[iOS][New Architecture] Build fails with "Type specifier missing" and "Declaration of RCTBridgeModule must be imported" in Firestore and Storage

[Foris-master]

Hi! 👋

Firstly, thanks for your work on this project! 🙂

Today I used patch-package to patch @react-native-firebase/firestore@24.1.0 for the project I'm working on.

When building an iOS project with the New Architecture enabled (-DRCT_NEW_ARCH_ENABLED=1) alongside app, firestore, and storage, the Xcode build fails completely.

Because Firestore relies on heavy C++ libraries (like gRPC and abseil), forcing static frameworks (use_frameworks! :linkage => :static) causes the Libtool archiver to crash with a nonzero exit code.

To avoid the C++ crash, we must switch to Dynamic Frameworks (use_frameworks! :linkage => :dynamic). However, doing this forces strict module maps, which exposes a source-code bug: Several Objective-C files in RNFBFirestore and RNFBStorage are missing the #import <React/RCTBridgeModule.h> header.

Errors Encountered:
Depending on the build phase, Xcode throws these specific fatal errors:

Declaration of 'RCTBridgeModule' must be imported from module 'RNFBApp.RNFBAppModule' before it is required

Include of non-modular header inside framework module

Type specifier missing, defaults to 'int'; ISO C99 and later do not support implicit int alongside Expected ')'.

Files Affected:
The compiler halts on the following files because they utilize React Native macros without importing the core bridge header:

node_modules/@react-native-firebase/firestore/ios/RNFBFirestore/RNFBFirestoreCollectionModule.m

node_modules/@react-native-firebase/firestore/ios/RNFBFirestore/RNFBFirestoreCommon.h

node_modules/@react-native-firebase/firestore/ios/RNFBFirestore/RNFBFirestoreModule.h

node_modules/@react-native-firebase/firestore/ios/RNFBFirestore/RNFBFirestoreModule.m

node_modules/@react-native-firebase/firestore/ios/RNFBFirestore/RNFBFirestoreDocumentModule.m

node_modules/@react-native-firebase/storage/ios/RNFBStorage/RNFBStorageModule.m

The Workaround / Solution:
To get the project to compile, I had to implement a two-part fix:

Podfile Adjustments:
Switch to dynamic frameworks and explicitly allow non-modular includes so the core React headers don't trigger strict module violations.

Ruby
use_frameworks! :linkage => :dynamic

Inside post_install:

installer.pods_project.targets.each do |target|
target.build_configurations.each do |config|
config.build_settings['CLANG_ALLOW_NON_MODULAR_INCLUDES_IN_FRAMEWORK_MODULES'] = 'YES'
end
end
Source Code Patches:
Used patch-package to manually inject #import <React/RCTBridgeModule.h> at the very top of all the affected .m and .h files listed above.

Expected Behavior:
The iOS modules for Firestore and Storage should successfully compile out-of-the-box under the New Architecture with Dynamic Frameworks, without requiring manual header injections via patch-package.

Environment:

React Native version: 0.85

@react-native-firebase/app version: 24.1.0

@react-native-firebase/firestore version: 24.1.0

New Architecture Enabled: true

iOS deployment target: react native 0.85 min ios targert

This issue body was partially generated by patch-package.

[mikehardy]

Hi there!

Because Firestore relies on heavy C++ libraries (like gRPC and abseil), forcing static frameworks (use_frameworks! :linkage => :static) causes the Libtool archiver to crash with a nonzero exit code.

This is an assertion presented without evidence

we must switch to Dynamic Frameworks (use_frameworks! :linkage => :dynamic)

This is contrary to our documentation and isn't supported. You shouldn't use it and we won't take issues here related to it

However, doing this forces strict module maps, which exposes a source-code bug: Several Objective-C files in RNFBFirestore and RNFBStorage are missing the #import <React/RCTBridgeModule.h> header.

This is likely unrelated, regardless, it is an area of current work and should have results soon

• fix(ios): wire add_rncore_dependency + allow non-modular includes for RN 0.84+ prebuilt RNCore (#8883) #9024

This is a build demonstrator you can check out and run from scratch. It works - it is likely you are missing some forceLinking items in expo, but you haven't included our issue template so it's impossible to say

https://github.com/mikehardy/rnfbdemo/blob/main/make-demo.sh