49 lines
2.7 KiB
Markdown
49 lines
2.7 KiB
Markdown
---
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id: navigator-comparison
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title: Navigator Comparison
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layout: docs
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category: Guides
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permalink: docs/navigator-comparison.html
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next: known-issues
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---
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The differences between [Navigator](/react-native/docs/navigator.html)
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and [NavigatorIOS](/react-native/docs/navigatorios.html) are a common
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source of confusion for newcomers.
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Both `Navigator` and `NavigatorIOS` are components that allow you to
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manage the navigation in your app between various "scenes" (another word
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for screens). They manage a route stack and allow you to pop, push, and
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replace states. In this way, [they are similar to the html5 history
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API](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Guide/API/DOM/Manipulating_the_browser_history).
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The primary distinction between the two is that `NavigatorIOS` leverages
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the iOS
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[UINavigationController](https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/UIKit/Reference/UINavigationController_Class/)
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class, and `Navigator` re-implements that functionality entirely in
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JavaScript as a React component. A corollary of this is that `Navigator`
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will be compatible with Android and iOS, whereas `NavigatorIOS` will
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only work on the one platform. Below is an itemized list of differences
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between the two.
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## Navigator
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- Extensive API makes it completely customizable from JavaScript.
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- Under active development from the React Native team.
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- Written in JavaScript.
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- Works on iOS and Android.
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- Includes a simple navigation bar component similar to the default `NavigatorIOS` bar: `Navigator.NavigationBar`, and another with breadcrumbs called `Navigator.BreadcrumbNavigationBar`. See the UIExplorer demo to try them out and see how to use them.
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- Currently animations are good and improving, but they are still less refined than Apple's, which you get from `NavigatorIOS`.
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- You can provide your own navigation bar by passing it through the `navigationBar` prop.
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## NavigatorIOS
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- Small, limited API makes it much less customizable than `Navigator` in its current form.
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- Development belongs to open-source community - not used by the React Native team on their apps.
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- A result of this is that there is currently a backlog of unresolved bugs, nobody who uses this has stepped up to take ownership for it yet.
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- Wraps UIKit, so it works exactly the same as it would on another native app. Lives in Objective-C and JavaScript.
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- Consequently, you get the animations and behaviour that Apple has developed.
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- iOS only.
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- Includes a navigation bar by default; this navigation bar is not a React Native view component and the style can only be slightly modified.
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For most non-trivial apps, you will want to use `Navigator` - it won't be long before you run into issues when trying to do anything complex with `NavigatorIOS`.
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