How can I present a native UIViewController in React Native? (Can’t use just a UIView)

Here’s what ended up working for me.

CreateContact.h:

#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>
#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>
#import <AddressBook/AddressBook.h>
#import <AddressBookUI/AddressBookUI.h>
#import "RCTBridgeModule.h"

@interface CreateContact : NSObject <ABNewPersonViewControllerDelegate, RCTBridgeModule>

@end

CreateContact.m:

#import "CreateContact.h"
#import "AppDelegate.h"

@implementation CreateContact

RCT_EXPORT_MODULE(CreateContact);


RCT_EXPORT_METHOD(presentContact) {

    dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
        ABNewPersonViewController *picker = [[ABNewPersonViewController alloc] init];
        picker.newPersonViewDelegate = self;
        UINavigationController* contactNavigator = [[UINavigationController alloc] initWithRootViewController:picker];
        AppDelegate *delegate = (AppDelegate *)[[UIApplication sharedApplication] delegate];
        [delegate.window.rootViewController presentViewController:contactNavigator animated:NO completion:nil];
    });
}

- (void)newPersonViewController:(ABNewPersonViewController *)newPersonViewController didCompleteWithNewPerson:(ABRecordRef)person
{
    [newPersonViewController dismissViewControllerAnimated:YES completion:nil];
}
@end

This tutorial has more detail: http://moduscreate.com/leverage-existing-ios-views-react-native-app/

I’ll update as I implement the best way to communicate information back to RN.

You want to implement a bridged UI component that mounts an empty UIView and is responsible primarily for presenting your UIViewController. The simplest example of this technique is in RCTModalHostView; check out the source code.

Notably, React Native defines a category on UIView that adds a property called reactViewController which climbs the view hierarchy to find the closest UIViewController. Use this UIViewController to present your custom view controller:

- (void)didMoveToWindow
{
  [super didMoveToWindow];

  if (!_isPresented && self.window) {
    [self.reactViewController presentViewController:_customViewController
                                           animated:NO
                                         completion:nil];
    _isPresented = YES;
  }
}

What you can actually do is have the UIViewController added as a child to the key window view controller but still have the view of the UIViewController added as a subview to the native module view so it’s contained in the frame and lifecycle of the native module view without presenting the UIViewController itself outside the life of the native module view as so ->

UIWindow *window = (UIWindow*)[[UIApplication sharedApplication] keyWindow];
[window.rootViewController addChildViewController:_myViewController];
_myViewController.view.frame = self.superview.frame;
[self addSubview:_myViewController.view];
[_myViewController didMoveToParentViewController:window.rootViewController];

Here is the full implementation ->

In your MyViewManager.m add

#import "RCTUIManager.h"

@interface MyViewManager ()

@end

@implementation MyViewManager

RCT_EXPORT_MODULE()

- (UIView*)view
{
    return [[MyView alloc] init];
}

@end

and in your MyView.h add

#if __has_include("React/RCTViewManager.h")
#import "React/RCTViewManager.h"
#else
#import "RCTViewManager.h"
#endif

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>
#import <AVKit/AVKit.h>

@interface MyView : UIView

@property(nonatomic, strong)UIViewController* myViewController;

@end

and in your MyView.m add

#import "MyView.h"
#import <AVFoundation/AVFoundation.h>
#import <AVKit/AVKit.h>

@implementation MyView

- (instancetype)init
{
    self = [super init];
    return self;
}

- (void)dealloc
{

}

- (void)layoutSubviews
{
    [super layoutSubviews];

    if (_myViewController != nil) {
        _myViewController.view.frame = self.frame;
    }
}

- (void)removeFromSuperview {
    if (_myViewController != nil) {
         [_myViewController willMoveToParentViewController:nil];
         [_myViewController.view removeFromSuperview];
         [_myViewController removeFromParentViewController];
         _myViewController = nil;
         [super removeFromSuperview];
    }
}

-(void)addViewControllerAsSubView
{
    _myViewController = [UIViewController new];
    UIWindow *window = (UIWindow*)[[UIApplication sharedApplication] keyWindow];
    [window.rootViewController addChildViewController:_myViewController];
    _myViewController.view.frame = self.superview.frame;
    [self addSubview:_myViewController.view];
    [_myViewController didMoveToParentViewController:window.rootViewController];
}