cli-rn v0.1.0

Currently in very alpha stage and under heavy testing. Available for iOS only.

Purpose of cli-rn is to simplify and accelerate the process of app development.

cli-rn will help you to generate a production-ready app and test it remotely using cli-rn app.

Quick start

> npm i -g cli-rn
> cli-rn new AppName

It generates a new production-ready app bootstrapped from rnn-starter.

Testing

In order to start testing an app you develop on your local machine, you will need a real device to install cli-rn app in Release mode. Follow the steps on cli-rn app page.

Once you install the cli-rn app, you should cd to the root of an app you develop.

There are two modes: DEV and PROD.

When testing in DEV mode, you need to have Metro bundler running (yarn start) as cli-rn relies on it when exposing tunnel.

When testing in PROD mode, cli-rn generates an app bundle and exposes tunnel to that file.

For more "Things to be aware of", please check the following section.

> cd AppName
> cli-rn remote:dev # DEV mode (don't forget to run 'yarn start' before)
> cli-rn remote:prod # PROD mode

The steps above can take some time when doing it for the first time.

After it's done, you should see something like on the image below The generated App Code has to be put in cli-rn app as shown here.

HD video

Happy testing! 🤙

> cli-rn help

Usage: cli-rn [options] [command]

Options:
  -h, --help               display help for command

Commands:
  new [options] <appName>  generates a new production-ready app bootstrapped from kanzitelli/rnn-starter
  remote:dev               opens tunnel to 8081 port where Metro bundler should be running so you are able to test the app through cli-rn app
  remote:prod              opens tunnel to release bundle
  app                      generates cli-rn app on your local machine
  app:info                 information about cli-rn app
  help [command]           display help for command

Motivation

You may come up with the questions like Why? and What for? if there is Expo which does all of those steps much better. I would say that this is just out-of-curiosity and yes, I love to automate the routine!

I have been developing the app (Christmas Market) recently with react-native-navigation and it contains some cool animations. As animations (anyways) lag in dev mode, I had to launch the app in release mode a few times in an hour to test animations' smoothness. And I got bored of waiting and decided to start a research on how I can automate this process. Plus, we can see that it is possible and done by Expo.

• 💚 Thanks to React Native
• 💙 Thanks to Expo for insipration
• ❤️ Thanks to Wix team for initiating react-native-navigation and all contributors for maintaining it

Worth checking

Articles

• cli-rn — making RN app developing experience as smooth as possible - Medium, Dev.to