[Proposal] make topcoder-react-utils a single devDependency

[maxceem]

Don't know where is better to write a proposal, so I create an issue. let me know if there is a better place.

Currently, if we want to use the same building process for another project we have to run adopt-dev-deps which will update our package.json with all the devDependecies and after we have to write webpack config files which will merge some configs from the topcoder-react-utils. What do you think about making topcoder-react-utils work similar way to react-scripts

• So instead of copying all the dependencies, our project has only one devDependency topcoder-react-utils and provides some commands like build, start, dev, lint and so on.
• The benefits of such approach are:
  • topcoder-react-utils could be theoretically used as a bootstrap during challenges. If it works the way react-scripts then it would be very handy to use, as there are zero lines to write before starting coding.
  • updating devDependencies will become centralized. Don't have to run adopt-dev-deps again.
• Downside:
  • Have to think how to handle situations if a project needs to make some modifications to config files. Not sure if there is a good solution. In react-scripts we only can run eject command in such case, which will copy all the files from react-scripts to the project. So in this case, we would loose benefits of react-scripts as we cannot use it anymore.
  • Probably we can have some folders in the project which will extend corresponding configs from topcoder-react-utils.

[birdofpreyru]

@maxceem I am sure open to discussion, as I am learning a lot about NPM as I have started to work on this, and may miss something. Here are my current thoughts on this:

1. Regarding dependencies management.

   • topcoder-react-utils should be prod dependency, because it (will) contains lots of code necessary at runtime.

   • Copying of topcoder-react-utils's dev dependencies into the host package is required as otherwise they are not installed by npm install, while we still need them if we want to build the host package using the same babel/webpack configs. Prod dependencies of topcoder-react-utils, if they are directly used by the host package, also should be installed into the host package explicitly (no need for a special script, because it is anyway tested and enforced by ESLint). The reason for this is that there is npm link command, which allows, for dev purposes, to install a package from a local folder instead of the global NPM repo. If you npm link a package A into package B then all dependencies of A are installed into node_modules inside the local folder of A, and they are not installed into node_modules inside the folder of B, which would break B if all dependencies are not explicitely listed in its package.json. I am not sure, though, whether npm link is useful for us at all, cause it seems to break Webpack build process when a part of config comes from a linked package (we need to experiment more with it).

2. Regarding the usage of topcoder-react-utils for bootstrapping.

   • My idea is to have topcoder-react-utils as a collection of general-purpose re-usable code, and for bootstrapping of ReactJS apps to create a few starting packs, based on topcoder-react-utils. I am saying a few, cause I already see a few different use-cases, all of which still need the same pieces of code from topcoder-react-utils:

     • Building additional ReactJS libraries, like topcoder-react-ui-kit, where we gonna move any styles / component themes following TC styleguide, i.e. what we need only for TC platform projects;

     • Building of big ReactJS apps, like Community App, Connect App, etc.; where we want use Redux, server-side rendering, and other stuff that takes more efforts to use, but helps to structure and maintain a long-term projects with big codebase;

     • Building light ReactJS apps, like a few screens promo website, etc.; which we want to create as fast as possible, and it won't have too complex/large code, neither will be actively evolving once created. In this case we don't need Redux, server-side rendering, etc.; although we still want to use CSS modules and some other stuff.

     So, I believe, once topcoder-react-utils is somewhat stable and tested with Community App and Connect App, we can create and maintain starting packs for these purposes.