Last July, I started writing a series focused on how the Salesforce platform can be utilized in a manner without a traditional Salesforce client. Here are links to the other articles in the series: Leveraging Salesforce Using Spring Boot Leveraging Salesforce Using a Client Written In Svelte Leveraging Salesforce Using a Client Written In Vue.js Leveraging Salesforce Using Mobile Applications Written (Once) In React Native Leveraging Salesforce Using a Client Written In Angular A graphical representation of the series could be summarized as shown below: The illustration above demonstrates how various client frameworks can access the Salesforce data without actually utilizing clients provided by the Salesforce ecosystem. Feature team developers may not be aware of the , which allows you to harness the power of the Salesforce Platform within standalone mobile apps. In this short series, I’ll demonstrate how to use the Salesforce Mobile SDK for custom mobile applications written in React Native, Android Studio, and Xcode. Salesforce Mobile SDK A graphical representation of this new series could be summarized as shown below: Benefits of the Salesforce Mobile SDK The Salesforce Mobile SDK provides several benefits that software engineers can take advantage of: Allows custom mobile device applications to utilize Salesforce features and functionality Full access to Salesforce functionality (no need to reinvent the wheel) Applications can be distributed using the native device’s application store Push notifications from Salesforce can be processed The ability to work with Salesforce data in an offline mode If your application landscape utilizes Salesforce for key aspects of business operability, then you should consider leveraging the Salesforce Mobile SDK in order to introduce data maintained by Salesforce into key component locations to facilitate strong business decisions. Benefits of Using React Native If you are still reading this article, then there must be some interest in developing applications using the Salesforce ecosystem. If your current client base requires support for both Android and iOS devices, then the React Native framework should be at the top of your list to review. A few key features for feature teams employing React Native are noted below: Uses one code base for both Android and iOS devices Leverages JavaScript (and TypeScript if desired) to avoid learning new languages Provides a quick turnaround time to produce native clients running on mobile devices Why Not Just Use HTML5? Those with experience with Angular, React, Vue.js (and other client frameworks) may ask “why not just create a responsive HTML5 application?” While the HTML5 approach is possible, limitations do exist when trying to access core components on mobile devices—like the camera. Additionally, session management and lack of access to secure storage may present deal-breakers in your Product Owner’s mind. Plus, mobile users tend to prefer native applications over browser-based applications on their devices. For more information and a side-by-side analysis, take a look at the following breakdown provided by Salesforce: About Native, HTML5, and Hybrid Development Finny’s Foods: An Example Use Case Having a son (Finny) born with special needs introduced a personal desire to gain an understanding and appreciation of the products we utilize in our daily life. Years before Finny was born, my wife (Nicole) and I lived a healthy lifestyle. However, as Nicole began deep diving into the list of ingredients included in the foods that were a part of our daily diet, we received a much-needed wakeup call. Fast-forward to today, our diet contains very few processed foods, no gluten, low sugar, and very little dairy. As much as possible, our protein originates from grass-fed sources, and we always favor organic options. Don’t get me started on GMO. For this series, our Finny’s Foods application provides a simple list of meals that are both acceptable to us and favored by Finny. For now, we will include two simple attributes for each meal: Name of the meal Rating (1 to 5, where a rating of 5 is an absolute favorite for Finny) Over time, I plan to introduce other attributes (such as summary, ingredients, directions, and even a photo), but let’s walk before we run. Getting Started with React Native Aside from making sure I had git and installed on my MacBook Pro, I realized I needed a recent version of Node. I also needed to install TypeScript and the package, which I did using : npm forcereact npm npm install -g typescript forcereact Within the folder on my local machine, I used the command to create the Finny’s Foods application in React Native: ./projects/jvc/salesforce-mobile-sdk forcereact forcereact create --platform=ios,android 
  --appname=FinnysFoods --packagename=com.gitlab.johnjvester.finnysfoods 
  --organization="johnjvester" --outputdir=FinnysFoods The installer provided the following summary message: ********************************************************************************
*
*   Creating ios and android react_native application using Salesforce Mobile SDK
*     with app name:        FinnysFoods
*          package name:    com.gitlab.johnjvester.finnysfoods
*          organization:    johnjvester
*
*     in:                   FinnysFoods
*
*     from template repo:   https://github.com/forcedotcom/SalesforceMobileSDK-Templates#v9.1.1
*          template path:   ReactNativeTypeScriptTemplate
*
******************************************************************************** After installing the necessary dependencies, the React Native application base is ready. If I wanted to see the Hello World version of the application, I would simply do the following: Issue the npm start command Start Android Studio or Xcode Configure emulator (if one is not already configured) Run the app from Android Studio or Xcode Before doing that, I wanted to start building the actual application. You can see a Hello World example in the “ ” article from a prior series. Leveraging Salesforce Using Mobile Applications Written (Once) In React Native At this point, I decided to rename the folder to be to match my current GitLab naming format. /projects/jvc/salesforce-mobile-sdk/FinnysFoods /projects/jvc/salesforce-mobile-sdk/finnys-foods For the remainder of this article, I will be working from the folder unless specified otherwise. ./finnys-foods Adding Dependencies for the Star Rating System To provide a better user experience, I wanted to include rating value next to the title in the application. Rather than just list the number value, I thought it would be nice to leverage the library to show a filled-in star to match the rating on the five-star scale. So, a rating of four stars would appear as shown below: Font Awesome To accomplish this, I issued the following command to leverage the libraries from : fortawesome npm i --save react-native-svg 
  @fortawesome/fontawesome-svg-core @fortawesome/free-solid-svg-icons 
  @fortawesome/react-native-fontawesome @fortawesome/free-regular-svg-icons At this point, the Font Awesome dependencies are available for use. Creating the Meal Object in Salesforce Before I could begin creating a new application in React Native, I needed to establish the object in Salesforce. Meal I already had a Developer org that I could use. (You can create a new one .) So, I simply logged in using my email address and password for that org. Next, I navigated to the and the Setup perspective in Salesforce. here Apps | App Manager I created a new Lightning App called Meal: On the remaining screens in the setup, I went with all of the default settings and granted access to all Salesforce User Profiles. Next, I visited the menu option in the Salesforce Settings. Once I located the newly-created Meal item, I used the drop-down component to the object. Objects & Fields | Object Manager Edit I switched from the submenu to the option. I quickly realized I did not need to create a Name property for my Meal object, since Salesforce already took care of that for me. I just needed to add the Rating field. Details Fields & Relationships Using the button, I selected the field type and populated Step Two as noted below: New number I used the default values and saved my new field. Now, I can use both the name and rating fields in my React Native application, all because Salesforce automatically surfaced all of these schema changes to the RESTful API for this Salesforce org. Using the Salesforce client, I went ahead and populated some source data to use for the development of the React Native application. Below is a summary of the submitted values: Based upon the sample data, Finny always prefers ”Pizza” over “Chicken & Rice”. Building the Meal Component in React Native With the source object and data configured, I used my IntelliJ IDEA application to open the project for the first time. ./finnys-foods ) here, because this is where we will be doing the source development. Later, you will see how the Android Studio will use the android sub-folder when opening the same project. As you might expect, Xcode will use the sub-folder. Important Note: Keep in mind, we are going to point to the root folder ( ./finnys-foods ios For simplicity, my React Native application is going to exist in the file. Feature developers building business applications should consider adopting design principles for their React Native applications. The “ ” article by provides some excellent information on this topic. app.tsx React Native — Application architecture with Design pattern — corporate standards Saurabh Shah The file was already populated with enough information to connect to Salesforce and make things quite easy to build upon. app.tsx I replaced the interface with a interface as shown below: Record Meal interface Meal {
    Id: String,
    Name: String,
    Rating__c: number
} As a result, I updated the and interfaces accordingly: Response State interface Response {
    records: Meal[]
}

interface State {
    data : Meal[]
} I renamed the React Component to as shown below: MealListScreen class MealListScreen extends React.Component<Props, State> { I updated the method to call the custom object created in Salesforce: fetchData() Meal fetchData() {
        var that = this;
        net.query('SELECT Id, Name, Rating__c FROM Meal__c ORDER BY Name ASC LIMIT 100',
                  (response:Response) => {
                that.setState({data: response.records});
            },
                  (error) => console.log('Failed to query:' + error)
                 );
    } I updated the method to show the name of the meal and the appropriate star rating: render() render() {
        return (
            <View style={styles.container}>
              <FlatList
                data={this.state.data}
                renderItem={({item}) => {
                    return (
                        <Text style={styles.item}>{item.Name} {this.getStars(item.Rating__c)}</Text>
                    )
                } }
                keyExtractor={(item, index) => {
                    return item.Id.toString();
                }}
              />
            </View>
        );
    } Finally, I updated the App to reflect the proper title of the application: export const App = function() {
    return (
        <NavigationContainer>
          <Stack.Navigator>
            <Stack.Screen name="Finny's Foods" component={MealListScreen} ></Stack>
          </Stack.Navigator>
        </NavigationContainer>
    );
} With these changes in place, we are ready to give the Finny’s Food app a try using Android Studio. Finny’s Foods In Action From the command line, I executed the command in the folder. The following information was displayed: npm start ./finnys-foods > FinnysFoods@0.0.1 start /Users/john.vester/projects/jvc/salesforce-mobile-sdk/finnys-foods
> node node_modules/react-native/local-cli/cli.js start

                                                          
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                 Welcome to React Native!
                Learn once, write anywhere



To reload the app press "r"
To open developer menu press "d" Next, I opened Android Studio and imported the project from the folder, which was a Gradle project. Once ready, I used the menu option and selected the option, which also maps to the shortcut. Keep in mind, I had already configured an Android device to emulate in the “ ” article from a prior series. ./finnys-foods/android Run Run ‘app’ Shift-F10 Leveraging Salesforce Using Mobile Applications Written (Once) In React Native The mobile device was displayed on my monitor, and I needed to press the option to grant the appropriate permissions. CONTINUE First-time use will automatically redirect to a Salesforce login screen, where I used the same email address and password to access my Developer org. This is a really nifty feature, that everything needed for auth to work is already included. At the same time, if we were to assign security on the custom objects that were added in Salesforce, they would be handled automatically as well. After signing in, the Finny’s Foods application was displayed, including the five-star rating value for each item. In a matter of minutes, we were able to create a native application for Android or iOS devices using React Native and the Salesforce Mobile SDK. Conclusion Starting in 2021, I have been trying to live by the following mission statement, which I feel can apply to any IT professional: “Focus your time on delivering features/functionality which extends the value of your intellectual property. Leverage frameworks, products, and services for everything else.” - J. Vester In this article, I was able to introduce a custom mobile application to deploy natively from the Android and iOS application stores, using a single collection of source code. Aside from knowing Javascript and understanding the architecture of the React Native framework, no proprietary skills were required. The Salesforce Mobile SDK certainly adheres to my personal mission statement, which will benefit any feature team that requires Salesforce functionality as part of custom mobile applications running on Android and iOS devices. Software engineers in this realm of development should certainly consider this approach. If you wish to see the full source code for this article, simply navigate to the following project on GitLab: https://gitlab.com/johnjvester/finnys-foods In the next article of the series, I plan to use the Salesforce Mobile SDK with Android Studio to create a native Android application. Once completed, I will perform the same exercise using Xcode for iOS devices. Have a really great day! First Published here

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Build a Mobile App Using React Native and the Salesforce Mobile SDK 

Build a Mobile App Using React Native and the Salesforce Mobile SDK

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