To run any React application, we need to first setup a ReactJS Development Environment. In this article, we will show you a step-by-step guide to installing and configuring a working React development environment.

We will discuss the following approaches to setup environment in React.

Table of Content

• Using create-react-app (CRA command)
• Using webpack and babel
• Using Vite build tool

Pre-requisite:

We must have NodeJS installed on our PC. So, the very first step will be to install NodeJS. Once we have set up NodeJS on our PC, the next thing we need to do is set up React Boilerplate.

• Installation of Node.js on Windows
• Installation of Node.js on Linux
• Installation of Node.js on mac

Method 1: Using create-react-app (CRA commond)

Step 1: Navigate to the folder where you want to create the project and open it in terminal

Step 2: In the terminal of the application directory type the following command

npx create-react-app <<Application_Name>>

Step 3: Navigate to the newly created folder using the command

cd <<Application_Name>>

Step 4: A default application will be created with the following project structure and dependencies

It will install some packages by default which can be seen in the dependencies in package.json file as follows:

"dependencies": {
    "@testing-library/jest-dom": "^5.17.0",
    "@testing-library/react": "^13.4.0",
    "@testing-library/user-event": "^13.5.0",
    "react": "^18.2.0",
    "react-dom": "^18.2.0",
    "react-scripts": "5.0.1",
    "web-vitals": "^2.1.4"
}

Step 5: To run this application type the following command in terminal

npm start

Step 6: The following output will be displayed in the browser

You can modify the application according to your preferences and change the code accordingly.

Method 2: Using webpack and babel

To setup a react development environment using webpack and babel is a long process and we have to import each package and create setup files ourselves.

We have to create the setup using ‘npm init -y’  command and then import the necessary packages in the folder and then install react using the command.

npm i react react-dom

To install the necessary packages in our project use the command

npm i webpack webpack-cli @babel/core @babel/preset-env@babel/preset-react 
            babel-loader html-webpack-plugin webpack-dev-server --save-dev

P.S.: This tutorial covers only the steps to install the packages. To understand how to configure these packages refer to the Introduction to babel article

Method 3: Using Vite build tool

Step 1: Navigate to the folder where you want to create the project and open it in terminal

Step 2: In the terminal of the application directory type the following command.

npm  create  vite@latest   <<Application_name>>

Step 3: Select the React Framework and then variant as JavaScript from options.

Step 4: Navigate to the newly created folder using the command.

cd <<Application_name>>

now, we can see the basic project structure show in below image.

Step 5: Use the below command in terminal to install all required dependencies.

npm install 
      OR
npm i

After successfully executing this command we can see a new folder named “node_module” in the project folder which contains all the dependencies.

Step 6: To run the application use the following command in terminal.

npm run dev