@react-native/babel-preset

What is @react-native/babel-preset?

@react-native/babel-preset is a Babel preset specifically designed for React Native projects. It includes a set of plugins and configurations that are optimized for transforming modern JavaScript and JSX syntax into a format that can be understood by React Native. This preset simplifies the setup process for React Native development by providing a pre-configured environment that supports the latest JavaScript features and React Native-specific syntax.

What are @react-native/babel-preset's main functionalities?

Transform modern JavaScript syntax

This configuration allows Babel to transform modern JavaScript syntax (ES6+) into a format that is compatible with older JavaScript environments. This is essential for ensuring that your React Native app runs smoothly on all supported devices.

module.exports = { presets: ['@react-native/babel-preset'] };

Support for JSX

The preset includes support for transforming JSX syntax, which is commonly used in React and React Native components. This allows you to write your UI components using JSX, which is then transformed into JavaScript that can be executed by the React Native runtime.

module.exports = { presets: ['@react-native/babel-preset'] };

Optimized for React Native

The preset is specifically optimized for React Native, including plugins and configurations that are tailored to the needs of React Native development. This includes support for React Native-specific syntax and features, ensuring that your code is transformed correctly for the React Native environment.

module.exports = { presets: ['@react-native/babel-preset'] };

Other packages similar to @react-native/babel-preset

babel-preset-expo

babel-preset-expo is a Babel preset that is specifically designed for Expo projects. It includes a set of plugins and configurations that are optimized for transforming modern JavaScript and JSX syntax for Expo-managed React Native projects. Compared to @react-native/babel-preset, babel-preset-expo includes additional configurations and plugins that are specific to the Expo ecosystem, making it a better choice for projects that are using Expo.

metro-react-native-babel-preset

metro-react-native-babel-preset is another Babel preset designed for React Native projects. It is maintained by the Metro bundler team and includes a set of plugins and configurations that are optimized for transforming modern JavaScript and JSX syntax for React Native. Compared to @react-native/babel-preset, metro-react-native-babel-preset is more closely integrated with the Metro bundler, which is the default bundler for React Native projects. This makes it a good choice for projects that are using the Metro bundler.

README

@react-native/babel-preset

Babel presets for React Native applications. React Native itself uses this Babel preset by default when transforming your app's source code.

If you wish to use a custom Babel configuration by writing a babel.config.js file in your project's root directory, you must specify all the plugins necessary to transform your code. React Native does not apply its default Babel configuration in this case. So, to make your life easier, you can use this preset to get the default configuration and then specify more plugins that run before it.

Usage

As mentioned above, you only need to use this preset if you are writing a custom babel.config.js file.

Installation

Install @react-native/babel-preset in your app:

with npm:

npm i @react-native/babel-preset --save-dev

or with yarn:

yarn add -D @react-native/babel-preset

Configuring Babel

Then, create a file called babel.config.js in your project's root directory. The existence of this babel.config.js file will tell React Native to use your custom Babel configuration instead of its own. Then load this preset:

{
  "presets": ["module:@react-native/babel-preset"]
}

You can further customize your Babel configuration by specifying plugins and other options. See Babel's babel.config.js documentation to learn more.

Help and Support

If you get stuck configuring Babel, please ask a question on Stack Overflow or find a consultant for help. If you discover a bug, please open up an issue.