Remove ViewManagerWithGeneratedInterface from old arch interfaces

[geraintwhite]

Description

Fixes #3564

Remove unneeded ViewManagerWithGeneratedInterface extend from old arch to preserve backwards compatibility with RN 0.77

Test plan

App builds and runs on RN 0.77 with old arch with this patch.

[shashank-bhatotia]

Fix Confirmed - ViewManagerWithGeneratedInterface Interface Issue

I encountered this exact same issue with React Native 0.74.3 and react-native-gesture-handler@2.27.2. After digging deep into the compilation errors, here's what I found and how to fix it:

Root Cause

The issue occurs because ViewManagerWithGeneratedInterface is only available in the new architecture (Fabric), but the Java interface files are trying to extend it even when using the old architecture (newArchEnabled=false).

Specifically, these two files have problematic interface definitions:

• node_modules/react-native-gesture-handler/android/paper/src/main/java/com/facebook/react/viewmanagers/RNGestureHandlerButtonManagerInterface.java
• node_modules/react-native-gesture-handler/android/paper/src/main/java/com/facebook/react/viewmanagers/RNGestureHandlerRootViewManagerInterface.java

Solution

The fix is to remove the extends ViewManagerWithGeneratedInterface clause from both interface files, which is exactly what this PR #3584 addresses (good job, @geraintwhite 🎊).

Manual Fix:

1. In RNGestureHandlerButtonManagerInterface.java, change:

   public interface RNGestureHandlerButtonManagerInterface<T extends View> extends ViewManagerWithGeneratedInterface {

   to:

   public interface RNGestureHandlerButtonManagerInterface<T extends View> {

2. Do the same for RNGestureHandlerRootViewManagerInterface.java

3. Remove the corresponding import com.facebook.react.uimanager.ViewManagerWithGeneratedInterface; lines

Permanent Solution with patch-package:

# After making the manual changes above
npm install patch-package --save-dev
npx patch-package react-native-gesture-handler

# Add to package.json scripts
"postinstall": "patch-package"

Why This Works

The ViewManagerWithGeneratedInterface is only needed for the new architecture's generated interfaces. For the old architecture, the interfaces work perfectly fine without extending this class, and removing the inheritance resolves the compilation errors.

Tested with:

• React Native 0.74.3
• react-native-gesture-handler 2.27.2
• Android Gradle Plugin 8.6.0
• Gradle 8.7
• Old Architecture (newArchEnabled=false)

Build now completes successfully with no functional impact on gesture handling.

Commenting here because #3564 is closed

[m-bert]

Hi! Is there a situation where compilation on android crashes without this fix while using compatible versions of both, react-native and react-native-gesture-handler? We could backport those changes if necessary (but probably down to 2.27), but we need a valid reproduction that it is in fact needed. I'm closing this PR for now, but if you still believe that those changes are necessary, let me know.

Also remember, that starting from 0.82, it is not possible to use old architecture.

@shashank-bhatotia For Gesture Handler 2.27.0 you should use React Native 0.78 or higher. Unfortunately 0.74 is not supported.

[shashank-bhatotia]

@m-bert — following up on your "valid reproduction needed" question with a clean repro on a configuration that's within react-native-gesture-handler@2.27.x's stated "three latest minor releases" support window:

Repro: RN 0.77.3 + react-native-gesture-handler@2.27.2 with newArchEnabled=false. ./gradlew app:installStagingdebug fails at :react-native-gesture-handler:compileDebugKotlin with Cannot access 'ViewManagerWithGeneratedInterface' which is a supertype of 'RNGestureHandlerButtonViewManager'. Same error on RNGestureHandlerRootViewManager.

Why this is real, not just a "use a newer RN" answer:

1. RN 0.77 removed com.facebook.react.uimanager.ViewManagerWithGeneratedInterface from the runtime AAR. Verified by extracting react-android-0.77.3-debug.aar's classes.jar and exhaustively listing every com/facebook/react/**/*.class entry — no match. The class lived through 0.76 as a backward-compat marker, then was deleted.

2. RN 0.77's own auto-generated view-manager interfaces are plain interfaces with no supertype — confirmed by javap against ActivityIndicatorViewManagerInterface.class and ModalHostViewManagerInterface.class straight out of the AAR. There's no replacement; the supertype is just gone.

3. RN's codegen template GeneratePropsJavaInterface.js hasn't emitted extends ViewManagerWithGeneratedInterface since at least RN 0.73 — verified by fetching @react-native/codegen@{0.73,0.74,0.75,0.76,0.77} from unpkg and grepping the template. So the modern codegen output (which fabric/src/main/java/ uses at build time) is already in the shape this PR proposes.

4. The reason new-arch users don't see this: gh's android/build.gradle line ~213 picks srcDirs += 'fabric/src/main/java' when newArchEnabled=true and codegen runs at build time. With old arch, gradle picks srcDirs += 'paper/src/main/java' — those static files, pre-committed in the npm tarball, were generated against an older RN where the supertype still existed in the runtime, and have never been regenerated.

So the patch in this PR isn't a workaround — it's the upstream-equivalent regeneration of stale pre-shipped paper sources, matching exactly what RN's current codegen would emit if paper/ were re-generated against RN 0.77.

Real-world impact: anyone mid-RN-0.77-upgrade who can't yet flip to New Architecture (e.g. blocked by other native modules whose new-arch readiness isn't ready, or by deadline/scope on a release branch) hits this. Bumping RN to 0.78 to dodge the issue isn't always available as an option on a release timeline. The same root cause is also reported against react-native-maps (react-native-maps/react-native-maps#5809), react-native-iap, etc. — gh isn't unique, but it's especially load-bearing.

Would you reconsider merging — or shipping a 2.27.3 / 2.32.x patch release with this regeneration applied? Happy to add a CI repro project demonstrating the failure, or to tighten the diff (the original PR is already minimal — just two interface files, four lines removed).

cc @geraintwhite — same change you proposed; reviving with the additional evidence.

[m-bert]

HI @shashank-bhatotia!

Repro: RN 0.77.3 + react-native-gesture-handler@2.27.2

As I stated earlier, for 2.27.2 you should use React Native 0.78 or higher. This one should work as we test both platforms build before release.

Would you reconsider merging — or shipping a 2.27.3 / 2.32.x patch release with this regeneration applied?

Unfortunately not, 2.27 is quite old and we no longer support it. Also 2.31.1 was released with React Native 0.85, so we would target changes at most to 0.82, not 0.77.

[shashank-bhatotia]

Got it, thanks for the clarification. We'll carry the patch locally until we move to RN 0.78+ in a follow-up upgrade. Appreciate the time.

[m-bert]

Thank you for your understanding! Let me know if you need any further assistance.