Skip to main content

Installation

This guide covers installing react-native-here-explore and the native HERE SDKs for both Expo and bare React Native projects.

  • Expo projects: Follow steps 1–3, then jump to Expo Setup.
  • Bare React Native: Follow all steps in order.

Install the npm package​

# npm
npm install react-native-here-explore

# yarn
yarn add react-native-here-explore

Step 1 — Sign up to HERE Platform​

Go to platform.here.com/sign-up and create a free account.

important

You must add billing information to unlock both the iOS and Android SDKs. The free tier is generous and no charge is made without exceeding limits.

Step 2 — Create OAuth 2.0 credentials​

  1. Open the Apps page and register a new application.
  2. In the Credentials tab, select OAuth 2.0 and click Create credentials.
  3. Download the credentials file. It will look like:
here.access.key.id = YOUR_ACCESS_KEY_ID
here.access.key.secret = YOUR_ACCESS_KEY_SECRET

Keep these values — you will need them to initialize the SDK.

Step 3 — Download the HERE SDK Explore Edition​

Go to platform.here.com/portal/sdk and download:

  • HERE SDK Explore Edition for Android — produces a .aar file
  • HERE SDK Explore Edition for iOS — produces a .xcframework folder

Expo Setup (Config Plugin)​

If you use Expo, the config plugin handles all native setup automatically during expo prebuild.

1. Place SDK files in your project​

your-project/
├── here-sdk/
│   ├── heresdk.xcframework        ← iOS
│   └── heresdk-explore-android-xxx.aar  ← Android
├── app.config.ts
└── ...

2. Add the config plugin​

In app.config.ts (or app.config.js):

export default {
  plugins: [
    [
      'react-native-here-explore',
      {
        sdkPath: './here-sdk',
      },
    ],
  ],
};

3. Run prebuild​

npx expo prebuild

The plugin will automatically:

  • iOS: Copy the .xcframework into ios/Frameworks/, generate heresdk.podspec, and add the pod to the Podfile.
  • Android: Copy the .aar into android/heresdk/ and add the implementation dependency to app/build.gradle.

You can re-run expo prebuild --clean at any time to reset the native setup.

Bare React Native Setup​

Android​

  1. Copy the .aar file from the downloaded SDK into your-project/android/heresdk/.

  2. In android/app/build.gradle, add to the dependencies block:

dependencies {
    // ... other dependencies

    // HERE SDK
    implementation fileTree(dir: file("../heresdk"), include: ['*.aar'])
}

iOS​

  1. Copy the heresdk.xcframework folder into your-project/ios/Frameworks/.

  2. In the same ios/Frameworks/ directory, create heresdk.podspec:

Pod::Spec.new do |s|
  s.name         = "heresdk"
  s.version      = "1.0.0"
  s.summary      = "HERE SDK Explore Edition"
  s.homepage     = "https://platform.here.com/portal/sdk"
  s.author       = { "HERE" => "support@here.com" }
  s.source       = { :http => 'http://example.com/heresdk.zip' }
  s.platform     = :ios
  s.ios.vendored_frameworks = 'heresdk.xcframework'
end
  1. In your ios/Podfile, reference the SDK and add the target membership hook:
target 'YourApp' do
  # ... other pods

  pod 'heresdk', :path => 'Frameworks'
end

post_install do |installer|
  # ... other post_install hooks

  installer.pods_project.targets.each do |target|
    if target.name == "react-native-here-explore"
      all_filerefs = installer.pods_project.files
      all_filerefs.each do |fileref|
        if fileref.path.end_with?("heresdk.xcframework")
          build_phase = target.frameworks_build_phase
          unless build_phase.files_references.include?(fileref)
            build_phase.add_file_reference(fileref)
          end
        end
      end
    end
  end
end
  1. Run pod install from the ios/ directory.

Next Step​

Initialize the HERE SDK with your credentials.