Using react-native-web with Webpack in a Nx monorepo
Emily Xiong
Posted on November 27, 2023
This blog shows how to add a web app using react-native-web with Webpack as the bundler in a Nx monorepo.
Github Repo: https://github.com/xiongemi/nx-react-native-monorepo-jokes
Installation
First, I need to install react-native-web
:
# npm
npm install react-native-web --save-dev
# yarn
yarn add react-native-web --dev
# pnpm
pnpm add react-native-web --save-dev
Add a React App in the Nx Monorepo
Run command:
npx nx g @nx/react:app <web app name>
In the terminal output, select webpack as bundler:
> NX Generating @nx/react:application
✔ Which stylesheet format would you like to use? · none
✔ Would you like to add React Router to this application? (y/N) · false
✔ Which E2E test runner would you like to use? · none
✔ Which bundler do you want to use to build the application? · webpack
Import the Native App
In the web app, in apps/<web app name>/src/main.tsx
, change the import of App to:
// eslint-disable-next-line @nx/enforce-module-boundaries
import App from '../../<native app name>/src/app/App';
Also, in web app's project.json
, add implicitDependencies
:
"implicitDependencies": ["<native app name>"]
Add Alias in webpack.config.ts
In apps/techy-jokes-webpack/webpack.config.ts, add below alias:
config.resolve.alias = {
...config.resolve?.alias ?? {},
'react-native$': 'react-native-web',
};
Change index.html to be full height
In the index.html, change the:
-
style="height: 100%"
to html tag -
style="min-height: 100%"
to body tag -
style="display: flex; min-height: 100vh"
to div with root id
These style changes are taken from examples in https://reactnavigation.org/docs/server-rendering.
So the index.html would look like:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en" style="height: 100%">
<head>
...
</head>
<body style="min-height: 100%">
<div id="root" style="display: flex; min-height: 100vh"></div>
<script type="module" src="/src/main.tsx"></script>
</body>
</html>
Then that is it, I can now view the web app using npx nx serve <web app name>
.
Troubleshooting
react-native-vector-icons
Because I use react-native-vector-icons, I got this error:
ERROR in ../../node_modules/react-native-vector-icons/lib/create-icon-set.js 70:8
Module parse failed: Unexpected token (70:8)
File was processed with these loaders:
* ../../node_modules/source-map-loader/dist/cjs.js
You may need an additional loader to handle the result of these loaders.
|
| return (
> <Text selectable={false} {...props}>
| {glyph}
| {children}
webpack compiled with 1 error (af4bf9f7c72b44dc)
This happens because react-native-vector-icons
contains jsx code (e.g. <Text>
) inside .js
file.
First, I need to add files with .web
to the extensions (the order of the extension in the array actually matters):
config.resolve.extensions = [
'.web.tsx',
'.web.ts',
'.web.jsx',
'.web.js',
...config.resolve.extensions,
];
Then I need to add a rule to load the .js
file from react-native-vector-icons
using babel loader (https://stackoverflow.com/questions/56750269/react-native-web-failed-to-compile-react-native-vector-icons):
config.module.rules.push({
test: /\.(js|jsx)$/,
include: /react-native-vector-icons/,
loader: 'babel-loader',
options: {
presets: [
'@babel/preset-env',
['@babel/preset-react', { runtime: 'automatic' }],
],
},
});
When I serve up the web app, I will get this error message:
MaterialCommunityIcon.tsx:49 Error: Dynamic require of "react-native-vector-icons/MaterialCommunityIcons" is not supported
I copy the font file from react-native-vector-icons library to the src/assets folder: https://github.com/oblador/react-native-vector-icons/tree/master/Fonts.
So in my web app's index.html, I need to add:
<style type="text/css">
@font-face {
font-family: 'MaterialCommunityIcons';
src: url('/assets/MaterialCommunityIcons.ttf') format('truetype');
}
</style>
Now build command (nx build <web app name>
) should work.
The final webpack.config.js
would look like:
const { composePlugins, withNx } = require('@nx/webpack');
const { withReact } = require('@nx/react');
// Nx plugins for webpack.
module.exports = composePlugins(withNx(), withReact(), (config) => {
// Update the webpack config as needed here.
// e.g. `config.plugins.push(new MyPlugin())`
config.resolve.alias = {
...config.resolve?.alias ?? {},
'react-native$': 'react-native-web',
};
config.resolve.extensions = [
'.web.tsx',
'.web.ts',
'.web.jsx',
'.web.js',
...config.resolve.extensions,
];
config.module.rules.push({
test: /\.(js|jsx)$/,
include: /react-native-vector-icons/,
loader: 'babel-loader',
options: {
presets: [
'@babel/preset-env',
['@babel/preset-react', { runtime: 'automatic' }],
],
},
});
return config;
});
Deploy to GitHub Pages
GitHub Pages is designed to host your personal, organization, or project pages from a GitHub repository.
To deploy this web app to GitHub page:
- Install
gh-pages
``` # npm npm install gh-pages --save-dev
yarn
yarn add gh-pages --dev
pnpm
pnpm add gh-pages --save-dev
- Create a script called `gh-pages.js` under the app:
var ghpages = require('gh-pages');
ghpages.publish('', function (err) {
if (!err) {
console.error(err);
}
});
For this example, the `gh-pages.js` look like:
var ghpages = require('gh-pages');
ghpages.publish('../../dist/apps/techy-jokes-webpack', function (err) {
if (!err) {
console.error(err);
}
});
- If your GitHub has a base href, run the build command with `--baseHref`. For example, my GitHub page is at https://xiongemi.github.io/nx-react-native-monorepo-jokes/, to build for it, the command is `nx build techy-jokes-webpack --baseHref=/nx-react-native-monorepo-jokes/`.
- Add a target in project.json:
"gh-pages": {
"command": "npx nx build <app name> --base=<app base href> --prod && node gh-pages.js",
"cwd": "{projectRoot}"
},
For this example, the target would be:
"gh-pages": {
"command": "npx nx build techy-jokes-webpack --prod --baseHref=/nx-react-native-monorepo-jokes && node gh-pages.js",
"cwd": "{projectRoot}"
},
Now you can run the command `nx gh-pages <your app name>` to deploy your app to GitHub Pages.
---
## Nx Graph
If you run command `nx graph`, you should see the web app implict depends on the react native mobile app:
![nx dependency graph](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/tcdbru3zwq12aaech5wn.png)
Posted on November 27, 2023
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