The Core Contributors of React Native were brought together after the pandemic years when the world was locked down, and all work was done online only.
A series of workshops on various topics followed, participated by only the attendees, resulted in an impressive sharing of knowledge and collaboration for two days. The following topics were discussed in the workshops.
- React Native Codegen and Typescript Support:
React Native Codegen remains a fundamental part of React Native’s new architecture. It needs to be supported and improved on the top priority level. Two major areas were focussed upon-
- New types unsupported by Codegen were supported, the string union types in Typescript being the topmost in demand.
- Auto linking for iOS was improved, which was missing a use case.
- New Architecture Library Migration of React Native:
Having libraries that support the New Architecture is crucial in migrating the whole ecosystem. It was decided to support library maintainers in migrating to the New Architecture.
- React Native Monorepo:
It was beneficial to refactor the react native repository and implement the Monorepo RFC.
- Alignment of Metro Web and Ecosystem:
It was decided to make sure that Metro, the JavaScript Bundler, an integrated part of the React Native Development, works well with the latest standards in the JavaScript ecosystem. Adopting the export specifications and Web and bundler ecosystem were discussed at length.
- Metro Simplified Release Workflow:
React Native release is not a trivial matter. Situations become difficult when there is the need to release Real Native, the Real Native CLI, with Metro. Frictions are created when any of these packages releases a new version.
This work is now currently managed through direct communication and synchronized releases. But it is felt that it can be improved.
Dependencies between React Native, Metro and the CLI were considered in this workshop session. Lean Core Effort allowed making these two projects co-dependent by duplicating some functionalities. It could be done after extracting CLI from React Native. It allowed the team of CLI to iterate faster than before.
It was time to take the experience of both teams to find a solution. The Metro team had to take over the react native community/cli plugin metro development. They had to move it back to the core of Real Native temporarily and maybe to Metro mono repo after that.
All participants thanked Callstack for hosting the workshops and thanked them for joining the React Native Core Contributor Summit 2022.
