| # Introduction | |
| The JavaScript ecosystem evolves at incredible speed: staying current can feel | |
| overwhelming. So, instead of you having to stay on top of every new tool, | |
| feature and technique to hit the headlines, this project aims to lighten the | |
| load by providing a curated baseline of the most valuable ones. | |
| Using React Boilerplate, you get to start your app with our community's current | |
| ideas on what represents optimal developer experience, best practice, most | |
| efficient tooling and cleanest project structure. | |
| - [**CLI Commands**](commands.md) | |
| - [Setting up your editor](editor.md) | |
| - [Tool Configuration](files.md) | |
| - [Server Configurations](server-configs.md) | |
| - [Deployment](deployment.md) _(currently Heroku & AWS specific)_ | |
| - [FAQ](faq.md) | |
| - [Gotchas](gotchas.md) | |
| # Feature overview | |
| ## Quick scaffolding | |
| Automate the creation of components, containers, routes, selectors and sagas - | |
| and their tests - right from the CLI! | |
| Run `npm run generate` in your terminal and choose one of the parts you want | |
| to generate. They'll automatically be imported in the correct places and have | |
| everything set up correctly. | |
| > We use [plop] to generate new components, you can find all the logic and | |
| > templates for the generation in `internals/generators`. | |
| [plop]: https://github.com/amwmedia/plop | |
| ## Instant feedback | |
| Enjoy the best DX and code your app at the speed of thought! Your saved changes | |
| to the CSS and JS are reflected instantaneously without refreshing the page. | |
| Preserve application state even when you update something in the underlying code! | |
| ## Predictable state management | |
| We use Redux to manage our applications state. We have also added optional | |
| support for the [Chrome Redux DevTools Extension] – if you have it installed, | |
| you can see, play back and change your action history! | |
| [chrome redux devtools extension]: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/redux-devtools/lmhkpmbekcpmknklioeibfkpmmfibljd | |
| ## Next generation JavaScript | |
| Use ESNext template strings, object destructuring, arrow functions, JSX syntax | |
| and more, today. This is possible thanks to Babel with the `env`, `stage-0` | |
| and `react` presets! | |
| ## Next generation CSS | |
| Write composable CSS that's co-located with your components using [`styled-components`] | |
| for complete modularity. Unique generated class names keep the specificity low | |
| while eliminating style clashes. Ship only the styles that are used on the | |
| visible page for the best performance. | |
| [`styled-components`]: ../css/README.md#styled-components | |
| ## Industry-standard routing | |
| It's natural to want to add pages (e.g. `/about`) to your application, and | |
| routing makes this possible. Thanks to [react-router] with [connected-react-router], | |
| that's as easy as pie and the url is auto-synced to your application state! | |
| [react-router]: https://github.com/ReactTraining/react-router | |
| [connected-react-router]: https://github.com/supasate/connected-react-router | |
| ## Static code analysis | |
| Focus on writing new features without worrying about formatting or code quality. With the right editor setup, your code will automatically be formatted and linted as you work. | |
| Read more about linting in our [introduction](./introduction.md) and don't forget to setup your by following [our instructions](./editor.md). | |
| # Optional extras | |
| _Don't like any of these features? [Click here](remove.md)_ | |
| ## Offline-first | |
| The next frontier in performant web apps: availability without a network | |
| connection from the instant your users load the app. This is done with a | |
| ServiceWorker and a fallback to AppCache, so this feature even works on older | |
| browsers! | |
| > All your files are included automatically. No manual intervention needed | |
| > thanks to Webpack's [`offline-plugin`](https://github.com/NekR/offline-plugin) | |
| ### Add To Homescreen | |
| After repeat visits to your site, users will get a prompt to add your application | |
| to their homescreen. Combined with offline caching, this means your web app can | |
| be used exactly like a native application (without the limitations of an app store). | |
| The name and icon to be displayed are set in the `manifest.json` generated by | |
| Webpack's `webpack-pwa-manifest` plugin. Configure the name, colors, and icons | |
| in `webpack.prod.babel.js` and try it! | |
| ## Performant Web Font Loading | |
| If you simply use web fonts in your project, the page will stay blank until | |
| these fonts are downloaded. That means a lot of waiting time in which users | |
| could already read the content. | |
| [FontFaceObserver](https://github.com/bramstein/fontfaceobserver) adds a class | |
| to the `body` when the fonts have loaded. (see [`app.js`](../../app/app.js#L26-L36) | |
| and [`App/styles.css`](../../app/containers/App/styles.css)) | |
| ### Adding a new font | |
| 1. Either add the `@font-face` declaration to `App/styles.css` or add a `<link>` | |
| tag to the [`index.html`](../../app/index.html). (Don't forget to remove the `<link>` | |
| for Open Sans from the [`index.html`](../../app/index.html)!) | |
| 2. In `App/styles.css`, specify your initial `font-family` in the `body` tag | |
| with only web-save fonts. In the `body.jsFontLoaded` tag, specify your | |
| `font-family` stack with your web font. | |
| 3. In `app.js` add a `<fontName>Observer` for your font. | |
| ## Image optimization | |
| Images often represent the majority of bytes downloaded on a web page, so image | |
| optimization can often be a notable performance improvement. Thanks to Webpack's | |
| [`image-loader`](https://github.com/tcoopman/image-webpack-loader), every PNG, JPEG, GIF and SVG images | |
| is optimized. | |
| See [`image-loader`](https://github.com/tcoopman/image-webpack-loader) to customize optimizations options. | |