Create a react app with esbuild

Type: blog post
Language: en-US
Canonical URL: https://simonboisset.com/en/blog/create-react-app-with-esbuild
Published: August 25, 2022
Summary: Introduction Esbuild: https://esbuild.github.io/ is a new javascript bundler. It's written with Go and is extremely fast. Let's go to use it to create react...

Introduction
Esbuild: https://esbuild.github.io/ is a new javascript bundler. It's written with Go and is extremely fast. Let's go to use it to create react with hot reload app from scratch without webpack
You can check the code on this repos: https://github.com/simonboisset/templates/tree/main/templates/react-spa.
I wrote this article in 2022. It's more a POC than a real production ready app. I use it to test esbuild and create a template for my future projects. Today I would not recommend styled-components instead I would use tailwindcss.
Initialization
Create your folder project and initialize it.
yarn init
{
"name": "esbuild-static",
"version": "1.0.0"
}
Install dependencies
yarn add esbuild dotenv react react-dom styled-components
Then add devdependencies.
yarn add --dev typescript @types/react @types/react-dom @types/styled-components @types/node serve-handler @types/serve-handler
Typescript config
Add tsconfig.json file.
{
"compilerOptions": {
"outDir": "dist",
"rootDir": "src",
"module": "commonjs",
"target": "ESNext",
"lib": ["dom", "dom.iterable", "esnext"],
"moduleResolution": "node",
"strict": true,
"forceConsistentCasingInFileNames": true,
"noImplicitReturns": true,
"skipLibCheck": true,
"esModuleInterop": true,
"jsx": "react"
},
"include": ["src"],
"exclude": ["/nodemodules", "/./"]
}
Esbuild config
Create esbuild folder then add dev.js and prod.js files.
The dev config watch files changes and start a server for hot reload and static files. You can add environment variables too.
const { spawn } = require("childprocess");
const esbuild = require("esbuild");
const { createServer, request } = require("http");
require("dotenv").config();
const handler = require("serve-handler");
const clientEnv = { "process.env.NODEENV": 'dev' };
const clients = [];
Object.keys(process.env).forEach((key) => {
if (key.indexOf("CLIENT") === 0) {
clientEnv[process.env.${key}] = '${process.env[key]}';
}
});
const openBrowser = () => {
setTimeout(() => {
const op = {
darwin: ["open"],
linux: ["xdg-open"],
win32: ["cmd", "/c", "start"],
};
if (clients.length === 0)
spawn(op[process.platform][0], ["http://localhost:3000"]);
}, 1000);
};
esbuild
.build({
entryPoints: ["src/index.tsx"],
bundle: true,
minify: true,
define: clientEnv,
outfile: "dist/index.js",
sourcemap: "inline",
watch: {
onRebuild(error) {
setTimeout(() => {
clients.forEach((res) => res.write("data: update\n\n"));
}, 1000);
console.log(error || "client rebuilt");
},
},
})
.catch((err) => {
console.log(err);
process.exit(1);
});
esbuild.serve({ servedir: "./" }, {}).then((result) => {
createServer((req, res) => {
const { url, method, headers } = req;
if (req.url === "/esbuild") {
return clients.push(
res.writeHead(200, {
"Content-Type": "text/event-stream",
"Cache-Control": "no-cache",
"Access-Control-Allow-Origin": "",
Connection: "keep-alive",
})
);
}
const path = url.split("/").pop().indexOf(".") ? url : /index.html;
const proxyReq = request(
{ hostname: "0.0.0.0", port: 8000, path, method, headers },
(prxRes) => {
res.writeHead(prxRes.statusCode, prxRes.headers);
prxRes.pipe(res, { end: true });
}
);
req.pipe(proxyReq, { end: true });
return null;
}).listen(5010);
createServer((req, res) => {
return handler(req, res, { public: "dist" });
}).listen(3000);
openBrowser();
});
const esbuild = require("esbuild");
require("dotenv").config();
const clientEnv = { "process.env.NODEENV": 'production' };
for (const key in process.env) {
if (key.indexOf("CLIENT") === 0) {
clientEnv[process.env.${key}] = '${process.env[key]}';
}
}
esbuild
.build({
entryPoints: ["src/index.tsx"],
bundle: true,
minify: true,
define: clientEnv,
outfile: "dist/index.js",
})
.catch(() => process.exit(1));
Eslint config
Install eslint.
yarn add --dev eslint eslint-config-react-app @typescript-eslint/eslint-plugin @typescript-eslint/parser
Add .eslintrc.js file.
module.exports = {
env: {
browser: true,
es2021: true,
},
extends: ["react-app"],
parser: "@typescript-eslint/parser",
parserOptions: {
ecmaFeatures: {
jsx: true,
},
ecmaVersion: 13,
sourceType: "module",
},
plugins: ["react", "@typescript-eslint"],
settings: {
"import/resolver": {
node: {
extensions: [".js", ".jsx", ".ts", ".tsx"],
},
},
},
};
Scripts
Add scripts to package.json
"scripts": {
"build": "node esbuild/prod",
"type-check": "tsc --noEmit",
"lint": "eslint src//.ts src//.tsx",
"start": "nodemon --watch dist --exec 'yarn type-check & yarn lint' & node esbuild/dev"
},
React app
In src folder add index.tsx file.
import React from "react";
import ReactDOM from "react-dom";
import App from "./App";
import GlobalStyle from "./globalStyle";
ReactDOM.render(
,
document.getElementById("root")
);
Hot reload tools
For listening esbuild dev server reload we must add a hook for development.
import { useEffect } from "react";
const useHMR = () => {
useEffect(() => {
if (process.env.NODEENV !== "production") {
new EventSource("http://localhost:5010/esbuild").onmessage = () =>
window.location.reload();
}
}, []);
};
export default useHMR;
CSS with styled-components
Add global style with styled-components
import { createGlobalStyle } from 'styled-components';
const GlobalStyle = createGlobalStyle
body {
margin: 0;
font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', 'Roboto', 'Oxygen',
'Ubuntu', 'Cantarell', 'Fira Sans', 'Droid Sans', 'Helvetica Neue',
sans-serif;
-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;
-moz-osx-font-smoothing: grayscale;
}
code {
font-family: source-code-pro, Menlo, Monaco, Consolas, 'Courier New',
monospace;
}
.App {
text-align: center;
}
.App-logo {
height: 40vmin;
pointer-events: none;
}
@media (prefers-reduced-motion: no-preference) {
.App-logo {
animation: App-logo-spin infinite 20s linear;
}
}
.App-header {
background-color: #282c34;
min-height: 100vh;
display: flex;
flex-direction: column;
align-items: center;
justify-content: center;
font-size: calc(10px + 2vmin);
color: white;
}
.App-link {
color: #61dafb;
}
@keyframes App-logo-spin {
from {
transform: rotate(0deg);
}
to {
transform: rotate(360deg);
}
}
;
export default GlobalStyle
App
Fanaly create the App component.
import React, { FC } from "react";
import useHMR from "./useHMR";
import Logo from "./Logo";
const App: FC = () => {
useHMR();
return (
Edit src/App.tsx and save to reload.
Learn React
);
};
export default App;
Static files
Add static files in dist folder.
React App
You need to enable JavaScript to run this app.
Then create other files : favicon.ico, manifest.json, logo192.png
Run
Start dev server.
yarn start
Build for production
yarn build
Now let's go to code
---
I'm Simon Boisset, freelance fullstack developer. I mainly work with React, React Native and Node.js. I'm available for development or consulting missions. Feel free to contact me on my website: https://simonboisset.com/.

Related links
Blog index: https://simonboisset.com/en/blog
Website: https://simonboisset.com/en