Package Management

CDN-hosted React #

We provide CDN-hosted versions of React on our download page. These pre-built files use the UMD module format. Dropping them in with a simple <script> tag will inject the React and ReactDOM globals into your environment. It should also work out-of-the-box in CommonJS and AMD environments.

Using React from npm #

You can use React with a CommonJS module system like browserify or webpack. Use the react and react-dom npm packages.

// main.js
var React = require('react');
var ReactDOM = require('react-dom');

ReactDOM.render(
  <h1>Hello, world!</h1>,
  document.getElementById('example')
);

Configure babel with a .babelrc file:

 { "presets": ["react"] }

Note:

If you are using ES2015, you will want to also use the babel-preset-es2015 package.

To install React DOM and build your bundle with browserify:

$ npm install --save react react-dom babelify babel-preset-react
$ browserify -t [ babelify ] main.js -o bundle.js

To install React DOM and build your bundle with webpack:

$ npm install --save react react-dom babel-preset-react babel-loader babel-core
$ webpack main.js bundle.js --module-bind 'js=babel-loader'

Note:

If you are using ES2015, you will want to also use the babel-preset-es2015 package.

Note: by default, React will be in development mode, which is slower, and not advised for production. To use React in production mode, set the environment variable NODE_ENV to production (using envify or webpack's DefinePlugin). For example:

new webpack.DefinePlugin({
  "process.env": {
    NODE_ENV: JSON.stringify("production")
  }
});

Update your HTML file as below:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8" />
    <title>Hello React!</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div id="example"></div>
    <script src="bundle.js"></script>
  </body>
</html>

Using React from Bower #

Bower is a package manager optimized for the front-end development. If multiple packages depend on a package - jQuery for example - Bower will download jQuery just once. This is known as a flat dependency graph and it helps reduce page load. For more info, visit http://bower.io/.

If you'd like to use bower, it's as easy as:

bower install --save react

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8" />
    <title>Hello React!</title>
    <script src="bower_components/react/react.js"></script>
    <script src="bower_components/react/react-dom.js"></script>
    <script src="https://unpkg.com/[email protected]/browser.min.js"></script>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div id="example"></div>
    <script type="text/babel">
      ReactDOM.render(
        <h1>Hello, world!</h1>,
        document.getElementById('example')
      );
    </script>
  </body>
</html>

Using master #

We have instructions for building from master in our GitHub repository.

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