React-native-branch-deep-linking-attribution: React Native installation instructions are not clear

[gustavonecore]

The command react-native link react-native-branch works on your end?
After install I tried to run that, but nothing appears to be linked for branchio..

➜  app/path ✗ react-native link react-native-branch
Scanning 698 folders for symlinks in /Users/onecore/uprise/bopv2/BOP-White-Label/node_modules (17ms)

And after doing all the android setup steps I'm not able to build the project, since the branchio packages are not present, so all the related import fail.

Any idea @jdee / @econner ?

Regards!

[econner]

Hey @gustavonecore ,

I did manage to get it to build eventually. react-native link react-native-branch worked for me for Android.

I believe you just need the following config:

diff --git a/android/app/build.gradle b/android/app/build.gradle
index 913fae3..257c192 100644
--- a/android/app/build.gradle
+++ b/android/app/build.gradle
@@ -172,6 +172,7 @@ android {
 }

 dependencies {
+    compile project(':react-native-branch')
     compile project(':react-native-splash-screen')
     compile project(':react-native-spinkit')
     compile project(':react-native-navigation')

diff --git a/android/app/src/main/java/com/yourappname/YourAppNameMobile/MainApplication.java b/android/app/src/main/java/com/yourappname/YourAppNameMobile/MainApplication.java
index 213faca..ed2ba64 100644
--- a/android/app/src/main/java/com/yourappname/YourAppNameMobile/MainApplication.java
+++ b/android/app/src/main/java/com/yourappname/YourAppNameMobile/MainApplication.java
@@ -55,6 +55,7 @@ public class MainApplication extends NavigationApplication {

         return Arrays.asList(
             new MainReactPackage(),
+            new RNBranchPackage(),
             new NavigationReactPackage(),
             new IntercomPackage(),
             new ImagePickerPackage(),

diff --git a/android/settings.gradle b/android/settings.gradle
index d383e61..2dd16a7 100644
--- a/android/settings.gradle
+++ b/android/settings.gradle
@@ -1,4 +1,6 @@
 rootProject.name = 'YourAppName'
+include ':react-native-branch'
+project(':react-native-branch').projectDir = new File(rootProject.projectDir, '../node_modules/react-native-branch/android')
 include ':react-native-splash-screen'
 project(':react-native-splash-screen').projectDir = new File(rootProject.projectDir, '../node_modules/react-native-splash-screen/android')
 include ':react-native-spinkit'

For iOS I had to completely deintegrate CocoaPods from my project before running react-native link. See my comment here: https://github.com/BranchMetrics/react-native-branch-deep-linking/issues/361#issuecomment-415149270

[gustavonecore]

Thanks man,

..well, I did get it working seeing the example app and doing the link process manually.

Nice tip about iOS, I'll be facing it after running some tests on android.

Regards!

[dwilt]

@econner @jdee we're running into these exact same issues as well.. Why would react-native link react-native-branch modify the Podfile if that's the "Pure React Native" way?

[econner]

@dwilt I believe a change was made to React Native to try to make things Just Work if you're using CocoaPods, but I don't think react-native-branch-deep-linking was updated to accommodate this change.

From https://github.com/facebook/react-native/pull/15460,

This change will allow to link projects that contains its own .podspec file to CocoaPods-based projects. In case link detect Podfile in iOS directory, it will look for related .podspec file in linked project directory, and add it to Podfile. If Podfile and .podspec files are not present, it will fall back to previous implementation.

So the .podspec file of this project I guess does not play nicely. Not really sure.

[dwilt]

@econner Yup, your steps worked. Thanks, and great find. This will help me on other plugins where this is the issue as well.

[econner]

@sequoiaat Did you guys do anything to fix this?

[Sarkar]

@econner, no specific changes to this one -- we figured the workaround here would be OK for now. Is it continuing to come up?

[econner]

The workaround is ok, but it would be better I think to not have to deintegrate Cocoapods before trying to install this library. Is there a way to make the .podspec file play nicely? Or can you advise that we're doing something incorrectly when using Cocoapods?

Specifically I am talking about: https://github.com/BranchMetrics/react-native-branch-deep-linking/issues/361#issuecomment-415149270

I guess I'm fine with this issue being closed if we can move the discussion over to #361