Dropdowns should be a component in @nativescript/plugin

[AnthonyLenglet]

As mentioned in the title, it feels weird that one the most popular Nativescript plugin is only supporting Nativescript pre 6.0, with the updated version being locked behind a subscription service
https://github.com/PeterStaev/NativeScript-Drop-Down

The other frameworks have pretty official looking and well maintained plugins for this
https://github.com/react-native-picker/picker
ionic also has an official component
https://ionicframework.com/docs/api/picker

overall I feel like the subscription service that Nativescript has, while good for open source dev, is hindering its adoption, when every other framework has a much bigger community and isn't even doing something like this on the scale NS is https://npm.proplugins.org/
(of cours thats another discussion, but its definitely part of the issue, because the community around NS is so small, people are alone working on those plugins and have to resort to systems like these, which in turn stops people from joining the community)

[rigor789]

Just to clarify - ProPlugins is not an official marketplace for NativeScript and it's not endorsed by NativeScript in any way.

👍 on including an official picker (can be built with ListPicker or ActionDialog + a bit of custom layout).

[AnthonyLenglet]

Hey ! lots of interesting feedback here, thanks a ton for the in-depth response ! 😄

As a quick note before I get into it, sorry if I sounded overly negative about proplugin, as I mention in the OP, it is definitely something that needs to be looked into and I would love to see more of that !
the one issue I'd really say about it is the fact that I could not find any info on the subscription rate, since it looks like you have to log in to see it, which feels like its hiding a huge price point :/

One thing that could be cool to see (and maybe was already mentioned internally), would be to merge proplugin with the nativescript marketplace, since, and I'm only talking for our (small team of 2/3 people) side here, we have never willingly gone into this marketplace to look for a plugin, we only ever got there via a search result link expecting it'd send me to npm or github.
Not only would this make it official, but it could also make people more willing to join it, seing it on the official site rather than a small side thing that you don't know the state of right away (if needed I could open a separate discussion about this one 😄)

As for another point, which sadly I don't see a real solution for (at least as of writing this), is the amount of PRs being opened, I think the biggest pain point is the knowledge needed to work on those plugins which seems really high, I know its a point that's preventing us from helping with this, since we're a angular development startup (out of like 15 projects going on "at the same time", this is the only one using being a mobile app, so learning the stuff needed to help with nativescript would only help with this one project, so in our case it isn't as worth it as a company doing even 50/50 web and mobile app)

Now lets look at the links you sent; 58 issues in just that single RN plugin repo, that is 58 issues for ONE single plugin. Ionic has ~29 open issues just for the "picker" and another 109 open issues for the "select" (similar plugin) in the Ionic repo. In summary, you do get what you pay for.

I've actually checked for the ionic component, is it not an official one ? it seems to be in the framework repository

As for the rest, while this definitely has an impact, there is also the amount of features (in the case of the dropdown, it seems to be about the same in that aspect, its mainly in terms of OSs where the RN version has support for windows and macOS + two different styles for android (popup and dropdown)) and the install base that coincides with it (if we go by npm numbers, RN picker has 44 027, NS Dropdown has 668 (not counting the proplugin version I'm assuming)), both of those are going to end in a bigger possibility that bugs are found

In fact I actually would like to remove a few that are rarely used and/or are better maintained in the community. 😀

OH OH I KNOW THIS ONE ! IS IT RADGAUGE ? 😄