NativeLab

NativeLab is a NativePHP Mobile playground app built with Laravel + Livewire (Volt). It’s designed to fiddle with native device capabilities (camera, dialogs, microphone, share sheet, etc.) in a clean, repeatable way—ideal for testing APIs, permissions, and runtime behavior in Jump, an emulator, or on a real device.

Although NativeLab is primarily a testing playground, it can also serve as a starter / boilerplate for building a real app: it already includes navigation, a consistent UI theme, and working examples of common native integrations.

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Tech stack

• Laravel 12
• Livewire + Volt (Volt file-based Livewire components)
• NativePHP Mobile v3
• Vite for asset bundling

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What’s inside

NativeLab exposes a simple Home screen with sections (one per plugin / capability):

• Camera — take a picture and preview it
• Browser — open a URL in system browser or in-app browser (with optional callback)
• Dialog — alerts, confirms, button events, and toasts
• Audio — record voice and play it back
• Share — open the native share sheet
• Device — read device info and test features like vibrate/flashlight (depending on platform support)
• Network — check online status / connection type
• System — open native app settings (permissions, etc.)

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Requirements

• PHP 8.4+
• Composer
• Node.js + npm
• Native toolchain:
  • Android: Android Studio + Android SDK + emulator
  • iOS: Xcode + iOS Simulator (macOS only)

Check out the NativePHP docs for more info.

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Installation

1) Clone and install backend dependencies

composer install

2) Environment setup

cp .env.example .env
php artisan key:generate

3) Install frontend dependencies and build assets (important)

Native runtimes (Jump/emulator/device builds) expect public/build/manifest.json to exist.

npm install
npm run build

4) Migrate database (sqlite)

php artisan migrate

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Running in the browser (web layout)

php artisan serve

Open: http://127.0.0.1:8000

In browser mode, the app uses a “web layout” that mimics a top bar + bottom nav (plain HTML), so it looks closer to the native runtime.

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Running in NativePHP (Jump / emulator)

Build assets first (required)

npm run build

Install / refresh native scaffolding

If you haven’t installed the native scaffolding yet (or changed app id/name):

php artisan native:install android --force
php artisan native:install ios --force

Run on Android emulator

php artisan native:run android

Run on iOS simulator (macOS only)

php artisan native:run ios

Run with watch mode (hot-ish reload for native runtime)

Watch mode helps you iterate faster while the emulator/simulator is running:

php artisan native:run android --watch
php artisan native:run ios --watch

Run with Jump (if you use Jump for iteration)

php artisan native:jump

Tip: If Jump (or native runtime) throws a “manifest.json missing” error, it means you forgot to run npm run build on that machine.

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Scripts

If your project includes a Composer setup script, you can use:

composer setup

If you also have an asset helper script:

composer assets:build

(These scripts typically run npm install + npm run build for you.)

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App sections (plugins)

Camera (/camera)

Tests the camera plugin:

• Open camera
• Take a photo
• Display the captured image

Plugin: nativephp/mobile-camera

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Browser (/browser)

Tests opening URLs:

• Open link in in-app browser
• Open link in system browser

Plugin: nativephp/mobile-browser

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Dialog (/dialog)

Tests dialog APIs:

• Alert dialogs (1 button)
• Confirm dialogs (Cancel/OK)
• 3-button dialogs
• Toast notifications
• Captures and displays the pressed button index/label via native events

Plugin: nativephp/mobile-dialog

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Audio (/audio)

Tests microphone / recording:

• Start recording
• Stop recording
• Persist recording to storage (for playback)
• Play the latest recording

Plugin: nativephp/mobile-microphone (Optional helper) nativephp/mobile-file can be used for reliable file move/copy across platforms.

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Share (/share)

Tests the native share sheet:

• Share text / content through the OS share UI

Plugin: nativephp/mobile-share

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Device (/device)

Device playground:

• Display device/platform info
• Test device features (where supported), such as vibration and flashlight

Plugin: nativephp/mobile-device

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Network (/network)

Network playground:

• Online/offline checks
• Connection type (Wi-Fi / cellular, etc. where supported)

Plugin: nativephp/mobile-network

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System (/system)

System-level actions:

• Open this app’s native settings screen (useful after a permission was denied)

Plugin: nativephp/mobile-system

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Notes on permissions

Many native features require OS permissions (camera, microphone, etc.). If something “does nothing” in native runtime, it’s often because the permission was denied. Use the System section to open settings and enable it.

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Using NativeLab as a boilerplate

NativeLab is intentionally organized so you can use it as a starter project:

• A consistent UI theme (cards/buttons/layout)
• A clean “one feature per screen” structure
• Volt-based Livewire pages you can copy and adapt quickly
• Native + Web layouts (web layout mimics header/footer for easier browser dev)

A typical workflow for turning it into a real app:

1. Rename app + bundle id (see below)
2. Replace Home tiles with your product sections
3. Keep the existing plugin examples and expand from there

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Changing app name / app id

• Display name is commonly driven by APP_NAME (and/or config/nativephp.php)
• Application id / bundle id is typically NATIVEPHP_APP_ID (e.g. com.numencode.nativelab)

After changing these values, regenerate native scaffolding:

php artisan native:install android --force
php artisan native:install ios --force

Uninstall the old app from your emulator/device if you changed the app id.

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Useful links

NativePHP documentation:

https://nativephp.com/docs

NativePHP Mobile docs (setup, platform requirements, running):

https://nativephp.com/docs/mobile

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Preview

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Author

The NumenCode NativeLab is created by Blaz Orazem.

For inquiries, contact: info@numencode.com

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License

This project is open-sourced software licensed under the MIT license.