Android - pass initial props to ViewManager createView in non-Fabric

[gkode]

Summary

#31051
When trying to create custom viewmanagers, we don't have props, I have a use case where I want to create views on the basis of provided react prop from react native.

Changelog

[CATEGORY] [TYPE] - ReactNative WebView

Test Plan

Tested Manually.

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[analysis-bot]

Code analysis results:

• google-java-format found some issues. See https://github.com/google/google-java-format

[pull-bot]

Messages

📖

📋 Verify Changelog Format - A changelog entry has the following format: [CATEGORY] [TYPE] - Message. CATEGORY may be: General iOS Android JavaScript Internal (for changes that do not need to be called out in the release notes) TYPE may be: Added, for new features. Changed, for changes in existing functionality. Deprecated, for soon-to-be removed features. Removed, for now removed features. Fixed, for any bug fixes. Security, in case of vulnerabilities. MESSAGE may answer "what and why" on a feature level. Use this to briefly tell React Native users about notable changes.

Generated by 🚫 dangerJS against 127c0e0

[analysis-bot]

Platform	Engine	Arch	Size (bytes)	Diff
ios	-	universal	n/a	--

Base commit: eeb36f4

[analysis-bot]

Platform	Engine	Arch	Size (bytes)	Diff
android	hermes	arm64-v8a	8,898,706	-3
android	hermes	armeabi-v7a	8,396,142	+6
android	hermes	x86	9,387,581	+2
android	hermes	x86_64	9,330,414	+12
android	jsc	arm64-v8a	10,632,780	+2
android	jsc	armeabi-v7a	10,113,306	+15
android	jsc	x86	10,683,143	+5
android	jsc	x86_64	11,266,225	+0

Base commit: eeb36f4

[JoshuaGross]

@gkode Can you specify defaults in your custom view manager that will be used if null props are passed in? That seems like an easier change and wouldn't require upstreaming anything.

For this sort of change we would need a more comprehensive test plan than "tested manually" - how does this impact components in the ecosystem in general? Could it break anything?

A few lines below your change, updateProperties will be called. Why isn't that good enough?

[JoshuaGross]

In the future I would also recommend giving PRs a more descriptive title to help maintainers. I updated this one for you :)

Other thoughts:

1. We tend to be hesitant about making changes like this without a lot of testing and a comprehensive test plan. This behavior hasn't changed in ~6 years, and it's a fairly invasive change. What side-effects could it cause?
2. Is there another way to achieve this in general?
3. On the other hand, Fabric does pass in initialProps on createView, and we did this intentionally so that certain decisions can be made when views are created for some custom ViewManagers, so maybe consistency is good between non-Fabric and Fabric: https://github.com/facebook/react-native/blob/master/ReactAndroid/src/main/java/com/facebook/react/fabric/mounting/SurfaceMountingManager.java#L500

I think I'd be okay making this change in the spirit of consistency between Fabric and non-Fabric, but I would want to see a more reproducible and fleshed-out test plan first.

[gkode]

@gkode Can you specify defaults in your custom view manager that will be used if null props are passed in? That seems like an easier change and wouldn't require upstreaming anything.

For this sort of change we would need a more comprehensive test plan than "tested manually" - how does this impact components in the ecosystem in general? Could it break anything?

A few lines below your change, updateProperties will be called. Why isn't that good enough?

While createViewInstance, I want to provide already existing view in memory on the basis of provided props to Native hierarchy. But in Update properties, view is already created and added in native view hierarchy. So, I will have to replace my existing view (in memory) in update properties method with the one created in CreateViewInstance which makes my code a bit messy.

Can you please help with making test plan for it ? What all test we want to pass on it to make sure it doesn't break anything. I tested this change on android only.

[JoshuaGross]

I realized that some of our FB-internal view managers use the presence of props in the constructor to differentiate between Fabric and non-Fabric rendering modes. I will need to think about this a bit more.

[gkode]

I realized that some of our FB-internal view managers use the presence of props in the constructor to differentiate between Fabric and non-Fabric rendering modes. I will need to think about this a bit more.

is it really right parameter to differentiate between fabric and non-fabric?

[facebook-github-bot]

@JoshuaGross has imported this pull request. If you are a Facebook employee, you can view this diff on Phabricator.

[gkode]

I realized that some of our FB-internal view managers use the presence of props in the constructor to differentiate between Fabric and non-Fabric rendering modes. I will need to think about this a bit more.

is it really right parameter to differentiate between fabric and non-fabric?

@JoshuaGross What's the plan to take this change forward

[gkode]

@JoshuaGross Any update on it.

[facebook-github-bot]

@JoshuaGross merged this pull request in ea34953.

[JoshuaGross]

Merged @gkode, just took a while to audit everything relying on this internally