How to integrate react-native web to an existing react native project

We have a react-native project implemented using typescript, react-navigation, react-native-gesture-handler, redux/toolkit as the main packages

recently we integrated react-native-web into our project, but it is not running correctly.

there are several problems with our project:

1. we cannot load custom modules when we import them. for example:

   import MyCustomComponent from './components/MyCustomComponent'
   
   <View style={{flex: 1, backgroundColor: 'green'}}>
     <MyCustomComponent/>     <--- does not show up, event when it contains a simple View component, we will see a blank screen
   </View>
   

   but when I define MyCustomComponent inside the current file, it shows up with no problem:

   function MyCustomComponent() {
      return(
        <View style={{flex:1, backgroundColor: 'yellow'}}></View>
      )
   }
   
   export default function MyMainComponent() {
        return (
           <View style={{flex:1, backgroundColor: 'green'}}>
              <MyCustomComponent/>      <---- this shows up
           </View>
        )
   }
   
   

2. anything that goes inside the redux Provider will not show up any more.

I think our webpack configuration is wrong, but since I'm not expert in web development, I need some help to figure out what's wrong. here is our webpack configuration:

const path = require('path');

const webpack = require('webpack');
const HtmlWebpackPlugin = require('html-webpack-plugin');

const appDirectory = path.resolve(__dirname);
const {presets} = require(`${appDirectory}/../babel.config.js`);

const compileNodeModules = [
  // Add every react-native package that needs compiling
  'react-native-gesture-handler',
  'react-redux',
  'react-native-reanimated',
  'react-native-confirmation-code-field',
  'react-native-calendars',
  '@react-native-google-signin/google-signin',
  'react-native-compressor',
  'react-native-swipe-gestures',
  '@react-native-async-storage',
  'react-native-shared-element',
  '@react-navigation',
  'react-native-material-menu',
  '@reduxjs/toolkit',
  'react-navigation-shared-element',
  'react-native-collapsible-tab-view',
  'react-native-image-crop-picker',
  '@react-native-community',
  'react-nativbe-safe-area-context/lib',
  'react-native-screens',
].map(moduleName =>
  path.resolve(appDirectory, `../node_modules/${moduleName}`),
);

const babelLoaderConfiguration = {
  test: /\.js$|tsx?$/,
  // Add every directory that needs to be compiled by Babel during the build.
  include: [
    path.resolve(__dirname, '../index.web.js'), // Entry to your application
    path.resolve(__dirname, '../src/index.web.tsx'), // Change this to your main App file
    path.resolve(__dirname, '../src'),
    ...compileNodeModules,
  ],
  use: {
    loader: 'babel-loader',
    options: {
      cacheDirectory: true,
      presets,
      plugins: ['react-native-web'],
    },
  },
};

const svgLoaderConfiguration = {
  test: /\.svg$/,
  use: [
    {
      loader: '@svgr/webpack',
    },
  ],
};

const tsLoaderConfiguration = {
  test: /\.(ts|tsx|web.ts|web.tsx)?$/,
  use: [
    {
      loader: 'ts-loader',
      options: {
        transpileOnly: true,
      },
    },
  ],
};

const imageLoaderConfiguration = {
  test: /\.(gif|jpe?g|png)$/,
  use: {
    loader: 'url-loader',
    options: {
      name: '[name].[ext]',
      esModule: false,
    },
  },
};

module.exports = {
  entry: {
    app: path.join(__dirname, '../index.web.js'),
  },
  output: {
    path: path.resolve(appDirectory, 'dist'),
    publicPath: '/',
    filename: 'arcelor.bundle.js',
  },
  resolve: {
    extensions: ['.web.tsx', '.web.ts', '.tsx', '.ts', '.web.js', '.js'],
    alias: {
      'react-native$': 'react-native-web',
    },
  },
  module: {
    rules: [
      babelLoaderConfiguration,
      imageLoaderConfiguration,
      svgLoaderConfiguration,
      tsLoaderConfiguration,
    ],
  },
  plugins: [
    new HtmlWebpackPlugin({
      template: path.join(__dirname, './index.html'),
      filename: 'index.html',
      inject: 'body',
    }),
    new webpack.HotModuleReplacementPlugin(),
    new webpack.DefinePlugin({
      // See: https://github.com/necolas/react-native-web/issues/349
      // __DEV__: JSON.stringify(true),
      __DEV__: process.env.NODE_ENV !== 'production',
      process: {env: {}},
    }),
  ],
};

I'm using webpack@^5.65.0

could anyone help me figure out what is the problem and how can I make react-native-web work with our project? thanks

Solution 1:

getting Webpack up and running from scratch is not an easy task. I suggest you start with a ready to use an approach like cra or expo. then work your way up to customization.

Create-React-App

1. firstly, install the dependencies:

yarn add react-native-web react-scripts react-dom

2. create an HTML file in public/index.html and put the following content inside: gh:facebook/create-react-app/cra-template

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
    <meta
      name="viewport"
      content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1, shrink-to-fit=no"
    />
    <title>Your App Title</title>
  </head>

  <body>
    <noscript>You need to enable JavaScript to run this app.</noscript>
    <div id="root"></div>
  </body>
</html>

3. rename the index.js in project root to index.native.js. see

4. create a js file in src/index.js and put the following content inside:

import { AppRegistry } from "react-native";
import { App } from "./App";

AppRegistry.registerComponent(appName, () => App);
AppRegistry.runApplication("App", {
  rootTag: document.getElementById("root"),
});

5. run the app by running react-scripts start

Customization

you may need to integrate preprocessors like react-native-reanimated/plugin to your babel config or edit your WebPack to add global variables like process.env. In order to do that you can either use react-scripts eject to have access to said configs or use tools like customize-cra.

Expo (Recommened)

In my opinion Expo is the best way to do it. Expo basically is create-react-app but for react-native that supports the react-native-web.

You can set up the expo for the web for your project by following the official guide.

1. install dependencies:

yarn add --global expo-cli
expo install react-native-web react-dom
yarn add expo

2. modify your root index.js to something like this:

import { registerRootComponent } from 'expo';

import App from './App';

registerRootComponent(App);

3. at this point you are ready to go. just rust expo start:web.

Customization

By running expo customize:web, you have access to Babel and Webpack config files.

Typescript basePath

If you are using "baseUrl": "src" in your tsconfig.json. you may need to set up the Babel too. because it may not necessarily follow your tsconfig.

// babel.config.js
module.exports = function (api) {
  api.cache(true);
  return {
    presets: ['babel-preset-expo'],
    plugins: [
      'react-native-reanimated/plugin',
      [
        'module-resolver',
        {
          root: ['src'],
          extensions: ['.tsx', 'json', '.ts', '.js'],
        },
      ],
    ],
  };
};