Import JSON file in React

I'm new to React and I'm trying to import a JSON DATA variable from an external file. I'm getting the following error:

Cannot find module "./customData.json"

Could some one help me? It works if I have my DATA variable in index.js but not when it's in an external JSON file.

import React, {Component} from 'react';
import ReactDOM from 'react-dom';
import customData from './customData.json';
import Profile from './components/profile';
import Hobbies from './components/hobbies';

class App extends Component {
  render() {
    return (
      <div>
        <Profile name={this.props.profileData.name}imgUrl={this.props.profileData.imgURL} />
        <Hobbies hobbyList={this.props.profileData.hobbyList}/>
      </div>
    );
  }
}

ReactDOM.render(<App profileData={DATA}/>, document.querySelector('.container'));

import React, {Component} from 'react';

var Hobbies = React.createClass({
  render: function(){
    var hobbies = this.props.hobbyList.map(function(hobby, index){
        return (<li key={index}>{hobby}</li>);
    });
    return (
        <div>
            <h5>My hobbies:</h5>
            <ul>
                {hobbies}
            </ul>
        </div>
    );
  } 
});

export default Hobbies;

import React from 'react';

var Profile = React.createClass({
render: function(){
    return (
        <div>
            <h3>{this.props.name}</h3>
            <img src={this.props.imgUrl} />
        </div>
    )
  }
});

export default Profile

var DATA = {    
    name: 'John Smith',
    imgURL: 'http://lorempixel.com/100/100/',
    hobbyList: ['coding', 'writing', 'skiing']
}

export default DATA

One nice way (without adding a fake .js extension which is for code not for data and configs) is to use json-loader module. If you have used create-react-app to scaffold your project, the module is already included, you just need to import your json:

import Profile from './components/profile';

This answer explains more.

This old chestnut...

In short, you should be using require and letting node handle the parsing as part of the require call, not outsourcing it to a 3rd party module. You should also be taking care that your configs are bulletproof, which means you should check the returned data carefully.

But for brevity's sake, consider the following example:

For Example, let's say I have a config file 'admins.json' in the root of my app containing the following:

[{
  "userName": "tech1337",
  "passSalted": "xxxxxxxxxxxx"
}]

Note the quoted keys, "userName", "passSalted"!

I can do the following and get the data out of the file with ease.

let admins = require('~/app/admins.json');
console.log(admins[0].userName);

Now the data is in and can be used as a regular (or array of) object.

With json-loader installed, you can use

import customData from '../customData.json';

or also, even more simply

import customData from '../customData';

To install json-loader

npm install --save-dev json-loader

Simplest approach is following

// Save this as someJson.js
const someJson = {
  name: 'Name',
  age: 20
}

export default someJson

then

import someJson from './someJson'