Datetimepicker: 🚧🚧 Looking for backers 🚧🚧

[vonovak]

TL, DR;
We're looking for new collaborators or financial backers.

hello!
Allow me to be personal - I'm Vojtech, one of the maintainers of the datetimepicker module (and others). I've been involved in open source around React Native for a while because I really like it. Over the course of time though, I concluded that I do not want to spend much of _my free time_ doing open source work (features, bugfixes, issue handling, docs...) that is used in for-profit projects. Please note I'm not using this module in any project I'm currently working on.

So, allow me to say openly: I do not plan to spend free time on maintenance of this module unless I just feel like doing it for fun (irregularly), or unless I'm compensated for it. To be specific, personally, I'm looking at a $80/month target to provide regular maintenance of the module. I don't think that is unreasonable but I'm not sure we'll get there, so I'm looking for other people who would be willing to help or even take over the task:

This module has a number of bugs, missing features and open issues that require someone's attention. There are changes that _need_ to be done to make the module work well and make consumers (that is you / your company 🙂 ) happy. We're looking for new collaborators that would help us with these. If you're interested, please don't hesitate to contribute - we'll help you if needed. Just to make it clear, I don't feel like giving repo access rights to everyone unless they have some track record already (here or in other repos), so I'd first like to see an external contribution happen from a fork and after it all works out I will give those access rights :)

If you want to back this project financially, use the links below. Sponsorships will be used to compensate the time every maintainer spends working on this project. Talk to your boss about sponsoring OSS. Your support is much appreciated!

github sponsors profile
opencollective profile

If you have any questions, this is a good place to ask 🙂

Thank you! 🙂

[akkravikumar]

Hi,

I would like to work as collaborator.

[vonovak]

Hello @akkravikumar,
Thanks for commenting! Do you have an idea of where you'd like to get involved? The way I see it, there are several categories of potential involvement:

• triage issues: many issues do not have good descriptions, so you can ask people for runnable reproductions there and fix the bugs that are reported. I also noticed that since we moved out of react native community organization, we don't have the same issue templates we had before (they are not in this repo now), so you could eg. make sure this repo has a proper issue template, such as this one
• work on missing features or bugs. I can point you to some, or if you walk through the issues, you'll find some - usually they collected a lot of comments over the course of time :)
• documentation: improving docs maybe by adding some screenshots for iOS14 and just clarifying stuff

Do you have any questions? Let me know what you think and what you prefer!
Feel free to just pick a task and open a PR!
Thanks for your interest!

[cbhaiji]

Not able to run on android

[akkravikumar]

Hi @vonovak
I would like to work on fixing bugs. I had the following issue(image attached) in iOS14 when tapping on date time field. After that i fixed the issue by removing textColor props. I'm sure i can able to fix the bugs/issues

Attached Image

headerTextIOS="Pick a date & time"
isVisible={datePickerVisibility}
mode="datetime"
onConfirm={handleConfirm}
onCancel={hideDatePicker}
minimumDate={new Date(moment().subtract(1, 'days'))}
// textColor={"black"}. < ---- Simply remove this line then its working as expected
/>

[waheedakhtar694]

@vonovak I can spend my free time on it.

[Naturalclar]

@vonovak I can also spend my free time maintaining the project

[Yandamuri]

I have just started using this library for my new application and this message concerned me a bit. is it ok to continue with library?

[vonovak]

@Naturalclar hey, good to hear that, you're all over the place, don't forget to rest for a bit :D

@Yandamuri this is one of the few date picking libraries out there and several other directly depend on this one, so there isn't much choice AFAICT. If you care about the date picker in your app, you're encouraged to support the project as I outlined in the first post, thank you. :)

[rebeccatownsend-rally]

Hey @vonovak - I would like to help contribute to this project. I would like to help triage and resolve accessibility issues, however, please let me know if there is an additional or alternative way that I can contribute that would be more useful.

[vonovak]

@rebeccatownsend-rally thanks for your interest! I think most people contribute to OSS because they're scratching their own itch and so solving your own problem is a great way to get started - if you have some accessibility issues that you want to tackle, please go ahead :)
Otherwise, I try to keep the issue tracker more or less clean so that the issues are understandable and you should be able to go through them and find some issues that are actionable and can be implemented right away. If you open the example project, you'll be able to edit the source files and test the changes in the example app - that's the best way to get familiar with how the module works :)

I'll try to mark some issues as good-first-issue to flag those that should be easier to start with. Thanks!

[vonovak]

@rebeccatownsend-rally I have tagged some issues as "good first issue": https://github.com/react-native-datetimepicker/datetimepicker/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+label%3A%22good+first+issue%22

some are harder, some are easier, hopefully this will help someone :)

[MuhammadArslan96]

Hi @vonovak ,
I would like to work as a collaborator

[vonovak]

@MuhammadArslan96 great, please see https://github.com/react-native-datetimepicker/datetimepicker/issues/313#issuecomment-718927112 for suggestions on where to start. Again, if there are questions, just ask :)
Just to make it clear, I don't feel like giving repo access rights to everyone unless they have some track record already (here or in other repos), so I'd first like to see an external contribution happen from a fork and after it all works out I will give those access rights :) Hope this makes sense, thanks.

[cjke]

Totally understand the intent of the issue at hand. I can't begin to understand how much work it is to support a module like this.
Datepickers are a PITA at the best of times, then trying to support multiple platforms on top of that.

Genuine question, is there anyway to get React Native or Expo to support this project? Especially considering they link to it from the expo docs. "Community project" or not, modules like this make Expo more appealing, and they in turn are making money off their premium offerings.

[vonovak]

hello @cjke

is there anyway to get React Native or Expo to support this project? Especially considering they link to it from the expo (and even and RN) docs

Yes, that seems like a valid question, but the fact this library is mentioned in the documentation is about the only reason I see for why facebook or expo should support this project. Facebook and expo are already providing a TON of value by giving away a lot of their work for free and remember that they are _not_ even using this module in their product, so why should they sponsor it? If they support this library, shouldn't they by extension also support a thousand other libs out there...?

The question that I have is, with 150k weekly npm downloads, why is it that 5 months after asking for support the only visible progress has been that we have 2 sponsors (thank you!!) with a total of $10 per month? 🤔 🙂

Everyone is just used to get all these building blocks for free, which is sad because it hampers their quality but it is what it is 🤷‍♂️ And I'm not complaining btw, it's just the way I see it. I'm not married to this lib (or any other) so why should I care. 😄

[cjke]

Unfortunately a big percentage of people wouldn't even pay for all of React or React Native, so there is little chance they would pay for one module. I support a few libraries (via Pateron, as I've been doing it before Github sponsor was a thing), but I guess its not realistic either for every user to pay for every module that lines their package.json, and in turn, do you then pay a small % to every module in this libraries package.json?

I think a lot of people get into OSS for reasons other than money, such as: great for the resume, raises brand awareness (if you yourself are a studio or company), a way of giving back to other OSS developers, to scratch ones own itch while at the same time getting free testing.

I don't want to be argumentative, more, I would hate to see this library die because it didn't have enough support.
I mention Expo because they offer a premium, paid service. People use Expo because it is a quick start into RN development and has a huge tool belt of modules ready to go, such as this one. Without modules like this, I would guess less people would pay for the premium Expo offering.

Anyway, I'm not too invested, I've only just started testing the waters with this module, and I typically check out the issues area before committing to a module to gauge the current activity. While I was here I thought I would leave my 2c.

I wish you well on this project and others

[vonovak]

I guess its not realistic either for every user to pay for every module that lines their package.json

I agree and that's not what I'm calling for. But if you, as a company, pick 20 or 30 deps from your package.json and sponsor them $5 or $10 each, I think that is very much doable. Only a minority of libraries offer sponsorship options.

I think a lot of people get into OSS for reasons other than money

If I made it sound like I'm in OSS for money, then I'm sorry - that's definitely not the case 😂. As I outlined in the first post, I'm looking for "coding support" and / or sponsors because both ways can help.

I would hate to see this library die because it didn't have enough support.

It's not going to die, I will circle back to it every once in a while and I'm always ready to review PRs.

I wish you well on this project and others

Thanks, same to you 🙂

[rebeccatownsend-rally]

Hey there, I'm taking a stab at contributing, but I can't seem to get the example app running in iOS 🤦 . Rather than sink time into debugging alone, I figured I would reach out in case there is a known solution. The issue is:

/Users/rebecca.townsend/Documents/datetimepicker/ios/RNDateTimePicker.m:10:9: fatal error: 'React/RCTUtils.h' file not found

Any thoughts?

Have already installed pods. Basically just following the instructions in the read.me for running the example app.

[vonovak]

@rebeccatownsend-rally did you run yarn in the root of the repo to install deps? I should add that step

also, you need to open the xcodeworkspace file in example/ios

[vonovak]

@rebeccatownsend-rally I opened a PR for docs improvement, does that help? https://github.com/react-native-datetimepicker/datetimepicker/pull/397/files

[rebeccatownsend-rally]

@vonovak Thanks for updating the docs. I am still not able to run the example for iOS, unfortunately. The error is the same /Users/rebecca.townsend/Documents/datetimepicker/ios/RNDateTimePicker.m:10:9: fatal error: 'React/RCTUtils.h' file not found
I'm assuming that you're not able to reproduce this. I wonder if there's an incompatibility with my tools versioning. I'm using XCode v12.4, node v14.1, npx v6.14.4, cocoapods v1.10.1
Wonder what versions you are using, or if you know of any compatibility issues?

[vonovak]

@rebeccatownsend-rally sorry, there was a problem with the yarn run:ios script, fix is here. I never really used it tbh which is why it didn't work. In the mean time, you can just open the example project (example/ios/example.xcworkspace/) in Xcode and build from there, that should work just fine and you'll need to open xcode anyway to do any development. Thanks and sorry for the wrong information! 🙂

[themudassarhassan]

Hi,
I used this library in my recent project for client. I saw this issue and I'm open to help to contribute to this library in my free time. I would really like to fix some bugs or implement new features. I have very little open source development experience but I'm really passionate about it and will try to help as much as possible. Thanks.

[anjessen]

hi I have this error [Unhandled promise rejection: Error: Couldn't find a 'component', 'getComponent' or 'children' prop for the screen 'ReservationScreen'. This can happen if you passed 'undefined'. You likely forgot to export your component from the file it's defined in, or mixed up default import and named import when importing.] like dateTimePicker is not export...