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https://github.com/staltz/react-native-node
Run a separate Node.js process behind a React Native app
https://github.com/staltz/react-native-node
Last synced: about 2 months ago
JSON representation
Run a separate Node.js process behind a React Native app
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/staltz/react-native-node
- Owner: staltz
- License: mit
- Created: 2017-08-01T14:29:11.000Z (about 7 years ago)
- Default Branch: master
- Last Pushed: 2019-03-14T19:10:07.000Z (over 5 years ago)
- Last Synced: 2024-04-14T04:03:49.423Z (5 months ago)
- Language: Java
- Size: 6.35 MB
- Stars: 1,115
- Watchers: 33
- Forks: 33
- Open Issues: 8
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- Changelog: CHANGELOG.md
- Funding: .github/FUNDING.yml
- License: LICENSE
Awesome Lists containing this project
README
# React Native Node
*Run a **real** Node.js process in the background, behind a React Native app.*
**DEPRECATED. Please use [Node.js Mobile](https://code.janeasystems.com/nodejs-mobile/) by Janea Systems instead.** It has the same purpose as this library, but is more updated, and supports iOS. This library still works as documented, but I'm not committed to maintaining it anymore.
----------
Using this package you can: run `http` servers in Android, use Node streams, interface with the filesystem, off load some heavy processing out of the JS thread in React Native, and more! Running the real Node.js in Android, you can do everything that Node.js on desktop can.
[Example app](./example)
## Install
```
npm install --save react-native-node
```
```
react-native link react-native-node
```
## Usage
1. Develop the background Node.js project under some directory
- e.g. `./background`
2. In your React Native JavaScript source files, spawn the background process:
```diff
+import RNNode from "react-native-node";
class MyApp extends Component {
// ...
componentDidMount() {
+ RNNode.start();
+ // or specify arguments to the process:
+ RNNode.start(['--color', 'red', '--port', '3000'])
}
componentWillUnmount() {
+ RNNode.stop();
}
// ...
}
```
3. Bundle and insert the background application into the mobile app using the command
```
./node_modules/.bin/react-native-node insert ./background
```
- Compresses your background app into `./android/app/src/main/res/raw/rnnodebundle`
- Updates `AndroidManifest.xml` to include a Service class
4. (Re)build the mobile app
```
react-native run-android
```
### Tip 1
If you want to bundle and insert the background app always before building the mobile app, make a `prestart` package.json script (assuming you use the `start` script):
```diff
"scripts": {
+ "prestart": "react-native-node insert ./background",
"start": "node node_modules/react-native/local-cli/cli.js start",
```
### Tip 2
You can reduce the size of the bundle file `rnnodebundle` by using a tool like [noderify](https://www.npmjs.com/package/noderify) to create a single js file.
### Tip 3
To debug, use `adb logcat` with the `nodejs` tag. For example with react:
```
adb logcat *:S nodejs:V ReactNative:V ReactNativeJS:V
```
These additional logging tags are used by `react-native-node`:
- `RNNodeThread` - will tell you if your process has started/terminated/errored
- `RNNodeService` - debug tar/untar, node binary preparation etc.
- `RNNode`
## FAQ
#### How is this possible?
Node.js v7.1.0 (with V8, not JavaScriptCore) was compiled to a binary `bin_node_v710` following the approach used by ["NodeBase"](https://github.com/dna2github/NodeBase). This binary is prebuilt and included in this library. If you are concerned about security, you shouldn't use the prebuilt binary, but compile it yourself.
#### What about iOS support?
We can't run V8 Node.js on iOS since that violates Apple's policy around Just-In-Time compilation, but ChakraCore Node.js can run on iOS. We are depending on [this project by Janea Systems](http://www.janeasystems.com/blog/node-js-meets-ios/) to open source their methods and include a proper open source license.
#### Does it support packages with native bindings?
Yes, in theory, but that's the job of individual libraries having native bindings for android. Most packages don't have. I believe sodium-native has. Hint: if you want to compile the native part of packages, I recommend not trying to cross-compile. Instead, install `termux` on an Android device and compile from the phone directly.
#### Why did you build this?
I am bringing the [Scuttlebutt](https://www.scuttlebutt.nz/) ecosystem to mobile, and I built the package [react-native-scuttlebot](https://github.com/ssbc/react-native-scuttlebot) which uses this tool as dependency. These are in turn used by the mobile app project [mmmmm](https://github.com/staltz/mmmmm-mobile).