Create React App starter running on Begin.

⏱ This tutorial is an introductory walkthrough of creating a React app on Begin. It should take less than 15 minutes.

Introduction

Hello there, Beginner!

This tutorial uses the Create React App starter app, extended by an example API endpoint. You'll have all the capabilities of React for building beautiful user interfaces, combined with the power, speed, and security of cloud functions and serverless data storage.

Prerequisites

You will need to have git and Node.js installed to your local computer to follow along with this tutorial. (Learn more about installing git and installing Node.js.)

You'll also need a GitHub account. (Learn more about signing up with GitHub.)

Although it would be helpful to have some experience with React, it's not required to follow along with this tutorial. (Related, the React docs are a great reference.)

This tutorial also assumes some familiarity with such things as:

Text editors
Terminal / CLI
Git and version control
General software development using JavaScript

You do not need to be an expert in any of these things in order to follow along and make a React app in Begin!

Getting started

Create your new React app

First, click the Deploy to Begin button below. This starts the process of authorizing Begin with your GitHub account. (You may be prompted to log into GitHub, and/or be asked to create a Begin username.)

Name your app & repo

You'll then be prompted to name your new app and repository – this is optional, feel free to use the default app and repo name if you like!

Note: your Begin app name and repository name cannot be changed later.

Once you've clicked the Create... button, Begin will spin up your new project on GitHub (under github.com/{your GH username}/{your repo name}).

By default your Begin app repo is created as a public GitHub repo; it can be set to private by granting Begin additional permissions from this screen (or later from the Settings screen found in the left nav of your Begin app).

Your first deploy

After creating your app, you'll be taken to its Activity stream. Welcome to the main backend interface of your Begin app!

From the Activity view, you'll be able to watch your app build & deploy in real-time. Any time you push to master, you'll see a new build get kicked off in Begin.

Each build undergoes a number of predefined build steps (learn more about build steps here); these build steps may install your app's dependencies (install), check your code's syntax for issues (lint), generate any files or assets needed to run your app (build), and/or run an automated test suite (test).

If no build steps fail, then the build containing your latest commit to master is automatically deployed to your staging environment.

Go ahead and click the Staging link in the upper left corner of your left nav to open your new app's staging URL. You should now see your react app:

💡 Learn more! Head here to dig deeper into covers build pipelines, git tagging, and more.

Make your first commit

If you'd like to jump right into making your first commit and running your first build, click the Edit on GitHub button. This will open your app's code in GitHub and allow you to make a quick change.

Look for this code, and try editing your basic app. Let's edit the <p> tag that says "Change me!" to "My app!":

// Customize your site by changing the data below
return (
  <div className="App">
    <header className="App-header">
      <img src={logo} className="App-logo" alt="logo" />
      <p>{message}</p>
      <p>Change Me!</p> // ← Start by editing this!

Click the commit changes button on GitHub, and head back to your Activity view to watch it build.

When it's done, don't forget to see your changes live in your staging environment!

Get set up locally

Next let's get your new site running in your local environment (i.e. the computer you work on).

First, head to your GitHub repo (from the first card in your Activity, or from the left nav). Find the clone or download button and copy the git URL.

Then head to your terminal and clone your repo to your local filesystem.

git clone https://github.com/your-github-username/your-new-begin-app.git

Once you've got your project cloned on your local machine, cd into the project directory, install your dependencies, and start the local dev server:

cd your-new-begin-app
npm install
npm start

You should see a localhost link in your terminal – go ahead and visit that in your browser.

That's all you need to do preview your changes locally before pushing them to staging!

Project structure

Now that your app is live on staging and running locally, let's take a quick look into how the project itself is structured so you'll know your way around. Here are the key folders and files in the source tree of your personal website:

.
├── api/
│    └── index.js
├── build/
├── public/
├── src/
│    └── App.js
└── test/

Let's go over each of these directories and files and how you may use them:

`api/`

The api folder is where the cloud function that handles GET requests to /api lives. When we call our api from our app it will execute the handler function in the index.js file.

Some Begin apps are inert static websites – but not this one. Your React app utilizes this built-in small, fast, individually executing cloud function that handles HTTP API requests and responses. (We call those HTTP functions, for short.)

In the next section, we will go more in-depth about how to provision HTTP functions in your React app.

💡 Learn more! Head here to dig deeper into HTTP functions in Begin apps.

`build/`

The build folder is where your React app will build into (and be served from locally). Since this folder contains build artifacts, it isn't checked into git and shouldn't be directly modified. Instead, let your app re-build its contents.

Each time your app is deployed by Begin, the build artifacts in build will automatically be published to your app's static asset bucket (on S3) as well as Begin's CDN.

`public/`

Per Create React App convention, files placed into public are not processed, and will instead be copied into build when your app is built.

Add images (like your logo) and any other static assets or files to public to make them publicly accessible in your app. Learn more about the public folder.

`src/App.js`

Along with the other boilerplate React app files (src/App.css, src/App-test.js, etc.), src/App.js serves as the primary entry point for your React app. This is a great place to start tinkering with your app.

`src/test/`

Your React project comes built-in with a few boilerplate tests to ensure that things are running smoothly in your app. We've even loaded some example tests for web integration & Begin data in the src/test/example/ directory.

A solid platform is the foundation of a durable application, but tests are essential!

You can find the test script specified in package.json:

// package.json
{
  "scripts": {
    "test": "NODE_ENV=testing tape test/*-test.js | tap-spec"
  }
}

Tests run via npm test or npm t.

While you can use any test runner and reporter combo you want, we recommend the TAP family for testing. Test suites that require their runners to inject globals can create some very difficult to debug situations.

With that said, Jest, Enzyme, React Testing Library, etc. are all options available to you!

💡 Learn more! Head here to dig deeper into the project structure of Begin apps.

Using API endpoints

Now for the fun part! Let's go over how HTTP functions work.

The text in the red box below is actually being fetched an example API endpoint, handled by api/index.js.

The output of this HTTP function can be called by fetching GET /api, and subsequently used by any component within your React app:

// api/index.js

exports.handler = async function http (req) {
  console.log('Begin API called')
  return {
    statusCode: 200,
    headers: {
      'content-type': 'application/json; charset=utf8',
      'cache-control': 'no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate, max-age=0, s-maxage=0'
    },
    body: JSON.stringify({
      message: 'Hello from your Begin API!'
    })
  }
}

Now let's navigate to src/App.js to see how this HTTP function was being implemented into your app. As you can see below, GET /api/ is fetched via async function wrapped in a React hook (useEffect).

// src/App.js

const App = () => {
  const [message, setMessage] = useState('...loading')

  useEffect(() => {
    async function fetchData () {
      try {
        let data = await (await fetch('/api')).json()
        setMessage(data.message)
      } catch (err) {
        setMessage(err.message)
      }
    }
    fetchData()
  })

  return (
    <div className="App">
      <header className="App-header">
        <img src={logo} className="App-logo" alt="logo" />
        <p>{message}</p>
        <p>Change me!</p>
        <p>
          Edit <code>src/App.js</code> and save to reload.
        </p>
        <a
          className="App-link"
          href="https://reactjs.org"
          target="_blank"
          rel="noopener noreferrer"
        >
          Learn React
        </a>
      </header>
    </div>
  );
}

This is just one small example of how using a live API endpoint powered by an HTTP function can make your React app dynamic. Just think of all the things you can build this way!

Deploy your site

While not required, it's always a good idea to lint and run tests before pushing just to make sure you catch any errors:

npm run lint
npm t

Everything set? Now let's push this commit (and deploy the build to staging):

git add -A
git commit -am 'Just customizing my Begin site!'
git push origin master

Head on back to Begin and open your staging URL once your build is complete. Looking good? Excellent.

Now let's deploy to production: click the Deploy to production button in the upper left, pick a version, leave an optional message summarizing your changes, and Ship it!

When your next build is done, click the production link in the upper left corner to see the latest release of your app.

✨Tip: You can also deploy to production from your terminal by bumping your npm version (npm version [patch|minor|major] && git push origin) or by cutting a git tag (git tag -a 1.0.0 -m "1.0, here we come" && git push origin --tags)