How to update existing modules for newer tool versions

[brody2consult]

See comment below for recommended procedure (as a workaround)

As requested in (updated):

• Contributor access frostney/react-native-create-library#82 (comment)
• https://github.com/brodybits/create-react-native-module/issues/120#issuecomment-533392738

For recent updates it is recommended to copy the updated entries from the following general areas into android/build.gradle:

• templates/android.js#L9-L13
• templates/android.js#L23-L28

For major version updates it is generally recommended to regenerate and copy the needed artifacts for Android into the existing module.

Labeled as a bug; I hope to get this documented in the near future.

TODO items (updated):

• document a workaround upgrade procedure
• add upgrade documentation in a similar style to: https://docs.expo.io/versions/v34.0.0/workflow/upgrading-expo-sdk-walkthrough/
• fix generated android/build.gradle to read and use the packageIdentifier value from package.json, in order to make this Android build artifact zero percent customized
• consider ideas for smoother upgrade support such as:
  • make an actual module template in a similar style to the react-native project template
  • make a native module seed similar to the Nativescript plugin seed

[brody2consult]

recommended upgrade procedure

Here is the recommended upgrade procedure, as a workaround:

• generate a new module with the desired options, no need to have the generated example
• copy android/build.gradle from the new module into the existing module, then apply customizations if needed
• update package.json:
  • copy the updates to peerDependencies and devDependencies and ensure non-blank description value
  • or just copy package.json from the new module to the existing module
• optional updates:
  • copy update to android/README.md (use of sudo was recently removed from the directions)
  • update the *.podspec file

optional steps:

• generate another new module with generated example
• copy updates to the following files:
  • example/ios/Podfile
  • scripts/examples_postinstall.js

/cc @iamchathu @friederbluemle @dlowder-salesforce