Setting up Gulp

We're going to create a React starter repo that will allow you to setup full-stack React applications with Gulp, Browserify, and ES6.

Getting Started

Create a new repository in Github and clone it to your computer. You can call it react-starter-basic. The link to the finished version is below, but we'll be building it from scratch.

https://github.com/WDI-SEA/react-starter-basic

Installing gulp

Install the gulp command line tool:

npm install -g gulp-cli

Setting up dependencies

After cloning your repo to your local computer, setup npm by running:

npm init

Then, install some dependencies we'll need for our workflow.

npm install --save-dev gulp browserify babelify babel-preset-react vinyl-source-stream react react-dom

• --save-dev will save these dependencies, but only install them on development environments
• gulp will allow us to run tasks needed to copy and transpile code
• browserify will allow us to use require() in front-end files. Browserify
• babelify and babel-preset-react will allow us to transpile ES6/JSX to ES5
• vinyl-source-stream will allow us to convert the stream coming from browserify so we can use it with gulp
• react and react-dom are the dependencies needed to create React apps

Once these dependencies are set up, we'll also want to create a configuration file so Babel knows to use the preset for React.

Creating a .babelrc file

Create a file called .babelrc in the root of the project directory, and create the following preset in the file:

babel.rc

{
  "presets": ["react"]
}

This preset will tell Babel to transpile using the React preset. Note that this is IMPORTANT when working with Babel, and the presets may vary depending on the type of application being developed.

Creating a Gulpfile

In order to use gulp, we need to create a file called a gulpfile. This file will contain tasks that can take care of importing modules, transpiling code, and copying files. Specifically, we'll be doing the following in our gulpfile.

• Setting up browserify to import modules
• Transform code using babelify
• Copying JS files to a different directory (separating our source React files from the transpiled file)

While beyond the scope of this lesson, Gulp can also be setup to minify code, lint code, and utilize additional preprocessors like SASS and LESS. See the resources for more information on setting up these tasks.

Gulp Tasks

A task in gulp is essentially a named function that can be invoked via the gulp command line tool. In the root of the project, let's make a gulpfile. Gulp will look for a file called gulpfile.js, so we'll name the file gulpfile.js.

In gulpfile.js:

// require gulp
var gulp = require('gulp');

// creating a task, with a name and function
gulp.task('build', function() {
  console.log('Building the JS!');
});

This is a file with one task called build. It can be run in the command line by running gulp build.

By default, Gulp looks for a task called default and runs it automatically if no task if specified. Let's change the file to run the build task automatically.

var gulp = require('gulp');

gulp.task('build', function() {
  console.log('Building the JS!');
});

// a task called 'default', which takes an array of tasks and runs them
gulp.task('default', ['build']);

Now we can type gulp in the command line and Gulp will automatically run the build task. Awesome!

Fleshing out gulpfile.js

Let's make a few more modifications to the gulpfile in order to make it take care of our React files.

In gulpfile.js:

var gulp = require('gulp');
var browserify = require('browserify');
var babelify = require('babelify');
var source = require('vinyl-source-stream');

gulp.task('build', function() {
  browserify({
    entries: 'src/app.jsx',
    extensions: ['.jsx'],
    debug: true
  })
  .transform(babelify, {presets: "react"})
  .bundle()
  .pipe(source('app.js'))
  .pipe(gulp.dest('dist'));
});

gulp.task('default', ['build']);

Yikes, what did we just do?! Let's break it down.

• At the top of the file, we required the additional modules needed to process our React files
• The build task is setup to do the following
  • Incorporate browserify so we can use require() in front-end files
    • Everything needed should belong in src/app.jsx
  • Transform ES6/JSX into ES5 code
  • Bundle the files together and create a new file called app.js
  • Write the file to a new location (dist/app.js)

Testing the Gulpfile with a React app

In order to test this gulpfile.js, let's make sure that we have a sample React app that exists. Create the following folder structure in the project:

- react-starter-basic
  - src
    - app.jsx

Now, let's create a React application inside of src/app.jsx

In src/app.jsx:

var React = require('react');
var ReactDOM = require('react-dom');

var App = React.createClass({
  render: function() {
    return <h1>Hello!</h1>;
  }
});

ReactDOM.render(<App />, document.body);

Now, try running the gulpfile by running in the command line:

gulp

If successful, the build task should run and create a file called dist/app.js in your project. This is the final file that can be included in a project. To test, try making a HTML file and include dist/app.js on the page. See if your React project works.

Using Browserify

Browserify allowed us to require react and react-dom into our src/app.jsx file. Let's take this a step further by organizing all of our components into a separate file, then using require() to use them.

Creating a components folder

Inside of the src folder, create a new folder called components. Also, create a file called header.jsx inside the components folder. Your folder structure should look like this:

- react-starter-basic
  - src
    - components
      - header.jsx
    - app.jsx

Creating a header component

Inside of src/components/header.jsx, create a new React component. We'll make this Header component display name from props.

var React = require('react');

var Header = React.createClass({
  render: function() {
    return <h1>{this.props.name}</h1>;
  }
});

module.exports = Header;

Using the Header component in App

Now in order to use the Header component in src/app.jsx, let's use require() and render the component.

In src/app.jsx:

var React = require('react');
var ReactDOM = require('react-dom');
var Header = require('./components/header');

var App = React.createClass({
  render: function() {
    return <Header name="Josh" />;
  }
});

ReactDOM.render(<App />, document.body);

Try testing this file by running gulp and opening the HTML created previously. Congrats, you've just used gulp and browserify to create a React app!