RN: Incompatable Android library

Question

I am following this post to solve an error from my RN 0.59 app. What I did was add 2 lines to

  tools:replace="android:appComponentFactory"
  android:appComponentFactory="whateverString"

AndroidManifest.xml under android/src/main. Here is the xml file after change:

<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
  package="com.emps_app">

    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />

    <application
      android:name=".MainApplication"
      android:label="@string/app_name"
      android:icon="@mipmap/ic_launcher"
      android:roundIcon="@mipmap/ic_launcher_round"
      android:allowBackup="false"
      android:theme="@style/AppTheme"
      tools:replace="android:appComponentFactory" //<<===added 2 lines
      android:appComponentFactory="whateverString">
      <activity
        android:name=".MainActivity"
        android:label="@string/app_name"
        android:configChanges="keyboard|keyboardHidden|orientation|screenSize"
        android:windowSoftInputMode="adjustResize">
        <intent-filter>
            <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
            <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
        </intent-filter>
      </activity>
      <activity android:name="com.facebook.react.devsupport.DevSettingsActivity" />
    </application>

</manifest>

But the react-native run-android still throws the error:

* What went wrong:
Execution failed for task ':app:generateDebugBuildConfig'.
> org.xml.sax.SAXParseException; systemId: file:/C:/D/code/js/emps_app/android/app/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml; lineNumber: 14; columnNumber: 52; The prefix "tools" for attribute "tools:replace" associated with an element type "application" is not bound.

My RN app was working fine before throwing error about version of Android library.There are several posts about the error but none of them seems working in my case. My emulator is running with Android 8.1/API 27. Also please keep in mind that RN 0.60 will support Androidx.

Here is the build.gradle (under android/app/. comment removed for easy reading):

apply plugin: "com.android.application"

import com.android.build.OutputFile


project.ext.react = [
    entryFile: "index.js"
]

apply from: "../../node_modules/react-native/react.gradle"

def enableSeparateBuildPerCPUArchitecture = false

def enableProguardInReleaseBuilds = false

android {
    compileSdkVersion rootProject.ext.compileSdkVersion

    compileOptions {
        sourceCompatibility JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8
        targetCompatibility JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8
    }

    defaultConfig {
        applicationId "com.emps_app"
        minSdkVersion rootProject.ext.minSdkVersion
        targetSdkVersion rootProject.ext.targetSdkVersion
        versionCode 1
        versionName "1.0"
    }
    splits {
        abi {
            reset()
            enable enableSeparateBuildPerCPUArchitecture
            universalApk false  // If true, also generate a universal APK
            include "armeabi-v7a", "x86", "arm64-v8a", "x86_64"
        }
    }
    buildTypes {
        release {
            minifyEnabled enableProguardInReleaseBuilds
            proguardFiles getDefaultProguardFile("proguard-android.txt"), "proguard-rules.pro"
        }
    }
    // applicationVariants are e.g. debug, release
    applicationVariants.all { variant ->
        variant.outputs.each { output ->
            // For each separate APK per architecture, set a unique version code as described here:
            // http://tools.android.com/tech-docs/new-build-system/user-guide/apk-splits
            def versionCodes = ["armeabi-v7a":1, "x86":2, "arm64-v8a": 3, "x86_64": 4]
            def abi = output.getFilter(OutputFile.ABI)
            if (abi != null) {  // null for the universal-debug, universal-release variants
                output.versionCodeOverride =
                        versionCodes.get(abi) * 1048576 + defaultConfig.versionCode
            }
        }
    }
}

dependencies {
    implementation project(':react-native-vector-icons')
    implementation project(':react-native-gesture-handler')
    implementation project(':react-native-keychain')
    implementation project(':react-native-linear-gradient')
    implementation project(':react-native-device-info')
    implementation fileTree(dir: "libs", include: ["*.jar"])
    implementation "com.android.support:appcompat-v7:${rootProject.ext.supportLibVersion}"
    implementation "com.facebook.react:react-native:+"  // From node_modules
}

// Run this once to be able to run the application with BUCK
// puts all compile dependencies into folder libs for BUCK to use
task copyDownloadableDepsToLibs(type: Copy) {
    from configurations.compile
    into 'libs'
}

Here is the top level build.gradle file:

// Top-level build file where you can add configuration options common to all sub-projects/modules.

buildscript {
    ext {
        buildToolsVersion = "28.0.3"
        minSdkVersion = 16
        compileSdkVersion = 28
        targetSdkVersion = 28
        supportLibVersion = "28.0.0"
    }
    repositories {
        google()
        jcenter()
    }
    dependencies {
        classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:3.3.1'

        // NOTE: Do not place your application dependencies here; they belong
        // in the individual module build.gradle files
    }
}

allprojects {
    repositories {
        mavenLocal()
        google()
        jcenter()
        maven {
            // All of React Native (JS, Obj-C sources, Android binaries) is installed from npm
            url "$rootDir/../node_modules/react-native/android"
        }
    }
}

Answer 1

Please do not used below line in AndroidManifest.xml.

tools:replace="android:appComponentFactory"
android:appComponentFactory="whateverString"

But for run android app you can use android studio. Because sometime it's not run through commandline. So you can used android studio and run same as android application but you need to open YourApp>android> Run your app.