boilerplates-and-starter-kits.md

Boilerplates and Starter Kits

Suggested Starter Kits for Learners

NOTE: It's easy for someone new to the React/Redux ecosystem to get confused by some of these boilerplates and starter kits. Many of them include dozens of specifically-configured libraries, and it can be hard for a learner to understand how all the pieces fit together. If you're trying to learn React or Redux for the first time, it's suggested that you start with reading tutorials and articles first, until you have a reasonable understanding of how things work. However, if you do want to use a starter kit as a learning tool, I specifically suggest the ones in this section. They are simpler, easier to understand, and well documented.

• Simple Redux Boilerplate
  https://github.com/tsaiDavid/simple-redux-boilerplate
  Excellent example. Includes enough to be useful, but not too many dependencies so it's confusing.

• Web-App
  https://github.com/cesarandreu/web-app
  Another very good learning resource. Heavily commented Webpack config, good default settings.

• React Laboratory
  https://github.com/tstringer/react-laboratory
  An absolute bare-minimum project. One tiny Webpack config, one JS file, one component. Pretty much the smallest possible setup to use React and JSX with Webpack.

• Hipster Boilerplate
  https://github.com/Jordaanm/hipster-boilerplate
  A learning-oriented repo that builds up a small project config step-by-step. Each commit adds one new feature or capability (Babel+ES6, Webpack bundling, a small Redux app, LESS styling, routing, and hot-reloading).

Full-Featured Starter Kits

• React-Redux Universal Hot Example
  https://github.com/erikras/react-redux-universal-hot-example
  Has the kitchen sink, and more. Popular, but maybe too many things stuffed into one repo.

• React-Redux Starter Kit
  https://github.com/davezuko/react-redux-starter-kit
  Generally recommended. Well laid out, good documentation. Worth looking at. Has become significantly more complex over time as well.

• react-boilerplate
  https://github.com/mxstbr/react-boilerplate
  A highly scalable, offline-first foundation for your next project with the best DX and a focus on performance and best practices. Excellent documentation.

• React Starter Kit
  https://github.com/kriasoft/react-starter-kit
  A full-featured universal/isomorphic starter kit, with good documentation

• React Slingshot
  https://github.com/coryhouse/react-slingshot
  A flexible starter kit designed to illustrate best practices.

Specific Concept Demonstrations

• Ultimate Hot-Reloading Example
  https://github.com/glenjamin/ultimate-hot-reloading-example
  Demonstrates hot-reloading of pretty much everything, both client-side and server-side

• Universal-JS
  https://github.com/colinmeinke/universal-js
  A well-written universal starter with docs explaining choices, and plenty of example tests.

• React + Electron Boilerplate
  https://github.com/chentsulin/electron-react-boilerplate
  Electron application boilerplate based on React, Redux, React Router, Webpack, React Transform HMR for rapid application development

• React-Redux-Cesium-Testing Demo
  https://github.com/markerikson/react-redux-cesium-testing-demo
  Demonstrates a number of useful bits of project configuration, including offline tests with Mocha+JSDOM, live-reloading tests in the browser using mocha-loader, async loading of React components, use of the Cesium 3D globe library with React and Webpack, and using the Shrinkpack tool to manage dependencies inside the repo. Not intended for production use, but could serve as a useful example.

• React Static Plate
  https://github.com/webyak/react-static-plate
  Build static sites with React to host on Amazon S3, Github Pages, Surge, etc. An interesting alternative to other static page generation tools.

Other

• React Starter Project Search Tool
  http://andrewhfarmer.com/starter-project/
  Search for starter kits with/without specific libraries and sort by GitHub stars, number of dependencies, or recently updated.

• Awesome React Boilerplates
  http://habd.as/awesome-react-boilerplates/
  Another good curated list of boilerplates for both React and React Native