Restful api in node for react application

Question

I want to create restful api in node for the react application. In my application i am using webpack, babel and react js. So the entry point of the package.json is index.js(that is output of the webpack). So i am not able to understand how to create a restful api in the same project using node. Codes are here.

webpack.config.js

var config = {
   entry: './main.js',

   output: {
      path:'./',
      filename: 'index.js',
   },

   devServer: {
      inline: true,
      port: 8080
   },

   module: {
      loaders: [
         {
            test: /\.jsx?$/,
            exclude: /node_modules/,
            loader: 'babel',

            query: {
               presets: ['es2015', 'react']
            }
         }
      ]
   }
}

module.exports = config;

package.json

{
  "name": "reactmmpl",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "mmpl implementation with react js",
  "main": "index.js",
  "scripts": {
    "test": "testmmpl",
    "start": "webpack-dev-server --hot"
  },
  "keywords": [
    "mmpl",
    "meritain",
    "mobile"
  ],
  "author": "suyesh",
  "license": "ISC",
  "dependencies": {
    "babel-core": "^6.13.2",
    "babel-loader": "^6.2.4",
    "babel-preset-es2015": "^6.13.2",
    "babel-preset-react": "^6.11.1",
    "express": "^4.14.0",
    "react": "^15.3.0",
    "react-dom": "^15.3.0",
    "react-router": "^2.6.1",
    "webpack": "^1.13.1",
    "webpack-dev-server": "^1.14.1"
  }
}

main.js

import React from 'react';
import ReactDOM from 'react-dom';
import App from './App.jsx';
import Login from "./lib/Login.jsx";


ReactDOM.render((
   <Router history = {browserHistory}>
      <Route path = "/" component = {App}>
         <IndexRoute component = {Login} />
      </Route>
   </Router>

), document.getElementById('app'));

App.jsx

import React from 'react';
import Header from "./lib/Header.jsx";




class App extends React.Component {
   render() {
      return (
         <div>
            <div className="main-container" id="loginPage">
                <Header/>
                {this.props.children}
            </div>
         </div>
      );
   }
}



export default App;

index.html

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang = "en">

   <head>
      <meta charset = "UTF-8">
      <title>React App</title>
      <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/public/css/headerFooter.css" />
      <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/public/css/content.css" />
   </head>

   <body>
      <div id = "app"></div>
      <script src = "index.js"></script>
   </body>

</html>

why do you run the backend code in your front-end project? I realize it may be more convenient but to me that's cluttered. Spit it out into a separate repo and project — PositiveGuy
– PositiveGuy, Commented Apr 5, 2017 at 5:21

Žarko Selak · Accepted Answer · 2016-08-31 13:33:42Z

You can run two servers, one with webpack-dev-server for client app and for api. So lets say you have your express server on port 3000 and client app server on 9000 all you need to do is to proxy requests like this.

import webpack from 'webpack';
import WebpackDevServer from 'webpack-dev-server';
import config from '../webpack.config.dev.js';

new WebpackDevServer(webpack(config), {
  publicPath: config.output.publicPath,
  contentBase: 'public/',
  hot: true,
  inline: true,
  quiet: false,
  historyApiFallback: true,
  proxy: {
    '*' : 'http://localhost:3000'
  }
}).listen(9000, 'localhost', (err, result) => {
  if (err) {
    return console.log(err);
  }
  console.log('Listening at http://localhost:9000/');
});

so this is example from one of mine projects, this is 'middleware' file for development build. With this setup if your api route looks like this http://localhost:3000/api/users your ajax url to get users will be just /users

eg.

fetch('/api/users', optionsObject);

FredWe · Accepted Answer · 2016-08-19 09:28:57Z

0

You have 2 options to implement RESTful APIs :

Front-end option : using a front-end library like react-router
Back-end option : directly write your expected response in your framework, for example, in express

answered Aug 19, 2016 at 9:28

FredWe

114 bronze badges

Comments

Derrick · Accepted Answer · 2016-08-22 08:14:52Z

0

From the client side code, AJAX would be used to make the RESTful API Calls. There is a nice lib that takes some of the ugliness out of AGAX:

https://github.com/visionmedia/superagent

Even if sharing a lot of the same code, you're probably going to have separate entrypoints for the server side vs client side. The Express framework will be setup in your server side code. A good example of setting this up is in the below boilerplate:

Here is a good example showing client server interaction: https://github.com/erikras/react-redux-universal-hot-example

answered Aug 22, 2016 at 8:14

Derrick

1,60612 silver badges8 bronze badges

1 Comment

suyesh Over a year ago

thanks for the answer. I can call restful api, However if you see me package.json react is running on one port and for creating restful api how do i configure express this is my doubt.

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