Introduction

In this guide, we will explore how to capture screenshots of a React Native view using a popular library called react-native-view-shot.

Use cases for react-native-view-shot

Capturing screenshots in a React Native application can be useful for various reasons, such as:

• Sharing: Allowing users to share screenshots of their app experience on social media or with friends.
• Bug Reporting: Enabling users to capture and send screenshots when reporting bugs, making it easier for developers to understand and fix issues.

Why use react-native-view-shot?

The react-native-view-shot library is a powerful and easy-to-use tool for capturing screenshots in React Native applications. Here are some reasons why you might want to use it:

• Simplicity: The library provides a straightforward API to capture screenshots of any view in your React Native application.
• Flexibility: You can capture screenshots of specific components, the entire screen, or even off-screen content.
• Performance: It is optimized for performance, ensuring that capturing screenshots does not significantly impact the app's responsiveness.
• Cross-Platform: The library supports both iOS and Android, making it a versatile choice for cross-platform React Native apps.
• Community Support: With a large user base and active maintenance, you can find plenty of resources and community support to help you integrate and troubleshoot the library.

In the next sections, we will walk through the steps to install and use react-native-view-shot in your React Native project.

Installation

To get started with react-native-view-shot, you need to install the library in your React Native project. You can do this using either npm or yarn:

npm install react-native-view-shot

yarn add react-native-view-shot

After the installation is complete, you'll need to rebuild the app. This is necessary because react-native-view-shot adds new native code to the project.

Using react-native-view-shot

To use react-native-view-shot in your React Native project, follow these steps:

1. Import the necessary modules: First, import the captureRef function from react-native-view-shot and other necessary components from React Native.

   import React, { useRef } from "react";
   import { View, Button } from "react-native";
   import { captureRef } from "react-native-view-shot";
   import { CameraRoll } from "@react-native-camera-roll/camera-roll";

2. Create a reference to the view: Use the useRef hook to create a reference to the view you want to capture.

   const viewRef = useRef();

3. Capture the screenshot: Create a function to capture the screenshot and save it to the camera roll.

   const captureScreenshot = async () => {
     try {
       const uri = await captureRef(viewRef, {
         format: "png",
         quality: 0.8,
       });
       await CameraRoll.save(uri, { type: "photo" });
       alert("Screenshot saved to camera roll");
     } catch (error) {
       console.error("Failed to capture screenshot", error);
     }
   };

4. Render the view and button: Render the view you want to capture and a button to trigger the screenshot capture.

   const App = () => {
     return (
       <View style={{ flex: 1 }}>
         <View ref={viewRef} style={{ flex: 1, backgroundColor: "lightblue" }}>
           {/* Your view content goes here */}
         </View>
         <Button title="Capture Screenshot" onPress={captureScreenshot} />
       </View>
     );
   };
   
   export default App;

With these steps, you can capture screenshots of any view in your React Native application using react-native-view-shot. This can be particularly useful for sharing app content or reporting bugs with visual context.

Capture the entire screen

To capture the entire screen, you can use the captureScreen function provided by react-native-view-shot. This function captures the entire screen, regardless of the view hierarchy.

This method captures a native hardware screenshot of the currently displayed screen. It does not require a ref input, as it operates at the screen level rather than the view level.

1. Import the captureScreen function: In addition to captureRef, import the captureScreen function from react-native-view-shot.

   import { captureScreen } from "react-native-view-shot";

2. Create a function to capture the entire screen: Create a function that captures the entire screen and saves it to the camera roll.

   const captureEntireScreen = async () => {
     try {
       const uri = await captureScreen({
         format: "png",
         quality: 0.8,
       });
       await CameraRoll.save(uri, { type: "photo" });
       alert("Screenshot of the entire screen saved to camera roll");
     } catch (error) {
       console.error(
         "Failed to capture screenshot of the entire screen",
         error
       );
     }
   };

3. Add a button to trigger the entire screen capture: Add a button to your component that triggers the captureEntireScreen function.

   const App = () => {
     return (
       <View style={{ flex: 1 }}>
         <View ref={viewRef} style={{ flex: 1, backgroundColor: "lightblue" }}>
           {/* Your view content goes here */}
         </View>
         <Button title="Capture Screenshot" onPress={captureScreenshot} />
         <Button title="Capture Entire Screen" onPress={captureEntireScreen} />
       </View>
     );
   };
   
   export default App;

With these steps, you can capture the entire screen of your React Native application using react-native-view-shot. This can be useful for capturing the full context of the app's UI.

Share screenshots

To share the captured screenshots, you can use the react-native-share library. This library allows you to share content with other apps on the device.

1. Install react-native-share: First, install the react-native-share library in your project.

   npm install react-native-share
   
   yarn add react-native-share

2. Import the necessary modules: Import the Share module from react-native-share.

   import Share from "react-native-share";

3. Create a function to share the screenshot: Create a function that shares the screenshot using the Share module.

   const shareScreenshot = async (uri) => {
     try {
       await Share.open({
         url: uri,
         type: "image/png",
         title: "Share Screenshot",
       });
     } catch (error) {
       console.error("Failed to share screenshot", error);
     }
   };

4. Modify the capture functions to share the screenshot: Update the captureScreenshot and captureEntireScreen functions to call shareScreenshot after saving the screenshot.

   const captureScreenshot = async () => {
     try {
       const uri = await captureRef(viewRef, {
         format: "png",
         quality: 0.8,
       });
       shareScreenshot(uri);
     } catch (error) {
       console.error("Failed to capture screenshot", error);
     }
   };

With these steps, you can share the captured screenshots from your React Native application using react-native-share. This allows users to easily share their app experience with others.