SurviveJS - Webpack and React - v1.8.0

We have once more new chapters in the book. I’m going to try a new model with these. For now the full versions of the testing and typing chapters will be available through Leanpub↗ only. The community version will contain TLDR;s for these so you still get the core points. Of course the project source is public for examination.

By doing this I want to give my supporters a small edge. As a result they’ll get the access to the new material first. If it looks like this works, I don’t mind developing more content and opening old as new chapters get developed. Consider it as a poor man’s Kickstarter. We can even agree on goals if that works better.

Pricing-wise I’ve bumped the minimum price of the book to $20 as I believe that reflects its current value. I may do another bump later on as I understand how the situation develops.

Book Improvements - v1.8.0

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In total 137 commits went to v1.8.0. To make it easier to follow what happened and where, I’ve split up the changes below.

You can see GitHub for all changes↗.

General Fixes

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• Grammar was improved overall. Big thanks Steve!
• app/main.js[x] was renamed as app/index.js[x]. This simplifies Webpack entry configuration as you can point directly to app. This resolves to the index file within the directory and saves some hassle.

Webpack and React

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• Mentioned Visual Studio Code↗. This free editor has grown fast. It gained JSX support in v0.8.0.
• Fixed basic JSX example. A React component should return a single node.
• Linked to a blog post about JSX shock↗. It goes more detail about the experience.
• Updated Webpack example to use eval-source-map instead of eval. This is consistent with the earlier chapter. In our case we can avoid eval. Even though it’s faster we can afford to go for quality.
• Explained resolve.extensions in detail. Simply put this Webpack property allows us to control the way it matches against files (is it ok to skip extension or not).
• Moved Babel to use .babelrc. This will become even more important in the future as react-transform↗ Babel plugin will replace the current hot loader.
• Documented how to control .babelrc based on env easily. This is important when you want to perform branching based on your build target.
• Mentioned about React Developer Tools↗. They give you a better idea of what’s going on at your code. Available for both Chrome and Firefox.

Implementing a Basic Note Application

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• Noted that hot loading won’t pick up changes made to a constructor. It simply replaces method contents so these get missed. It would be nice to find a good alternative to those bind statements that is performant and works with hot loading.
• Explained what super() actually does. Simply put it invokes the same method of the parent class.
• Mentioned that using a context might be a viable option for dealing with onEdit. It is currently and undocumented feature. Dmitry Kudryavtsev goes into a good detail at his article The land of undocumented react.js: The Context↗. React 0.14 will introduce a stable context API and it’s worth discussing then.
• Caught possible alt.bootstrap related exception. It can fail if it receives data it cannot interpret. Better to deal with that than to blow up.
• Linked to Sebastian Markbåge’s expanded explanation of JSX spread attributes↗.
• Made get(ids) more tolerant against missing data. Now it doesn’t return possible empty (undefined or such) results. Of course getting that sort of data at localStorage isn’t a good idea in the first place but sometimes it’s a good idea to be a little defensive.

Implementing Drag and Drop

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• Pushed ItemTypes below app/constants/itemTypes.js. Given they are constants that feels like the right place for those. I noticed this while implementing the Redux version of the Kanban↗.
• Expanded explanations. I tend to go somewhat terse on my first pass of content. Now I’ve expanded on possibly clear parts so it’s easier to see what’s going on and why.
• Passed id instead of data to Note. This change simplified move logic somewhat and it goes according to the law of Demeter↗.

Building Kanban

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• Dropped redundant references to TARGET. Now we can avoid setting TARGET at package.json as we deduce the target based on npm lifecycle information.
• Noted that peeking at the warnings Uglify.js, the minifier, provides can be beneficial.
• Expanded on splitting app and vendor bundles. Now it’s easier to see what’s going on and, most importantly, why.
• Noted ExtractTextPlugin related gotchas. It won’t work through loader form. Instead you have to use loaders: [ExtractTextPlugin.extract('style', 'css!autoprefixer')] or such. If you need to use multiple loaders with it, note the syntax! You should use the ! form in the second parameter to add more if needed.
• Noted that chunkhash seems to be broken↗ at the moment. For now I would suggest generating hashes of your own but I understand it’s a heavy solution. Hopefully this one gets fixed soon.

Testing React

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This is a new chapter! The chapter can likely use some work still. I’ll probably cover techniques such as mocking in the future but the basic setup inspired by Cesar Andreu’s web-app↗ is there. We also get some tests done so that’s good.

Typing with React

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This is another new chapter. In the chapter I show how to annotate our project using propTypes↗. This is one of those steps you should take to solidify your project.

There is a basic introduction to Flow↗. Unfortunately the current version is missing some functionality our project would need. I have to get back to this later as the tool develops further.

TypeScript↗ will receive JSX support in 1.6. That’s another tool I want to cover once it gets out.

Linting in Webpack

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• Rewrote introduction to be easier to approach.
• Mentioned about ESLint autofixing↗. This is a feature that allows you to fix certain linting errors automatically. As it’s new, not a lot of rules are supported yet.
• Explained ESLint env configuration detail. That’s important to know especially when you are dealing with multiple environments and testing tools.
• Added EditorConfig↗. This tool allows you to maintain project-wide coding style. There’s a good level of editor/IDE support. It’s a valuable tool in a team environment.

Authoring Libraries

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• Expanded on npm adduser and mentioned npm login alias to clear up confusion.

Styling React

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• Mentioned Stylus↗.
• Added “resources” sidebar to the site. I’ll be setting similar ones for other chapters. I’ll likely push this to a separate repository so it’s easier to contribute.

What Next?

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Given there’s a release candidate of React 0.14↗ out there, it likely doesn’t take that long for a final version to appear. This will lead to some important changes in the book. Most importantly it will allow me to default to function syntax for components. In addition I can dig into features such as context.

Once I’m convinced that babel-plugin-react-transform↗ is stable enough and that it works well with the project, I’ll change my recommendation to it. It’s already worth a look.

I’ll also develop the content based on your feedback. The site may receive some small updates. I would love to do something about the highlighting of the code examples and improve the way the are laid out (show added/removed lines better).

I’ll write at least one more chapter for my Leanpub readers. The way the situation develops determines the rest.

Conclusion

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I hope you enjoy this release. As usual feedback↗ and pull requests are welcome.

I’m still a little conflicted about Amazon and dead tree versions. One option is that I’ll do a snapshot (v2.0.0) that will be published. Leanpub version would then continue from there. Amazon buyers would obviously receive a heavy discount on Leanpub. It’s more about reaching more people with the work than anything else.

Remember that you can support my work by purchasing the book at Leanpub↗. Every little bit counts and allows me to keep it up.