Android crashes when tried to render TextInput on RN 0.64.x and using appcompat library of 1.4.0

[st1ng]

Description

Latest 0.64 react-native is not compatible with latest appcompat androidx library. When app tries to render TextInput, NullPointerException thrown. This happens in file ReactAndroid/src/main/java/com/facebook/react/views/textinput/ReactEditText.java (line 972):

private void updateCachedSpannable(boolean resetStyles) { // Noops in non-Fabric if (!mFabricViewStateManager.hasStateWrapper()) { return; }

This happens because super constructor AppCompatEditText calls updateCachedSpannable as part of construction, so mFabricViewStateManager not initialized yet and is null. So need to check mFabricViewStateManager for null value first.

React Native version:

System:
OS: macOS 10.15.7
CPU: (8) x64 Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2600K CPU @ 3.40GHz
Memory: 790.90 MB / 24.00 GB
Shell: 3.2.57 - /bin/bash
Binaries:
Node: 15.4.0 - /usr/local/bin/node
Yarn: 1.22.10 - /usr/local/bin/yarn
npm: 7.0.15 - /usr/local/bin/npm
Watchman: 4.9.0 - /usr/local/bin/watchman
Managers:
CocoaPods: 1.10.1 - /Users/st1ng/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.7.0/bin/pod
SDKs:
iOS SDK:
Platforms: iOS 14.4, DriverKit 20.2, macOS 11.1, tvOS 14.3, watchOS 7.2
Android SDK:
API Levels: 23, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30
Build Tools: 25.0.0, 26.0.0, 27.0.3, 28.0.3, 29.0.2, 29.0.3, 30.0.0, 30.0.2
System Images: android-21 | Google APIs Intel x86 Atom_64, android-24 | Google Play Intel x86 Atom, android-29 | Google Play Intel x86 Atom, android-30 | Google Play Intel x86 Atom
Android NDK: Not Found
IDEs:
Android Studio: 4.2 AI-202.7660.26.42.7322048
Xcode: 12.4/12D4e - /usr/bin/xcodebuild
Languages:
Java: 1.8.0_221 - /usr/bin/javac
npmPackages:
@react-native-community/cli: Not Found
react: 17.0.1 => 17.0.1
react-native: 0.64.1 => 0.64.1

Steps To Reproduce

1. Create empty project
2. Set explicitly appcompat version to 1.4.0-alpha01 or make it "+" in app/build.gradle
   implementation "androidx.appcompat:appcompat:1.4.0-alpha01"
3. Add empty TextInput to any page

Expected Results

No crash happen

Snack, code example, screenshot, or link to a repository:

[safaiyeh]

Hey @st1ng I want to learn your motivations needing to support androidx.appcompat:appcompat:1.4.0-alpha01 is there an API RN is not supporting that you need? If RN does not support the version (especially alpha versions) there isn't an expectation for it to be working.

[kangear]

same problem

[wanderbon]

Same problem with any version of appcompat

[kangear]

https://stackoverflow.com/a/67733792/2193455

[ahsanjamilarkhitech]

still struggling with the issue. any solutions?

[cristianoccazinsp]

Same issue with RN 0.65.1

[cristianoccazinsp]

Use this for now:

implementation ("androidx.appcompat:appcompat:1.3.1") {
        version {
            strictly '1.3.1'
        }
    }

[jraska]

Hi, androidx.appcompat:appcompat:1.4.0 is now stable and as such RN is now becoming a blocker to update further. Since many other androidx dependencies are transitively dependent on appcompat, the issue will soon start bubbling through many apps using RN.

Please does anyone have any idea how to solve this actually? The locking appcompat on version 1.3.1 is a temporary fix, but what should be the long term one?

[cortinico]

I've addressed this in e21f8ec It will be available in the upcoming stable of RN

[mikehardy]

Here I am chasing a crash bug down from stackoverflow and github and such and I find it closed just hours ago - thanks a bunch @cortinico ! I'm fine pinning the version in gradle as long as I know there's a fix coming, I'll just mark the pin for removal with react-native 0.68. Cheers