Simplest possible starting point for using universal/isomorphic/shared React.js + Node.js + Express.js
Use Git to clone this app, then:
npm install
Start the server with all the code transpiled and bundled in a single command:
npm run start
Transpile all the ES6/ES2015 JavaScript to ES5 for Node and browsers
npm run build
Bundle all the client-side JavaScript into a single file (public/js/bundle.js)
npm run bundle
After spending some time searching for universal/isomorphic starter projects to learn from, nearly every one of them:
- Had a list of NPM dependencies longer than my screen viewport.
- Included more dotfiles than source files.
- Made other technology decisions for me, like SASS/Less, Mocha/Jasmine, Webpack/Gulp/Grunt, which implementation of Flux to use, etc.
- Had too much code and/or too many concepts to learn at once.
This project:
- Is NOT opinionated
- Does NOT make any tech choices for you beyond Express.js + React.js
- Does NOT include any CSS pre-processor or framework
- Does NOT include any testing framework
- Does NOT include any specific build tool config (Gulpfile, Gruntfile, etc.)
- Uses ES6/ES2015 for all JavaScript you write
- Uses React.js on both the client AND server (Universal JavaScript) so you can pre-render your initial React.js components for faster initial page load speed and better SEO.
So in essense, this project is a good example starter project for learning how to render React.js components on both the client and server side, and then lets you take it from there.