benjamn / reactapp

Starter App For React and CommonJS

• Simple, single-page application structure.
• instantly package/compile files on-the-fly.
• Just Works on Mac/Linux/Windows.
• One-click server rendering.

###Install

All you need to get started is git/node/npm.

git clone https://github.com/jordwalke/reactapp
cd reactapp
npm install                 # install dependencies.

Run and Build on the Fly

Just hit your browser's refresh button to run an always-up-to-date version of your app.

node lib/server/serverMain.js
open http://localhost:8080                     # App rendered on the client.
open http://localhost:8080/index.server.html   # App rendered on the server.

• Dynamically packages/compiles your app on each server request.

###Structure

reactapp is a basic structure for you app and development environment.

 reactapp/
  ├── index.html
  ├── package.json              # Add npm dependencies here.
  ├── README.md
  ├── offlineBuild.sh           # Serverless static build.
  ├── static_resources/         # Shared images/css go here.
  ├── build/
  │   └── build.js
  └── lib/
      ├── app/                  # All application components, including UI.
      │   └── Application.jsx   # The Top Level Component
      │   └── Widget.jsx        # A View style component.
      ├── client/               # client-only code
      │   └── clientMain.jsx
      └── server                # server-only code
          └── serverMain.jsx

Create Your UI:

• reactapp allows you to require JSX files when rendering on either the client or the server.
  • var Widget = require('./Widget.jsx');
• reactapp considers the lib/app/Application.jsx to be your main entry point component. Start by editing that file to create your user experience.
• Add your own component directory structure inside of lib/app/ to your liking.
• Build up an applications by composing lower level components into more sophisticated components.

Build For Production or Sharing

Pre-Build your app for use on CDN, or to allow your committed project to be effeciantly loaded without a server/build-step.

    sudo npm install -g browserify
    ./offlineBuild.sh  # Output build/build.js is included in index.html
    open index.html    # No server needed now!

You may wish to run offlineBuild.sh before you push your branch to a public repo, so that others can easily download and try your app without having to set up a toolchain. ./offlineBuild.sh will create a "one-click" demoable package for anyone to try in any browser - they only need to open index.html on their local file system. (If you have a purely client side app (no server side data fetching) this will "just work").

Possible Add-Ons:

• Reload/rerender modules as you type in text editor (only the ones that changed).
• Reload style without page refresh as style files change.