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How many types of nav­i­ga­tion in react native

10 Dec 2020

React Native, an out­put of innu­mer­able rep­e­ti­tions, recal­cu­la­tions, and learn­ings from the Nav­i­ga­tion point of view, though some of them are high­ly com­mu­ni­ty-built or from the React Native libraries. The flex­i­bil­i­ty and per­for­mance it exhibits on the web and both iOS and Android are com­mend­able and vet­ted by Top React Native app devel­op­ers and React Native app devel­op­ment com­pa­nies. Over the years it has become one of the most pre­ferred nav­i­ga­tion libraries in the React Native paradigm.

It is not tough to under­stand, it is built on the basic con­cepts of routers which can be com­posed and nest­ed to help you define the appli­ca­tion’s nav­i­ga­tion using its default Navigators.

We as one of the Top React Native devel­op­ment com­pa­nies will today show you the best way to use React Native Nav­i­ga­tion libraries and also help you assess the use-case as well. We shall also show you how Nav­i­ga­tors func­tion but before we take on our jour­ney, let us first under­stand the 3 basic built-in nav­i­ga­tion used in React Native.

Under­stand­ing React Navigation?

It will sur­prise us if you find React Native func­tion­ing and How they real­ly work with a sin­gle screen since the tran­sit between mul­ti­ple screens is what React Com­po­nents han­dle and are termed as ’ Nav­i­ga­tors” in the ter­mi­nol­o­gy section.

What do Nav­i­ga­tors pri­mar­i­ly do? They are sole­ly respon­si­ble for han­dling the way apps are pre­sent­ed. Indeed, they are impor­tant fac­tors that record their per­for­mance and his­to­ry. Remem­ber when­ev­er, you opt for the BACK but­ton, it takes you to the pre­vi­ous page viewed. It might sound weird and no-brain­er-stuff but believe me while using the web, you can even change his­to­ry in the sim­plest way through­out the app usage.

Types of Nav­i­ga­tions that are defined in React Native are list­ed below:

  • Stack­Nav­i­ga­tion
  • tab nav­i­ga­tion
  • Draw­er­Nav­i­ga­tion

Stack Nav­i­ga­tion

The first one Stack­Nav­i­ga­tor includes or holds screens in stack for­mat [which means when a new screen is viewed, it is posi­tioned on top of the exist­ing one]

Tab­Nav­i­ga­tor

The Tab­Nav­i­ga­tor per­mits a user to use dif­fer­ent screens by sim­ply using the tab that one can use either at the top or bot­tom of the screen.

Draw­er­Nav­i­ga­tor

Draw­er­Nav­i­ga­tion is the pre­ferred option for Android and is a type of nav­i­ga­tion hint that offers users options and points to dif­fer­ent screens.

The most incred­i­ble thing about all three nav­i­ga­tors men­tioned above is that React Native app devel­op­ers and React Native app devel­op­ment com­pa­nies inte­grate them effort­less­ly into the mobile app so you, the user can use it as per your pref­er­ences. In lay­man’s lan­guage, the React Native app devel­op­er can decide which nav­i­ga­tion suits them best and is con­ve­nient so he can take charge and use it in accor­dance. You as a user might have a dif­fer­ent choice be it sin­gle-screen or mul­ti-screen, how­ev­er, it large­ly depends as to how you want the nav­i­ga­tor to behave and in which man­ner to use the use-case.

Before any­thing else both­ers you or makes you con­fused, let’s explore and under­stand how nav­i­ga­tors togeth­er work to help you nav­i­gate in your app.

Well, let’s under­stand step by step How these nav­i­ga­tors work?

You must have read them and re-read them that Nav­i­ga­tors are React ele­ments com­mon­ly named Com­po­nents’, these com­po­nents are the icons or images/representations as but­tons name­ly tabs, draw­ers, and even head­ers. They hold spe­cial respon­si­bil­i­ty for exe­cut­ing changes made due to nav­i­ga­tion require­ments with­in the purview of the React Native app. These com­po­nents man­age and check how you will nav­i­gate from your exist­ing view/screen to anoth­er – which in sim­pler terms means han­dling the tran­si­tion between the views /screens if there is any.

What is impor­tant to note is the exist­ing screen nav­i­gat­ed or ren­dered might turn out to be a solo nav­i­ga­tor on its own-this is exact­ly the right moment to explain the con­cept of nest­ing the nav­i­ga­tions with­in its frame, Well if your app shows com­plex­i­ty to oper­ate, the best idea is to make your app nav­i­ga­tion sim­pler and keep it gen­er­al or take guid­ance from Top React Native App Devel­op­ment companies.

More com­plex nav­i­ga­tion leads to com­plex­i­ties; hence under­stand­ing how React Native work is important.

So What is meant by nest­ed nav­i­ga­tion – whilst we are com­fort­ably using Stack, Tab, and Draw­er nav­i­ga­tors, allow me to take you for a small read­ing tour of the Nav­i­ga­tion Router. Why a Nav­i­ga­tion router it has a Stack Nav­i­ga­tor for its root nav­i­ga­tion and oth­ers in nest­ed form.

types of navigation in react native
In addi­tion, let’s start to under­stand what React Native app devel­op­ment com­pa­nies work with Root­Stack Nav­i­ga­tion JavaScript and how to react native works:

con­st App­Stack­Nav = StackNavigator({Home: {screen: Home,navigation options: {head­er: null}},Login: {screen: Login,navigation options: {head­er: null}}});

Note: While using nest­ed ele­ments, what is required is the nav­i­ga­tion, this has to pass nav­i­ga­tion as the prop­er­ties of these are respon­si­ble for every nav­i­ga­tion with­in the application.

Now the gener­ic use of Stack Nav­Nav­i­ga­tion would read as follows:
Navigation.navigate(RouteName, RouteParams);

In our case, it reads:
this.props.navigation.navigate(“Login”);

How does Draw­er Nav­i­ga­tor look?

This is the gener­ic code for Draw­er Nav­i­ga­tor- AppDrawerNav.js

con­st App­Draw­er­Nav = DrawerNavigator({News: {screen: NewsStackNav,navigation options: {title: News”}},Account: {screen: AccountTabNav,navigation options: {title: Account”}}});

In case you want to oper­ate it man­u­al­ly, try this:
this.props.navigation.navigate(‘DrawerOpen’);

Also, if you wish to close the draw­er man­u­al­ly, try this:
this.props.navigation.navigate(‘DrawerClose’);

Last but not least -Tab Nav­i­ga­tor?

The React Native app devel­op­er’s code looks like this:
con­st Account­Tab­Nav = TabNavigator({AccountProfile: { screen: Account­Pro­file },AccountSet­ting: {screen: AccountSetting,navigation options: {title: Set­ting” }}},{back­Be­hav­ior: none”,tab bar posi­tion: bot­tom”});

Anoth­er impor­tant Nav­i­ga­tion code used by Top React Native app devel­op­ers looks like this :
import { cre­ateSwitch­Nav­i­ga­tor } from react-nav­i­ga­tion’;

import Switch1 from ‘../screen/Switch1’;

import Switch2 from ‘../screen/Switch2’;

export default cre­ateSwitch­Nav­i­ga­tor( { Switch1: Switch1, Switch2: Switch2, }, { ini­tial­Route­Name: Switch1’, },);

Note: In this case, you can view /see just one screen at a time and while you nav­i­gate, it amends the view of the screen imme­di­ate­ly with­out any animation.

Con­clud­ing

Read­ers would not love to close this read with­out under­stand­ing where one can use the three navigators—[Stack, Draw­er, and Tab].

What does your user wish to do? if they want to use and switch around a cou­ple of options but in an unre­lat­ed seg­ment of apps, they use the Tab Nav­i­ga­tion. If your view­ers want to use spe­cif­ic seg­ments such as fill­ing in user data etc- use Stack Nav­i­ga­tion and If the sec­tion of the web requires imple­ment­ing a menu for your appli­ca­tion use, you would prob­a­bly require the Draw­er Navigators.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is navigation in React Native?

Navigation in React Native refers to the ability to move between different screens or views within a mobile application. It allows users to seamlessly transition from one screen to another, providing a smooth and intuitive user experience. Navigation is essential for creating structured and organized app flows, enabling users to access various functionalities and interact with the app's content. In React Native, navigation is typically implemented using navigation libraries such as react-navigation or react-native-navigation, which offer different types of navigators to handle different navigation patterns and transitions.

Which library is commonly used for navigation in React Native?

The most commonly used library for navigation in React Native is react-navigation. It provides a comprehensive set of navigators and navigation APIs that enable developers to implement different navigation patterns and handle navigation between screens. react-navigation offers navigators such as Stack Navigator, Tab Navigator, Drawer Navigator, and more, allowing developers to create intuitive and interactive navigation experiences in their React Native applications.

What are the different types of navigators available in React Native?

1 Stack Navigator: Stack Navigator allows navigation by stacking screens on top of each other. It follows a last-in, first-out (LIFO) approach, where new screens are pushed onto the stack and can be popped off to go back.

2 Tab Navigator: Tab Navigator displays screens as tabs at the bottom or top of the screen, allowing users to switch between different sections or functionalities of the app. Each tab represents a different screen.

3 Drawer Navigator: Drawer Navigator displays a hidden panel or drawer from the side of the screen. It is commonly used for navigation menus or sidebar menus, providing easy access to different screens or sections of the app.

4 Switch Navigator: Switch Navigator is useful when you want to switch between different stacks of screens. It allows you to conditionally render one stack of screens at a time, based on specific conditions or authentication states.

These navigators can be combined and nested within each other to create complex navigation structures, allowing developers to design intuitive user flows and provide seamless navigation experiences in their React Native applications.

How to handle navigation from a button press in React Native?

1 Identify the button component that triggers the navigation action.

2 Attach an onPress event handler to the button component.

3 Inside the onPress event handler, access the navigation object provided by the navigation prop.

4 Use navigation functions like navigate or push to navigate to the desired screen.

5 Pass any necessary parameters or route information along with the navigation action, if required.

By implementing these steps, you can ensure that when the button is pressed, the specified navigation action is triggered, allowing users to navigate to the desired screen within the React Native application.

How to change the title of a screen using navigation options in React Navigation?

1 Identify the screen component for which you want to change the title.

2 Inside the component, define a static property called navigationOptions.

3 Set the title property of the navigationOptions object to the desired title text.

4 Save the changes, and the new title will be reflected in the header/navigation bar for that screen.

By modifying the navigationOptions object and setting the title property, you can easily update the title of a screen without the need for additional coding or complex configuration. This allows you to provide meaningful and descriptive titles for each screen in your React Navigation-based application.

What can be customized using navigation options in React Navigation?

In React Navigation, navigation options provide a way to customize various aspects of the navigation experience in your React Native app.

1 Screen Titles: You can change the title displayed in the header for each screen. This allows you to provide meaningful and descriptive titles for different sections or functionalities of your app.

2 Header Visibility: Navigation options enable you to hide or show the header/navigation bar for specific screens. This is useful when you want to have full-screen views or implement custom headers for certain screens.

3 Header Style: With navigation options, you can customize the styling of the header/navigation bar. This includes changing the background color, adding a background image, modifying the text color, and adjusting the header height.

4  Header Buttons: You have the ability to add custom buttons to the header/navigation bar using navigation options. This enables you to include actions or additional functionality specific to a particular screen.

5 Screen Transitions: Navigation options allow you to define custom screen transitions, such as slide, fade, or flip, to enhance the visual experience while navigating between screens.

By leveraging the power of navigation options in React Navigation, you can tailor the look and feel of your app's navigation, providing a cohesive and engaging user experience throughout your React Native application.

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