ReactJS components rendered on your server with your Magento data!
The module currently only exists as a proof-of-concept and probably can't easily be installed and used within a Magento instance, so this guide will apply to running the contents of example/.
git clone https://github.com/mattwellss/mage-reactjs into your favorite "projects" folder.
From the root of the project, run composer install. This will install Magento and its dependencies and the tools necessary to move it out of vendor/ and into tmp/. From example/node-renderer/ run npm install. This will install the dependencies for the Node.js server that turns Magento data into HTML.
Once the dependencies exist, the simplest way to set up Magento's database is to import the sample data. Install MySQL (this README assumes you can do that yourself), and create a database called magento. Sonassi has put a stripped-down version of the CE data on a GitHub repository, so we can grab that and install it:
curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sonassi/magento-sample-data/1.9.0.0/magento_sample_data_for_1.9.0.0.sql > sample_data.sql
mysql magento < sample_data.sql
Now we must configure Magento by crafting a believable app/etc/local.xml. Here's a sample.
<config>
<global>
<install>
<date>2015</date>
</install>
<crypt>
<key></key>
</crypt>
<disable_local_modules>false</disable_local_modules>
<resources>
<db>
<table_prefix></table_prefix>
</db>
<default_setup>
<connection>
<host>localhost</host>
<username>root</username>
<password></password>
<dbname>magento</dbname>
<initStatements><![CDATA[SET NAMES utf8]]></initStatements>
<model>mysql4</model>
<type>pdo_mysql</type>
<pdoType></pdoType>
<active>1</active>
</connection>
</default_setup>
</resources>
</global>
</config>
There are other important pieces in local xml, but the default_setup/connection node is necessary to create a MySQL connection that Magento can use to initialize a store. Now, while keeping a local copy around in case your Magento core files are deleted and replaced, put the file in tmp/mage/app/etc/local.xml.
The last step is to ensure that the templates for Mpw_ReactJs are accessible to Magento. Create a symbolic link from /full/path/to/frontend/base/default/templates/reactjs to Magento's /full/path/to/magento's/frontend/base/default/reactjs.
Start a PHP built-in server from example/ like so:
php -S 127.0.0.1:8001 ./example.php
Start a Node.js (express) server from example/node-renderer/:
node server.js
Now requests to 127.0.0.1:8001 will serve the example page!
Once you have determined that your issue hasn't already been solved by a closed issue, please open a new one at https://github.com/mattwellss/mage-reactjs/issues. You can also react me at twitter.com/mattwellss if you want to help me up my Twitter game.