simple-react-app-maker

This npm package is a collection of extremely simple scripts, intended for super-fast building of React applications.

Thanks to the usage of esbuild, it achieves very fast build times.

It tries to be mostly compatible with Create React App.

Usage

Install with:

$ npm install -D simple-react-app-maker

Make sure react packages are installed:

$ npm install react react-dom

Make sure your project has the following:

• A public folder, with at least an index.html file.

  • Replacement of %PUBLIC_URL% is supported

• A src/index.tsx file with the React entrypoint.

  • You can define different entrypoints, see the configuration section below.

• A csp.js file, containing configuration for CSP according to react-csp

Then, you can run one of the following scripts:

• npx simple-react-server - creates a development server. Your application is available under localhost:3000. Note that for simplicity, the devserver does not support live reload. To see changes, refresh the page in the browser.

• npx simple-react-publish - builds your application to the build/dist/ folder.

Configuration

The scripts can be configured using package.json fields.

Some configuration options are controlled by the NODE_ENV environment variable. If the variable is not defined, development is assumed.

• homepage - defines the root url of the application. If not defined, assumes /.

• browserslist.development - defines browserslist values for the development application build. This is passed to esbuild to control what features should be shimmed, etc. Note that esbuild cannot generate ES5 output, only ES6 - therefore, too broad browserslist will cause build to fail.

• browserslist.production - same as above, but used when NODE_ENV=production.

• externalFiles.development, externalFiles.production - can be set to an array of files. These files will be excluded from the final build output.

• entrypoints - can be set to an array of files that are entrypoints for the esbuild process. By default ["src/index.tsx"].