How to add third party libraries acknowledgements in React Native app

Issue

While developing my React Native app, I incorporated several third-party libraries to enhance its functionality. Now, I would like to provide users with the ability to view these libraries within the app settings on their phones. This will allow us to acknowledge and give credit to the libraries we have utilized

Here is what I want.

for IOS: going to the phone settings, scrolling down to the My app, there should be a “Acknowledgements” line/tab to view Upon tapping “Acknowledgements”, there should be a new page with a list of all the open source licenses used

Similarly for android.

I do have explored this package iOS-AcknowledgementGenerator but it seems like it only works for iOS. I have also explored react-native-acknowledgements but it doesn't seems to be working. Any other package or best way probably?

Solution

iOS:

You can use this ruby script to generate acknowledgments. Name the script acknowledgementGenerator-iOS.rb and put it in root folder.

Preconditions:

In order to use this 'AcknowledgementGenerator-iOS' you must have the 'CFPropertyList' gem installed. https://rubygems.org/gems/CFPropertyList

Setup: (Default - Customize as you see fit)

1. Create a 'licenses' directory
2. Put each license into that directory, one per file, with filenames that end .license
3. Perform any necessary reformatting on the licenses. (eg. remove extra spaces at the beginning of lines, ensure that there are no line breaks mid-paragraph). There should be a blank line in-between each paragraph
4. Edit your settings bundle Root.plist to include a child section called 'Acknowledgements'

Usage:

1. In Terminal execute: (modify to suit your needs) ./acknowledgementGenerator-iOS.rb "path/to/Settings.bundle" "path/to/licenses"

Execute Script At Build Time:

If you want this script to run whenever you build your project, you can add a build phase to your target.

1. Select your project file
2. Select the target application
3. Click the 'Build Phases' tab
4. Now from the menu select: Editor > Add Build Phase > Add Run Script Build Phase
5. Enter something like the folowing script: (modefy to suit your needs)

if gem list CFPropertyList -i; then ruby path/to/acknowledgementGenerator-iOS.rb "path/to/Settings.bundle" "path/to/licenses"

require 'CFPropertyList'

# Quit unless script gets two arguments
unless ARGV.length == 2
  abort("Not the right number of arguments.\n" + 
        "Usage: ruby acknowledgementGenerator-iOS.rb \"path/to/Settings.bundle\" \"path/to/licenses/\"")
end

# Constants
SETTINGS_BUNDLE = ARGV[0]
LICENSE_FILE_DIR_PATH = ARGV[1]
LICENSE_FILE_EXTENSION = ".license"
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT_GENERATOR_LICENSE = '"THE BEER-WARE LICENSE" (Revision 42):' +
'
' +
'<http://www.knage.net> wrote this file. As long as you retain this notice you ' +
'can do whatever you want with this stuff. If we meet some day, and you think ' +
'this stuff is worth it, you can buy me a beer in return Christophe Vallinas Knage.'

class AcknowledgementGenerator
    def createAcknowledgement(name, content)
        # Create a arbitrary data structure of basic data types
        acknowledgement = {
          'StringsTable' => 'ThirdPartyLicenses',
          'PreferenceSpecifiers' => [{
            'Type' => 'PSGroupSpecifier',
            'FooterText' => content
            }]
        }

        # Generate name for acknowledgement plist
        acknowledgementName = "Acknowledgement-" + name

        # Generate item for acknowledgement list
        acknowledgementListItem = {
                'Type' => 'PSChildPaneSpecifier',
                'Title' => name,
                'File' => acknowledgementName
            }

        # Create plist file
        plist = CFPropertyList::List.new
        plist.value = CFPropertyList.guess(acknowledgement)
        plist.save(SETTINGS_BUNDLE + "/" + acknowledgementName + ".plist", CFPropertyList::List::FORMAT_XML)

        # return
        acknowledgementListItem
    end

    def createAcknowledgementList(acknowledgementListItems)
        # Create a arbitrary data structure of basic data types
        acknowledgementList = {
          'StringsTable' => 'ThirdPartyLicenses',
          'PreferenceSpecifiers' => acknowledgementListItems
        }

        # Create plist file
        plist = CFPropertyList::List.new
        plist.value = CFPropertyList.guess(acknowledgementList)
        plist.save(SETTINGS_BUNDLE + "/Acknowledgements.plist", CFPropertyList::List::FORMAT_XML)
    end
end

if __FILE__ == $PROGRAM_NAME
    acknowledgementGenerator = AcknowledgementGenerator.new

    # Iterate all license files and generate coresponding acknowledgement plists
    acknowledgementListItems = Array.new
    Dir.glob(LICENSE_FILE_DIR_PATH + '/*' + LICENSE_FILE_EXTENSION) do |file|
        print "Parsing: #{file.split('/').last}..."

        # Extract name
        licenseFileName = File.basename(file)
        projectName = licenseFileName.split('.').first

        # Extract license
        licenseFile = File.open(file)
        projectLicense = licenseFile.read

        # Create Acknowledgement- plist
        acknowledgementListItem = acknowledgementGenerator.createAcknowledgement(projectName, projectLicense)
        licenseFile.close
        acknowledgementListItems.push(acknowledgementListItem)

        puts "   DONE"
    end

    # Sort the List
    sortedAcknowledgementListItems = acknowledgementListItems.sort_by { |item| item["Title"].downcase }

    # Create Acknowledgements plist
    print "Adding acknowledgements to " + SETTINGS_BUNDLE + "..."
    acknowledgementGenerator.createAcknowledgementList(sortedAcknowledgementListItems)
    puts "   DONE"

    # All finished
    puts ""
    puts "Acknowledgement Generator Finished."
end

Android:

The only option I can find is to show the acknowledgments with in the app. You can use this ruby script to generate acknowledgments. Name the script acknowledgementGenerator-android.rb and put it in root folder.

#!/usr/bin/env ruby

# Quit unless script gets two arguments

unless ARGV.length == 1
  abort("Not the right number of arguments.\n" + 
        "Usage: ruby acknowledgementGenerator-android.rb  \"path/to/licenses/\"")
end

# Constants
LICENSE_FILE_DIR_PATH = ARGV[0]
LICENSE_FILE_EXTENSION = ".license"

class AcknowledgementGenerator
    def createAcknowledgement(name, content)
        # Generate name for acknowledgement
        acknowledgementName = "<h3>" + name + "</h3>"

        # Generate item for acknowledgement list
        htlmlContent = "<pre>" + content + "</pre>"
        acknowledgementListItem = {
                'liscense' => htlmlContent,
                'fileName' => acknowledgementName
            }

        # return
        acknowledgementListItem
    end

end

if __FILE__ == $PROGRAM_NAME
    acknowledgementGenerator = AcknowledgementGenerator.new

    # Iterate all license files and generate coresponding acknowledgement plists
    acknowledgementListItems = Array.new
    Dir.glob(LICENSE_FILE_DIR_PATH + '/*' + LICENSE_FILE_EXTENSION) do |file|
        # Extract name
        licenseFileName = File.basename(file)
        projectName = licenseFileName.split('.').first

        # Extract license
        licenseFile = File.open(file)
        projectLicense = licenseFile.read

        # Create Acknowledgement- plist
        acknowledgementListItem = acknowledgementGenerator.createAcknowledgement(projectName, projectLicense)
        licenseFile.close
        acknowledgementListItems.push(acknowledgementListItem)

    end

    # Sort the List
    sortedAcknowledgementListItems = acknowledgementListItems.sort_by { |item| item["fileName"].downcase }
    html = "export const AcknowledgmentsHTML = `
    <html>
    <head>
            <style>
                body {
                font-family: sans-serif;
                }
                pre {
                background-color: #eeeeee;
                padding: 1em;
                white-space: pre-wrap;
                }
            </style>
        </head>
        <body>"
    sortedAcknowledgementListItems.each do |item|
        html += item["fileName"]
        html += item["liscense"]
    end
    html += "</body>
        </html>
`;
"
    File.open(LICENSE_FILE_DIR_PATH + "/acknowledgmentsHTML.js", 'w+') {|f| f.write(html) }

    # All finished
    # puts ""
    puts "Adroid Acknowledgement Generator Finished."
end

Generate Acknowledgements on Android

Run following command in project root directory

./acknowledgementGenerator-android.rb "./licenses"

Generate Acknowledgements on iOS

Run following command in project root directory

./acknowledgementGenerator-iOS.rb "./ios/Settings.bundle" "./licenses"

Answered By - Mohsin