React-native-fast-image: Is this repository dead?

[mrousavy]

There are 218 open issues, some older, critical issues like this one: https://github.com/DylanVann/react-native-fast-image/issues/605 have been open without any answers since november last year..

@DylanVann some people might be interested if you're searching for new maintainers

[reinvanimschoot]

I would like to know this as well. Just started a new project and I'm not sure if I should still use this repo? Is there a better alternative?

[Only-IceSoul]

I am noob but u can try https://github.com/Only-IceSoul/react-native-jjkit. and help me.

[augustbjornberg]

Thanks @Only-IceSoul, i will check it out.

@mrousavy, only @DylanVann can really answer that. That said, I've used if for two years and this is my take on it.

In the few appearances @DylanVann has made the last months it's clear that he's shelved the project. Unfortunately he's also been vocal about not letting any other maintainers on. Those two things combined makes for a bleak outlook of this projects future.

[russeg]

dead? no. abandoned? yes.

so basically, expect the issues and pulls to pile up and never read by the owner. on occasion, the owner might be in the mood to update the readme by adding an emoji 😃

[sabinayakc]

@augustbjornberg @mrousavy @reinvanimschoot I have created my own npm package since I wanted to add functionalities. I can add people as maintainers.

https://github.com/sabinayakc/react-native-fast-image

[reinvanimschoot]

@sabinayakc You should call it react-native-faster-image!

[mrousavy]

@sabinayakc Awesome! What are your goals with this fork? Are you going to start fixing issues from the official fast image or are you going to implement with adding new functionality?

Currently I'm trying to get the BlurHash algorithm working in react native, even though that's really off topic, I could try implementing this.

Edit: For the blurhash algorithm I thought of adding a placeholderBlurhash prop to the <FastImage component, since placeholder is already a useful prop in the SDWebImage obj-c library. The blurhash gets passed over the bridge, decoded using the Swift decoder and then set as a placeholder until the Image has been loaded. If anyone can help me out on this that would be awesome, since I got trouble interoping between Objective-C and Swift (because the decoder is Swift.)...

[sabinayakc]

@mrousavy For now Im looking for maintainers. If we get enough maintainers will have more luck with updates . There are lot of pending merge request and merges that need reviewed.

My goal is to keep this library active and have more people take responsibility and don't have to wait for the owner to merge critical changes and updates. For example, I really would like to have a placeholder functionality when the image is loading so currently working on that fix. But I have limited time as most of you so looking for enthusiastic individuals who want to take on the responsibility of a maintainer(s)

@reinvanimschoot For now I am not too worried about naming. If in the future we as a community decide to name it something different we can, but at the moment i just want a package i can rely on.

[mrousavy]

@sabinayakc Sounds good. I'm currently working on something myself, but shortly afterwards I can help out (specifically for placeholder functionality).

I really like @reinvanimschoot 's idea, since it is a fork of the fast image library with the goal of improving the original idea: being a faster image component. I'd say that's a good start, instead of just re-using the same name.

[reinvanimschoot]

@sabinayakc I was half joking really :) but it wouldn't hurt to differentiate from the original package at one point.

[alessiocancian]

@sabinayakc @reinvanimschoot @mrousavy
Hi I'd like to implement a sort of placeholder too for FastImage, but probably not the same you're working on.
My use-case is a list with an image for each cell, loaded with a thumbnail, when an item in the list is selected it shows a detail page where the full image is loaded.

So what I'm planning to do here is adding a new param like thumbnailImageDuringFetch (ok we'll find a better name) with the same type as source and when provided FastImage should show the thumbnail (only if present in cache) during the loading.

[mrousavy]

@augustbjornberg I don't know your exact use-case, but I've developed a library that can render a short hashed string (blurhash). Just recently I added encoding functionality, so if that might work out for you then check it out: mrousavy/react-native-blurhash

[AugustGSP]

I've seen your library blurhash before @mrousavy, super impressive stuff man, well done.

I use react-native-fast-image for it's speed, but more importantly for the offline-caching. All of my app's content is remotely hosted, and i want users to be able to use the app when they have no internet connection. It would therefore be useful to know when loaded images are finished preloading.