waseel/lib/capture-permission.ts

import type * as ImagePicker from "expo-image-picker";
import { Alert, Linking } from "react-native";

type Copy = {
  title: string;
  /** Why we need it — shown while Android will still show its own dialog. */
  message: string;
  /** Shown once Android has stopped showing that dialog. */
  blocked: string;
  openSettings: string;
  cancel: string;
};

/**
 * Explains a refused camera or photo-library permission, and offers the only
 * way out when there is one.
 *
 * `granted: false` covers two states that feel completely different to a
 * driver. While `canAskAgain` is true the system dialog appeared and they
 * declined it, so repeating why we need it and letting them tap the button
 * again is the whole fix. Once `canAskAgain` is false Android stops showing
 * that dialog altogether: `requestCameraPermissionsAsync()` returns denied
 * without anything appearing on screen, so from the driver's side the app has
 * simply stopped asking, and no amount of tapping will ever change it. The
 * only remaining route is the system settings page for the app, so that case
 * gets a button that opens it rather than a message telling them to allow
 * something they are never going to be offered.
 *
 * Android also lands drivers in that second state through no choice of their
 * own: requesting a runtime permission the manifest doesn't declare is
 * auto-denied and flagged as permanently denied, and the flag survives an
 * update install. A driver who ran a build predating the CAMERA declaration in
 * app.config.js is stuck there until they either use this button or reinstall.
 */
export const alertPermissionDenied = (
  permission: ImagePicker.PermissionResponse,
  copy: Copy,
) => {
  // Both branches below end in an alert and nothing else, which leaves no
  // trace in the logs — the reason a driver reporting "it never asks me" is
  // indistinguishable from one who never tapped the button. Logging the two
  // fields that decide the branch makes that difference readable.
  console.log(
    "[CAPTURE_PERMISSION_DENIED]: ",
    JSON.stringify({
      status: permission.status,
      canAskAgain: permission.canAskAgain,
    }),
  );

  if (permission.canAskAgain) {
    Alert.alert(copy.title, copy.message);
    return;
  }

  Alert.alert(copy.title, copy.blocked, [
    { text: copy.cancel, style: "cancel" },
    {
      text: copy.openSettings,
      onPress: () => {
        // Failure here is not worth a second alert on top of this one: the
        // driver is already reading instructions that name the settings
        // screen, and reaching it by hand still works.
        void Linking.openSettings().catch((error) =>
          console.log("[CAPTURE_PERMISSION_SETTINGS]: ", error),
        );
      },
    },
  ]);
};