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How to Add Vite to a React Web App

· 3 min read
Humed Essie

Introduction​

Vite.js enables developers to create a development environment with a dev server for frameworks like as Vue, TezJS, and React, as well as Vanilla JavaScript apps. Furthermore, it enables the development team to perform a hot reload in just three instructions. Rollup is also supported.

Why You Should Use Vite?​

It may significantly speed up development, especially in big projects where the ability to just hot-swap whole modules can be really useful.

How to Add Vite to a React Web App?​

1. Installing Dependencies​

  • Using npm
npm install --save-dev vite @vitejs/plugin-react vite-tsconfig-paths vite-plugin-svgr
  • Using yarn
yarn add -D vite @vitejs/plugin-react vite-tsconfig-paths vite-plugin-svgr

2. Vite Config​

  • Create vite.config.js at the root directory
// vite.config.js
import { defineConfig } from "vite";
import react from "@vitejs/plugin-react";
import viteTsconfigPaths from "vite-tsconfig-paths";
import svgrPlugin from "vite-plugin-svgr";

// https://vitejs.dev/config/
export default defineConfig({
  plugins: [react(), viteTsconfigPaths(), svgrPlugin()],
  server: {
    port: 3000,
  },
  preview: {
    port: 3000,
  },
});
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You can change the port to your own preference.

3. Move index.html to root directory​

  • Move index.html from public folder to the root of your project directory

4. Edit the index.html file as follow​

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
    <link rel="icon" href="/favicon.ico" />
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" />
    <meta name="theme-color" content="#000000" />
    <meta
      name="description"
      content="Web site created using create-react-app"
    />
    <link
      rel="stylesheet"
      href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Poppins|Jost|Mulish|Josefin Sans|Josefin Slab|Montserrat|Inter"
    />
    <!-- <link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="/logo192.png" /> -->
    <title>Arkena Coffee Market</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <noscript>You need to enable JavaScript to run this app.</noscript>
    <div id="root"></div>

    <!--
      This HTML file is a template.
      If you open it directly in the browser, you will see an empty page.

      You can add webfonts, meta tags, or analytics to this file.
      The build step will place the bundled scripts into the <body> tag.

      To begin the development, run `npm start` or `yarn start`.
      To create a production bundle, use `npm run build` or `yarn build`.
    -->
    <script type="module" src="/src/index.tsx"></script>
  </body>
</html>

5. Note on environmental variables​

  • In vite the process.env is replaced by import.meta.env.
  • In .env file make sure you prefix the variables name with VITE
tip

For example as follow

VITE_API_ROUTE=https://example.com
  • Use it as follow
const API_ROUTE = import.meta.env.VITE_API_ROUTE;

6. Edit package.json file script commands​

"start": "vite",
"build": "vite build",
"serve": "vite preview --host",

For typeScript projects​

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If you are using typeScript add the following to tsconfig inside the compileroptions.

"types": ["vite/client", "vite-plugin-svgr/client", "jest"]
  • Also create a vite-env.d.ts inside the src directory and add the following to it.
/// <reference types="vite/client" />

Edit package.json file script commands​

"start": "vite",
"build": "tsc && vite build",
"serve": "vite preview --host",

See also​

Conclusion​

Thank you for sticking with me this long to learn how add and configure vite in react web app.

Happy coding 🎉!