react-native-camera

A camera module for React Native.

BREAKING CHANGES: [April 27] capture now returns an object instead of a string

NOTE These docs are for the work in progress v1 release. If you want to use the latest and greatest and can deal with significant instability you can install with npm install --save lwansbrough/react-native-camera. If you are using older version of this module please refer to the old readme.

Getting started

Mostly automatic install with react-native

1. npm install react-native-camera@https://github.com/lwansbrough/react-native-camera.git --save
2. react-native link react-native-camera

Mostly automatic install with CocoaPods

1. npm install react-native-camera@https://github.com/lwansbrough/react-native-camera.git --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'

3. Run pod install

Manual install

iOS

1. npm install react-native-camera@https://github.com/lwansbrough/react-native-camera.git --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 RCTCamera.xcodeproj
4. In XCode, in the project navigator, select your project. Add libRCTCamera.a to your project's Build Phases ➜ Link Binary With Libraries
5. Click RCTCamera.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.
6. Run your project (Cmd+R)

Android

1. npm install react-native-camera@https://github.com/lwansbrough/react-native-camera.git --save
2. Open up `android/app/src/main/java/[...]/MainActivity.java

• Add import com.lwansbrough.RCTCamera.*; to the imports at the top of the file
• Add new RCTCameraPackage() to the list returned by the getPackages() method

3. 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')

4. Insert the following lines inside the dependencies block in android/app/build.gradle:

   compile project(':react-native-camera')

Usage

All you need is to require the react-native-camera module and then use the <Camera/> tag.

'use strict';
import React, { Component } from 'react';
import {
  AppRegistry,
  Dimensions,
  StyleSheet,
  Text,
  TouchableHighlight,
  View
} from 'react-native';
import Camera from 'react-native-camera';

class BadInstagramCloneApp extends Component {
  render() {
    return (
      <View style={styles.container}>
        <Camera
          ref={(cam) => {
            this.camera = cam;
          }}
          style={styles.preview}
          aspect={Camera.constants.Aspect.fill}>
          <Text style={styles.capture} onPress={this.takePicture.bind(this)}>[CAPTURE]</Text>
        </Camera>
      </View>
    );
  }

  takePicture() {
    this.camera.capture()
      .then((data) => console.log(data))
      .catch(err => console.error(err));
  }
}

const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  container: {
    flex: 1
  },
  preview: {
    flex: 1,
    justifyContent: 'flex-end',
    alignItems: 'center',
    height: Dimensions.get('window').height,
    width: Dimensions.get('window').width
  },
  capture: {
    flex: 0,
    backgroundColor: '#fff',
    borderRadius: 5,
    color: '#000',
    padding: 10,
    margin: 40
  }
});

AppRegistry.registerComponent('BadInstagramCloneApp', () => BadInstagramCloneApp);

Properties

aspect

Values: Camera.constants.Aspect.fit or "fit", Camera.constants.Aspect.fill or "fill" (default), Camera.constants.Aspect.stretch or "stretch"

The aspect property allows you to define how your viewfinder renders the camera's view. For instance, if you have a square viewfinder and you want to fill the it entirely, you have two options: "fill", where the aspect ratio of the camera's view is preserved by cropping the view or "stretch", where the aspect ratio is skewed in order to fit the entire image inside the viewfinder. The other option is "fit", which ensures the camera's entire view fits inside your viewfinder without altering the aspect ratio.

iOS captureAudio

Values: true (default), false (Boolean)

Applies to video capture mode only. Specifies whether or not audio should be captured with the video.

iOS captureMode

Values: Camera.constants.CaptureMode.still (default), Camera.constants.CaptureMode.video

The type of capture that will be performed by the camera - either a still image or video.

captureTarget

Values: Camera.constants.CaptureTarget.cameraRoll (default), Camera.constants.CaptureTarget.disk, Camera.constants.CaptureTarget.temp, ~~Camera.constants.CaptureTarget.memory~~ (deprecated),

This property allows you to specify the target output of the captured image data. By default the image binary is sent back as a base 64 encoded string. The disk output has been shown to improve capture response time, so that is the recommended value.

iOS captureQuality

Values: Camera.constants.CaptureQuality.high or "high" (default), Camera.constants.CaptureQuality.medium or "medium", Camera.constants.CaptureQuality.low or "low", Camera.constants.CaptureQuality.photo or "photo".

This property allows you to specify the quality output of the captured image or video. By default the quality is set to high.

type

Values: Camera.constants.Type.front or "front", Camera.constants.Type.back or "back" (default)

Use the type property to specify which camera to use.

orientation

Values: Camera.constants.Orientation.auto or "auto" (default), Camera.constants.Orientation.landscapeLeft or "landscapeLeft", Camera.constants.Orientation.landscapeRight or "landscapeRight", Camera.constants.Orientation.portrait or "portrait", Camera.constants.Orientation.portraitUpsideDown or "portraitUpsideDown"

The orientation property allows you to specify the current orientation of the phone to ensure the viewfinder is "the right way up."

Android playSoundOnCapture

Values: true (default) or false

This property allows you to specify whether a sound is played on capture. It is currently android only, pending a reasonable mute implementation in iOS.

iOS onBarCodeRead

Will call the specified method when a barcode is detected in the camera's view.

Event contains data (the data in the barcode) and bounds (the rectangle which outlines the barcode.)

The following barcode types can be recognised:

• aztec
• code138
• code39
• code39mod43
• code93
• ean13
• ean8
• pdf417
• qr
• upce
• interleaved2of5 (when available)
• itf14 (when available)
• datamatrix (when available)

The barcode type is provided in the data object.

iOS barCodeTypes

An array of barcode types to search for. Defaults to all types listed above. No effect if onBarCodeRead is undefined.

flashMode

Values: Camera.constants.FlashMode.on, Camera.constants.FlashMode.off, Camera.constants.FlashMode.auto

Use the flashMode property to specify the camera flash mode.

torchMode

Values: Camera.constants.TorchMode.on, Camera.constants.TorchMode.off, Camera.constants.TorchMode.auto

Use the torchMode property to specify the camera torch mode.

onFocusChanged: Event { nativeEvent: { touchPoint: { x, y } }

Called when a touch focus gesture has been made. By default, onFocusChanged is not defined and tap-to-focus is disabled.

defaultOnFocusComponent

Values: true (default) false

If defaultOnFocusComponent set to false, default internal implementation of visual feedback for tap-to-focus gesture will be disabled.

onZoomChanged: Event { nativeEvent: { velocity, zoomFactor } }

Called when focus has changed. By default, onZoomChanged is not defined and pinch-to-zoom is disabled.

iOS keepAwake

If set to true, the device will not sleep while the camera preview is visible. This mimics the behavior of the default camera app, which keeps the device awake while open.

iOS mirrorImage

If set to true, the image returned will be mirrored..

Component instance methods

You can access component methods by adding a ref (ie. ref="camera") prop to your <Camera> element, then you can use this.refs.camera.capture(cb), etc. inside your component.

capture([options]): Promise

Captures data from the camera. What is captured is based on the captureMode and captureTarget props. captureMode tells the camera whether you want a still image or video. captureTarget allows you to specify how you want the data to be captured and sent back to you. See captureTarget under Properties to see the available values.

Supported options:

• audio (See captureAudio under Properties)
• mode (See captureMode under Properties)
• target (See captureTarget under Properties)
• metadata This is metadata to be added to the captured image.
  • location This is the object returned from navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition() (React Native's geolocation polyfill). It will add GPS metadata to the image.
• rotation This will rotate the image by the number of degrees specified.

The promise will be fulfilled with an object with some of the following properties:

• data: Returns a base64-encoded string with the capture data (only returned with the deprecated Camera.constants.CaptureTarget.memory)
• path: Returns the path of the captured image or video file on disk
• width: (currently iOS video only) returns the video file's frame width
• height: (currently iOS video only) returns the video file's frame height
• duration: (currently iOS video only) video file duration
• size: (currently iOS video only) video file size (in bytes)

iOS getFOV(): Promise

Returns the camera's current field of view.

hasFlash(): Promise

Returns whether or not the camera has flash capabilities.

stopCapture()

Ends the current capture session for video captures. Only applies when the current captureMode is video.

Component static methods

Camera.checkDeviceAuthorizationStatus(): Promise

Exposes the native API for checking if the device has authorized access to the camera. Can be used to call before loading the Camera component to ensure proper UX. The promise will be fulfilled with true or false depending on whether the device is authorized.

Subviews

This component supports subviews, so if you wish to use the camera view as a background or if you want to layout buttons/images/etc. inside the camera then you can do that.

Example

To see more of the react-native-camera in action, you can check out the Example folder.

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.