Chain React Speaker interview: Josh Justice on React Native, testing, and Portland’s best doughnuts
We’re stoked to offer three React Native workshops at Chain React 2019, including our first-ever intermediate-level workshop, Testing in React Native, hosted by experienced developer Josh Justice.
Josh was kind enough to chat with us about React Native, his upcoming workshop, and something called a “cronut,” a glorious croissant-doughnut hybrid from NOLA Doughnuts (just a short walk from the conference!).
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length.
So Josh, what’s your story and how did you get into React Native?
I’ve been a developer for 14 years, and most of that time has been in backend development. I dabbled in iOS development a few times, including getting a personal app of mine in the App Store. When I found out about React Native, I was excited about the many ways it makes it easier to build the kinds of apps I like to build.
Writing my apps in JavaScript means I can iterate on them quickly without needing to recompile. Declarative UIs mean I can focus on my business logic and not on keeping my UI up-to-date. And React Native’s open source ecosystem means I can build on top of other people’s work to go further faster.
How did you come up for the idea for this workshop?
I couldn’t find a lot of testing content for React Native, so I decided to do a live stream series on Twitch test-driving a small React Native app and covering all the different types of testing.
The live stream went really well, so I began looking for an opportunity to refine the material from it to make it more focused, add better explanations, and update to the latest tooling. That opportunity came when Chain React offered to let me do this workshop.
What are you most excited about with this workshop?
I write and livestream a lot about testing, but with this workshop I’m looking forward to interacting with the attendees. I want to find out what questions they have and what isn’t making sense about React Native testing so I can try to explain it better. And I hope they have some tricky testing situations from their own apps that we can work through together to try to find solutions!
Why are you interested in the subject of React Native testing?
Automated testing helps with some of my biggest fears as a developer: the fear that making a change to my code will break something, and the fear of being called in on nights or weekends to fix an urgent production issue. The better the tests I have, the more I can make changes with confidence and rest easy.
React Native benefits from the excellent testing tools from the JavaScript and React ecosystems, so as React Native developers, we have the opportunity to get great test coverage for our apps with little effort. I want to make sure React Native developers have great resources to learn about testing so they can take advantage of these opportunities as easily as possible.
Who should attend your workshop?
My workshop is for anyone who’s comfortable in React Native and who wants to get into testing. If you’ve never written an automated test before, no worries! We’ll start with basic testing concepts and how to use Jest.
If you already write tests for your React Native app but aren’t sure how much value they’re bringing you, you’ll learn an approach that tries to maximize value and minimize cost.
And if you do already feel good about your React Native testing approach, you’ll pick up some new views on testing to keep in your toolbox to pull out when you want to make a change.
As a returning Chain React veteran, what do first-time attendees need to know?
Be sure to join the #chainreact channel in Infinite Red’s Slack so you can talk with other attendees. If you’re in town early and want to meet some folks, post a message on Slack and see who’s getting together! But be sure to get lots of rest so you have plenty of energy to focus on the talks and on meeting folks in the halls. And leave plenty of space in your luggage for all the swag you’ll pick up!
What is one can’t-miss place you plan to visit in Portland?
Voodoo Doughnut is super well known, but I would recommend NOLA Doughnuts too. They serve “cronuts:” croissant donuts. It’s probably where you’ll find me for breakfast!
Thanks for the great interview, Josh! We can’t wait to see you IRL at Chain React.
Josh is a developer, writer, and speaker helping you make awesome apps and go home. He has been writing software full-time for 14 years, blogs at CodingItWrong.com and and currently works at Big Nerd Ranch, an Atlanta-based app development consultancy. Follow him on Twitter and be sure to say hi if you see him at Chain React.
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About Chain React
Chain React is the U.S. React Native Conference. This year, it takes place from July 11–12 in beautiful Portland, OR. Join hundreds of developers from around the world for two full days of learning, networking, great food, and new friends. Workshops are sold separately and take place on July 10. Tickets are going fast, and we expect them to sell out. Get your tickets now.
