A lightweight and trustworthy URL polyfill for React Native
react-native-url-polyfill is an implementation of the WHATWG URL Standard optimized for React Native.
- Lightweight. Uses a forked version of
whatwg-url
(whatwg-url-without-unicode
) where unicode support has been stripped out — Going down from 372 KB to 40.9 KB. - Trustworthy. Follows closely the URL Standard spec, and relys on unit tests and Detox e2e tests within React Native.
- Blob support. Supports React Native's Blob without additional steps.
- Hermes support. Supports Hermes, a JavaScript engine optimized for running React Native.
- Expo support. Supports Expo and tested against.
- Web support. Most of the time, this polyfill isn't useful on web and therefore using
react-native-url-polyfill/auto
will be no-op on web.
React Native does include a polyfill for URL
, but this polyfill is homemade — in order to keep it light-weight — and was initially created to handle specific use cases.
Meanwhile, React Native has grown around that polyfill, then some unexpected errors have arisen.
Known issues (non-exhaustive) with React Native's URL are:
- URL cannot handle "localhost" domain for base url react-native#26019.
- URL implementation should add a trailing slash to the base react-native#25717.
- URL incorrectly adds trailing slash react-native#24428.
- Creating an instance of URL like:
new URL('http://facebook.com')
throws an exception react-native#16434.
That's why you may need this external dependency. So, if you use URL
within your app, you probably want to take a look at the installation steps below!
Unfortunately, adding react-native-url-polyfill
to React Native source code would mean adding 📦 73.67 KB (as of RN 0.72) to the JavaScript bundle, that's why it's not included by default.
First, you need to install the polyfill, which can be done with Yarn or npm.
yarn add react-native-url-polyfill
npm install --save react-native-url-polyfill
Then, the polyfill can be used in multiple ways. Pick your preferred option.
ℹ️ To verify if the polyfill has been correctly applied, you can check if the global variable
REACT_NATIVE_URL_POLYFILL
contains the current package and version like:react-native-url-polyfill@CURRENT_VERSION
.
Locate your JavaScript entry-point file, commonly called index.js
at the root of your React Native project.
Then, import react-native-url-polyfill/auto
at the top of your entry-point file, the polyfill will be automatically applied.
import 'react-native-url-polyfill/auto';
If you want to apply the polyfill when you're ready, you can import setupURLPolyfill
and call it yourself.
⚠️ Metro doesn't support optional imports.If you do not apply the polyfill, it will still be added to your JavaScript bundle. Even if it's wrapped in a condition, Metro won't strip it in production.
import { setupURLPolyfill } from 'react-native-url-polyfill';
setupURLPolyfill();
If you prefer not to apply this polyfill over React Native's default URL
, you can still import those classes manually when you want them.
import { URL, URLSearchParams } from 'react-native-url-polyfill';
const url = new URL('https://github.com');
const searchParams = new URLSearchParams('q=GitHub');
react-native-url-polyfill is MIT licensed.