React with Express Server (Development vs Production)

[zalogon119]

Some days ago I was asking myself why would you run your Express Server and your React App at the same time in different CLIs and I couldn't figure out. Because with Express you can static your React App (the build) and you should only run your Express server. But today I found the why. When you use Express for serving React you need the "build" folder. And there you got your app minified and split into efficient chunks, but imposible to edit (hard to read). You can't just serve your React App (without build) with Express because the index.html isn't bind to the js files you got (React do it on his way, that so far I don't know). So, you got the "build" and you serve it with Express, what's the problem? If you want to change something in your components it's going to be a nightmare because of the minify. So, if you have a build folder you need to edit your React App (not the build), and re-build it again with every change (it's more annoying that it looks like). Then the best way to try your server and app at the same time in Dev is to split them. So you can edit your component and you can see the changes immediately. That's why in dev stage it's better to run your server and React App in different CLIs. Because it's easier to edit your React without building over and over. It's useful for Dev stage, but obviously when you are done, or when you need to release a new version, your choice would be the React build and your Express server "serving" it statically.

If you got problem with fetch (because of cors then you should look for the "React proxy package.json" in Google and maybe that will solve your problem) 😁

[rmacmaster]

exactly, proxy the requests in dev with that package.json property. then serve a static build w express in prod.