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Installation

React Native Skia brings the Skia Graphics Library to React Native. Skia serves as the graphics engine for Google Chrome and Chrome OS, Android, Flutter, Mozilla Firefox, Firefox OS, and many other products.

Version compatibility:
react-native@>=0.66 and react@>=18 are required. In addition you should make sure you're on at least iOS 13 and Android API level 16 or above. To use React Native Skia with the new architecture, react-native@>=0.72 is required.

Install the library using yarn:

sh
yarn add @shopify/react-native-skia
sh
yarn add @shopify/react-native-skia

Or using npm:

sh
npm install @shopify/react-native-skia
sh
npm install @shopify/react-native-skia

Bundle Size

Below is the app size increase to be expected when adding React Native Skia to your project (learn more).

iOSAndroidWeb
6 MB4 MB2.9 MB

iOS

Run pod install on the ios/ directory.

Android

Currently, you will need Android NDK to be installed. If you have Android Studio installed, make sure $ANDROID_NDK is available. ANDROID_NDK=/Users/username/Library/Android/sdk/ndk/<version> for instance.

If the NDK is not installed, you can install it via Android Studio by going to the menu File > Project Structure

And then the SDK Location section. It will show you the NDK path, or the option to download it if you don't have it installed.

Proguard

If you're using Proguard, make sure to add the following rule at proguard-rules.pro:

-keep class com.shopify.reactnative.skia.** { *; }
-keep class com.shopify.reactnative.skia.** { *; }

TroubleShooting

For error CMake 'X.X.X' was not found in SDK, PATH, or by cmake.dir property.

open Tools > SDK Manager, switch to the SDK Tools tab. Find CMake and click Show Package Details and download compatiable version 'X.X.X', and apply to install.

Web

To use this library in the browser, see these instructions.

Playground

We have an example project you can play with here.

sh
yarn bootstrap
cd example && yarn start
sh
yarn bootstrap
cd example && yarn start

To run the example project on iOS, you will need to run pod install, and on Android, you will also need Android NDK to be installed (see here).

Debugging

As the library uses JSI for synchronous native methods access, remote debugging is no longer possible. You can use Flipper for debugging your JS code, however, connecting the debugger to the JS context. There is also an React Native VSCode extension that can provide a great debugging experience when using React Native Skia.

Testing with Jest

React Native Skia test mocks use a web implementation that depends on loading CanvasKit.

The very first step is to make sure that your Skia files are not being transformed by jest, for instance, we can add it the transformIgnorePatterns directive:

js
"transformIgnorePatterns": [
"node_modules/(?!(react-native|react-native.*|@react-native.*|@?react-navigation.*|@shopify/react-native-skia)/)"
]
js
"transformIgnorePatterns": [
"node_modules/(?!(react-native|react-native.*|@react-native.*|@?react-navigation.*|@shopify/react-native-skia)/)"
]

Next, we recommend using ESM. To enable ESM support, you need to update your jest command to node --experimental-vm-modules node_modules/.bin/jest. But we also support CommonJS.

ESM Setup

To load CanvasKit and subsequently the React Native Skia mock, add the following setup file to your Jest configuration:

js
// notice the extension: .mjs
"setupFiles": ["@shopify/react-native-skia/jestSetup.mjs"]
js
// notice the extension: .mjs
"setupFiles": ["@shopify/react-native-skia/jestSetup.mjs"]

CommonJS Setup

We also offer a version of the setup file without ECMAScript modules support. To use this version, add the following setup file to your Jest configuration:

js
// notice the extension: .js
"setupFiles": ["@shopify/react-native-skia/jestSetup.js"]
js
// notice the extension: .js
"setupFiles": ["@shopify/react-native-skia/jestSetup.js"]

With this setup, you need to load the Skia environment in your test. Include the following at the top of your test file:

js
/**
* @jest-environment @shopify/react-native-skia/jestEnv.mjs
*/
js
/**
* @jest-environment @shopify/react-native-skia/jestEnv.mjs
*/

For instance:

js
/**
* @jest-environment @shopify/react-native-skia/jestEnv.mjs
*/
import "react-native";
import React from "react";
import { cleanup, render } from "@testing-library/react-native";
import App from "./App";
it("renders correctly", () => {
render(<App />);
});
afterEach(cleanup);
js
/**
* @jest-environment @shopify/react-native-skia/jestEnv.mjs
*/
import "react-native";
import React from "react";
import { cleanup, render } from "@testing-library/react-native";
import App from "./App";
it("renders correctly", () => {
render(<App />);
});
afterEach(cleanup);

With this configuration, you will have properly set up Jest to work with React Native Skia mocks using either ECMAScript Modules or CommonJS.