Create React apps in Kotlin with no build configuration.
Please note that this is an early preview version.
Make sure you have JDK 8 or newer version installed before proceeding.
Create a new project:
npx create-react-kotlin-app my-app
(npx comes with npm 5.2+ and higher. See Installation for older npm versions.)
Run the project:
cd my-app/
npm start
Then open http://localhost:3000/ to see your app.
When you’re ready to deploy to production, create a minified bundle with npm run build
.
Create React Kotlin App will configure Kotlin, webpack, and IntelliJ IDEA so that you can focus on the code instead.
Just create a project, and you’re good to go.
Install it once globally:
npm install -g create-react-kotlin-app
You can skip this step if you have create-react-app
already installed or you're using npx
.
You’ll need to have Node >= 6 on your machine. You can use nvm to easily switch between Node versions for different projects.
This tool doesn’t assume a Node backend. The Node installation is only required for Create React Kotlin App itself.
To develop applications in Kotlin that use React you need to use a Kotlin wrapper for React. You can find a documentation for it and examples in the module's repository.
No configuration is required to add packages written in Kotlin to a project based on Create React Kotlin App, we take care of it for you.
For example, you can simply run npm install @jetbrains/kotlin-react-router-dom
to install the wrapper for React Router DOM.
To create a new app, run:
create-react-kotlin-app my-app
cd my-app
Or if you have create-react-app
installed, you can run:
create-react-app my-app --scripts-version react-scripts-kotlin
cd my-app
It will create a folder called my-app
inside the current folder.
The project will be preconfigured for working with it in IntelliJ IDEA. If you don't want to create the .idea
folder that is required for IntelliJ IDEA, add --no-idea
option.
The initial project structure will be created and dependencies will be installed:
my-app/
README.md
node_modules/
package.json
.gitignore
public/
favicon.ico
index.html
manifest.json
src/
app/
App.css
App.kt
index/
index.css
index.kt
logo/
kotlin.svg
Logo.css
Logo.kt
react.svg
ticker/
Ticker.kt
It's a simple app that shows the time that passed since the app was opened.
Once the installation is done, you can run some commands inside the project folder:
Runs the app in development mode.
Open http://localhost:3000 to view it in the browser.
The page will reload automatically when you make edits.
You will see build errors and lint warnings in the console.
If you are getting a Kotlin.defineModule is not a function
error, try deleting the npm cache:
rm -rf node_modules/.cache
Builds the app for production to the build
folder.
It ensures that React is bundled in production mode and the build is optimized for best performance.
The build is minified and the filenames include hashes for cache management. Your app is ready to be deployed.
You can debug the running app right in IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate using its built-in JavaScript debugger. The IDE will run a new instance of Chrome and attach a debugger to it.
Start your app by running npm start
. Put the breakpoints in your Kotlin code.
Then select Debug in Chrome
from the list of run/debug configurations on the top-right and click the green debug icon or press ^D
on macOS or F9
on Windows and Linux to start debugging.
Currently, debugging is supported only in IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate 2017.3.
You can also debug your application using the developer tools in your browser.
-
One Dependency: There is just one build dependency. It uses webpack and other amazing projects, but provides a cohesive curated experience on top of them.
-
No Configuration Required: You don't need to configure anything. Reasonably good configuration of both development and production builds is handled for you so you can focus on writing code.
-
No Lock-In: You can “eject” to a custom setup at any time. Run a single command, and all the configuration and build dependencies will be moved directly into your project, so you can pick up right where you left off.
The generated project uses the following npm modules:
- Kotlin wrappers: @jetbrains/kotlin-react, @jetbrains/kotlin-react-dom, @jetbrains/kotlin-extensions
- Kotlin DSL for HTML
- Kotlin Compiler
- webpack with webpack-dev-server, @jetbrains/kotlin-webpack-plugin, html-webpack-plugin and style-loader
- and others.
With create-react-kotlin-app
you can quickly bootstrap a new application using Kotlin and React. Your environment will have everything you need to build a new Kotlin app:
- Kotlin and React syntax support.
- A dev server that automatically compiles your Kotlin code to JavaScript.
- A
build
script to bundle JavaScript, CSS, and images for production, with sourcemaps.
- Unit testing is currently not supported in this project. We're now working on the Jest Kotlin wrapper. Unit-testing React is tracked in KT-49610. Stay tuned!
You can “eject” from the tool and use it as a boilerplate generator.
Running npm run eject
copies all configuration files and transitive dependencies (webpack, Kotlin Compiler, etc) right into your project so you have full control over them. Commands like npm start
and npm run build
will still work, but they will point to the copied scripts so you can tweak them. At this point, you’re on your own.
Note: this is a one-way operation. Once you eject
, you can’t go back!
Please report issues on YouTrack, GitHub issues are disabled for this project.
Contributions to this project are welcome! Please see the open issues or chat with us on the #react channel in our Slack.
This project is based on Facebook's Create React App. Many thanks to its authors for their work and inspiration.