Switch from One Screen to another using React Navigation (Router)

React Navigation

This is an Example to Switch from One Screen to another using React Navigation (Router). We will use react-navigation library for the Navigation.

This example is for React Navigation V4. For the update React Navigation V5 please visit Navigate Between Screens using React Navigation V5 in React Native.

React Native Navigation is used to switch from one screen to another in the desired manner. This navigation solution is written entirely in JavaScript (so you can read and understand all of the sources), on top of powerful native primitives.

To Navigate

this.props.navigation.navigate('SecondPage')

In this example, we will navigate from the first screen to second on a click of a button. 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 Dependencies

To switch between the screens we need to add react-navigation in our application.

To install the dependencies open the terminal and jump into your project

cd ProjectName

1. Install react-navigation dependency to import createAppContainer

npm install react-navigation --save

2. Other supporting libraries for react-navigation

npm install react-native-gesture-handler react-native-safe-area-context @react-native-community/masked-view react-native-screens react-native-reanimated --save

3. Install react-navigation-stack to import createStackNavigator

npm install react-navigation-stack --save

These commands will copy all the dependencies into your node_module directory.

CocoaPods Installation

Please use the following command to install CocoaPods

cd ios && pod install && cd ..

Project Structure

To start with this Example you need to create a directory named pages in your project and create two files FirstPage.js and SecondPage.js

Code

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

App.js

//This is an example code for Navigator// 
import React, { Component } from 'react';
//import react in our code. 

//Import react-navigation
import { createAppContainer } from 'react-navigation';
import { createStackNavigator} from 'react-navigation-stack';

import FirstPage from './pages/FirstPage';
import SecondPage from './pages/SecondPage';
//import all the screens we are going to switch 
const App = createStackNavigator({
  //Constant which holds all the screens like index of any book 
    FirstPage: { screen: FirstPage }, 
    //First entry by default be our first screen if we do not define initialRouteName
    SecondPage: { screen: SecondPage }, 
  },
  {
    initialRouteName: 'FirstPage',
  }
);
export default createAppContainer(App);

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

FirstPage.js

//This is an example code for Navigator// 
import React, { Component } from 'react';
//import react in our code. 
import { StyleSheet, View, Button} from 'react-native';
//import all the components we are going to use.

export default class FirstPage extends Component {
  static navigationOptions = {
    title: 'First Page',
    //Sets Header text of Status Bar
    headerStyle: {
      backgroundColor: '#f4511e',
      //Sets Header color
    },
    headerTintColor: '#fff',
    //Sets Header text color
    headerTitleStyle: {
      fontWeight: 'bold',
      //Sets Header text style
    },
  };

  render() {
    const { navigate } = this.props.navigation;
    return (
      <View style={styles.container}>
        <Button title='Go next'
        onPress={() =>navigate('SecondPage')}
        />
      </View>
    );
  }
}
const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  container: {
    flex: 1,
    backgroundColor: '#fff',
    alignItems: 'center',
    justifyContent: 'center',
  },
});

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

SecondPage.js

//This is an example code for Navigator// 
import React, { Component } from 'react';
//import react in our code. 
import { StyleSheet, View, Text} from 'react-native';
//import all the components we are going to use.

export default class SecondPage extends Component {
  static navigationOptions = {
    title: 'Second Page',
    //Sets Header text of Status Bar
  };
  render() {
    const { navigate } = this.props.navigation;
    return (
      <View style={styles.container}>
        <Text>You are on SecondPage</Text>
      </View>
    );
  }
}
const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  container: {
    flex: 1,
    backgroundColor: '#fff',
    margin:50,
    alignItems: 'center',
    justifyContent: 'center',
  },
});

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

IOS

Android

Output in Online Emulator

That was the React Native Navigation. 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. 🙂