react-dev-utils

What is react-dev-utils?

The react-dev-utils package provides a set of utilities designed to enhance the development experience of building React applications, especially when used in conjunction with Create React App. These utilities include webpack configuration helpers, development server helpers, and an assortment of other small utilities designed to make common tasks more convenient.

What are react-dev-utils's main functionalities?

Interacting with Webpack

This feature allows developers to interact with Webpack more easily, for example, by choosing a port for the development server. The code sample demonstrates how to use the `choosePort` function to select a port for running the development server.

const { choosePort } = require('react-dev-utils/WebpackDevServerUtils');
choosePort('localhost', 3000).then(port => console.log(`Port selected: ${port}`));

Formatting Webpack Messages

This utility helps in formatting the output of Webpack messages to be more readable. The code sample shows how to format raw Webpack messages into a more digestible format, separating out errors and warnings.

const { formatWebpackMessages } = require('react-dev-utils/formatWebpackMessages');
const rawMessages = webpackCompiler.run();
const messages = formatWebpackMessages(rawMessages);
console.log(messages.errors); console.log(messages.warnings);

Opening Browser

This feature provides a simple way to programmatically open the developer's browser to a specified URL, which is particularly useful when starting a development server. The code sample demonstrates opening the default browser to 'http://localhost:3000'.

const { openBrowser } = require('react-dev-utils/openBrowser');
openBrowser('http://localhost:3000');

Other packages similar to react-dev-utils

webpack-dev-server

Similar to some functionalities provided by react-dev-utils, webpack-dev-server offers a development server that provides live reloading. It is more focused on being a standalone server for webpack projects, whereas react-dev-utils offers utilities that are more specifically tailored to React applications and can be used in conjunction with webpack-dev-server.

env-cmd

This package allows you to specify and manage environment variables for your development environment, similar to how react-dev-utils allows for environment variable manipulation and other configuration tweaks. However, env-cmd is more focused on environment variables and does not offer the wide range of utilities related to webpack and development server management.

cross-env

Cross-env provides a cross-platform way to set and use environment variables in npm scripts, which is a narrower scope compared to react-dev-utils. While react-dev-utils includes utilities for working with environment variables among its features, cross-env is specifically designed for this purpose and does not include the broader set of development utilities.

README

The README file is missing