How to Integrate react-native-web in an existing react native application

August 13, 2021

For using react native on web we can use the template of many build tools. I would like to use Create React App for this example.

Please make sure to execute all the commands mentioned below in the root directory.

Install required packages for web

yarn add react-native-web react-dom or npm install react-native-web react-dom

dev dependencies

yarn add --dev react-scripts babel-jest or npm install --save-dev react-scripts babel-jest

Create project structure

1. Create `public/` folder in root directory

mkdir public

Create a html file and add basic html

touch index.html

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
    <link href="%PUBLIC_URL%/favicon.ico" rel="icon" />
    <meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" name="viewport" />
    <meta content="#ffffff" name="theme-color" />
    <meta content="React Native App" name="description" />
    <meta content="react native, react native web" name="keywords" />
    <link href="%PUBLIC_URL%/manifest.json" rel="manifest" />
 
    <title>React Native Web</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <noscript>You need to enable JavaScript to run this app.</noscript>
    <div id="root"></div>
  </body>
</html>

Create manifest.json file to make it Progressive Web App

touch manifest.json

{
  "short_name": "React Native Web",
  "name": "React Native Web",
  "icons": [
    {
      "src": "favicon.ico",
      "sizes": "64x64 32x32 24x24 16x16",
      "type": "image/x-icon"
    }
  ],
  "start_url": ".",
  "display": "standalone",
  "theme_color": "#000000",
  "background_color": "#ffffff"
}

2. Create `src/` directory in root folder

Create serviceWorker.js for PWA

A progressive web application is a type of application software delivered through the web, built using common web technologies including HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

Download serviceWorker.js from the link serviceWorker.js

Create index.js file

import React from "react";
import { Text } from "react-native";
import ReactDOM from "react-dom";
import * as serviceWorker from "./serviceWorker";
 
const App = () => <Text>Hello</Text>;
 
ReactDOM.render(
  <React.StrictMode>
    <App />
  </React.StrictMode>,
  document.getElementById("root")
);
 
// If you want your app to work offline and load faster, you can change
// unregister() to register() below. Note this comes with some pitfalls.
// Learn more about service workers: https://bit.ly/CRA-PWA
serviceWorker.unregister();

Update script tag

Add "web": "react-scripts start" in package.json inside scripts tag

Execute npm run web or yarn web and it should start developer server at http://localhost:3000

References

https://necolas.github.io/react-native-web/docs/?path=/docs/guides-multi-platform--page
https://callstack.github.io/react-native-paper/using-on-the-web.html