Just when you thought it was safe to go back to Xcode, a small Czech team called Brightify has created Reactant, a framework that makes it easy to program iOS apps. The system is a Swift-based framework that offers live-reload of code, allowing you to add elements on the fly as you program.
“The Reactant architecture dictates how to structure an iOS project from start to finish. It allows testable and reusable code, that is also highly scalable. By that I mean that there’s no boilerplate that would slow down a development of a small app, but it also keeps the development on track when the app grows larger,” said Tadeas Kriz. The team has posted the framework on Github and raised a small friends and family round to help grow the system.
“Now, we have the architecture ready and it’s used in all of our applications. It has been developed alongside our work for clients, to make sure it fits all of our requirements before making it public. That part is Open Source and available for anyone to use.”
They are also building a UI editor to make it even easier to layout apps. It will launch in December.
“Our main advantage is that any iOS developer can use Reactant right away, since it’s all native Swift. We give developers a lot of compile time safety through Swift’s powerful type system.”
Kriz and his co-founder Michael Chlubna created Reactant as a solution to their own development problems. The team also runs Brightify, a mobile app development house, and this tool made it easier to build apps in Swift without extensive coding. Because the apps compile into native iOS code there is none of the incompatibilities introduced by hybrid frameworks like React Native. They also have fairly complete documentation which makes it easier to pick up Reactant and start programming.
I met the team at Disrupt in San Francisco and found the platform to be well-built and definitely exciting for a newbie like me. Might be worth a look for your next programming project.