Gotchas

These are some things to be aware of when using this boilerplate.

Special images in HTML files

If you specify your images in the .html files using the <img> tag, everything will work fine. The problem comes up if you try to include images using anything except that tag, like meta tags:

<meta property="og:image" content="img/yourimg.png" />

The webpack html-loader does not recognise this as an image file and will not transfer the image to the build folder. To get webpack to transfer them, you have to import them with the file loader in your JavaScript somewhere, e.g.:

import 'file?name=[name].[ext]!../img/yourimg.png';

Then webpack will correctly transfer the image to the build folder.

Load reducers optimistically

If you have containers that should be available throughout the app, like a NavigationBar (they aren't route specific), you need to add their respective reducers to the root reducer with the help of combineReducers.

// In app/reducers.js
...
import { combineReducers } from 'redux';
...
import navigationBarReducer from 'containers/NavigationBar/reducer';
export default function createReducer(injectedReducers = {}) {
const rootReducer = combineReducers({
global: globalReducer,
language: languageProviderReducer,
router: connectRouter(history),
navigationBar: navigationBarReducer,
...injectedReducers,
});
return rootReducer;
}

Exclude modules from Babel processing

You need to exclude packages which are not intended to be processed by babel. For e.g. Server packages such as 'express' or a CSS file. Just add the package name to exclude array in internals/config.js and you're all set!

// in internals/config.js
exclude: [
'chalk',
'compression',
'cross-env',
'express',
'ip',
'minimist',
'sanitize.css',
'your-unwanted-package', <- add your-unwanted-package
...
]

Running tests in watch mode

If you are unable to run tests in watch mode, you may have to install watchman for this to work. If you're using a Mac, simply run brew install watchman

You can also install watchman from source. Please visit their official guide for more information.

When in doubt, re-install!

If you're facing any inexplicable problems while installing dependencies, building your project or running tests, try reinstalling dependencies. It works for most cases. Run the following commands in the exact order given:

Remove node_modules

  • rm -rf node_modules

Clear cache

  • npm cache clean

Re-install dependencies

  • npm install

Build project

  • npm run build

Cleaning up Jest cache

By default, Jest caches transformed modules, which may lead to faulty coverage reports. To prevent this, you'll have to clear the cache by running npm run test -- --no-cache as pointed out in Jest docs

Using short_name in Web App manifest

When there's insufficient space to display an app's full name it is truncated. This happens with app launcher and new tab in Chrome for Android. The short_name field allows a 12 character or less abbreviation. It also addresses any problems in testing the PWA in Lighthouse.

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