How can I present a native UIViewController in React Native? (Can't use just a UIView)

Question

I\'m trying to use ABNewPersonViewController in my React Native app. This is how it\'s used in Objective-C:

ABNewPersonViewController *picker = [[ABNewPerson         


        

Answer 1

You want to implement a bridged UI component that mounts an empty UIView and is responsible primarily for presenting your UIViewController. The simplest example of this technique is in RCTModalHostView; check out the source code.

Notably, React Native defines a category on UIView that adds a property called reactViewController which climbs the view hierarchy to find the closest UIViewController. Use this UIViewController to present your custom view controller:

- (void)didMoveToWindow
{
  [super didMoveToWindow];

  if (!_isPresented && self.window) {
    [self.reactViewController presentViewController:_customViewController
                                           animated:NO
                                         completion:nil];
    _isPresented = YES;
  }
}

Answer 2

Here's what ended up working for me.

CreateContact.h:

#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>
#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>
#import <AddressBook/AddressBook.h>
#import <AddressBookUI/AddressBookUI.h>
#import "RCTBridgeModule.h"

@interface CreateContact : NSObject <ABNewPersonViewControllerDelegate, RCTBridgeModule>

@end

CreateContact.m:

#import "CreateContact.h"
#import "AppDelegate.h"

@implementation CreateContact

RCT_EXPORT_MODULE(CreateContact);


RCT_EXPORT_METHOD(presentContact) {

    dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
        ABNewPersonViewController *picker = [[ABNewPersonViewController alloc] init];
        picker.newPersonViewDelegate = self;
        UINavigationController* contactNavigator = [[UINavigationController alloc] initWithRootViewController:picker];
        AppDelegate *delegate = (AppDelegate *)[[UIApplication sharedApplication] delegate];
        [delegate.window.rootViewController presentViewController:contactNavigator animated:NO completion:nil];
    });
}

- (void)newPersonViewController:(ABNewPersonViewController *)newPersonViewController didCompleteWithNewPerson:(ABRecordRef)person
{
    [newPersonViewController dismissViewControllerAnimated:YES completion:nil];
}
@end

This tutorial has more detail: http://moduscreate.com/leverage-existing-ios-views-react-native-app/

I'll update as I implement the best way to communicate information back to RN.