React Native running app on device without server

Question

Its unbelievable how bad the documentation is for React Native, they just put as little as possible for everything. I've already managed to run my app using option 1 but option 2 is even more unclear: https://facebook.github.io/react-native/docs/running-on-device-ios.html

I don't know there's no example of the terminal command react-native bundle in full so I know what is actually required there. For example --entry-file <path> what path? The whole path from my hard drive root to this folder, or just the file itself? --bundle-output....? What the hell do I need to put for that? I don't know why they need to make it so damn unclear.

I'm surprised there's no other resources online that give the instructions more clearly. I guess that's why there aren't so many React Native apps on the app store.

Answer 1

I hope you also find that this is a much easier approach. In the example below, my app was named BleMobileApp. Feel free to change it to your app's name.

RUN APP ON DEVICE WITHOUT DEBUG SERVER

1. Duplicate the main deployment target and name it BleMobileApp-Deploy.

2. Make sure to REMOVE the DEBUG=1 flag in BleMobileApp-Deply's Build settings (Do not touch the original target BleMobileApp!)

3. Add a New Run Script Phase to BleMobileApp-Deploy's Build phases and paste following command:

yes | cp -rf ${BUILT_PRODUCTS_DIR}/${PRODUCT_NAME}.app/main.jsbundle $SRCROOT/main.jsbundle

That's it!

(OPTIONAL) In case you would like to MINIFY the JS Bundle!

1. Edit file ./node_modules/react-native/scripts/react-native-xcode.sh like below (Line 43~47)

2. Change the default run script like below (For BleMobileApp-Deploy target):

export NODE_BINARY=node FORCE_MINIFYING=true ../node_modules/react-native/scripts/react-native-xcode.sh

This should do the trick for you.

Happy coding!