arkhamjs-skeleton

ArkhamJS Skeleton App

A simple skeleton to start you off on your ReactJS project. Uses the following modules:

• arkhamjs - A clean, simple Flux framework.
• react - A declarative, efficient, and flexible JavaScript library for building user interfaces.
• typescript - TypeScript is a language for application scale JavaScript development.
• webpack - Webpack is a module bundler. Its main purpose is to bundle JavaScript files for usage in a browser, yet it is also capable of transforming, bundling, or packaging just about any resource or asset.
• express - Fast, unopinionated, minimalist web framework for node.

Getting Started

• Clone the repo and install the necessary node modules:

$ npm install                   # Install Node modules listed in ./package.json (may take a while the first time)
$ npm install -g gulp nodemon   # Install Gulp and Nodemon
$ gulp                          # Compile and launch

Usage

gulp also gulp dev

Runs the webpack build system just like in compile but enables HMR. The webpack dev server can be found at localhost:3000.

gulp compile

Runs the Webpack build system with your current NODE_ENV and compiles the application to disk (~/dist). Production builds will fail on eslint errors (but not on warnings).

gulp test

Runs unit tests with Karma.

gulp deploy

Helper script to run tests and then, on success, compile your application.

Configuration

Basic project configuration can be found in ~/build/config.js. Here you'll be able to redefine your src and dist directories, as well as tweak what ports Webpack and WebpackDevServer run on.

Structure

The folder structure provided is only meant to serve as a guide, it is by no means prescriptive. It is something that has worked very well for me and my team, but use only what makes sense to you.

.
├── build                    # All build-related configuration
│   ├── tasts                # Gulp configurations
│   ├── config.js            # Project configuration settings
│   └── dev-server.js        # Development server configuration
│   └── prod-server.js       # Production server configuration
├── coverage                 # Unit test coverage reports
├── dist                     # Compiled files
│   ├── dev                  # Development files
│   └── prod                 # Production files
├── js                       # External js files
├── src                      # Application source code
│   ├── actions              # Flux actions
│   ├── components           # React components
│   ├── config               # Configuration files
│       ├── development      # Development configuration
│       └── production       # Production configuration
│   ├── errors               # Custom errors
│   ├── fonts                # Font files
│   ├── icons                # SVG files
│   ├── img                  # Images
│   ├── services             # Helpers and utilities
│   ├── stores               # Redux store configuration
│   ├── styles               # SCSS styles
│   ├── views                # React components/views that live at a route
│   └── index.js             # Application bootstrap and rendering
└── test                     # Test specs

Components vs. Views vs. Layouts

TL;DR: They're all components.

This distinction may not be important for you, but as an explanation: A Layout is something that describes an entire page structure, such as a fixed navigation, viewport, sidebar, and footer. Most applications will probably only have one layout, but keeping these components separate makes their intent clear. Views are components that live at routes, and are generally rendered within a Layout. What this ends up meaning is that, with this structure, nearly everything inside of Components ends up being a dumb component.

Webpack

Configuration

The webpack compiler configuration is located in ~/build/webpack. When the webpack dev server runs, only the client compiler will be used. When webpack itself is run to compile to disk, both the client and server configurations will be used. Settings that are bundle agnostic should be defined in ~/build/config.js and imported where needed.

Vendor Bundle

You can redefine which packages to treat as vendor dependencies by editing the vendor property in the webpack config in ~/build/config.js. These default to:

[
  'arkhamjs',
  'babel-polyfill',
  'bluebird',
  'react',
  'react-dom',
  'react-router',
  'whatwg-fetch'
]

Aliases

As mentioned in features, the default Webpack configuration provides some globals and aliases to make your life easier. These can be used as such:

import MyComponent from '../../components/my-component'; // without alias
import MyComponent from 'components/my-component'; // with alias

  // Available aliases:
  actions     => '~/src/actions'
  components  => '~/src/components'
  config      => '~/src/config/[env]'
  constants   => '~/src/constants'
  errors      => '~/src/errors'
  services    => '~/src/services'
  stores      => '~/src/stores'
  styles      => '~/src/styles'
  test        => '~/test'
  views       => '~/src/views'

Globals

__DEV__

True when process.env.NODE_ENV is development

__PROD__

True when process.env.NODE_ENV is production

__DEBUG__

True when the compiler is run with --debug (any environment).

Styles

All .scss imports will be run through the sass-loader, extracted during production builds, and ignored during server builds. If you're requiring styles from a base styles directory (useful for generic, app-wide styles) in your JS, you can make use of the styles alias, e.g.:

// ~/src/components/some/nested/component/index.jsx
import `styles/core.scss`;

Furthermore, this styles directory is aliased for sass imports, which further eliminates manual directory traversing. An example nested .scss file:

// current path: ~/src/styles/some/nested/style.scss
// what used to be this:
@import '../../base';

// can now be this:
@import 'base';

Testing

To add a unit test, simply create .spec.js file in ~/test/unit. All imports will be relative to the "~/src" directory. The entry point for Karma uses webpack's custom require to load all these files, and Jasmine will be available to you within your test without the need to import them.

Troubleshooting

Nothing yet. Having an issue? Report it and We'll get to it as soon as possible!