Setting Up and Using Capacitor for App Development
Leveraging Capacitor for Native Permissions and APIs
Cross-platform development is a key concept in software development, allowing developers to write applications that can run on multiple platforms with minimal code changes. This approach is particularly beneficial in mobile app development, where it can significantly reduce the time and effort required to create apps for different operating systems. The ability to use a single codebase to deploy apps on both iOS and Android is a sought-after advantage, saving developers from the hassle of maintaining separate codebases.
Capacitor is a modern tool that helps bring web apps to native platforms efficiently. It stands out by integrating seamlessly with web development practices while providing access to native device features. Capacitor bridges the gap between web and native, allowing developers to use familiar web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to create native mobile apps.
Capacitor's main advantage lies in its architecture, which combines a native runtime and a JavaScript library. This structure allows developers to import packages that provide access to native device features without needing to delve into native code. By using Capacitor, developers can leverage their existing web apps and skills, making it easier to transition from web to native development.
Unlike previous technologies such as Cordova, Capacitor offers a streamlined approach to accessing native device features. It abstracts the complexity of native APIs, providing a simplified interface for developers. This abstraction reduces the learning curve and allows developers to focus on building their apps, rather than dealing with the intricacies of different platforms.
React Native, another popular tool for cross-platform development, offers a different approach by providing a new syntax and development environment. While it allows for native-like apps, it requires developers to learn a new set of tools and potentially rewrite their existing web apps to fit the React Native model. In contrast, Capacitor allows developers to use their existing web apps with minimal changes.
Setting up a Capacitor project is straightforward. Developers can initialize a project using the Capacitor CLI, which creates the necessary configuration files and sets up the project structure. Capacitor supports both iOS and Android platforms, and the CLI provides commands to manage the native projects and dependencies.
One of the key features of Capacitor is its native API access. Developers can install plugins for specific native features, such as geolocation, and call these APIs directly from their JavaScript code. This allows for seamless integration of native features into web apps, providing a consistent experience across platforms.
Capacitor also handles native permissions gracefully. It provides mechanisms to request and manage permissions on both iOS and Android, ensuring that apps can access the necessary device features without running into permission issues.
The development process with Capacitor is efficient, allowing developers to use a familiar web development workflow. They can develop their apps in the browser first and then deploy them to native platforms. Capacitor supports live reload, enabling developers to see changes in real-time on their devices without the need for lengthy build processes.
Capacitor's flexibility extends to the use of third-party libraries and frameworks. Developers are not limited to a specific framework and can use their preferred tools, such as React or Angular, in their Capacitor projects. This adaptability makes it a versatile choice for various development needs.
Overall, Capacitor offers a powerful solution for bringing web apps to native platforms. It combines the best of web and native development, providing a seamless experience for developers and users alike. By leveraging Capacitor, developers can create apps that perform well on multiple platforms while maintaining a single codebase, ultimately simplifying the development process and expanding the reach of their applications.
So, you have a killer React app you've built and want to take it from your web browser to the App Store. Sure, there are a lot of options here, but most will require you to maintain separate apps for each platform. You want your codebase to be as close as possible across Web, Android, and iOS. Thankfully, with Capacitor, you can take your existing web app and quickly create native iOS and Android apps for distribution on your favorite App Store!
This workshop is aimed at intermediate developers that have an existing React application, or are interested in mobile development with React. We will go over:
What is Capacitor
How does it compare to other cross-platform solutions
Using Capacitor to build a native application using your existing web code
Tidying up our application for distribution on mobile app stores with naming conventions, icons, splashscreens and more.
This workshop has been presented at React Summit 2022, check out the latest edition of this React Conference.
FAQ
Capacitor is used to transform web apps into native mobile apps. It allows web developers to use their existing web skills and libraries to create apps that run on multiple platforms like iOS and Android, utilizing native device features.
No, React Native libraries are generally not compatible with Capacitor directly because they are built specifically for the React Native environment, which differs architecturally from Capacitor's use of web technologies.
Yes, Capacitor provides a range of APIs that allow web apps to access native device features such as the camera, geolocation, and more. These are accessible through JavaScript, making it easier for web developers to integrate native functionality into their apps.
While Capacitor is powerful, it has limitations in handling highly intensive 3D graphics and some advanced native functionalities that might require direct native code implementations or specialized native frameworks like Unity for 3D games.
Capacitor allows developers to use a single codebase to build apps for both web and mobile platforms, reducing development time and costs. It also integrates seamlessly with modern JavaScript frameworks and tools, offering a more familiar development experience for web developers.
Yes, Capacitor supports live reload capabilities, which allows developers to see changes in real time on the device as they update their code. This feature enhances the development process by providing immediate feedback and speeding up the iteration cycle.
Yes, Capacitor is designed to be framework-agnostic, meaning it can be used with any web framework or library, such as React, Angular, or Vue. This flexibility allows developers to choose the tools and frameworks they are most comfortable with.
Capacitor and Cordova both allow web apps to interact with native device features. However, Capacitor is often seen as a modern successor to Cordova, offering improved performance and better integration with modern web development workflows, including support for popular frameworks like React.
To convert a web app to a native app using Capacitor, developers need to include the Capacitor core library in their project, configure native platforms like iOS and Android within the project, and use Capacitor's APIs to interact with native features and functionalities.
This workshop introduces bringing React web apps to native using Capacitor, a cross-platform development approach. Cordova and React Native are compared in terms of their features and limitations. Capacitor is highlighted as a solution that bridges the native development life cycle while allowing developers to write HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. The performance difference between Cordova and Capacitor is discussed, along with the process of installing and configuring platforms. The benefits of using Capacitor for development, including faster development cycles and easy deployment, are emphasized.
This workshop introduces bringing React web apps to native using Capacitor. Cross-platform development is a well-tested approach to building products. The goal is to reduce the need to learn new tools, write platform-specific code, and shorten the time to ship. Comparing technologies based on levels of abstraction makes more sense than point-for-point comparisons. The pure web development environment focuses on building responsive web experiences, while pure native is dedicated to building native apps for each platform. Cordova is a project that promotes the write once, run anywhere mantra.
2. Cordova and React Native
Cordova was created to expose native device features through JavaScript, allowing developers to wrap their web apps in a runtime and extend built-in web platform features. They built global APIs and objects for core plugins like the camera. However, using navigator tied everything to Cordova, making it less cross-platform. Cordova had a large ecosystem of plugins and shipped core APIs, but lacked a package manager. The goal was to polyfill the web until browsers added these features, but some are still missing. Cordova also avoided using native IDEs and had complex release scripts. Native projects were not committed to version control, causing permission issues. React Native aimed to provide a truly native app by building abstractions around native controls. The core team relied on the community to add features.
3. Building with React Native and Capacitor
When building a React Native app, it runs inside a JavaScript runtime, communicating through a bridge layer to access device features. The UI is rendered on the fly internally via React Native. However, learning a new syntax and the need to rewrite existing web apps can be frustrating. Additionally, third-party libraries that don't support React Native out-of-the-box cannot be used. The rendering in React Native is not truly native, as it still runs JavaScript and requires re-implementing native interactions. Capacitor, on the other hand, bridges the native development life cycle while allowing developers to write HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. It provides access to native device features through packages and streamlines APIs for iOS and Android. The architecture of Capacitor is similar to React Native, but with the ability to render the UI using a custom design system. Existing web apps and skills can be reused, and the runtime loads instantly, enabling immediate access to native APIs.
4. App Performance and Development Setup
The app starts up quickly and utilizes the best practices for native development. It can produce both a native app and a web app with mobile hardware OS features. Let's go to my terminal where I have a blank React app project. We'll focus on that for most of this.
5. Installing and Setting Up Capacitor
In this part, we install and set up Capacitor for our project. We uninstall the atcapacitor-core and atcapacitor-cli dependencies. Then, we initialize the project by running npx cap init. We configure the app name and package ID. We also explore the capacitor.config.ts file, which manages project dependencies. Lastly, we add a meta viewport tag to handle devices with notches and start accessing the geolocation native feature.
6. Installing and Setting Up Geolocation
To install the geolocation plugin, use npm install capacitor geolocation. In app.tsx, import the geolocation API from at capacitor geolocation and the core capacitor class from capacitor core. Create a useEffect hook with zero dependencies to manage permissions. Implement the request permission function to call geolocation.requestPermission. Handle unhandled promise rejections and check if the app is running on a native platform. Create a getLocation function using async/await and call geolocation.getCurrentPosition to get the location data.
7. Managing Location Data and Adding Native Platforms
We can get different return values like coordinates, timestamp, or cursor movement. We want to get the current position and display it in our app. We create state variables for date, location data, and set location data. The coordinates object provides latitude, longitude, accuracy, and altitude accuracy. Inside the paragraph tag, we render the location data as JSON. We manage the location permission through the browser instance using the adjust-in-time model. If permission is not allowed within a certain time, a rejected promise is returned. We add a native platform to show how it works, but assume it is already set up. We install the iOS and Android platforms using npm install. We skip the installation process and refer to the documentation for setting up the iOS and Android SDKs.
QnA
Performance Difference and Switching Projects
What is the performance difference between Cordova and Capacitor? Should I switch my project from Cordova to Capacitor?
Installing and Configuring Platforms
We install and add iOS and Android platforms separately to avoid installation issues. The build process involves running React scripts and producing JavaScript for iOS deployment. The web assets are synced to the native project using the native cocoa pods tool for iOS and Android libraries for Android. Opening the native Xcode workspace allows customization of app launch, background activity, and notifications. The main storyboard helps structure the app's UI. Running the app on a simulator deploys it to the iPhone 13 Pro simulator.
Running the App and Customizing Android
Xcode can be slow. We need to add native permission management to access privacy-sensitive data. Set the value for NSLocation when in use usage description. Rerun the app, allow location access, set the location to Apple Park. Trail of events: bloated the app, WebView loaded, geolocation request permission, got current position, location permission granted. Moving on to customizing the Android experience.
Setting Up Android Studio and Running the App
This section covers setting up Android Studio for Android development, including importing plugins and tasks, providing permissions, selecting devices, building the project, and running the app on an emulator or a real device. The emulator can be slow, so testing on a real device is recommended. The app runs automatically on web, iOS, and Android platforms. A question is also addressed regarding the storage of permissions in a config file.
Version Control and Permissions
Once a person sets up permissions in the native project, it gets included in version control. Changes made by one person can be pulled by others without resetting permissions. There is potential for improvement in adding permissions in different locations and setting them via the TypeScript API.
Benefits and Development Cycle
Capacitor offers a faster development cycle compared to React Native. Developers can start working in the browser, have access to APIs, and avoid the need to set up a React Native project or learn a new tool and syntax. Capacitor allows for easy deployment to the iOS simulator without having to open Xcode. It supports multiple native APIs through official and community plugins. Animations can be handled using libraries like Frame or Motion, or by building custom animations using JavaScript and the web animations API. The live reload feature in Capacitor enables a faster development cycle, especially when used with Ionic or React.
Development Setup and App Deployment
We can now develop our app and have the whole environment bound to our location data. This eliminates the need to constantly switch between the browser and the native device during development. The changes made in the simulator are updated in real time. The development cycle now feels more familiar to traditional web development. This setup is not limited to simulators; it can also be deployed to real devices. The Ionic extension in VS Code allows for various configurations and the generation of custom splash screens. It also provides a GUI for opening projects in Android Studio and Xcode, managing build numbers, and renaming the app. The app is automatically updated upon redeployment.
Running on Device and App Size
Running the app on a real device provides quicker on-device feedback. Emulating certain features in the browser may not accurately reflect the mobile experience. Deploying to a real device ensures optimal rendering and performance. While developing, using a Chrome browser can save time, but it's important to check the availability of specific features. The overall size of the generated app will be smaller than a pure native app and better optimized than other cross-platform solutions. The average size with native dependencies is around 80 megabytes or smaller. Many big companies, including Burger King, Blue Cross Blue Shield, BBC, IBM, and Target, are using this technology.
App Size, Limitations, and Resources
The overall app size can change based on the dependencies, web assets, and content included. Capacitor has limitations in handling 3D intensive graphics, but for most apps, it can handle glorified lists and scrollers. To learn more, visit the CapacitorJS website, the dedicated documentation, and the Capacitor Community GitHub organization for various plugins.
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