React Native mobile chat client
This project is simply a demonstration of building a mobile app in React Native. If you're interested in the .NET Core code that hosts the API, you can check out the chat-api project. For the demo, the API code is running on Pivotal Cloud Foundry, which has a free trial period and is definitely worth a look, for those interested in cloud hosting.
Since this is a beginner-level walkthrough, I'm using GitHub Desktop) for all source control, since it's easier that explaining some of the Git command line tools.
You will also need to have Node LTS/Boron version installed. I highly recommend using nvm or nvm-windows to install / manage multiple versions of Node and NPM on your machine.
From the repo home page, click the Green "Clone or download button" and choose "Open in Desktop" (or just use this link) and allow the browser to open the GitHub Desktop link.
For those who are hardcore:
git clone https://github.com/bshawn/chat-mobile.git .
There are multiple branches in the repo that you can use to walk through the process on your own. Each branch represents a state of the development process. The branches were created in the following order, as the app was constructed:
- demo
- add-tab-navigator
- refactor-screens
- build-user-screen
- save-user
- store-user
- lift-user-state
- build-chat-screen
- poll-for-new-messages
- fix-user-storage-bug (whoops)
To switch branches, open the repo in GitHub Desktop and click the branch drop-down box. You will need to run the following command after switching branches:
cd src
npm install
In some cases, it may be necessary to delete the node_modules and .expo folders prior to installing packages.