iOS Share Extension not working with react-native 0.61.5

I'm trying to use a registered (AppRegistry.registerComponent) react-native module within a Share Extension (added using XCode). On earlier versions of react-native, we could just link the necessary libraries manually inside Build Phases > Link Binaries with Libraries and get this up and running. But from v0.60 onwards this is no longer possible.

This issue is similar to this one but on an older version of react-native and its solution doesn't apply to the latest version.

More details in this GitHub Issue

index.share.js

import {AppRegistry} from 'react-native';
import ShareExtension from './ShareExtension';
AppRegistry.registerComponent('ShareExtension', () => ShareExtension);

ShareVIewController.m > loadView

- (void)loadView {
  RCTBridge *bridge = [[RCTBridge alloc] initWithDelegate:self launchOptions:nil];
  RCTRootView *rootView = [[RCTRootView alloc] initWithBridge:bridge
                                               moduleName:@"ShareExtension"
                                        initialProperties:nil];
  self.view = rootView;
}

Here's a repo with all this setup to reproduce this issue: GitHub Repo

Screenshot of the error

You've switched to cocoapods for your dependencies. After inspecting the ShareExtension package you have manually linked, it's trying to reference the dependencies you have listed

#import <React/RCTBridge.h>
#import <React/RCTRootView.h>

But these are actually located inside your development pods folder, basically in a different scope.

> There's a number of ways to resolve this problem.

The easiest thing I've found to do to resolve this would be to make your own little repo for it and call it like any other dependency.

You could make a git repo for it. I model mine after https://github.com/react-native-community/react-native-push-notification-ios

You can also check out the following for how to call a local cocoapods directory:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/44842837/podfile-path-of-local-pod-relative-to-projectpath-possible

Just make your own podspec to reference the local files inside ShareExtension that might look something like this:

require "json"

package = JSON.parse(File.read(File.join(File.dirname(__FILE__), "package.json")))

Pod::Spec.new do |s|
  # NPM package specification
  
  s.name           = 'Share Extension'
  s.version        = package['version']
  s.summary        = package['description']
  s.description    = package['description']
  s.license        = package['license']
  s.author         = package['author']
  s.homepage       = package['homepage']
  
  s.source       = { :git => "https://github.com/react-native-community/react-native-share-extension", :tag => "v#{s.version}" }
  s.source_files = "ios/*.{h,m}"

  s.platform     = :ios, "9.0"

  s.dependency "React"

end

I found the solution to this. We have to add pods target for the share extension (not inside the main target but as a separate target) and copy all the react-native related pods to this target. Don't forget to add the post-install commands as well.

platform :ios, '9.0'
require_relative '../node_modules/@react-native-community/cli-platform-ios/native_modules'

target "sample" do
  pod 'FBLazyVector', :path => "../node_modules/react-native/Libraries/FBLazyVector"
  pod 'FBReactNativeSpec', :path => "../node_modules/react-native/Libraries/FBReactNativeSpec"
  pod 'RCTRequired', :path => "../node_modules/react-native/Libraries/RCTRequired"
  pod 'RCTTypeSafety', :path => "../node_modules/react-native/Libraries/TypeSafety"
  pod 'React', :path => '../node_modules/react-native/'
  pod 'React-Core', :path => '../node_modules/react-native/'
  pod 'React-CoreModules', :path => '../node_modules/react-native/React/CoreModules'
  pod 'React-Core/DevSupport', :path => '../node_modules/react-native/'
  pod 'React-RCTActionSheet', :path => '../node_modules/react-native/Libraries/ActionSheetIOS'
  pod 'React-RCTAnimation', :path => '../node_modules/react-native/Libraries/NativeAnimation'
  pod 'React-RCTBlob', :path => '../node_modules/react-native/Libraries/Blob'
  pod 'React-RCTImage', :path => '../node_modules/react-native/Libraries/Image'
  pod 'React-RCTLinking', :path => '../node_modules/react-native/Libraries/LinkingIOS'
  pod 'React-RCTNetwork', :path => '../node_modules/react-native/Libraries/Network'
  pod 'React-RCTSettings', :path => '../node_modules/react-native/Libraries/Settings'
  pod 'React-RCTText', :path => '../node_modules/react-native/Libraries/Text'
  pod 'React-RCTVibration', :path => '../node_modules/react-native/Libraries/Vibration'
  pod 'React-Core/RCTWebSocket', :path => '../node_modules/react-native/'

  pod 'React-cxxreact', :path => '../node_modules/react-native/ReactCommon/cxxreact'
  pod 'React-jsi', :path => '../node_modules/react-native/ReactCommon/jsi'
  pod 'React-jsiexecutor', :path => '../node_modules/react-native/ReactCommon/jsiexecutor'
  pod 'React-jsinspector', :path => '../node_modules/react-native/ReactCommon/jsinspector'
  pod 'ReactCommon/jscallinvoker', :path => "../node_modules/react-native/ReactCommon"
  pod 'ReactCommon/turbomodule/core', :path => "../node_modules/react-native/ReactCommon"
  pod 'Yoga', :path => '../node_modules/react-native/ReactCommon/yoga'

  pod 'DoubleConversion', :podspec => '../node_modules/react-native/third-party-podspecs/DoubleConversion.podspec'
  pod 'glog', :podspec => '../node_modules/react-native/third-party-podspecs/glog.podspec'
  pod 'Folly', :podspec => '../node_modules/react-native/third-party-podspecs/Folly.podspec'

  target "sampleTests" do
    inherit! :search_paths
    # Pods for testing
  end

  use_native_modules!
end

target "sample-tvOS" do
  target "airbase-tvOSTests" do
    inherit! :search_paths
    # Pods for testing
  end
end

target "share" do
  pod 'FBLazyVector', :path => "../node_modules/react-native/Libraries/FBLazyVector"
  pod 'FBReactNativeSpec', :path => "../node_modules/react-native/Libraries/FBReactNativeSpec"
  pod 'RCTRequired', :path => "../node_modules/react-native/Libraries/RCTRequired"
  pod 'RCTTypeSafety', :path => "../node_modules/react-native/Libraries/TypeSafety"
  pod 'React', :path => '../node_modules/react-native/'
  pod 'React-Core', :path => '../node_modules/react-native/'
  pod 'React-CoreModules', :path => '../node_modules/react-native/React/CoreModules'
  pod 'React-Core/DevSupport', :path => '../node_modules/react-native/'
  pod 'React-RCTActionSheet', :path => '../node_modules/react-native/Libraries/ActionSheetIOS'
  pod 'React-RCTAnimation', :path => '../node_modules/react-native/Libraries/NativeAnimation'
  pod 'React-RCTBlob', :path => '../node_modules/react-native/Libraries/Blob'
  pod 'React-RCTImage', :path => '../node_modules/react-native/Libraries/Image'
  pod 'React-RCTLinking', :path => '../node_modules/react-native/Libraries/LinkingIOS'
  pod 'React-RCTNetwork', :path => '../node_modules/react-native/Libraries/Network'
  pod 'React-RCTSettings', :path => '../node_modules/react-native/Libraries/Settings'
  pod 'React-RCTText', :path => '../node_modules/react-native/Libraries/Text'
  pod 'React-RCTVibration', :path => '../node_modules/react-native/Libraries/Vibration'
  pod 'React-Core/RCTWebSocket', :path => '../node_modules/react-native/'

  pod 'React-cxxreact', :path => '../node_modules/react-native/ReactCommon/cxxreact'
  pod 'React-jsi', :path => '../node_modules/react-native/ReactCommon/jsi'
  pod 'React-jsiexecutor', :path => '../node_modules/react-native/ReactCommon/jsiexecutor'
  pod 'React-jsinspector', :path => '../node_modules/react-native/ReactCommon/jsinspector'
  pod 'ReactCommon/jscallinvoker', :path => "../node_modules/react-native/ReactCommon"
  pod 'ReactCommon/turbomodule/core', :path => "../node_modules/react-native/ReactCommon"
  pod 'Yoga', :path => '../node_modules/react-native/ReactCommon/yoga'

  pod 'DoubleConversion', :podspec => '../node_modules/react-native/third-party-podspecs/DoubleConversion.podspec'
  pod 'glog', :podspec => '../node_modules/react-native/third-party-podspecs/glog.podspec'
  pod 'Folly', :podspec => '../node_modules/react-native/third-party-podspecs/Folly.podspec'
end

post_install do |installer|
  installer.pods_project.targets.each do |target|
    target.build_configurations.each do |config|
      config.build_settings['APPLICATION_EXTENSION_API_ONLY'] = 'NO'
    end
  end
end