React Native Installation

Add the Lovina Chat SDK to your React Native project.

1. Request registry access

The SDK is published to Lovina's private Nexus npm registry under the @lovina scope. Ask your Lovina administrator for a Nexus account with read access to the npm-releases repository — there is no self-service signup.

2. Point the @lovina scope at the registry

Create or edit an .npmrc file in your project root:

@lovina:registry=https://packages.ailovina.com/repository/npm-releases/

Only the @lovina scope is redirected; every other dependency still resolves from npmjs.org. This line contains no credentials, so commit it — that way your teammates don't each have to look up the URL.

3. Authenticate

npm login --scope=@lovina --auth-type=legacy \
  --registry=https://packages.ailovina.com/repository/npm-releases/

Enter your Nexus username and password when prompted. npm stores the resulting token in your user config (~/.npmrc), never in the project — so your credentials stay out of source control.

--auth-type=legacy is needed because npm 9+ defaults to browser-based OAuth, which Nexus does not implement. npm usually falls back to the prompt on its own, but passing the flag skips a wasted round-trip and avoids a hard failure if a proxy sits in front of the registry.

Alternative: base64 auth (no interactive login)

If you cannot reach the login endpoint, authenticate with basic auth instead. Add to your user ~/.npmrc (not the project file — this line is a credential):

//packages.ailovina.com/repository/npm-releases/:_auth=${NEXUS_AUTH}

NEXUS_AUTH is the base64 encoding of your Nexus username:password:

echo -n 'your-username:your-password' | base64
export NEXUS_AUTH="the-base64-value"

Base64 is encoding, not encryption — anyone who reads the value recovers your password. Prefer npm login where possible.

Continuous integration

npm login is interactive and cannot run in a pipeline. Generate a token once on a workstation, store it as a CI secret, and write it at build time:

- name: Authenticate with Nexus
  run: |
    echo "@lovina:registry=https://packages.ailovina.com/repository/npm-releases/" >> ~/.npmrc
    echo "//packages.ailovina.com/repository/npm-releases/:_authToken=${LOVINA_NPM_TOKEN}" >> ~/.npmrc
  env:
    LOVINA_NPM_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.LOVINA_NPM_TOKEN }}

Yarn 2+ (Berry)

Yarn Berry ignores .npmrc. Configure the scope in .yarnrc.yml instead:

npmScopes:
  lovina:
    npmRegistryServer: "https://packages.ailovina.com/repository/npm-releases/"
    npmAuthToken: "${LOVINA_NPM_TOKEN}"

npm, pnpm, and Yarn 1 all read .npmrc as described above.

4. Install the package

npm install @lovina/react-native-chat-sdk

Or with yarn:

yarn add @lovina/react-native-chat-sdk

5. Install peer dependencies

The SDK ships no bundled dependencies. It declares these peers:

Peer dependency	Required version	Required?
react	>=18.0.0	Yes
react-native	>=0.70.0	Yes
react-native-webview	>=13.0.0	Yes
@react-native-async-storage/async-storage	>=1.19.0	Optional — enables session persistence

react and react-native are already present in any React Native project. Install the WebView:

npm install react-native-webview

And, if you want conversations to survive an app restart:

npm install @react-native-async-storage/async-storage

iOS Pod Install

react-native-webview and async-storage both contain native code, so after installing them you must link the pods:

cd ios && pod install && cd ..

Skipping this step produces a runtime "native module not found" error rather than a build failure, which makes it easy to miss.

Version Pinning

Install a specific version:

npm install @lovina/react-native-chat-sdk@^{version}

Or pin it explicitly in your package.json:

{
  "dependencies": {
    "@lovina/react-native-chat-sdk": "{version}"
  }
}

Platform Requirements

Platform	Minimum Version
React Native	0.70.0+
React	18.0.0+
react-native-webview	13.0.0+
iOS	15.0+
Android	API 24 (Android 7.0)

See Compatibility for the full version matrix.

Verify Installation

Import the widget in any component to confirm the installation:

import { LovinaChatWidget } from '@lovina/react-native-chat-sdk';

Build and run your app. If it compiles without errors, the SDK is installed.

Next Steps

Once installed, head to Usage to embed the chat widget in your app.