TheLazy.Dev
Portfolio GitHub

Blog

engineeringmonday |react |reusability |javascript

Create and publish your own React library

ddrempe

Damir Drempetić

Posted on September 20, 2021

Create and publish your own React library

Table Of Contents

In software development in general, we always tend to reuse some code and extract parts of it that we need in multiple places. Front-end development nor React are not an exception. Therefore, sometimes we want to create React libraries as well. When talking about React, library or package could be anything, e.g. one component, a whole set of them, they could be just UI parts but also include some logic that is repeated.

Chapter #1 Create your library with create-react-library

One very quick and simple way of creating React library is by using create-react-library. We all know about create-react-app and let’s say create-react-library is the same thing for creating libraries.

To create a new library simply run:

npx create-react-library <LIBRARY_NAME>
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

We will call ours bornfight-react-library so the command would be:

npx create-react-library bornfight-react-library
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Take attention to replace this library name with yours in any occurrence in this post.

You will be then asked for a few options as displayed on the image. It’s important to select:

  1. typescript as a template
  2. yarn as a package manager
  3. rest can be changed easily later in package.json if necessary. image

That’s it, you’ve created your own React library.

Run and build your library

Executing in the project root directory:

yarn start
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Develop, test and showcase your work

Option A) Using CRA

There is CRA in the example directory. It is also started by executing:

cd example
yarn start
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Option B) Using Storybook

If you prefer using Storybook you can install it additionally to CRA:

cd example
npx sb init
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

This means you will need to write your stories separately from components.

Stories will be located in the example dir, while you write your components in the project root. Otherwise, if you want to install Storybook in the project root, it breaks the CRA and therefore it is not suggested.

Chapter #2 Publishing a npm package created with create-react-library

Publishing React library means publishing node package. You can publish node packages either to a well-known public registry like npmjs.com or any other registry e.g. Github Packages.

Simple scenario publishing usually includes executing:

npm login
npm publish
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

More about publishing can be found in the rest of the chapter.

I) Publishing as a public package to npm.js registry

1) Ensure you provided correct name and version in package.json

If you want to publish it under your npm organisation (here @bornfight), your changes should look like:

-  "name": "bornfight-react-library",
-  "version": "1.0.0",

+  "name": "@bornfight/bornfight-react-library",
+  "version": "0.0.1",
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Otherwise, if you want to publish it under your account just ignore this step and keep the package name without an organization prefix.

2) Login to your npm account 

npm login
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

You will be then prompted to enter your username, password and email.

3) Publish package 

npm publish --access public
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

If you aren't publishing it under organization, --access public flag isn't necessary as it will be default option.

II) Publishing as a private package to Github Packages

1) Ensure you provided correct name, version and repository, e.g. 

"name": "@bornfight/bornfight-react-library",
"version": "0.0.1",
"repository": "https://github.com/bornfight/bornfight-react-library",
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

2) Update publish config to point to Github Packages registry 

  "publishConfig": {
    "registry": "https://npm.pkg.github.com"
  }
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

3) Login to your Github 

npm login
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

You will be then prompted to enter your username, password and email.

Use Github personal access token as password.

4) Publish package 

npm publish
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Used resources and more information 📚

Your thoughts? 🤔

  • Did you already create some React libraries or npm packages on your own?
  • Which tools did you use?
  • Did you ever tried TSDX?
💖 💪 🙅 🚩
ddrempe
Damir Drempetić

Posted on September 20, 2021

Join Our Newsletter. No Spam, Only the good stuff.

Sign up to receive the latest update from our blog.

Related

Create and publish your own React library
engineeringmonday Create and publish your own React library

September 20, 2021