Chapter 1. Exploring the Sample Application

React Native is beginning to change the game in the mobile development world. Using the skills you already have, as a web developer, you can get a set of familiar methods to build user interfaces for mobile devices. In this book, we'll walk you through many React Natives features while developing a note-taking application, which we call React Notes. While building the essential features, such as creating notes, saving notes to the device, viewing a list of saved notes, and navigating between screens, you'll learn the fundamental skills you need to develop an app of your own. You'll also have the opportunity to go beyond the basics by adding the ability to store images and geolocation data with notes. Functionality is only a part of what makes a great app — it has to be great looking as well, so we've made sure to equip you with a thorough understanding of layout and styles. By the end of the book, you will have developed a fully featured application from start to finish and have all the skills you need to share your React Native applications with the world!

In this chapter, we'll introduce you to React Notes, the sample application that you'll learn how to build. We'll even point you in the right direction if you're anxious to start tinkering with the sample app to see what happens.

This chapter will focus on the following:

• Installing Xcode on Mac OS X
• Running the sample application in the iOS simulator
• Taking a look at the sample application features
• Modifying the sample application