How to manually link the lib in the iOS example app

[roni-castro-glooko]

I need to inject some dependencies into the iOS lib, like MyLibName(dependency1, dependency2), and in order to do that I believe I need to disable the automatic-linking for this lib and manually link the lib so when I do import MyLibName I don't get No such module 'MyLibName'. According to the React-native docs, I need to create a class that extends RCTBridgeDelegate that will return the extra modules instantiated manually, just like the getPackages does in Android.
The problem is how do I link the lib in the example app, so I can import it?

This is what I tried to manually link the lib inside example/ios/Podfile

    pod 'MyLibName', :path => '../..' # pointing to the root podspec of the lib

Disabled automatic linking for this lib

const path = require('path');
const pak = require('../package.json');

module.exports = {
  dependencies: {
    [pak.name]: {
      root: path.join(__dirname, '..'),
      platforms: {
        android: null,
        ios: null,
        // add more platform to disable auto-linking for them too
      },
    },
  },
};

Create the RNModuleInitializer and call it in the AppDelegate

// RNModuleInitializer.swift
import Foundation
import React
import MyLibName

@objc(RNModuleInitializer)
final class RNModuleInitializer: NSObject {}

extension RNModuleInitializer: RCTBridgeDelegate {
    func sourceURL(for bridge: RCTBridge!) -> URL! {
        return URL(string: "http://localhost:8081/index.ios.bundle?platform=ios")!
    }
    func extraModules(for bridge: RCTBridge!) -> [RCTBridgeModule]! {
        var extraModules = [RCTBridgeModule]()

        extraModules.append(
          MyLibName("myParam1")  // HERE Is the problem. Cannot call value of non-function type 'module<MyLibName>'
        )

        return extraModules
    }
}

Instantiate the RNModuleInitialiser in AppDelgate that holds the extraModules

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions
{
  self.moduleName = moduleName;

  // Begin - Initialize Native modules manually inside RNModuleInitialiser
  // https://reactnative.dev/docs/native-modules-ios.html#dependency-injection
  // https://stackoverflow.com/questions/37142310/dependency-injection-in-react-native-modules
  // Initialise a class that implements RCTBridgeDelegate
  // Be warned, RCTBridge won't store a strong reference to your delegate.
  // You should there store this delegate as a property of your initialising class, or implement the protocol in the View Controller itself.
  self.moduleInitializer = [[RNModuleInitializer alloc] init];
  //  id<RCTBridgeDelegate> moduleInitializer = [[RNModuleInitializer alloc] init];
  // Create a RCTBridge instance
  // (you may store this in a static context if you wish to use with other RCTViews you might initialise.
  RCTBridge *bridge = [[RCTBridge alloc] initWithDelegate:self.moduleInitializer launchOptions:nil];
  // Initialise an RCTRootView
  RCTRootView *rootView = [[RCTRootView alloc]
                      initWithBridge:bridge
                          moduleName:moduleName
                    initialProperties:nil];

  self.window = [[UIWindow alloc] initWithFrame:[UIScreen mainScreen].bounds];
  UIViewController *rootViewController = [UIViewController new];
  rootViewController.view = rootView;
  self.window.rootViewController = rootViewController;
  [self.window makeKeyAndVisible];
  // End - Initialize Native modules manually inside RNModuleInitialiser

  // You can add your custom initial props in the dictionary below.
  // They will be passed down to the ViewController used by React Native.
  self.initialProps = @{};

  return YES;
}

But when I instantiate the native module, this I'm getting a compile error Cannot call value of non-function type 'module<MyLibName>'

[roni-castro-glooko]

This is an example I used of configuring an external native module generated by react-native-bob-builder and allowing the injection of dependencies to it.

The React-native docs seem incomplete for manual linking for iOS, so I didn't actually follow it 100%, instead, I created a solution based on some other repos I found.

• Added react-native-config.js to disable automatic linking of this external lib for iOS also.

module.exports = {
  dependencies: {
    ['myLibJSPackageName']: {
      platforms: {
        android: null,
        ios: null, // Disable ios linking
        // Add more platforms to disable auto-linking for them too
      },
    },
  },
};

• Add to the lib pod to the target

target 'MyLibExample' do
  pod 'myLibPodSpecName', :path => '../node_modules/myLibJSPackageName' // If this is inside the example app generated by react-native-bob-builder, the path would be :path => '../..' instead, pointing to the podspec
  ...
end

• Created a .h header with the init constructors accepting params

#import <React/RCTBridgeModule.h>
#import <React/RCTEventEmitter.h>

@interface MyLibName : RCTEventEmitter <RCTBridgeModule>

- (instancetype)initWithParam1:(NSString *)param1 param2:(NSString *)param2;

@end

• Add the manual initialization through extraModulesForBridge inside AppDelegate.m

#import <myLibPodSpecName/MyLibName.h> 

...

@implementation AppDelegate

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions
{
  self.moduleName = moduleName;

  // Start - Initialize bridge manually
  // Create a RCTBridge instance with the extraModulesForBridge delegate being the AppDelegate itself
  RCTBridge *bridge = [[RCTBridge alloc] initWithDelegate:self launchOptions:nil];

  RCTRootView *rootView = [[RCTRootView alloc]
                      initWithBridge:bridge
                          moduleName:moduleName
                    initialProperties:nil];

  self.window = [[UIWindow alloc] initWithFrame:[UIScreen mainScreen].bounds];
  UIViewController *rootViewController = [UIViewController new];
  rootViewController.view = rootView;
  self.window.rootViewController = rootViewController;
  [self.window makeKeyAndVisible];
  // End - Initialize bridge manually

  return [super application:application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:launchOptions];
}

// Add this, if does not exists yet.
- (NSArray<id<RCTBridgeModule>> *)extraModulesForBridge:(RCTBridge *)bridge
{
  NSMutableArray<id<RCTBridgeModule>> *extraModules = [NSMutableArray array];

  // Here the lib is initialized with custom params
  MyLibName *instance = [[MyLibName alloc] initWithParam1:@"value1" param2:@"value2"];
  [extraModules addObject:instance];

  return extraModules;
}

- (NSURL *)sourceURLForBridge:(RCTBridge *)bridge
{
  #if DEBUG
    return [[RCTBundleURLProvider sharedSettings] jsBundleURLForBundleRoot:@"index"];
  #else
    return [[NSBundle mainBundle] URLForResource:@"main" withExtension:@"jsbundle"];
  #endif
}

...

@end

https://stackoverflow.com/a/77686760/2632709