React Native ActivityIndicator

This post will Give you an Understanding of React Native ActivityIndicator. React Native ActivityIndicator is a component for displaying loading action. It is the same as the circular loader/Progress Bar. It is used to show the progress of long-running task so that the user can understand something is in progress.

To Import ActivityIndicator in the Code

import { ActivityIndicator} from 'react-native'

Render Using

<ActivityIndicator size="large" color="#0000ff" />

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.

Code

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

App.js

//React Native ActivityIndicator
//https://aboutreact.com/react-native-activity-indicator/

//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,
  ActivityIndicator,
} from 'react-native';

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

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

  return (
    <SafeAreaView style={{flex: 1}}>
      <View style={styles.container}>
        {loading ? (
          <ActivityIndicator
            //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}}>
              React Native ActivityIndicator
            </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

Download Source Code

Output Screenshot

Output in Online Emulator

That was the React Native ActivityIndicator. If you have any doubts or you want to share something about the topic you can comment below or contact us here. The remaining components will be covered in the next article. Stay tuned!

Hope you liked it. 🙂