Overlay ActivityIndicator / Progress Bar / Loading Spinner in React Native

Overlay ActivityIndicator / Progress Bar / Loading Spinner

This is an Example of Overlay ActivityIndicator / Progress Bar / Loading Spinner in React Native. This is the most common thing that we use in every application. We will use the react-native-loading-spinner-overlay library to make an overlay Loader. This is basically used to block the screen while the application is doing some work like fetching data from the server or processing any big data which needs some resources.

To make an Overlay ActivityIndicator we will use Spinner component provided by react-native-loading-spinner-overlay.

How to use the Spinner Component?

<Spinner
  //visibility of Overlay Loading Spinner
  visible={this.state.loading}
  //Text with the Spinner 
  textContent={'Loading...'}
  //Text style of the Spinner Text
  textStyle={styles.spinnerTextStyle}
/>

In this example, we will make an overlay Spinner which will be visible in every 3 seconds using an interval function. So Let’s get started.

To Make a React Native App

Getting started with React Native will help you to know more about the way you can make a React Native project. We are going to use react native command line interface to make our React Native App.

If you have previously installed a global react-native-cli package, please remove it as it may cause unexpected issues:

npm uninstall -g react-native-cli @react-native-community/cli

Run the following commands to create a new React Native project

npx react-native init ProjectName

If you want to start a new project with a specific React Native version, you can use the --version argument:

npx react-native init ProjectName --version X.XX.X

Note If the above command is failing, you may have old version of react-native or react-native-cli installed globally on your pc. Try uninstalling the cli and run the cli using npx.

This will make a project structure with an index file named App.js in your project directory.

Installation of Dependency

To use Spinner component you need to install react-native-loading-spinner-overlay dependency.

To install this open the terminal and jump into your project

cd ProjectName

Run the following command

npm install react-native-loading-spinner-overlay --save

This command will copy all the dependencies into your node_module directory. –save is optional, it is just to update the react-native-loading-spinner-overlay dependency in your package.json file.

Code

Now Open App.js in any code editor and replace the code with the following code.

App.js

//Overlay ActivityIndicator / Progress Bar 
// Loading Spinner in React Native
//https://aboutreact.com/overlay-activityindicator-progress-bar-loading-spinner-in-react-native/

//import React in our code
import React, {useState} from 'react';

//import all the components we are going to use
import {
  SafeAreaView,
  Text,
  View,
  StyleSheet,
  Button
} from 'react-native';

import Spinner from 'react-native-loading-spinner-overlay';

const App = () => {
  const [loading, setLoading] = useState(false);

  const startLoading = () => {
    setLoading(true);
    setTimeout(() => {
      setLoading(false);
    }, 3000);
  };

  return (
    <SafeAreaView style={{flex: 1}}>
      <View style={styles.container}>
        <Spinner
          //visibility of Overlay Loading Spinner
          visible={loading}
          //Text with the Spinner
          textContent={'Loading...'}
          //Text style of the Spinner Text
          textStyle={styles.spinnerTextStyle}
        />
        <Text style={{textAlign: 'center', fontSize: 20}}>
          Spinner Overlay Example
        </Text>
        <Button
          title="Start Loading"
          onPress={startLoading}>
        </Button>
      </View>
    </SafeAreaView>
  );
};

const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  container: {
    flex: 1,
    justifyContent: 'center',
    textAlign: 'center',
    paddingTop: 30,
    backgroundColor: '#ecf0f1',
    padding: 8,
  },
  spinnerTextStyle: {
    color: '#FFF',
  },
});

export default App;

To Run the React Native App

Open the terminal again and jump into your project using.

cd ProjectName

1. Start Metro Bundler

First, you will need to start Metro, the JavaScript bundler that ships with React Native. To start Metro bundler run following command:

npx react-native start

Once you start Metro Bundler it will run forever on your terminal until you close it. Let Metro Bundler run in its own terminal. Open a new terminal and run the application.

2. Start React Native Application

To run the project on an Android Virtual Device or on real debugging device:

npx react-native run-android

or on the iOS Simulator by running (macOS only)

npx react-native run-ios

Output Screenshots

Output in Online Emulator

That was the example of Overlay ActivityIndicator/Progress Bar/Loading Spinner in React Native. If you have any doubts or you want to share something about the topic you can comment below or contact us here. There will be more posts coming soon. Stay tuned!

Hope you liked it. 🙂