Install from source

First, clone the project.

Then install dependencies and check to see it works

$ npm install                   # Install project dependencies
$ npm start                     # Compile and launch

If everything works, you should see the following:

While developing, you will probably rely mostly on npm start; however, there are additional scripts at your disposal:

npm run <script>	Description
start	Serves your app at localhost:3000. HMR will be enabled in development.
compile	Compiles the application to disk (~/dist by default).
dev	Same as npm start, but enables nodemon for the server as well.
test	Runs unit tests with Karma and generates a coverage report.
test:dev	Runs Karma and watches for changes to re-run tests; does not generate coverage reports.
deploy	Runs linter, tests, and then, on success, compiles your application to disk.
deploy:dev	Same as deploy but overrides NODE_ENV to "development".
deploy:prod	Same as deploy but overrides NODE_ENV to "production".
lint	Lint all .js files.
lint:fix	Lint and fix all .js files. Read more on this.

Testing

To add a unit test, simply create a .spec.js file anywhere in ~/tests. Karma will pick up on these files automatically, and Mocha and Chai will be available within your test without the need to import them. Coverage reports will be compiled to ~/coverage by default. If you wish to change what reporters are used and where reports are compiled, you can do so by modifying coverage_reporters in ~/config/index.js.

Deployment

Out of the box, this starter kit is deployable by serving the ~/dist folder generated by npm run deploy (make sure to specify your target NODE_ENV as well). This project does not concern itself with the details of server-side rendering or API structure, since that demands an opinionated structure that makes it difficult to extend the starter kit. However, if you do need help with more advanced deployment strategies, here are a few tips:

Static Deployments

If you are serving the application via a web server such as nginx, make sure to direct incoming routes to the root ~/dist/index.html file and let react-router take care of the rest. If you are unsure of how to do this, you might find this documentation helpful. The Express server that comes with the starter kit is able to be extended to serve as an API or whatever else you need, but that's entirely up to you.

Build System

Configuration

Default project configuration can be found in ~/config/index.js. Here you'll be able to redefine your src and dist directories, adjust compilation settings, tweak your vendor dependencies, and more. For the most part, you should be able to make changes in here without ever having to touch the actual webpack build configuration.

If you need environment-specific overrides (useful for dynamically setting API endpoints, for example), you can edit ~/config/environments.js and define overrides on a per-NODE_ENV basis. There are examples for both development and production, so use those as guidelines. Here are some common configuration options:

Key	Description
dir_src	application source code base path
dir_dist	path to build compiled application to
server_host	hostname for the Express server
server_port	port for the Express server
compiler_devtool	what type of source-maps to generate (set to false/null to disable)
compiler_vendor	packages to separate into to the vendor bundle

Webpack is configured to make use of resolve.root, which lets you import local packages as if you were traversing from the root of your ~/src directory. Here's an example:

// current file: ~/src/views/some/nested/View.js
// What used to be this:
import SomeComponent from '../../../components/SomeComponent'

// Can now be this:
import SomeComponent from 'components/SomeComponent' // Hooray!

Globals

These are global variables available to you anywhere in your source code. If you wish to modify them, they can be found as the globals key in ~/config/index.js. When adding new globals, make sure you also add them to ~/.eslintrc.

Variable	Description
process.env.NODE_ENV	the active NODE_ENV when the build started
__DEV__	True when process.env.NODE_ENV is development
__PROD__	True when process.env.NODE_ENV is production
__TEST__	True when process.env.NODE_ENV is test

Styles

Both .scss and .css file extensions are supported out of the box. After being imported, styles will be processed with PostCSS for minification and autoprefixing, and will be extracted to a .css file during production builds.

Production Optimization

Babel is configured to use babel-plugin-transform-runtime so transforms aren't inlined. In production, webpack will extract styles to a .css file, minify your JavaScript, and perform additional optimizations such as module deduplication.