How can I manually link react-native-camera in Android Studio? - react-native

Question

Just to clarify, I'm running a Windows computer using Android Studio.
I'm trying to set up a QR code scanner using react-native-camera in a react native application.
I can install the library without a problem:
$ npm install react-native-camera --save
gives
npm WARN babel-eslint#10.0.1 requires a peer of eslint#>= 4.12.1 but none is installed. You must install peer dependencies yourself.
npm WARN eslint-plugin-eslint-comments#3.1.2 requires a peer of eslint#>=4.19.1 but none is installed. You must install peer dependencies yourself.
npm WARN eslint-plugin-flowtype#2.50.3 requires a peer of eslint#>=2.0.0 but none is installed. You must install peer dependencies yourself.
npm WARN eslint-plugin-jest#22.4.1 requires a peer of eslint#>=5 but none is installed. You must install peer dependencies yourself.
npm WARN eslint-plugin-react#7.12.4 requires a peer of eslint#^3.0.0 || ^4.0.0 || ^5.0.0 but none is installed. You must install peer dependencies yourself.
npm WARN eslint-plugin-react-hooks#1.6.1 requires a peer of eslint#^3.0.0 || ^4.0.0 || ^5.0.0 || ^6.0.0 but none is installed. You must install peer dependencies yourself.
npm WARN eslint-plugin-react-native#3.6.0 requires a peer of eslint#^3.17.0 || ^4 || ^5 but none is installed. You must install peer dependencies yourself.
npm WARN optional SKIPPING OPTIONAL DEPENDENCY: fsevents#1.2.9 (node_modules\fsevents):
npm WARN optional SKIPPING OPTIONAL DEPENDENCY: Error: EPERM: operation not permitted, rename '[file location]\node_modules\.staging\fsevents-7a20bca6\node_modules\needle' -> '[file location]\node_modules\.staging\needle-41ea96cc'
+ react-native-camera#3.8.0
updated 1 package and audited 948127 packages in 76.202s
found 0 vulnerabilities
Every online reference I have have seen, such as https://facebook.github.io/react-native/docs/linking-libraries-ios
only seem to give instructions if you are programming for iOS on a Mac.
Documents for the library at https://react-native-community.github.io/react-native-camera/docs/installation recommends autolinking using
$ react-native link react-native-camera.
I get:
info Linking "react-native-camera" iOS dependency
info iOS module "react-native-camera" has been successfully linked
info Linking "react-native-camera" Android dependency
info Android module "react-native-camera" has been successfully linked
The problem arises when building it on my device, using $ react-native run-android, where I get:
error React Native CLI uses autolinking for native dependencies, but the following modules are linked manually:
- react-native-camera (to unlink run: "react-native unlink react-native-camera")
This is likely happening when upgrading React Native from below 0.60 to 0.60 or above. Going forward, you can unlink this dependency via "react-native unlink <dependency>" and it will be included in your app automatically. If a library isn't compatible with autolinking, disregard this message and notify the library maintainers.
Read more about autolinking: https://github.com/react-native-community/cli/blob/master/docs/autolinking.md
The only results for manual linking is on XCode, but can anyone help me with Android Studio? I would really appreciate it.

Answer 1

It looks like you are using new version of react-native (0.60 or higher). In this case, you don't have to link your library yourself, as libraries that support latest react-native now link themselves upon installation.
You should be able to do npm install react-native-camera --save and have it working. In case you used react-native link react-native-camera before, you may now need to run react-native unlink react-native-camera to revert what was done by link command. You might also need to reinstall the library (npm uninstall react-native-camera followed by npm install react-native-camera --save). If it still doesn't work you can go through manual installation of this library