Nativescript Bottom Navigation

Nativescript plugin for Android & iOS to have the Bottom Navigation bar following the Material Design Guidelines.

Contents

1. Installation
2. Usage with Javascript
3. Usage with Angular
4. Usage with Vue
5. Css Styling
6. API

Prerequisites / Requirements

You need the version of NS3 or later to use this plugin.

Installation

tns plugin add nativescript-bottom-navigation

Usage

Before start using the plugin you need to add the icons for android & iOS in your App_Resources directory.

XML

You can set the tabs using the tabs property

<Page xmlns="http://schemas.nativescript.org/tns.xsd"
      xmlns:bottomNav="nativescript-bottom-navigation"
      loaded="pageLoaded"
      class="page">
    <GridLayout columns="*"
                rows="*, auto">
        <StackLayout row="0">
            <Label text="content"></Label>
        </StackLayout>
        <bottomNav:BottomNavigation tabs="{{ tabs }}"
                                    activeColor="green"
                                    inactiveColor="red"
                                    backgroundColor="black"
                                    keyLineColor="black"
                                    loaded="bottomNavigationLoaded"
                                    row="1"></bottomNav:BottomNavigation>
    </GridLayout>
</Page>

import * as observable from 'tns-core-modules/data/observable';
import * as pages from 'tns-core-modules/ui/page';
import { BottomNavigation, BottomNavigationTab, OnTabSelectedEventData } from "nativescript-bottom-navigation";

// Event handler for Page 'loaded' event attached in main-page.xml
export function pageLoaded(args: observable.EventData) {
  // Get the event sender
  let page = <pages.Page>args.object;
  page.bindingContext = {
      tabs: [
        new BottomNavigationTab('First', 'ic_home'),
        new BottomNavigationTab('Second', 'ic_view_list'),
        new BottomNavigationTab('Third', 'ic_menu')
      ]
  };
}

export function bottomNavigationLoaded(args) {
  let bottomNavigation: BottomNavigation = args.object;
  // For some reason the tabSelected event doesn't work if you
  // handle it from the view, so you need to handle the event in this way.
  bottomNavigation.on('tabSelected', tabSelected);

}

export function tabSelected(args: OnTabSelectedEventData) {
  console.log('tab selected ' + args.newIndex);
}

or you can add the tabs directly in your xml view

<Page xmlns="http://schemas.nativescript.org/tns.xsd"
      xmlns:bottomNav="nativescript-bottom-navigation"
      loaded="pageLoaded"
      class="page">
    <GridLayout columns="*"
                rows="*, auto">
        <StackLayout row="0">
            <Label text="content"></Label>
        </StackLayout>
        <bottomNav:BottomNavigation activeColor="green"
                                    inactiveColor="red"
                                    backgroundColor="black"
                                    keyLineColor="black"
                                    loaded="bottomNavigationLoaded"
                                    row="1">
            <bottomNav:BottomNavigationTab title="First" icon="ic_home"></bottomNav:BottomNavigationTab>
            <bottomNav:BottomNavigationTab title="Second" icon="ic_view_list"></bottomNav:BottomNavigationTab>
            <bottomNav:BottomNavigationTab title="Third" icon="ic_menu"></bottomNav:BottomNavigationTab>
        </bottomNav:BottomNavigation>
    </GridLayout>
</Page>

import * as observable from 'tns-core-modules/data/observable';
import * as pages from 'tns-core-modules/ui/page';
import { BottomNavigation, BottomNavigationTab, OnTabSelectedEventData } from "nativescript-bottom-navigation";

// Event handler for Page 'loaded' event attached in main-page.xml
export function pageLoaded(args: observable.EventData) {
  // Get the event sender
  let page = <pages.Page>args.object;
}

export function bottomNavigationLoaded(args) {
  let bottomNavigation: BottomNavigation = args.object;
  bottomNavigation.on('tabSelected', tabSelected);

}

export function tabSelected(args: OnTabSelectedEventData) {
  console.log('tab selected ' + args.newIndex);
}

Angular

First you need to include the NativescriptBottomNavigationModule in your app.module.ts

import { NativescriptBottomNavigationModule} from "nativescript-bottom-navigation/angular";

@NgModule({
    imports: [
        NativescriptBottomNavigationModule
    ],
    ...
})

As the examples in the Javascript/Typescript version you can use the tabs property to set the BottomNavigationTabs

<GridLayout rows="*, auto">
    <StackLayout row="0">
       <Label text="content"></Label>
    </StackLayout>
    <BottomNavigation [tabs]="tabs"
                      activeColor="red"
                      inactiveColor="yellow"
                      backgroundColor="black"
                      keyLineColor="black"
                      (tabSelected)="onBottomNavigationTabSelected($event)"
                      (tabPressed)="onBottomNavigationTabPressed($event)"
                      row="1"></BottomNavigation>
</GridLayout>

or you can declare the BottomNavigationTabs in your html directly

<GridLayout rows="*, auto">
    <StackLayout row="0">
       <Label text="content"></Label>
    </StackLayout>
    <BottomNavigation activeColor="red"
                      inactiveColor="yellow"
                      backgroundColor="black"
                      keyLineColor="black"
                      (tabSelected)="onBottomNavigationTabSelected($event)"
                      (tabPressed)="onBottomNavigationTabPressed($event)"
                      row="1">
        <BottomNavigationTab title="First" icon="ic_home"></BottomNavigationTab>
        <BottomNavigationTab title="Second" icon="ic_view_list"></BottomNavigationTab>
        <BottomNavigationTab title="Third" icon="ic_menu"></BottomNavigationTab>
    </BottomNavigation>
</GridLayout>

import { Component, OnInit } from "@angular/core";
import { BottomNavigation, BottomNavigationTab, OnTabPressedEventData, OnTabSelectedEventData } from 'nativescript-bottom-navigation';

@Component(
  {
    selector: "ns-app",
    moduleId: module.id,
    templateUrl: "./app.component.html",
  }
)
export class AppComponent {

  public tabs: BottomNavigationTab[] = [
    new BottomNavigationTab('First', 'ic_home'),
    new BottomNavigationTab('Second', 'ic_view_list'),
    new BottomNavigationTab('Third', 'ic_menu')
  ];

  onBottomNavigationTabPressed(args: OnTabPressedEventData): void {
    console.log(`Tab pressed:  ${args.index}`);
  }

  onBottomNavigationTabSelected(args: OnTabSelectedEventData): void {
    console.log(`Tab selected:  ${args.oldIndex}`);
  }
}

Vue

If you want to use this plugin with Vue, the only thing you have to do is register de element in your app.js or main.js as I'll show you below:

Vue.registerElement('BottomNavigation', () => require('nativescript-bottom-navigation').BottomNavigation);
Vue.registerElement('BottomNavigationTab', () => require('nativescript-bottom-navigation').BottomNavigationTab);

This will register BottomNavigation and BottomNavigationTab to your Vue instance and now you can use the plugin as follows:

<GridLayout rows="*, auto">
    <StackLayout row="0">
       <Label text="content"></Label>
    </StackLayout>
    <BottomNavigation activeColor="red"
                      inactiveColor="yellow"
                      backgroundColor="black"
                      keyLineColor="black"
                      @tabSelected="onBottomNavigationTabSelected"
                      row="1">
        <BottomNavigationTab title="First" icon="ic_home" />
        <BottomNavigationTab title="Second" icon="ic_view_list" />
        <BottomNavigationTab title="Third" icon="ic_menu" />
    </BottomNavigation>
</GridLayout>

You can find more information of how to use nativescript plugins with Vue Here!

CSS Styling

You can also use your css file to set or change the activeColor, inactiveColor & backgroundColor of the Bottom Navigation.

.botom-nav {
    tab-active-color: green;
    tab-inactive-color: black;
    tab-background-color: blue;
}

API

1. BottomNavigation
2. BottomNavigationTab

** properties (bindable) = properties settable thew XML/HTML ** events = event properties settable thew XML/HTML ** properties (internal) = properties settable thew JS/TS instance

Bottom Navigation

Properties (bindable)

Property	Required	Default	Type	Description
tabs	true	null	Array<BottomNavigationTab>	Array containing the tabs for the BottomNavigation
titleVisibility	false	"selected"	`"selected"	"always"
activeColor	false	"blue"	String	Color of the BottomNavigationTab when it's selected
inactiveColor	false	"gray"	String	Color of the BottomNavigationTab when it's not selected
backgroundColor	false	"white"	String	Color of the BottomNavigation background

Events

Property	Required	Default	Type	Description
tabSelected	false	null	function ($event: OnTabSelectedEventData) {}	Function fired every time the user select a new tab that receive an event object
tabPressed	false	null	function ($event: OnTabPressedEventData) {}	Function fired every time the user tap a tab with selectable: false that receive an event object

Properties (internal)

Property	Required	Default	Type	Description
selectedTabIndex	true	0	Number	Index of the selected tab

Methods

Property	Type	Description
selectTab(index: number)	Void	Select a tab programmatically
createTabs(tabs: BottomNavigationTab[])	Void	Create the tabs programmatically

Bottom Navigation Tab

Properties (internal)

Property	Required	Default	Type	Description
title	true	null	String	Title of the tab
icon	true	null	String	Icon of the tab
selectable	false	true	Boolean	Determine if the tab can be selected or not (The tabSelected event still be fired)