React Native Swipe Down to Refresh List View Using Refresh Control

Swipe Down to Refresh

Here is an example of React Native Swipe Down to Refresh ListView Using Refresh Control. It was first introduced in Android Material Design and became very popular. Almost all Apps are using Swipe down to refresh. In React Native you can use this feature using RefreshControl provided by React Native.

To Import Refresh Control in Code

import { RefreshControl} from 'react-native'

Swipe Down to Refresh ListView Using Refresh Control

<FlatList
  data={dataSource}
  keyExtractor={(item, index) => index.toString()}
  ItemSeparatorComponent={ItemSeparatorView}
  enableEmptySections={true}
  renderItem={ItemView}
  refreshControl={
    <RefreshControl
        //refresh control used for the Pull to Refresh
        refreshing={refreshing}
        onRefresh={onRefresh}
    />
  }
/>

In this example, we will make a simple list that is having from the network call and we can refresh the data using swiping down. 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.

Code

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

App.js

//React Native Swipe Down to Refresh List View Using Refresh Control
//https://aboutreact.com/react-native-swipe-down-to-refresh-listview-using-refreshcontrol/

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

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

const App = () => {
  const [refreshing, setRefreshing] = useState(true);
  const [dataSource, setDataSource] = useState([]);

  useEffect(() => {
    getData();
  }, []);

  const getData = () => {
    //Service to get the data from the server to render
    fetch('https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts')
      .then((response) => response.json())
      .then((responseJson) => {
        setRefreshing(false);
        setDataSource(responseJson);
      })
      .catch((error) => {
        console.error(error);
      });
  };

  const ItemView = ({item}) => {
    return (
      // Flat List Item
      <Text
        style={styles.itemStyle}
        onPress={() => getItem(item)}>
        {item.title}
      </Text>
    );
  };

  const ItemSeparatorView = () => {
    return (
      // Flat List Item Separator
      <View
        style={{
          height: 0.5,
          width: '100%',
          backgroundColor: '#C8C8C8'}} 
      />
    );
  };

  const getItem = (item) => {
    //Function for click on an item
    alert('Id : ' + item.id + ' Title : ' + item.title);
  };

  const onRefresh = () => {
    //Clear old data of the list
    setDataSource([]);
    //Call the Service to get the latest data
    getData();
  };

  return (
    <SafeAreaView style={{flex: 1}}>
      <View style={styles.container}>
        {refreshing ? <ActivityIndicator /> : null}
        <FlatList
          data={dataSource}
          keyExtractor={(item, index) => index.toString()}
          ItemSeparatorComponent={ItemSeparatorView}
          enableEmptySections={true}
          renderItem={ItemView}
          refreshControl={
            <RefreshControl
              //refresh control used for the Pull to Refresh
              refreshing={refreshing}
              onRefresh={onRefresh}
            />
          }
        />
      </View>
    </SafeAreaView>
  );
};

const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  container: {
    justifyContent: 'center',
    flex: 1,
    marginTop: 10,
  },
  itemStyle: {
    fontSize: 20,
    padding: 10,
  },
});

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 Screenshots

Output in Online Emulator

That was the React Native React Native Swipe Down to Refresh ListView Using RefreshControl. 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. 🙂