will let us build the UI without worrying about what platform it will run on.
It is a subset of React DOM that is compatible with both web and mobile.
Furthermore, RSD integrates closely with StyleX, a CSS-in-JS library from Meta, to provide a unified styling solution that works across platforms. This integration allows developers to style their applications using a familiar CSS-like syntax while benefiting from the performance and safety features of StyleX.
The code looks like this.
What’s important to understand, is that even though we see web-related components like div and h1, on native platforms they are rendered as native components ex: UIView and UIText.
App Center retirment
App Center is was a suite of services that helps you build, test, deploy, and monitor your iOS, and Android apps.
Microsoft just announced the retirement of the App Center. It will stop working on 31st March 2025.
If you are using App Center or CodePush, it is time to start migrating to another service.
Expo Application Services is a great suite of cloud tools that can replace your App Center workflows.
- With EAS Build, you can build your native apps for Android and ios in the cloud
- With EAS Submit you can ship these builds to the stores
- With EAS Update, you can deliver over-the-air updates
Expo wrote a guide on how to migrate CodePush to EAS Update.
🤔 Are you a trader?
If you have apps on the AppStore, you probably saw this popup recently.
What is this and what should you do?
This is the result of the European Union’s new Digital Services Act that tries to “prevent illegal and harmful activities online and the spread of disinformation.”
Don’t blame Apple for this one 😅
So, are you a trader?
Well, as with all laws, the definition of a trader is very broad. It refers to a business or person “acting in his or her name or on his or her behalf, for purposes relating to his or her trade, business, craft or profession.”
So, if you are charging EU customers, then you are probably considered a trader.
In that case, you will have to provide your details and your address to AppStore, and it will be visible to anyone on the page of your apps.
If you don’t want your address to be out there, you can use a PO box or a virtual office service that gives you an address as well.
Check out this post by RevenueCat on for more details.
🤷♂️ I am not a lawyer, and you should probably consult one. Just saying…
We reached 100k on Youtube 🥳
After 3 years of hard work, weekly streams, and more than 50 apps built live…
We have reached the first big milestone on Youtube - 100.000 notJust Developers 🥳
Thank you for your support along the way. It wouldn’t be possible without such a great community of notJust Developers 🙏
Did you learn something new today?
If you found this email valuable, forward it to one friend or coworker that can benefit from it as well. That would be much appreciated 🙏
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Vadim Savin
Helping you become a better developer together with the notJust.dev team
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