8.7 released—WinterCG Compliance Part 1
Learn more

<Frame> is a UI component used to display and navigate between Pages. A NativeScript app can have multiple Frames, or none - most apps will have at least a single Frame often set as the the root view (or inside a RootLayout).

Examples

A single root Frame

This example shows a single root frame that navigates to the main-page by default, and allows the user to navigate further within this frame (spanning the full-screen).

xml
<!-- app-root -->
<Frame defaultPage="main-page"/>

A global menu bar and a Frame

This example shows an always visible menu bar stacked above a Frame that allows the user to navigate further.

xml
<GridLayout rows="auto, *">
  <Label row="0" text="Example Menu Bar"/>
  <ContentView row="1">
    <Frame defaultPage="mainPage"/>
  </ContentView>
</GridLayout>

Note

We have wrapped the Frame inside a ContentView because on iOS a frame always spans the full height of it's parent container, so we wouldn't be able to resize it without the additional ContentView.

Multiple root Frames

This pseudo example shows two Frames side-by-side, the frame on the left represents a list of conversations, and the Frame on the right represents the details of the currently selected conversation.

The idea of using a Frame on the left is to allow navigating to a different Page while keeping the conversation-details open on the right.

xml
<GridLayout columns="300, *">
  <ContentView col="0">
    <Frame defaultPage="conversation-list" />
  </ContentView>
  <ContentView col="1">
    <Frame defaultPage="conversation-details" />
  </ContentView>
</GridLayout>

Note

This is a simplified example to convey the possibilities, in a real app implementation there would be nuances specific to the app.

Props

actionBarVisibility

ts
actionBarVisibility: 'auto' | 'always' | 'never'

Used to control the visibility the Navigation Bar in iOS and the ActionBar in Android for all Pages within this Frame.

animated

ts
animated: boolean

Gets or sets if navigation transitions within this Frame should be animated.

backStack

ts
backStack: BackstackEntry[]

Readonly list of backstack entries.

See BackstackEntry.

currentEntry

ts
currentEntry: NavigationEntry

Readonly. The current NavigationEntry the Frame is navigated to.

See NavigationEntry.

currentPage

ts
currentPage: Page

Readonly. The current Page the Frame is navigated to.

See Page.

transition

ts
transition: NavigationTransition

Gets or sets the default navigation transition for this Frame.

See NavigationTransition.

defaultAnimatedNavigation

ts
defaultAnimatedNavigation: boolean

Static. Gets or sets if navigation transitions should be animated globally.

defaultTransition

ts
defaultTransition: NavigationTransition

Static. Gets or sets the default NavigationTransition for all frames across the app.

See NavigationTransition.

...Inherited

For additional inherited properties, refer to the API Reference.

Methods

canGoBack()

ts
canGoBack(): boolean

Returns wether or not this Frame can navigate back (there are entries in the backstack).

goBack()

ts
goBack(to?: BackstackEntry): void

Navigates to the previous entry (or to) in the backstack.

See BackstackEntry.

ts
navigate(pageModuleName: string): void
// or
navigate(create: () => Page): void
// or
navigate(entry: NavigationEntry): void

Navigates to a Page.

See Frame.navigate Reference, Page, NavigationEntry.

getFrameById()

ts
getFrameById(id: string): Frame

Static. Returns a Frame by it's id if found.

See Frame.

topmost()

ts
topmost(): Frame

Static. Returns the topmost frame.

See Frame.

Events

ts
on('navigatingTo', (args: NavigationData) => {
  const frame = args.object as Frame
  const entry = args.entry as BackstackEntry
  const page = entry.resolvedPage as Page
})

Emitted when the Frame is navigating to a new Page.

ts
on('navigatedTo', (args: NavigationData) => {
  const frame = args.object as Frame
  const entry = args.entry as BackstackEntry
  const page = entry.resolvedPage as Page
})

Emitted when the Frame has navigated to a new Page.

See NavigationTransition API Reference.

name

ts
name: string

A named transition name. Available transitions:

  • curl (same as curlUp) (iOS only)
  • curlUp (iOS only)
  • curlDown (iOS only)
  • explode (Android only)
  • fade
  • flip (same as flipRight)
  • flipRight
  • flipLeft
  • slide (same as slideLeft)
  • slideLeft
  • slideRight
  • slideTop
  • slideBottom

instance

ts
instance: Transition

This property allows you to define a custom transition instance

See Transition.

duration

ts
duration: number

The duration of the transition in milliseconds

curve

ts
curve: CoreTypes.AnimationCurve

Sets the transition animation curve.

Alternatively, you can pass an instance of type UIViewAnimationCurve for iOS or android.animation.TimeInterpolator for Android.

See CoreTypes.AnimationCurve.

NavigationEntry Interface

See NavigationEntry API Reference.

moduleName

ts
moduleName: string

The name of the Page module to navigate to (eg. pages/details-page given a pages/details-page.xml exists).

create()

ts
create: () => View

A function called to create the Page (View instance) to be navigated to.

Example
ts
function create() {
  const page = new Page()
  const actionBar = new ActionBar()
  actionBar.title = 'Example Page'
  page.actionBar = actionBar

  const stackLayout = new StackLayout()
  stackLayout.backgroundColor = '#65adf1'
  page.content = stackLayout

  return page
}

context

ts
context: any

An object used to pass data to the navigated to Page.

transition

ts
transition: string | NavigationTransition

The transition name, or a NavigationTransition to use when navigating.

See NavigationTransition.

transitionAndroid

ts
transitionAndroid: string | NavigationTransition

Overrides the transition property when navigating on Android.

See NavigationTransition.

transitioniOS

ts
transitioniOS: string | NavigationTransition

Overrides the transition property when navigating on iOS.

See NavigationTransition.

backstackVisible

ts
backstackVisible: boolean

If set to true, it records the navigation in the backstack.

If set to false, it navigates without affecting the backstack. Once navigated away from the Page, it will get disposed and the user can't navigate back to it (via the back button).

clearHistory

ts
clearHistory: boolean

If set to true, it clears the navigation history backstack.

Native component

Next
Page