Can I not use Expo (cloud service) at all using React Native - react-native

I have build an app using react native(detached) but the thing is I would want to completely get rid of Expo. The reason is, what if one day EXPO service get shut down or no more supported.
So in this case I would not want the app to be affected.
Currently I need to publish my app thru ExpoKit to see the latest changes, how would I build my android app so it would not have any reference to Expo but still be able to work properly
Currently this is how I understand how the react native and expo works: first u build ur app using react native code and then a bundle.js is generated somewhere on cloud(EXPO) using publish command so the app communicate with that bundle.js.
Note I am not using any feature from Expo so why would I need Expo in this case?
Edited: If I am detaching my app from expo, I mean why would I still need Expo? Can't I just build the app and run the app without expo at all?

You can build your whole application without using expo, just follow the steps from facebook documentation in "Building Projects with Native Code" tab.
or
you can run "npm run eject" in your project root directory folder.
After this, you can build your appliaction using react-native cli commands, like
react-native run-android.
edited :--
For building apk for production, you can follow steps given in facebook documentation as generating signed apk and for released IPA for iOS yo can follow building your app for production for IOS.

Related

Building expo app is not updating the app in store

I used to run expo build:android (or ios) to build and publish my react-native application.
The app in the app store automatically updated doing this.
Since I updated my expo version to 38.0.8 it doesn't seem to be working anymore?
Does anyone know what's the problem here?
Generally you have to run
expo build:ios(or android)
to generate an expo build, and then run
expo upload:ios(or android)
to upload to the App Store or Google Play Store

Ejected expo react native app requires expo?

I created a RN with create-react-native-app, and I have now decided to eject. It didn't work initially, and required some packages to be installed (#babel/...), but now, it complains that Module 'expo' does not exist in the Haste module map.
Why does it still require expo, now that it has been ejected? Or have I misunderstood what ejection does?
N.B. during the ejection I chose the option to eject to an RN app, not to ExpoKit. This is on iOS, currently.
When ejecting expo app you'll be asked about using expo-kit or just react-native and it's up to you to choose, plus Module 'expo' does not exist in the Haste module map means you still using expo in your code so double check your code to be sure that you're not importing expo anywhere and try again.
TL;DR
Ejected expo react native app requires expo? the short answer is no.
when using expo app you have the ability to build your app using the expo server so you don't have to have Android Studio or XCode installed all you have to do is $ expo build:[android|ios] and download your built package after the build process is done also you can run your app using expo client app on Android and Ios but once ejecting you'll lose the ability of using expo server as your build environment instead you have to use Android Studio or XCode, but the main difference here is when you choose expo-kit you still have the ability of using expo client to run your app and you still have the ability to use expo modules inside your code but when you choose react-native you can't use expo client instead you have to use the native tools, anyway in all cases once you eject your project you have to build it yourself and you can't undo this step.
Sidenote
You can build very powerful apps using only JavaScript without any need to eject especially when using `expo SDK 31+, I'm working on an app now with features like detecting location, live maps, social login and chat and I don't need to eject it at all.
Please take a look here and here
Update:
One last thing you have to remember is that when using expo or expo-kit you can keep developing ios app on any OS but when using react-native you can't do this you MUST have a mac.

Expo React-Native App doesn't work when run as a standalone APK

My Expo-based React Native App works without a problem when run in the Expo tool but gave the following errors when built as an APK to be installed and run standalone.
A series of white screens keep flipping before the blue screen comes up.
Here are my App.JSON and Package.JSON files
Package.json
App.json
And here are the screen capturing the error message.
Actually there are two ways to create a React Native application
create-react-native-app (CRNA)
react-native init
As you stated in comment section, You created your project using CRNA
CRNA will gave you some form of solid project structure, which is really useful for beginners to get started with react native, you code the app with pure javascript and the app will work inside Expo.
Now if you want to take build and run as a standalone apk for android,
There are two methods
You can run command: exp publish:android
You can eject your app from expo
Dont use exp publish for standalone apks,
You can use second method:
To eject your app:
First if you dont use any expo apis inside your apps, it is very easy to eject and build as a stand alone apk.
just do yarn eject
This will gave you some instructions and follow that.
After that your CRNA project structure will be converted into react-native init project structure, now you will be able to see "Android" and "iOS" folders inside your application
To take build Run: connect your phone with USB debugging ON and react-native run android.
That's all.
Solved my own problem. The 'eth-lightwallet' library works perfectly within the Expo development tool but when I build into an APK, it just made the white screen turns up with no meaningful error messages.
The solution is to replace it with a pure web3js implementation.
This may be useful if you are developing a mobile app for Ethereum.

React Native Expo publish to Android

I built a test application using react native. I'm trying to publish it following this tutorial: https://facebook.github.io/react-native/docs/signed-apk-android.html
However, my project does not have folder android. How can I create this folder?
In React-native, there are two method to create Singed APK File
First you should know
it's best to create apps using react-native init rather than expo as React-Native-Cli gives you local project for both ios and android,you can test and debug the code locally and also use the tool to publish applications
- If you create the project by using this command -
react-native init Project_Name
Then follow this method.
BUT IN YOUR CASE
you're using expo and also expo-cli! that's good! but when i use expo i usually like to go with expo XDE which has single version to publish,render or debug with it's own console in the bottom and that'll help you upload your code to expo server where you can ask them to render app for iOS or android and they will return you a link which will download the APK or the ipa file for android or iOS respectively
Here is the documentation link which'll explain you each step one by one and do keep an eye on the notes and TODOs while following the step (in your scenario)
- If you use expo,for create React-native project
then follow this method generate the singed APK file for Android - Expo

how to run react native code from server? i want to release app in android and apple store

I am an android developer and learning react native.
I made an app in React Native and now I want to release my app in android play store and apple store but I don't know where do I put my react native project code/files?
I had put react native code in my PHP(Linux) server but it's not working, it says file not found 404.
please guide, Thanks
You need to generate build standalone signed apk.
Generating Signed APK
https://facebook.github.io/react-native/docs/signed-apk-android.html
1) first create keystore file and put in android folder location
2) setting up gradle for keystore
3) run comman
react-native run-android --variant=release
after success run command you will file apk-release.apk in andorid/app/build/outputs/apk/ location
then you can uplaod apk to app store
If your app doesn't need detach (for example doesn't use bluetooth) you can use create-react-native-app and put your app code inside new project. That way you can publish your app to https://expo.io/ . It's a great way to publish your app without Google Play and App Store.
Here is instruction for creating new react native app with expo kit:
https://facebook.github.io/react-native/docs/getting-started.html
And here is how to publish it into expo:
https://docs.expo.io/versions/v25.0.0/guides/publishing.html#how-to-publish
All you need is create-react-native-app and exp command line tools.