Category: React Native Lessons

The most awaited and considerably the lengthiest chapter is here. In this chapter, we will learn how to add the in-app purchase service in React Native using React Native IAP package The configurations are mainly for the iOS platform. Here, we are going to set up the subscriptions and configure the App Store Connect to enable the in-app purchase feature. The process is somewhat lengthy but make sure to do it carefully. We are also going to implement a tester to test the in-app purchase service. Lastly, we are also going to configure the UI screen for the Remove ads feature.

Let’s get started!

Installing React Native IAP

First, we are going to install a package named react-native iap. This is a react-native native module library project for in-app purchases for both Android and iOS platforms. For that, we need to run the following command in our project terminal:

yarn add react-native-iap

Setup on iOS

In iOS, we need to run a general command for cacao pod install as shown below:

cd ios/ && pod install ; cd ..

Then, we need to go to Xcode and add in-app purchase capability as shown in the screenshot below:

As we are done in Xcode, we will see the following information:

To use the In-app purchase service, we need to create a Context component named IApController first. Then, we need to import components as shown in the code snippet below:

import React, { createContext, useState, useContext } from 'react';
import * as RNIap from 'react-native-iap';
import { Alert, Platform } from 'react-native'
export const IApContext = createContext();

Then, we need to create an array to contain the product name that will match on both Android and Apple developer dashboard as shown in the code snippet below:

const itemSkus = Platform.select({
   ios: [
       'kriss.once.removeads',
       'kriss.sub.removeads'
   ],
   android: [
       'com.kriss.remove_ads_monthly',
       'com.kriss.remove_ad_forever'
   ]
});

Next, we need to create two states to handle product data and ads status as shown in the code snippet below:

export const IApController = ({ children }) => {
   const [products, setProducts] = useState([])
   const [showads, setShowads] = useState(true);

Now, we are going to start with fetching product data from the app store and play store. For Playstore, we need to get a subscription with separate function as shown in the code snippet below:

const initIAp = async () => {
       try {
           const products = await RNIap.getProducts(itemSkus);
           if (Platform.OS === 'android') {
               const subscription = await RNIap.getSubscriptions(itemSkus);
               products.push(subscription[0])
           }
           console.log(products)
           setProducts({ products });
           console.log(products)
       } catch (err) {
           console.warn(err); // standardized err.code and err.message available
       }
   }

Product and Subscription

Now, we need to create two more functions to handle user purchases and subscriptions. The idea is to hide the ads when the purchase or subscription is successful. The coding implementation for this is provided in the code snippet below:

makePurchase = async (sku) => {
       try {
           await RNIap.requestPurchase(sku, false).then(async (res) => {
                toggleAds(false)
           });
       } catch (err) {
           console.warn(err.code, err.message);
       }
   }
   makeSubscription = async (sku) => {
       try {
           await RNIap.requestSubscription(sku, false).then(async (res) => {
                  toggleAds(false)
           });
       } catch (err) {
           console.warn(err.code, err.message);
       }
   }

Then, we need to create a toggle function to display or hide ads as shown in the code snippet below:

const [showads, setShowads] = useState(true);
   const toggleAds = value => {
       if (value === true) {
           setShowads(true);
       } else {
           setShowads(false);
       }
   };

Next, we need to prepare a list of functions that we want to export to use in other components as shown in the code snippet below:

return (
       <IApContext.Provider value={{
	     initIAp,
            Showads,
            products,
            makePurchase,
           makeSubscription,
       }}>
           {children}
       </IApContext.Provider>
   );
}

Hence, we have completed the configuration part of the IApController. Our next step is to activate Context in App.js.

First, we start by importing IApController to App.js file as shown in the code snippet below:

import { IApController } from './src/components/IApController'

Then, we wrap the Navigator with another level of Context component as shown in the code snippet below:

<IApController>
     <AdmobController>
       <NetworkController>
         <ThemeController>
           <Navigators />
         </ThemeController>
       </NetworkController>
     </AdmobController>
   </IApController>

Now, we need to fetch the list of products that we need to activate in Navigator.js. First import the IApContext in Navigator as shown in the code snippet below:

import { IApContext } from './IApController'

Then by using useEffect hook, we activate it every time the app loads as shown in the code snippet below:

export default Navigator = () => {
const { initIAp } = useContext(IApContext)
   useEffect(() => {
       initIAp()
   }, [])

Now, when re-running the app, we get a blank array because we didn’t create a product list on the app store or play store as shown in the screenshot below:

App Store Connect

To register for App store Connect, we require a developer account which costs about 99$ per year. To access this feature, we need to set up financial data first. The screenshot of the App Store Connect console is shown below:

Then, we need to go to the My Apps option and create a new App as directed in the screenshot below:

Next, we need to go to the Feature tab as shown in the screenshot below:

App-store connect feature tabThen, we need to select in-App Purchase and also choose Non-Consumable. Hence, we will use this to offer to remove ads forever as shown in the console screenshot below:

Add new consumable itemWe can provide any name in the Reference Name field but Product ID requires the same ID value that we defined In-app configuration as shown in the screenshot below:

Then, we need to fill in pricing and other description as shown in the screenshot below:

Now, it is ready to use as displayed in the screenshot below:

Now next step is to paid subscription option as directed in the screenshot below:

First, we need to choose Auto-Renewable Subscription as shown in the screenshot above and then fill in Reference Name and Product ID as before as shown in the screenshot below:

Then, we need to create a subscription group as shown in the screenshot below:

Next, we need to select the subscription duration which is 1 Month for our app as shown in the screenshot below:

Lastly, we need to select the pricing option which 4.99$ per month as shown in the screenshot below:

Thus, the app store will calculate pricing for every country itself as shown in the screenshot below:

Hence, we have successfully configured the one-time payment and subscription-based payment option as shown in the screenshot below:

Now, we need to create a Tester.

Creating Tester

First, we need to apply a test for users for initial performance in development mode. Thus, we need to go to User and Access as shown in the screenshot below:

Then, we need to create a new tester as directed in the screenshot below:

To use this in the iOS platform, we can register as a Sandbox account as shown in the screenshot below:

Now, we need to re-run the app again using the following command:

react-native run-ios --device "Kris101"

Hence, we will get the product data printed in the terminal as shown in the screenshot below:

Next, we need to create a new screen to handle the in-app purchases.

For that, we need to create a new screen named RemoveAds and import it to the Navigator.js file as shown in the code snippet below:

import RemoveAds from '../screens/RemoveAds';

Then, we need to add it to the same group on the setting screen as shown in the code snippet below:

       <Stack.Navigator>
           <Stack.Screen name="Setting" component={SettingScreen} />
           <Stack.Screen name="Feedback" component={Feedback} />
           <Stack.Screen name="RemoveAds" component={RemoveAds} />
       </Stack.Navigator>

Next, we need to go back to the Setting screen and add a new menu option called RemoveAds as shown in the code snippet below:

           <TouchableOpacity
               onPress={() => navigation.navigate('RemoveAds')}>
               <List.Item
                   title="Remove Ads"
                   left={() => <List.Icon icon="bullhorn" />}
               />
           </TouchableOpacity>

Now, we have a menu option to navigate to the RemoveAds screen as shown in the emulator screenshot below:

Implementing RemoveAds screen

On this screen, we are going to perform in-app purchase configurations. Thus, we require a privacy policy and terms of use on this screen. First, we need to import the required packages, modules, and components as shown in the screenshot below:

import React from 'react'
import HTML from 'react-native-render-html';
import {
   List,
   Card,
   Title,
   Paragraph,
   Avatar
} from 'react-native-paper';

For UI, we construct the screen using the code from the following code snippet:

const RemoveAds = () => {
 
   const htmlContent = `
   <p style="textAlign: center;">Recurring billing,Cancel any time.</p>
   <p style="textAlign: center;">if you choose to purchase a subscription, payment will be charged to your iTunes account,and your account will be charged within 24-hour to the end  of the current period.Auto-renewal may be turned off at any time by going to your seting in your iTunes store after purchase.For more information please visit our <br><a href="https://kriss.io/term-of-service/">Terms of Use</a> and <a href="https://kriss.io/privacy-policy-for-kriss/">Privacy Policy</a>.</p>
`;
   return (
       <ScrollView>
           <Card style={{
               shadowOffset: { width: 5, height: 5 },
               width: '90%',
               borderRadius: 12,
               alignSelf: 'center',
               marginBottom: 10,
               marginTop: 10
           }}>
               <Card.Title
                   title="Remove Ads"
                   subtitle="Remove all ads that annoy your eye"
                   left={props => <Avatar.Icon {...props} icon="bullhorn" />}
               />
               <Card.Title
                   title="Support content production"
                   subtitle="You help fundarise for  produce content"
                   left={props => <Avatar.Icon {...props} icon="human-handsup" />}
               />
               <Card.Content>
                   <Title> Monthly Subscription</Title>
                   <Paragraph>pay monthly for remove ads</Paragraph>
                   <Button icon="cart" mode="contained" onPress={() => console.log('Pressed')}>
                       4.99$ per month
                </Button>
                   <Title>One time payment</Title>
                   <Paragraph>pay only one time for remove ads</Paragraph>
                   <Button icon="cart" mode="contained" onPress={() => console.log('Pressed')}>
                       49.99$ one time
                </Button>
               </Card.Content>
               <HTML
                   html={htmlContent}
                   onLinkPress={(event, href) => {
                       Linking.openURL(href).catch((err) => console.error('An error occurred', err));
                   }}
 
               />
           </Card >
       </ScrollView>
   )
}
export default RemoveAds

Hence, we will get the following result in our emulator screen:

Remove ads screen

Conclusion

Well, this chapter has been an interesting one. We got stepwise guidance on how to configure the in-app purchase in the React Native app using the IAP package. We configured the in-app purchase for the app store configuring the App Store Connect. The main objective of this chapter was to integrate in-app purchase in the React Native project for the iOS platform so that we can use it to buy a subscription to remove ads in the next chapter. To trigger the in-app purchase we also need to UI screen to provide the detailed subscription feature which is connected to the App store connect through the IAP package. Hence, we also created a UI screen to trigger In-app purchases. In this case, to remove the ads.

Hence, in the next chapter, we are going to use it to implement the subscription-based in-app purchase to remove ads from the app.

In this chapter, we will create a simple form in the Feedback.js file using Formik and submit form data to the Firebase Realtime Database. Then, we will subsequently forward the message to the sender’s email using Cloud Function and Sendgrid. The form will be for users to send their feedback on the post articles and the app.

Let’s get started!

Setup Formik and Yup

First, we are going to install the required packages Formik and Yup. Formik package enables us to build forms whereas the Yup package is for form validation. We are also going to install another package that is react-native-keyboard-aware-scroll-view which enables us to scroll the view upwards when the keyboard pops up from the bottom. This will provide a better user experience. Now, in order to install these packages, we need to run the command given in the following code snippet in our project terminal:

yarn add formik yup react-native-keyboard-aware-scroll-view

Now, we need to open the Feedback.js file and import the necessary packages and their components as shown in the code snippet below:

import React from 'react'
import { View, StyleSheet } from 'react-native'
import { TextInput as Input, Button, HelperText } from 'react-native-paper'
import { KeyboardAwareScrollView } from 'react-native-keyboard-aware-scroll-view'
import { Formik } from 'formik';
import * as Yup from 'yup'

Next, we need to create a simple form using Formik. First, we need to set the initial input values as blank. When a user submits the form, we need to call the submitForm function which will also display an error if any using helper text. The function that returns the form configuration is provided in the code snippet below:

const Feedback = () => {
return (
       <Formik
           initialValues={{ email: '', name: '', message: '' }}
           onSubmit={(values, { setSubmitting }) => {
               console.log(values)
               submitForm(values);
               setSubmitting(false);
           }}
           validationSchema={FeedbackSchema}
       >
           {({ handleChange, handleBlur, handleSubmit, values, isValid, dirty, errors, touched, isSubmitting }) => (
               <KeyboardAwareScrollView>
                   <View style={styles.container}>
                       <Input
 
                           placeholder={'Name'}
                           onChangeText={handleChange('name')}
                           onBlur={handleBlur('name')}
                           value={values.name}
                           underlineColor="transparent"
                           mode="outlined"
 
                       />
                       <HelperText
                           type="error"
                           visible={errors.name && touched.name}
                       >  {errors.name}</HelperText>
                       <Input
 
                           placeholder={'Email'}
                           onChangeText={handleChange('email')}
                           onBlur={handleBlur('email')}
                           value={values.email}
                           underlineColor="transparent"
                           mode="outlined"
 
                       />
                       <HelperText
                           type="error"
                           visible={errors.email && touched.email}
                       >  {errors.email}</HelperText>
                       <Input
 
                           placeholder={'Message'}
                           onChangeText={handleChange('message')}
                           onBlur={handleBlur('message')}
                           value={values.message}
                           underlineColor="transparent"
                           mode="outlined"
                           multiline={true}
                           numberOfLines={12}
                       />
                       <HelperText
                           type="error"
                           visible={errors.message && touched.message}
                       >  {errors.message}</HelperText>
                       <View >
                           <Button icon="email" disabled={!isValid} mode="contained" onPress={handleSubmit}>
                              Submit
                              </Button>
                       </View>
                   </View>
               </KeyboardAwareScrollView>
           )}
       </Formik>
   )
}
 
export default Feedback

Next, we need to create the validation rules using Yup as shown in the code snippet below:

const FeedbackSchema = Yup.object().shape({
   name: Yup.string()
       .min(2, "name is Too Short!")
       .max(50, "name is Too Long!")
       .required("name is Required"),
   // recaptcha: Yup.string().required(),
   email: Yup.string()
       .email("Invalid email")
       .required("Email is Required"),
   message: Yup.string()
       .min(12, "message is Too Short!")
       .max(50, "message is Too Long!")
       .required("message is Required"),
});

Hence, we will get the form view as shown in the emulator screenshots below:

And, when we submit the form with empty fields, we will get the error message as well as shown in the emulator screenshots below:

Now that we have the form view, we will move on to set up Firebase in our React Native project.

Setting up React Native Firebase

Here, we are going to use the react-native firebase version 6 package in order to access Firebase services. Initially, we only require the core Firebase package and real-time database. So, we need to install them using the command provided below:

yarn add @react-native-firebase/app @react-native-firebase/database

Setup on iOS

In iOS, we start by installing React native Firebase on cacao pod by using the command provided below:

cd ios ; pod install

Next, we need to open the project with Xcode and find the Bundle identifier as shown in the screenshot below:

Next, we need to go to Firebase Console and create a new app. Then, choose an iOS app and add Bundle identifier as shown in the example screenshots below:

Next, we need to download the GoogleService-info.plist file as shown in the screenshot below:

Then, we need to move the plist file to the Xcode project structure as shown in the screenshot below:

Next, we need to open Appdelegate.m file in Xcode and import Firebase then activate [FIRApp configure]; as highlighted in the example screenshot below:

Now, if everything works according to the right setup then we will see the following status on Firebase when we re-run the app:

Setup on Android

For Android, we need to locate the file named MainApplication.java as shown in the screenshot below:

Then, we need to copy the package name back to the Firebase console. The package name that we will get in the MainApllication.java file is shown below:

package com.kriss;

After copying, we need to create a new android app in the Firebase console and paste the package name in the config form as shown in the screenshot below:

After that, we will get the google-service.json file which we need to download as shown in the screenshot below:

After downloading, we need to copy it to the location as shown in the screenshot below:

Next, we need to open android/build.gradle and add classpath as ‘com.google.gms:google-services:4.2.0’ to dependencies as shown in the code snippet below:

buildscript {
   ext {
       buildToolsVersion = "28.0.3"
       minSdkVersion = 16
       compileSdkVersion = 28
       targetSdkVersion = 28
   }
   repositories {
       google()
       jcenter()
   }
   dependencies {
       classpath("com.android.tools.build:gradle:3.4.2")
       classpath 'com.google.gms:google-services:4.2.0'
       // NOTE: Do not place your application dependencies here; they belong
       // in the individual module build.gradle files
   }
}

Then, we also need to add apply plugin: ‘com.google.gms.google-services’ configuration to the last line of android/app/build.gradle file as shown in the code snippet below:

task copyDownloadableDepsToLibs(type: Copy) {
   from configurations.compile
   into 'libs'
}
 
apply from: file("../../node_modules/@react-native-community/cli-platform-android/native_modules.gradle"); applyNativeModulesAppBuildGradle(project)
apply from: "../../node_modules/react-native-vector-icons/fonts.gradle"
apply plugin: 'com.google.gms.google-services'

Hence if we re-run the app, we will get the following logs in our metro bundler:

Now, if everything works fine, we will get the following result in our Firebase:

Using Database package

Here, we go back to Feedback.js and import Firebase realtime database package as shown in the code snippet below:

import database from '@react-native-firebase/database'

First, we need to create a function named submitForm and call the realtime database as shown in the code snippet below:

const submitForm = (values) => {
       database()
           .ref("feedback/")
           .push(values)
           .then(res => {
               alert("thank for giving feedback");
           })
           .catch(err => {
               console.error(err);
           });
   }

Now, if we try to submit the form, we will get an alert as shown in the emulator screenshot below:

In order to make a navigation link to the Feedback screen, we need to add a menu option to our Settings.js screen file. For this, we need to use the code from the following code snippet:

import React, { useContext, useState } from 'react';
import { View, TouchableOpacity } from 'react-native';
import {
   List, Switch,
} from 'react-native-paper';
import React, { useContext, useState } from 'react';
import { View, TouchableOpacity } from 'react-native';
import {
   List, Switch,
} from 'react-native-paper';

Then, we need to use the TouchableOpacity component to implement clickable menu option as shown in the code snippet below:

const Setting = ({ navigation }) => {
   return (
   <View style={{ flex: 1 }}>
       <TouchableOpacity
           onPress={() => navigation.navigate('Feedback')}>
           <List.Item
               title="Send Feedback"
               left={() => <List.Icon icon="email" />}
           />
       </TouchableOpacity>
   </View >
   );
}
export default Setting;

Here, we have added a navigation configuration to the Feedback screen using the navigate function provided by the navigation option.

Hence, we will get the following result as shown in the emulator screens below:

 

Sending email with Firebase Cloud Function

The last thing we need to do is to forward a message to the user’s inbox using the Firebase cloud function.

For that we need to install the firebase-tools package globally using NPM as shown below:

npm install -g firebase-tools
firebase login

Here, we are also logging into Firebase services. As a result, we will get the following success message:

Then, by running the Firebase init command, we need to choose the required Firebase CLI feature function as shown in the screenshot below:

Next, we need to choose the Firebase project as highlighted in the screenshot below:

Now, we need to open the firebase functions folder by running the following command.

code functions/

Hence, we can now start implementing the Firebase project. The project structure is shown in the screenshot below:

Now, in order to send the email, we are going to use Sendgrid. So, we need to install it first by running the following command:

npm i @sendgrid/mail

Next, we need to open the index. file and import firebase functions and Sendgrid main module. We also need to setup Sendgrid with a new API key as shown in the code snippet below:

const functions = require('firebase-functions');
const sgMail = require("@sendgrid/mail");
sgMail.setApiKey("Sendgrid api key");

Next, we need to call an event observer onCreate that will trigger when new data is added to the database as a new column that we define. Then, we need to call Sendgrid and send an email. The overall coding implementation for this is provided in the code snippet below:

exports.sendEmailConfirmation = functions.database
   .ref('/feedback/{orderId}')
   .onCreate(async (snapshot, context) => {
       const val = snapshot.val();
       const mailOptions = {
           from: '[email protected]',
           to: '[email protected]',
           subject: 'Hey new message from ' + val.name+':'+val.email,
           html: '<b>' + val.message + '</b>',
       };
 
       sgMail
           .send(mailOptions)
           .then(res => {
               return res.json({
                   result: "Success",
                   message: `Email has been sent to ${email}. `
               });
           })
           .catch(res => {
               // console.log('SIGNUP EMAIL SENT ERROR', err)
               return res.json({
                   result: "error",
                   message: res.message
               });
           });
       return null;
   });

Finally, we send this function to Firebase by using the command provided below:

firebase deploy

And now, when we open the Function menu in the Firebase console, we will see the following configuration:

Hence, if we submit the Feedback form again from our React Native app, we will get an email notification as shown in the emulator screenshot below:

Hence, we have successfully implemented the Feedback screen with the form submit feature and also setup Firebase along with Sendgrid to send an email notification when the form is submitted.

Conclusion

In this chapter, we learned some important features and packages. First, we learned how to implement a form interface using the Formik package and validate it using the Yup package. Then, we got a detailed insight on how to set up Firebase on both Android and iOS platforms. Lastly, we also learned how to set up the Firebase Cloud Function and send email notifications using Sendgrid.

All code available on Github.

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