NativeScript

NativeScript is a framework for building native iOS and Android apps using JavaScript and CSS. NativeScript renders UIs with the native platform’s rendering engine, no WebViews, resulting in native-like performance and UX.

NativeScript provides a best-of-both-worlds development experience. Our cross-platform JavaScript modules give you the convenience of writing iOS and Android apps from a single JavaScript codebase, while our runtimes give you the power of accessing native APIs, SDKs, and frameworks when you need them—all without needing to open Xcode or Android Studio. NativeScript was created and is supported by Telerik.

Check out the links below to get started:

• CTO’s guide to NativeScript
• Getting Started and Installation
• Quick Links
• Repositories
• Contributing
• Angular 2

For CTOs

Making the right technology choices is key to success. Our CTO’s guide to NativeScript helps you understand why NativeScript is the right choice for your next mobile project.

Getting Started and Installation

Our Getting Started Guides are hands-on tutorials that walk you through installing NativeScript and building a real iOS and Android application.

• Get started with JavaScript
• Get started with TypeScript and Angular 2

Quick Links

• NativeScript home page
• NativeScript and Angular
• @NativeScript on Twitter
• NativeScript community Slack channel
• NativeScript on Stack Overflow
• NativeScript documentation
• NativeScript blog

Repositories

The NativeScript framework consists of a number of components, all of which are open source and on GitHub. Here are the major ones:

• Cross-platform modules
  • This repo contains the NativeScript cross-platform modules, which abstract iOS and Android APIs into JavaScript APIs—e.g. camera.takePicture(). The modules are written in TypeScript.
• iOS runtime
  • This repo contains the NativeScript iOS runtime—the code that hosts NativeScript iOS apps, and allows JavaScript code to be executed on iOS devices. The iOS runtime is written in a fun mix of C++, Objective-C, and more.
• Android runtime
  • This repo contains the NativeScript Android—the code that hosts NativeScript Android apps, and allows JavaScript code to be executed on Android devices. The Android runtime is written in a fun mix of C++ and Java.
• CLI
  • This repo contains the NativeScript command-line interface, which lets you create, build, and run apps using the NativeScript framework. The CLI is written in TypeScript.
• Docs
  • This repo contains the NativeScript framework documentation, which is available at http://docs.nativescript.org/. The docs are written in Markdown.

In addition to the code that makes up the NativeScript framework itself, we also provide a number of open-source sample apps that you can reference while building your NativeScript application.

Contributing

We love PRs, and accept them for all of our repositories—even docs! Please follow our contribution guide if you want to become part of the project.

Angular 2

We are working together with the Google Angular JS team to make Angular 2.0 work on top of NativeScript. To use Angular 2 and NativeScript please follow the getting started article.

Get Help

The NativeScript framework has a vibrant community that can help when you run into problems.

If you have a question, start by seeing if anyone else has encountered the scenario on Stack Overflow. If you cannot find any information, try asking the question yourself. Make sure to add any details needed to recreate the issue and include the “NativeScript” tag, so your question is visible to the NativeScript community.

If you need more help than the Q&A format Stack Overflow can provide, try joining the NativeScript community Slack. The Slack chat is a great place to get help troubleshooting problems, as well as connect with other NativeScript developers.

Finally, if you have found an issue with the NativeScript framework itself, please report the problem in the Issues.