Pointer Events feature flag requirement

[axyz]

The documentation is not clear about the requirement for the PointerEvents feature flag to be enabled in react native (https://reactnative.dev/blog/2022/12/13/pointer-events-in-react-native#enable-feature-flags)

Is it safe to assume this is indeed a hard requirement? Otherwise the type of html components would not be valid with events that are ignored and needed alternatives missing (e.g onHoverIn, onHoverOut, etc.).

beside the possibility of improving the documentation on that, I have some related doubts:

• Are there other flags needed beside that one?
• What doesn't work without the flag exactly? Is it only onPointer* events, or it also affect something else (e.g. onClick?)
• PointerEvents has been a hidden feature for a long time and on the Android codebase is recommented not to use it. Do you have any insights on what is the current status within RN and if there are plan to enable it by default at some point or if, instead, there is a risk it could be removed, or any other reason for it being "stalled"?
• If for whatever reason it will get removed, how would that impact react-strict-dom? My gut feeling is that for RSD to succeed RN will have to embrace these topics that brings the API closer to web, making the risks of enabling the feature flags similar to the risks of adopting RSD itself. What are your thoughts on this point?

[axyz]

just saw this related answer as well: #276 (comment)

[axyz]

@orhels @necolas

FYI: I am encountering this bug: gorhom/react-native-bottom-sheet#2201 also reported here: software-mansion/react-native-gesture-handler#3445

Considering that storybook is quite commonly used, was wondering if maybe somebody observed similar issues and/or is able to reproduce on a some other codebases?

As mentioned in the discussion not sure if the issue is on storybook, bottom-sheet, or the gesture handler. But the gut feeling is that there might be some kind of conflict between gesture handler and how pointer events work with the flag enabled? But might be a very wild guess...

[orhels]

Just tested the bottom-sheet in our app and didn't notice any bugs with it. We are using v.5.0.6.

[axyz]

@orhels this is a minimal repo to reproduce: https://github.com/axyz/rn-bug-pointer-events-bottom-sheet (uses 5.1.2)

what version do you have for react-native, react-native-reanimated and react-native-gesture-handler? I can do some tries with older versions

[orhels]

We are using:
"react-native": "0.76.6"
"react-native-reanimated": "3.16.7"
"react-native-gesture-handler": "2.20.2"

[necolas]

Please report the bug to the React Native github page

[axyz]

FYI: facebook/react-native#50024

for context on react-strict-dom I noticed it because styles defined in :hover or :active pseudo selector were not working.