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React on Rails Basic Tutorial

  • NOTE: Please be sure to use the BETA or RC versions of React on Rails until 9.0 is released.*

This tutorial setups up a new Rails app with React on Rails, demonstrating Rails + React + Redux + Server Rendering. It is updated to 9.0.0.

After finishing this tutorial you will get an application that can do the following (live on Heroku):

example

You can find here:

By the time you read this, the latest may have changed. Be sure to check the versions here:

Note: some of the screen images below show the "npm" command. react_on_rails 6.6.0 and greater uses yarn.

Setting up the environment

Trying out React on Rails is super easy, so long as you have the basic prerequisites. This includes the basics for Rails 5.x and node version 6+. I recommend rvm and nvm to install Ruby and Node, and brew to install yarn. Rails can be installed as an ordinary gem.

nvm install node                # download and install latest stable Node
nvm alias default node          # make it default version
nvm list                        # check

brew install yarn               # you can use other installer if desired

rvm install 2.4.1               # download and install latest stable Ruby (update to exact version)
rvm use 2.4.1 --default         # use it and make it default
rvm list                        # check

gem install rails               # download and install latest stable Rails
gem install foreman             # download and install Foreman

Then we need to create a fresh Rails application with webpacker react support as following. Be sure that

First be sure to run rails -v and check you are using Rails 5.1.3 or above. If you are using an older version of Rails, you'll need to install webpacker with react per the instructions here.

cd <directory where you want to create your new Rails app>

# any name you like for the rails app
rails new test-react-on-rails --webpack=react 

cd test-react-on-rails

Note: you can do the following two commands in an existing Rails app or pre Rails 5.1.3:

bundle exec rails webpacker:install
bundle exec rails webpacker:install:react

Add the React On Rails gem to your Gemfile:

gem 'react_on_rails', '9.0.0'         # use latest gem version, prefer exact version

Then run bundle and commit the git repository (or rails generate will not work properly)

bundle

# Here are git commands to make a new git repo and commit everything.
# Newer versions of Rails create the git repo by default.
git add -A
git commit -m "Initial commit"

Install React on Rails: rails generator react_on_rails:install or rails generate react_on_rails:install --redux. You need to first git commit your files before running the generator, or else it will generate an error.

rails generate react_on_rails:install
bundle && yarn

and then run server with

foreman start -f Procfile.dev

Visit http://localhost:3000/hello_world and see your React On Rails app running! Note, foreman defaults to PORT 5000 unless you set the value of PORT in your environment or in the Procfile.

Custom IP & PORT setup (Cloud9 example)

In case you are running some custom setup with different IP or PORT you should also edit Procfile.dev. For example to be able to run on free Cloud9 IDE we are putting IP 0.0.0.0 and PORT 8080. The default generated file Procfile.dev uses -p 3000.

web: rails s -p 8080 -b 0.0.0.0

Then visit https://your-shared-addr.c9users.io:8080/hello_world

RubyMine

It's super important to exclude certain directories from RubyMine or else it will slow to a crawl as it tries to parse all the npm files.

  • Generated files, per the settings in your config/webpacker.yml, which default to public/packs and public/packs-test
  • node_modules

Deploying to Heroku

Create Your Heroku App

Assuming you can login to heroku.com and have logged into to your shell for heroku.

  1. Visit https://dashboard.heroku.com/new and create an app, say named my-name-react-on-rails:

06

Run this command that looks like this from your new heroku app

heroku git:remote -a my-name-react-on-rails

Set heroku to use multiple buildpacks:

heroku buildpacks:set heroku/ruby
heroku buildpacks:add --index 1 heroku/nodejs

Swap out sqlite for postgres by doing the following:

  1. Delete the line with sqlite and replace it with:
   gem 'pg'

07

  1. Replace your database.yml file with this (assuming your app name is "ror").
default: &default
  adapter: postgresql
  username:
  password:
  host: localhost

development:
  <<: *default
  database: ror_development

# Warning: The database defined as "test" will be erased and
# re-generated from your development database when you run "rake".
# Do not set this db to the same as development or production.
test:
  <<: *default
  database: ror_test

production:
  <<: *default
  database: ror_production

Then you need to setup postgres so you can run locally:

bundle
rake db:setup
rake db:migrate

08

I'd recommend adding this line to the top of your routes.rb. That way, your root page will go to the Hello World page for React On Rails.

root "hello_world#index"

09

Next, configure your app for Puma, per the instructions on Heroku.

Procfile

web: bundle exec puma -C config/puma.rb

config/puma.rb

workers Integer(ENV['WEB_CONCURRENCY'] || 2)
threads_count = Integer(ENV['RAILS_MAX_THREADS'] || 5)
threads threads_count, threads_count

preload_app!

rackup      DefaultRackup
port        ENV['PORT']     || 3000
environment ENV['RACK_ENV'] || 'development'

on_worker_boot do
  # Worker specific setup for Rails 4.1+
  # See: https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/deploying-rails-applications-with-the-puma-web-server#on-worker-boot
  ActiveRecord::Base.establish_connection
end

Then after all changes are done don't forget to commit them with git and finally you can push your app to Heroku!

git add -A
git commit -m "Latest changes"
git push heroku master

Feedback is greatly appreciated! As are stars on github! If you want personalized help, don't hesitate to get in touch with us at contact@shakacode.com.