[iOS] Promise hangs when calling MobileCore.initialize again

[robrechtme]

Prerequisites

• This is not a Security Disclosure, otherwise please follow the guidelines in Security Policy.
• I have searched in this repository's issues to see if it has already been reported.
• I have updated to the latest released version of the SDK and the issue still persists.

Bug summary

The MobileCore.initialize promise never gets resolved when called a second time.

await MobileCore.initialize(initOptions); // resolves
console.log('resolved');
await MobileCore.initialize(initOptions); // hangs
console.log('code never reaches here');

This is in theory not an issue, since you should only call this once, but it breaks hot reload during development. For instance, if your code depends on the promise resolving to hide the splash screen, but the promise never resolves when hot reloading the app, the splash screen never gets hidden. Only a cold boot fixes the issue.

await MobileCore.initialize(initOptions); // stuck here when hot reloading
await SplashScreen.hideAsync();

Environment

System:
  OS: macOS 15.6
  CPU: (12) arm64 Apple M3 Pro
  Memory: 474.25 MB / 36.00 GB
  Shell:
    version: "5.9"
    path: /bin/zsh
Binaries:
  Node:
    version: 20.17.0
Managers:
  CocoaPods:
    version: 1.16.2
SDKs:
  iOS SDK:
    Platforms:
      - iOS 18.5
IDEs:
  Xcode:
    version: 16.4/16F6
    path: /usr/bin/xcodebuild
npmPackages:
  @adobe/react-native-aepassurance: 7.0.0
  @adobe/react-native-aepcore: 7.0.0
  @adobe/react-native-aepedge: 7.0.0
  @adobe/react-native-aepedgebridge: 7.0.1
  @adobe/react-native-aepedgeconsent: 7.0.0
  @adobe/react-native-aepedgeidentity: 7.0.0
  @adobe/react-native-aepuserprofile: 7.0.0
iOS:
  hermesEnabled: true
  newArchEnabled: false

Steps to reproduce

No response

Current behavior

No response

Expected behavior

No response

Anything else?

No response

[xaviraol]

I also experience this, and also happening in Android in my end.
I'm using version library version 7.0.0.

The issue comes from the fact that the check of whether the SDK is initialised or not in the Native SDK just returns. But React Native side isn't aware of it, as it's not calling the resolve or reject block provided by the bridge.

A solution I found for now (I'm still testing it) is to track whether it's initialised or not also in the react native bridge itself with a simple boolean, so the react native's hot reloading won't affect it. And then you can just patch the changes with patch-package.

As an example, in iOS I did this in the bridge file node_modules/@adobe/react-native-aepcore/ios/src/Core/RCTAEPCore.m. You can apply the same logic in Android's RCTAEPCoreModule.java

// To track whether the SDK is already initialised or not
// GHI: https://github.com/adobe/aepsdk-react-native/issues/518
BOOL hasInitialized = NO;
RCT_EXPORT_METHOD(initialize:(NSDictionary *)initOptionsDict
                  resolver:(RCTPromiseResolveBlock)resolve 
                  rejecter:(RCTPromiseRejectBlock)reject) {
    
    if (hasInitialized) {
        resolve(nil);
        return;
    }
...

I'm still testing to see whether this works well in all cases..