Hotwire Native for Rails Developers, now in beta. Buy the book.
Joe Masilotti

Hotwire Native book, in beta!

You can now buy my book, Hotwire Native for Rails Developers!

"Hotwire Native for Rails Developers" by Joe Masilotti cover
"Hotwire Native for Rails Developers" by Joe Masilotti cover
Create intuitive and maintainable mobile apps powered by the technology you already know, Ruby on Rails. Add Hotwire Native to your new or existing Rails app and start creating native iOS and Android applications. You’ll learn how to enhance your apps, progressively adding native components and screens. Bring your existing or new web apps to a much wider mobile audience, and make the app look and feel native to their platform.
Buy the book

This book has been a labor of love. I started working on it back in August 2023, and since then I’ve put in hundreds of hours of work. In January 2024, I signed with my publisher, Pragmatic Bookshelf, turning a dream into reality. This guide is the result of over a decade of experience developing with Hotwire Native. You’ll learn how to:

Work with confidence across multiple platforms: Hybrid apps are most impactful when launched across multiple platforms. Readers will learn how to build for the web, iOS, and Android with confidence.

Cultivate the Hotwire Native mindset: Building effective Hotwire Native apps means leaving as much business logic as possible on the server. Readers will learn how to cultivate this mindset and how this creates low-maintenance, server-driven apps.

Understand the benefits of native vs. web: Building and maintaining native screens and components requires a lot of effort. But sometimes the additional fidelity is worth it. Readers will learn when and why it makes sense to upgrade to native.

Build for any SDK and any API: One of the biggest benefits of mobile apps is access to the underlying platform SDKs and APIs not available on the web. Readers will learn the patterns to follow and best practices for working with Swift, Kotlin, Rails, and Hotwire Native to develop their own native features so they can interact with any native interface, current or future.

Avoid Hotwire Native pitfalls and gotchas: Hybrid still has some trade-offs. Readers will learn where it falls short and what to watch out for when building their apps.

What you need to know about the beta release #

The book isn’t finished (yet!). This is your chance to get early access and help shape the final version.

There are a few more chapters to write, along with lots of editing and layout work. If you buy the beta version, you’ll automatically get the final version when it’s released (expected in a few months). Plus, you’ll receive email notifications every two weeks as updates are published.

While the book is in beta, you can help improve it! Found a mistake? You’ll find a “Report Erratum” link at the bottom of every page in the PDF. Right now I’d love to know what’s confusing or doesn’t make sense. I’ll address layout and formatting issues later.

Seeing this book go live feels like a dream come true. It’s been a long journey, and I couldn’t have done it without the support of so many people along the way. Thank you to everyone who helped me get to this point.

This is just the beginning—I’m excited to keep improving the book and sharing updates as we move toward the final release. If you’re ready to get started, grab your copy now: Hotwire Native for Rails Developers.

Thank you for being part of this journey! As always, don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions about Hotwire Native.