React Native Camera

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The comprehensive camera module for React Native.

Supports:

• photographs.
• videos
• face detection (Android & iOS only)
• barcode scanning
• text recognition (optional installation for iOS using CocoaPods)

Tidelift

Get supported react-native-camera with the Tidelift Subscription

Example import

import { RNCamera, FaceDetector } from 'react-native-camera';

How to use master branch?

We recommend using the releases from npm, however if you need some features that are not published on npm yet you can install react-native-camera from git.

yarn: yarn add react-native-camera@git+https://git@github.com/react-native-community/react-native-camera.git

npm: npm install --save react-native-camera@git+https://git@github.com/react-native-community/react-native-camera.git

Contributing

• Pull Requests are welcome, if you open a pull request we will do our best to get to it in a timely manner
• Pull Request Reviews are even more welcome! we need help testing, reviewing, and updating open PRs
• If you are interested in contributing more actively, please contact me (same username on Twitter, Facebook, etc.) Thanks!
• We are now on Open Collective! Contributions are appreciated and will be used to fund core contributors. more details
• If you want to help us coding, join Expo slack https://slack.expo.io/, so we can chat over there. (#react-native-camera)

Permissions

To use the camera on Android you must ask for camera permission:

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

To enable video recording feature you have to add the following code to the AndroidManifest.xml:

  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.RECORD_AUDIO"/>
  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />
  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />

Migrating from RCTCamera to RNCamera

See this doc

Migrating from version 1.x to 2.x

See this doc

RNCamera Docs

RNCamera

Docs old RCTCamera

RCTCamera

Getting started

Requirements

1. JDK >= 1.7 (if you run on 1.6 you will get an error on "_cameras = new HashMap<>();")
2. With iOS 10 and higher you need to add the "Privacy - Camera Usage Description" key to the Info.plist of your project. This should be found in 'your_project/ios/your_project/Info.plist'. Add the following code:

<key>NSCameraUsageDescription</key>
<string>Your message to user when the camera is accessed for the first time</string>

<!-- Include this only if you are planning to use the camera roll -->
<key>NSPhotoLibraryUsageDescription</key>
<string>Your message to user when the photo library is accessed for the first time</string>

<!-- Include this only if you are planning to use the microphone for video recording -->
<key>NSMicrophoneUsageDescription</key>
<string>Your message to user when the microphone is accessed for the first time</string>

1. On Android, you require buildToolsVersion of 25.0.2+. This should easily and automatically be downloaded by Android Studio's SDK Manager.

2. On iOS 11 and later you need to add NSPhotoLibraryAddUsageDescription key to the Info.plist. This key lets you describe the reason your app seeks write-only access to the user’s photo library. Info.plist can be found in 'your_project/ios/your_project/Info.plist'. Add the following code:

<!-- Include this only if you are planning to use the camera roll -->
<key>NSPhotoLibraryAddUsageDescription</key>
<string>Your message to user when the photo library is accessed for the first time</string>

Mostly automatic install with react-native

1. npm install react-native-camera --save
2. react-native link react-native-camera To install it with Windows, see manual install below

Mostly automatic install with CocoaPods

1. npm install react-native-camera --save
2. Add the plugin dependency to your Podfile, pointing at the path where NPM installed it:

pod 'react-native-camera', path: '../node_modules/react-native-camera'

1. Run pod install

Note: You might need to adjust your Podfile following the example below:

target 'yourTargetName' do
  # See http://facebook.github.io/react-native/docs/integration-with-existing-apps.html#configuring-cocoapods-dependencies 
  pod 'React', :path => '../node_modules/react-native', :subspecs => [
    'Core',
    'CxxBridge', # Include this for RN >= 0.47 
    'DevSupport', # Include this to enable In-App Devmenu if RN >= 0.43 
    'RCTText',
    'RCTNetwork',
    'RCTWebSocket', # Needed for debugging 
    'RCTAnimation', # Needed for FlatList and animations running on native UI thread 
    # Add any other subspecs you want to use in your project 
  ]
 
  # Explicitly include Yoga if you are using RN >= 0.42.0 
  pod 'yoga', :path => '../node_modules/react-native/ReactCommon/yoga'
 
  # Third party deps podspec link 
  pod 'react-native-camera', path: '../node_modules/react-native-camera'
 
end
 
post_install do |installer|
  installer.pods_project.targets.each do |target|
    if target.name == "React"
      target.remove_from_project
    end
  end
end

Manual install

iOS

1. npm install react-native-camera --save
2. In XCode, in the project navigator, right click Libraries ➜ Add Files to [your project's name]
3. Go to node_modules ➜ react-native-camera and add RNCamera.xcodeproj
4. Expand the RNCamera.xcodeproj ➜ Products folder
5. In XCode, in the project navigator, select your project. Add libRNCamera.a to your project's Build Phases ➜ Link Binary With Libraries
6. Click RNCamera.xcodeproj in the project navigator and go the Build Settings tab. Make sure 'All' is toggled on (instead of 'Basic'). In the Search Paths section, look for Header Search Paths and make sure it contains both $(SRCROOT)/../../react-native/React and $(SRCROOT)/../../../React - mark both as recursive.

Face Detection or Text Recognition Steps

Face Detection/Text Recognition are optional on iOS. If you want them, you are going to need to install Google Mobile Vision frameworks in your project, as mentioned in the next section.

No Face Detection steps

If you do not need it and do not want to install the GMV frameworks, open your app xcode project, on the Project Navigator, expand the RNCamera project, right click on the FaceDetector folder and delete it (move to trash, if you want). If you keep that folder and do not follow the GMV installation steps, your project will not compile.

If you want to make this automatic, you can add a postinstall script to your app package.json. Inside the postinstall_project there is a xcode project ready with the folder removed (we opened xcode, removed the folder from the project and copied the resulting project file). The post install script is:

#!/bin/bash
echo "Creating project without FaceDetector"
if [ -e node_modules/react-native-camera/ios/FaceDetector ] ; then
  rm -rf node_modules/react-native-camera/ios/FaceDetector
fi
cp node_modules/react-native-camera/postinstall_project/projectWithoutFaceDetection.pbxproj node_modules/react-native-camera/ios/RNCamera.xcodeproj/project.pbxproj

And add something like this to the scripts section in your package.json:

Note: The face detection/text recognition code is excluded by default for the CocoaPods installation.

"postinstall": "./scripts/post.sh",

Installing GMV frameworks

GMV (Google Mobile Vision) is used for Face detection/Text recognition by the iOS RNCamera. You have to link the google frameworks to your project to successfully compile the RNCamera project.

CocoaPods Path (The only option for Text Recognition)

Modify the dependency towards react-native-camera in your Podfile, from

pod 'react-native-camera', path: '../node_modules/react-native-camera'

to (for Face Detection)

pod 'react-native-camera', path: '../node_modules/react-native-camera', subspecs: [
  'FaceDetector'
]

or to (for Text Recognition)

pod 'react-native-camera', path: '../node_modules/react-native-camera', subspecs: [
  'TextDetector'
]

Additional steps for Text Recognition

Text recognition for iOS uses Firebase MLKit which requires setting up Firebase project for your app. If you have not already added Firebase to your app, please follow the steps described in getting started guide. In short, you would need to

1. Register your app in Firebase console.
2. Download GoogleService-Info.plist and add it to your project
3. Add pod 'Firebase/Core' to your podfile
4. In your AppDelegate.m file add the following lines:

#import <Firebase.h> // <--- add this 
...
 
- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions
{
  [FIRApp configure]; // <--- add this 
  ...
}

Note: Text recognition is currently available only via CocoaPods Path.

• If you have issues with duplicate symbols you will need to enable dead code stripping option in your Xcode (Target > Build Settings > search for "Dead code stripping") see here.
• If you are using pod Firebase/Core with a version set below 5.13 you might want to add pod 'GoogleAppMeasurement', '~> 5.3.0' to your podfile

Non-CocoaPods Path

1. Download: Google Symbol Utilities: https://www.gstatic.com/cpdc/dbffca986f6337f8-GoogleSymbolUtilities-1.1.1.tar.gz

   Google Utilities: https://dl.google.com/dl/cpdc/978f81964b50a7c0/GoogleUtilities-1.3.2.tar.gz
   
   Google Mobile Vision: https://dl.google.com/dl/cpdc/df83c97cbca53eaf/GoogleMobileVision-1.1.0.tar.gz
   
   Google network Utilities: https://dl.google.com/dl/cpdc/54fd7b7ef8fd3edc/GoogleNetworkingUtilities-1.2.2.tar.gz
   
   Google Interchange Utilities: https://dl.google.com/dl/cpdc/1a7f7ba905b2c029/GoogleInterchangeUtilities-1.2.2.tar.gz
   

2. Extract everything to one folder. Delete "BarcodeDetector" and "copy" folders from Google Mobile Vision.

3. Open XCode, right click on your project and choose "New Group". Rename the new folder to "Frameworks". Right click on "Frameworks" and select "add files to 'YOUR_PROJECT'". Select all content from the folder of step 2, click on Options. Select "Copy items if needed", leave "Create groups" selected and choose all your targets on the "Add to targets" section. Then, click on "Add".

4. On your target -> Build Phases -> Link Binary with Libraries -> add AddressBook.framework

5. On your target -> Build Settings -> Other Linker Flags -> add -lz, -ObjC and -lc++

6. To force indexing and prevent errors, restart xcode and reopen your project again before compiling.

Android

1. npm install react-native-camera --save
2. Open up android/app/src/main/java/[...]/MainApplication.java

• Add import org.reactnative.camera.RNCameraPackage; to the imports at the top of the file
• Add new RNCameraPackage() to the list returned by the getPackages() method. Add a comma to the previous item if there's already something there.

1. Append the following lines to android/settings.gradle:

   include ':react-native-camera'
   project(':react-native-camera').projectDir = new File(rootProject.projectDir, 	'../node_modules/react-native-camera/android')

2. Insert the following lines in android/app/build.gradle:

inside the dependencies block:

```gradle
implementation project(':react-native-camera')
```

inside defaultConfig block insert either:

android {
  ...
  defaultConfig {
    ...
    missingDimensionStrategy 'react-native-camera', 'general' <-- insert this line
  }
}

or, if using MLKit for text/face/barcode recognition:

android {
  ...
  defaultConfig {
    ...
    missingDimensionStrategy 'react-native-camera', 'mlkit' <-- insert this line
  }
}

1. Declare the permissions in your Android Manifest (required for video recording feature)

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.RECORD_AUDIO"/>
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />

1. Add jitpack to android/build.gradle

allprojects {
    repositories {
        maven { url "https://jitpack.io" }
        maven { url "https://maven.google.com" }
    }
}

1. Additional steps for using MLKit for text/face/barcode recognition

   7.1. Using Firebase MLKit requires seting up Firebase project for your app. If you have not already added Firebase to your app, please follow the steps described in getting started guide. In short, you would need to

   • Register your app in Firebase console.
   • Download google-services.json and place it in android/app/
   • add the folowing to project level build.gradle:

       buildscript {
         dependencies {
         // Add this line
         classpath 'com.google.gms:google-services:4.0.1' <-- you might want to use different version
         }
       }

   • add to the bottom of android/app/build.gradle file

   apply plugin: com.google.gms.google-services'

   7.2. Configure your app to automatically download the ML model to the device after your app is installed from the Play Store. If you do not enable install-time model downloads, the model will be downloaded the first time you run the on-device detector. Requests you make before the download has completed will produce no results.

   <application ...>
   ...
     <meta-data
         android:name="com.google.firebase.ml.vision.DEPENDENCIES"
         android:value="ocr" />
     <!-- To use multiple models, list all needed models: android:value="ocr, face, barcode" -->
   </application>

The current Android library defaults to the below values for the Google SDK and Libraries,

def DEFAULT_COMPILE_SDK_VERSION             = 26
def DEFAULT_BUILD_TOOLS_VERSION             = "26.0.2"
def DEFAULT_TARGET_SDK_VERSION              = 26
def DEFAULT_GOOGLE_PLAY_SERVICES_VERSION    = "12.0.1"
def DEFAULT_SUPPORT_LIBRARY_VERSION         = "27.1.0"

You can override this settings by adding a Project-wide gradle configuration properties for use by all modules in your ReactNative project by adding the below to android/build.gradle file,

buildscript {...}
 
allprojects {...}
 
/**
* Project-wide gradle configuration properties for use by all modules
*/
ext {
    compileSdkVersion           = 26
    targetSdkVersion            = 26
    buildToolsVersion           = "26.0.2"
    googlePlayServicesVersion   = "12.0.1"
    googlePlayServicesVisionVersion = "15.0.2"
    supportLibVersion           = "27.1.0"
}

The above settings in the ReactNative project over-rides the values present in the react-native-camera module. For your reference below is the android/build.gradle file of the module.

def safeExtGet(prop, fallback) {
    rootProject.ext.has(prop) ? rootProject.ext.get(prop) : fallback
}
 
buildscript {
  repositories {
    google()
    maven {
      url 'https://maven.google.com'
    }
    jcenter()
  }
 
  dependencies {
    classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:3.0.1'
  }
}
 
apply plugin: 'com.android.library'
 
android {
  compileSdkVersion safeExtGet('compileSdkVersion', 26)
  buildToolsVersion safeExtGet('buildToolsVersion', '26.0.2')
 
  defaultConfig {
    minSdkVersion safeExtGet('minSdkVersion', 16)
    targetSdkVersion safeExtGet('targetSdkVersion', 26)
  }
 
  flavorDimensions "react-native-camera"
 
  productFlavors {
    general {
      dimension "react-native-camera"
    }
    mlkit {
      dimension "react-native-camera"
    }
  }
 
  sourceSets {
    main {
      java.srcDirs = ['src/main/java']
    }
    general {
      java.srcDirs = ['src/general/java']
    }
    mlkit {
      java.srcDirs = ['src/mlkit/java']
    }
  }
 
  lintOptions {
    abortOnError false
    warning 'InvalidPackage'
  }
}
 
repositories {
  google()
  mavenCentral()
  maven {
   url 'https://maven.google.com'
  }
  maven { url "https://jitpack.io" }
  maven {
    // All of React Native (JS, Obj-C sources, Android binaries) is installed from npm
    url "$rootDir/../node_modules/react-native/android"
  }
}
 
dependencies {
  compileOnly 'com.facebook.react:react-native:+'
  compileOnly 'com.facebook.infer.annotation:infer-annotation:+'
  implementation "com.google.zxing:core:3.3.0"
  implementation "com.drewnoakes:metadata-extractor:2.9.1"
  generalImplementation "com.google.android.gms:play-services-vision:${safeExtGet('google-services', '17.0.2')}"
  implementation "com.android.support:exifinterface:${safeExtGet('supportLibVersion', '27.1.0')}"
  implementation "com.android.support:support-annotations:${safeExtGet('supportLibVersion', '27.1.0')}"
  implementation "com.android.support:support-v4:${safeExtGet('supportLibVersion', '27.1.0')}"
  mlkitImplementation "com.google.firebase:firebase-ml-vision:${safeExtGet('firebase-ml-vision', '18.0.2')}"
  mlkitImplementation "com.google.firebase:firebase-ml-vision-face-model:17.0.2"
}

If you are using a version of googlePlayServicesVersion that does not have play-services-vision, you can specify a different version of play-services-vision by adding googlePlayServicesVisionVersion to the project-wide properties

ext {
    compileSdkVersion           = 26
    targetSdkVersion            = 26
    buildToolsVersion           = "26.0.2"
    googlePlayServicesVersion   = "16.0.1"
    googlePlayServicesVisionVersion = "15.0.2"
    supportLibVersion           = "27.1.0"
}

Windows

1. npm install react-native-camera --save
2. Link the library as described here: react-native-windows / LinkingLibrariesWindows.md For the last step of this guide, you have to add the following things to your MainReactNativeHost.cs:

• in the import section at the very top: using RNCamera;
• in protected override List<IReactPackage> Packages => new List<IReactPackage> add a new line with new RNCameraPackage()

1. Add the capabilities (permissions) for the webcam and microphone as described here: docs.microsoft / audio-video-camera
2. Use RCTCamera (RNCamera is not supported yet) like described above

Follow the Q & A section if you are having compilation issues.

Usage

RNCamera

Take a look into this documentation.

RCTCamera

Since 1.0.0, RCTCamera is deprecated, but if you want to use it, you can see its documentation.

Thanks to Brent Vatne (@brentvatne) for the react-native-video module which provided me with a great example of how to set up this module.