Webpack Starter Kit

Clone This Repo

That's right, clone not fork. You will use this repo multiple times, but you can only fork a repository once. So here is what you need to do to clone the repo and still be able to push changes to your repo:

1. Clone down this repo. Since you don't want to name your project "webpack-starter-kit", you can use an optional argument when you run git clone (you replace the [...] with the terminal command arguments): git clone [remote-address] [what you want to name the repo]
2. Remove the default remote: git remote rm origin (notice that git remote -v not gives you back nothing)
3. Create a new repo on GitHub with the name of [what you want to name the repo] to be consistent with naming
4. Copy the address that you would use to clone down this repo - something like [email protected]:...
5. Add this remote to your cloned down repo: git remote add origin [address you copied in the previous step] - do not include the brackets

Now try to commit something and push it up to your new repo. If everything is setup correctly, you should see the changes on GitHub.

Setup

After one person has gone through the steps of cloning down this repo and editing the remote, everyone should clone down the repo.

Then install the library dependencies. Run:

npm install

To verify that it is setup correctly, run npm start in your terminal. Go to http://localhost:8080/ and you should see a page with some h1 text and a pink background. If that's the case, you're good to go. Enter control + c in your terminal to stop the server at any time.

Where to Add Your Code

JavaScript

You have to be very intentional with where you add your feature code. This repo uses a tool called webpack to combine many JavaScript files into one big file. Webpack enables you to have many, separate JavaScript files to keep your code organized and readable. Webpack expects all of your code files to be in a specific place, or else it doesn't know how to combine them all behind the scenes.

Create all of your feature code files in the src directory.

Since code is separated into multiple files, you need to use the import and export syntax to share code across file.

Here is a video that walks through some information about import and export. There are a lot of resources out there about import and export, and resources will sometimes call them ES6 modules. It's something you will see in React and beyond.

HTML

Add the HTML you need in the index.html file in the ./src directory. There is some boilerplate HTML that exists from the start that you can modify.

CSS (SCSS/SASS)

This project is setup to use SCSS/SASS files by default instead of your regular CSS files. Add your SCSS files in the src/css directory. There is a base.scss file already there, but you can change this file and add multiple SCSS files in this directory.

This might sound weird, but you need to import your SCSS files in the JavaScript entry file (index.js) for the styles to be applied to your HTML. The example base.scss file has already been imported in the JavaScript entry file as an example.

Images

Add your image files in the src/images directory. Similar to CSS files, you need to import image files in the JavaScript entry file (index.js). Then go into the HTML and add an img element with the src attribute pointing to the images directory. There is an example in the index.html file for you to see.

How to View Your Code in Action

In the terminal, run:

npm start

You will see a bunch of lines output to your terminal. One of those lines will be something like:

Project is running at http://localhost:8080/

Go to http://localhost:8080/ in your browser to view your code running in the browser.

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Test Files Organization

Similar to feature code, your test code needs to be put in a specific place for it to run successfully.

Put all of your test files in the test directory. As a convention, all test filenames should end with -test.js. For instance: box-test.js.

Running Your Tests

Run your test suite using the command:

npm test

The test results will output to the terminal.

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Linting Your Code

Run the command in your terminal npm run lint to run the linter on your JavaScript code. There will be errors and warnings right from the start in this starter kit - the linter is still running successfully.

Your linter will look at the JavaScript files you have within the src directory and the test directory.

Webpack?

If you look in the package.json file, you'll see one of the library dependencies called webpack. If you're interested in learning more about what Webpack is and how it works behind the scenes, take a look through the Webpack configuration documentation.

Deploying to GitHub Pages

If you are finished with the functionality and testing of your project, then you can consider deploying your project to the web! This way anyone can play it without cloning down your repo.

GitHub Pages is a great way to deploy your project to the web. Research deploying a Webpack project to GitHub Pages or ask your instructors about it if you get to that point. (Don't worry about this until your project is free of bugs and well tested!)