Integrate Expo with Strapi

Learn how to integrate Expo with Strapi

These integration guides are not official documentation and the Strapi Support Team will not provide assistance with them.

Why Use Expo?

Expo is an open-source framework built around React Native that lets you build native-looking apps (iOS, Android, and even Web) using a single JavaScript/TypeScript codebase.

It bundles a powerful SDK of production-ready APIs (camera, notifications, sensors, deep links, etc.) plus tools and services to simplify development, building, and deployment.

With Expo you can go from code to device (or web) fast with no native-toolchain setup needed, making cross-platform mobile development much more accessible.

Visit the Expo documentation for more.

Why Use Strapi?

Strapi is the leading open-source headless CMS offering features, like customizable APIs, role-based permissions, multilingual support, etc. It simplifies content management and integrates effortlessly with modern frontend frameworks.

Explore the Strapi documentation for more details.

Strapi 5 Highlights

The out-of-the-box Strapi features allow you to get up and running in no time: 1. Single types: Create one-off pages that have a unique content structure. 2. Draft and Publish: Reduce the risk of publishing errors and streamline collaboration. 3. 100% TypeScript Support: Enjoy type safety & easy maintainability 4. Customizable API: With Strapi, you can just hop in your code editor and edit the code to fit your API to your needs. 5. Integrations: Strapi supports integrations with Cloudinary, SendGrid, Algolia, and others. 6. Editor interface: The editor allows you to pull in dynamic blocks of content. 7. Authentication: Secure and authorize access to your API with JWT or providers. 8. RBAC: Help maximize operational efficiency, reduce dev team support work, and safeguard against unauthorized access or configuration modifications. 9. i18n: Manage content in multiple languages. Easily query the different locales through the API. 10. Plugins: Customize and extend Strapi using plugins.

Learn more about Strapi 5 feature.

See Strapi in action with an interactive demo

Explore Strapi in an instant, hands-on demo set up just for you.

Access Live Demo!

Setup Strapi 5 Headless CMS

We are going to start by setting up our Strapi 5 project with the following command:

🖐️ Note: make sure that you have created a new directory for your project.

You can find the full documentation for Strapi 5 here.

Install Strapi

npx create-strapi-app@latest server

You will be asked to choose if you would like to use Strapi Cloud we will choose to skip for now.

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After that, you will be asked how you would like to set up your project. We will choose the following options:

? Do you want to use the default database (sqlite) ? Yes
? Start with an example structure & data? Yes <-- make sure you say yes 
? Start with Typescript? Yes
? Install dependencies with npm? Yes
? Initialize a git repository? Yes

Once everything is set up and all the dependencies are installed, you can start your Strapi server with the following command:

cd server
npm run develop

You will be greeted with the Admin Create Account screen.

Go ahead and create your first Strapi user. All of this is local so you can use whatever you want.

Once you have created your user, you will be redirected to the Strapi Dashboard screen.

Publish Article Entries

Since we created our app with the example data, you should be able to navigate to your Article collection and see the data that was created for us.

Now, let's make sure that all of the data is published. If not, you can select all items via the checkbox and then click the Publish button.

Strapi Articles Published

Enable API Access

Once all your articles are published, we will expose our Strapi API for the Articles Collection. This can be done in Settings -> Users & Permissions plugin -> Roles -> Public -> Article.

You should have find and findOne selected. If not, go ahead and select them.

Test API

Now, if we make a GET request to http://localhost:1337/api/articles, we should see the following data for our articles.

🖐️ Note: The article covers (images) are not returned. This is because the REST API by default does not populate any relations, media fields, components, or dynamic zones.. Learn more about REST API: Population & Field Selection.

So, let's get the article covers by using the populate=* parameter: http://localhost:1337/api/articles?populate=*

strapi integration - api request.png

Nice, now that we have our Strapi 5 server setup, we can start to setup our Expo application.

Getting Started With Expo

Expo Dev is an open-source development environment provided by Expo that allows developers to build native mobile apps for Android and iOS using JavaScript.

Prerequisites

Consider having the following tools to get started:

X-Code or Android Studio
Android Emulator or iOS Emulator
Optionally, a physical device.

See expo docs for more setup instructions.

Install Expo and React Native

Install Expo and React Native using any of the package managers below:

Using npm:

npx create-expo-app@latest react-native-project --template blank

Using yarn:

yarn create expo-app

Using pnpm:

pnpm create expo-app

Using bun:

bun create expo

For this example, I will be using npm. Feel free to use any package manager of your choice.

Start Expo Development Server

To start the development server, run the following command:

npx expo start

If successful, this is what you will see in your terminal:

Start React Native Development Server.png

Running Your Expo App on a Device

To test and run your app on a device, you can do it in the following ways:

Web: Press w in your terminal to open the app on your web browser.
Android Emulator: Press a in your terminal to start your Android emulator.
iOS Simulator: Type i in your terminal to start your iOS simulator.
Physical Device: Ensure you have the Expo Go app installed on your physical device.

See more about setting up your environment.

🖐️ NOTE: For this integration, we will make use of the Android emulator and the iOS simulator.

After setting up your environment, here is what your application should look like:

Android Emulator

Android Emulator.png Android Emulator

iOS Emulator

iOS Simulator.png iOS Emulator

Use an HTTP Client For Requests

Many HTTP clients are available, but on this integration page, we'll use Axios and Fetch.

Using Axios

Install Axios by running any of the commands below:

# npm
npm i axios

Or:

# yarn
yarn add axios

Using Fetch

No installation is needed.

Fetch Articles from Strapi Backend

Execute a GET request on the Article collection type in order to fetch all your articles.

Be sure that you activated the find permission for the Article collection type.

🖐️ NOTE: We want to also fetch covers (images) of articles, so we have to use the populate parameter as seen below.

Using Axios

const response = await fetch("http://localhost:1337/api/articles?populate=*");
const data = await response.json();
console.log(data.data);

Using Fetch

const response = await fetch("http://localhost:1337/api/articles?populate=*");
const data = await response.json();
console.log(data.data);

Example Project

We will create an app that fetches articles from a Strapi backend and displays them in a grid layout.

Navigate to your React Native entry file ./App.js and carry out the steps below:

Step 1: Import Required Dependencies

import {
  View,
  Text,
  Image,
  FlatList,
  StyleSheet,
} from "react-native";
import axios from "axios";
import { useEffect, useState } from "react";

View, Text, Image, FlatList, and StyleSheet are core React Native components used for structuring the layout, displaying text, images, and styling the app.
useEffect and useState are React hooks which manages component state and handles side effects respectively.

Step 2: Create Variables

Create a constant variable, STRAPI_URL, that defines the base URL for the Strapi backend and another variable, articles that will hold the list of articles fetched from the Strapi API.

...

// replace with Strapi Production URL
const STRAPI_URL = "http://localhost:1337";

// State to store articles
const [articles, setArticles] = useState([]);

..

Step 3: Create a Function to Fetch Articles

Create a function fetchArticles to fetch articles from the Strapi backend and fetch articles once the component is mounted.

...

// fetch articles from Strapi
const fetchArticles = async () => {
  try {
    // Fetch articles along with their covers
    const response = await axios.get(`${STRAPI_URL}/api/articles?populate=*`);
    setArticles(response.data.data);
  } catch (error) {
    console.error("Error fetching articles:", error);
  }
};

// Fetch articles on component mount
useEffect(() => {
  fetchArticles();
}, []);

...

Step 4: Create a Function to Format Published Dates of Articles

Create a formatDate function formats the publishedAt date of each article into a human-readable string (e.g., 01/14/2025). It should use thetoLocaleDateStringmethod with options to display the year, month, and day in anMM/DD/YYYY` format.

... 

// Format date
const formatDate = (date) => {
  const options = { year: "numeric", month: "2-digit", day: "2-digit" };
  return new Date(date).toLocaleDateString("en-US", options);
};

...

Step 5: Render Articles

Render individual articles as cards with an image, title, and formatted publication date using the formatDate utility function.

...

export default function App() {
  ...
  
  // Render article card
  const renderArticle = ({ item }) => (
    <View style={styles.card}>
      <Image
        source={{ uri: `${STRAPI_URL}${item.cover.url}` }}
        style={styles.image}
      />
      <Text style={styles.title}>{item.title}</Text>
      <Text style={styles.published}>
        Published: {formatDate(item.publishedAt)}
      </Text>
    </View>
  );

  return (
    <View style={styles.container}>
      <Text style={styles.heading}>Expo and Strapi Integration</Text>
      {articles ? (
        <FlatList
          title="Articles"
          data={articles}
          keyExtractor={(item) => item.id.toString()}
          renderItem={renderArticle}
          numColumns={2}
          contentContainerStyle={styles.container}
        />
      ) : (
        <Text>NO data fetched</Text>
      )}
    </View>
  );
}

In the code above, we render a list of articles fetched from Strapi, displayed as cards in a two-column grid using FlatList. Each card includes an image, title, and formatted publication date styled using the styles object. The renderArticle function defines how each article card is displayed.

Complete Code

// Path: ./App.js

export default function App() {
  // replace with Strapi Production URL
  const STRAPI_URL = "http://localhost:1337";

  // State to store articles
  const [articles, setArticles] = useState([]);

  // fetch articles from Strapi
  const fetchArticles = async () => {
    try {
      // Fetch articles along with their covers
      const response = await axios.get(`${STRAPI_URL}/api/articles?populate=*`);
      setArticles(response.data.data);
    } catch (error) {
      console.error("Error fetching articles:", error);
    }
  };

  // Format date
  const formatDate = (date) => {
    const options = { year: "numeric", month: "2-digit", day: "2-digit" };
    return new Date(date).toLocaleDateString("en-US", options);
  };

  // Render article card
  const renderArticle = ({ item }) => (
    <View style={styles.card}>
      <Image
        source={{ uri: `${STRAPI_URL}${item.cover.url}` }}
        style={styles.image}
      />
      <Text style={styles.title}>{item.title}</Text>
      <Text style={styles.published}>
        Published: {formatDate(item.publishedAt)}
      </Text>
    </View>
  );

  // Fetch articles on component mount
  useEffect(() => {
    fetchArticles();
  }, []);

  return (
    <View style={styles.container}>
      <Text style={styles.heading}>Expo and Strapi Integration</Text>
      <FlatList
        title="Articles"
        data={articles}
        keyExtractor={(item) => item.id.toString()}
        renderItem={renderArticle}
        numColumns={2}
        contentContainerStyle={styles.container}
      />
    </View>
  );
}

Here is a break-down of the code above:

The fetchArticles function retrieves data from the Strapi API, including article covers, titles, and publication dates, and stores them in the articles state using useState.
The renderArticle function renders individual articles as cards with an image, title, and formatted publication date using the formatDate utility function.
The useEffect hook runs fetchArticles on component mount to ensure data is loaded when the app starts.
The FlatList displays the articles in two columns, with the app styled using a custom StyleSheet for a clean, responsive layout.
This StyleSheet defines the layout and styling for your app. The container ensures the main screen has proper padding and fills the space, while card styles each item with a rounded, shadowed design. The image, title, and published handle the card's content, ensuring images are proportional, titles are bold, and dates are subtle. The heading styles the main title to be bold, centered, and spaced from the top.

Here is how our app should look:

Expo and Strapi Integration .png

Awesome, great job!

Having Problems?

If you are unable to run your app on your device, here are a few solutions:

For Android Simulator, change the STRAPI_URL to http://10.0.2.2:1337.
For devices, make sure you are on the same Wi-Fi network.

See this Expo page for more information.

Github Project Repo

You can find the complete code for this project in this Github repo.

Video Resources

Get practical by building real-worlds application using the video resources below:

React Native Project | Build Full Stack React Native App with Expo, & Strapi | AI Recipe Generator

Build Your Own MASTERCLASS clone in React Native

Strapi Open Office Hours

If you have any questions about Strapi 5 or just would like to stop by and say hi, you can join us at Strapi's Discord Open Office Hours Monday through Friday at 12:30 pm - 1:30 pm CST: Strapi Discord Open Office Hours

For more details about the integration above, visit the following documentation: