View does not build on Android with React Native 0.60(+)

[Chris Brody]

create-react-native-module version: 0.5.0

Command used to generate view module with example:

create-react-native-module --generate-example --view beth-adam

Build output from react-native run-android in generated example:

info JS server already running.
info Installing the app...

> Configure project :react-native-beth-adam
WARNING: Configuration 'compile' is obsolete and has been replaced with 'implementation' and 'api'.
It will be removed at the end of 2018. For more information see: http://d.android.com/r/tools/update-dependency-configurations.html
WARNING: API 'variant.getJavaCompile()' is obsolete and has been replaced with 'variant.getJavaCompileProvider()'.
It will be removed at the end of 2019.
For more information, see https://d.android.com/r/tools/task-configuration-avoidance.
To determine what is calling variant.getJavaCompile(), use -Pandroid.debug.obsoleteApi=true on the command line to display more information.

> Task :react-native-beth-adam:compileDebugJavaWithJavac

> Task :react-native-beth-adam:compileDebugJavaWithJavac FAILED

Deprecated Gradle features were used in this build, making it incompatible with Gradle 6.0.
Use '--warning-mode all' to show the individual deprecation warnings.
See https://docs.gradle.org/5.4.1/userguide/command_line_interface.html#sec:command_line_warnings
20 actionable tasks: 20 executed
/Users/brodybits/dev/ctt-b54ec259-dc4d/test1/react-native-beth-adam/example/node_modules/react-native-beth-adam/android/src/main/java/com/reactlibrary/BethAdamManager.java:5: error: package android.support.v7.widget does not exist
import android.support.v7.widget.AppCompatCheckBox;
                                ^
/Users/brodybits/dev/ctt-b54ec259-dc4d/test1/react-native-beth-adam/example/node_modules/react-native-beth-adam/android/src/main/java/com/reactlibrary/BethAdamManager.java:22: error: cannot find symbol
        AppCompatCheckBox cb = new AppCompatCheckBox(c);
        ^
  symbol:   class AppCompatCheckBox
  location: class BethAdamManager
/Users/brodybits/dev/ctt-b54ec259-dc4d/test1/react-native-beth-adam/example/node_modules/react-native-beth-adam/android/src/main/java/com/reactlibrary/BethAdamManager.java:22: error: cannot find symbol
        AppCompatCheckBox cb = new AppCompatCheckBox(c);
                                   ^
  symbol:   class AppCompatCheckBox
  location: class BethAdamManager
3 errors

FAILURE: Build failed with an exception.

* What went wrong:
Execution failed for task ':react-native-beth-adam:compileDebugJavaWithJavac'.
> Compilation failed; see the compiler error output for details.

* Try:
Run with --stacktrace option to get the stack trace. Run with --info or --debug option to get more log output. Run with --scan to get full insights.

* Get more help at https://help.gradle.org

BUILD FAILED in 32s

error Failed to install the app. Make sure you have the Android development environment set up: https://facebook.github.io/react-native/docs/getting-started.html#android-development-environment. Run CLI with --verbose flag for more details.
Error: Command failed: ./gradlew app:installDebug -PreactNativeDevServerPort=8081
/Users/brodybits/dev/ctt-b54ec259-dc4d/test1/react-native-beth-adam/example/node_modules/react-native-beth-adam/android/src/main/java/com/reactlibrary/BethAdamManager.java:5: error: package android.support.v7.widget does not exist
import android.support.v7.widget.AppCompatCheckBox;
                                ^
/Users/brodybits/dev/ctt-b54ec259-dc4d/test1/react-native-beth-adam/example/node_modules/react-native-beth-adam/android/src/main/java/com/reactlibrary/BethAdamManager.java:22: error: cannot find symbol
        AppCompatCheckBox cb = new AppCompatCheckBox(c);
        ^
  symbol:   class AppCompatCheckBox
  location: class BethAdamManager
/Users/brodybits/dev/ctt-b54ec259-dc4d/test1/react-native-beth-adam/example/node_modules/react-native-beth-adam/android/src/main/java/com/reactlibrary/BethAdamManager.java:22: error: cannot find symbol
        AppCompatCheckBox cb = new AppCompatCheckBox(c);
                                   ^
  symbol:   class AppCompatCheckBox
  location: class BethAdamManager
3 errors

FAILURE: Build failed with an exception.

* What went wrong:
Execution failed for task ':react-native-beth-adam:compileDebugJavaWithJavac'.
> Compilation failed; see the compiler error output for details.

* Try:
Run with --stacktrace option to get the stack trace. Run with --info or --debug option to get more log output. Run with --scan to get full insights.

* Get more help at https://help.gradle.org

BUILD FAILED in 32s

    at checkExecSyncError (child_process.js:629:11)
    at execFileSync (child_process.js:647:13)
    at runOnAllDevices (/Users/brodybits/dev/ctt-b54ec259-dc4d/test1/react-native-beth-adam/example/node_modules/@react-native-community/cli-platform-android/build/commands/runAndroid/runOnAllDevices.js:75:39)
    at buildAndRun (/Users/brodybits/dev/ctt-b54ec259-dc4d/test1/react-native-beth-adam/example/node_modules/@react-native-community/cli-platform-android/build/commands/runAndroid/index.js:137:41)
    at then.result (/Users/brodybits/dev/ctt-b54ec259-dc4d/test1/react-native-beth-adam/example/node_modules/@react-native-community/cli-platform-android/build/commands/runAndroid/index.js:103:12)
    at process._tickCallback (internal/process/next_tick.js:68:7)

Related to #25 (updates for React Native 0.60)

P.S. I think the underlying cause is using importing AppCompatCheckBox from android.support.v7.widget, which seems to be not included by default when using React Native 0.60. Any help with a simple, clean workaround solution to get a sample widget working on recent versions of React Native would be highly appreciated. Doesn’t matter so much which widget, no need for consistency with iOS, just to get this working.

[Chris Brody]

The following update seems to solve this issue:

diff --git a/templates/android.js b/templates/android.js
index c9e0648..f2b235a 100644
--- a/templates/android.js
+++ b/templates/android.js
@@ -179,7 +179,7 @@ public class ${name}Module extends ReactContextBaseJavaModule {
 
 import android.view.View;
 
-import android.support.v7.widget.AppCompatCheckBox;
+import androidx.appcompat.widget.AppCompatCheckBox;
 
 import com.facebook.react.uimanager.SimpleViewManager;
 import com.facebook.react.uimanager.ThemedReactContext;

This change should be applied to a generated View project if it is needed for React Native 0.60(+) on Android.

Unfortunately this update would cause a similar failure on React Native pre-0.60. I hope we can drop support for RN pre-0.60 someday.