Setting up ESLINT with TS/JS in your React project in 2023

#react #javascript #webdev #productivity

ESLINT: Does not matter if you are a seasoned or a novice developer, ESLINT is definitely a term you have come across or heard of at the very least. Even I had heard of it a lot and even used it in applications that already had it configured but never had the liberty and or the chance to set it up on my own in a bare project. And that is exactly what we shall be doing today using the following tools:

ESLINT is a pluggable linting tool for JS as well as JSX (basically React) which helps you detect possible errors in your code ranging from a wide array of possibilities such as unused variables in files, illegal comparisons, etc.

PRETTIER is probably the most popular code formatter to enforce a certain and consistent style guide in your codebase.

HUSKY in its own words is a simple tool to improve your commits and more by making use of git hooks.

SETTING UP ESLINT

It's as simple as running the following command in a terminal at the root of your project:

npm init @eslint/config

Once you execute it, you will be prompted with a bunch of questions as follows:-

Based on your requirements and environment, answer the questions accordingly. At least with eslint version 8.0.1, you are only presented with 2 style guides: standard and XO.
Personally, I prefer the standard styling guide but at any give time, it is a personal choice and as such feel free to choose any from a bunch of available options. Once all dependencies are installed, ensure that you have the following packages added as devDependencies to your project:

@typescript-eslint/eslint-plugin
@typescript-eslint/parser
eslint
eslint-config-standard-with-typescript
eslint-plugin-import
eslint-plugin-n
eslint-plugin-promise
eslint-plugin-react

At the time of writing this article, eslint latest version is 8.0.1 and there is a high chance that you may not get @typescript-eslint/parser added directly. If that is the case, do not worry. Just add the same as a dev dependency using

npm i --save-dev @typescript-eslint/parser

Following is a screenshot of the linter configuration that I work with. Feel free to go about the rules section and tweak it as per your flow. However, it is advisable that you do not go about changing the rules cause any style guide is written keeping certain things in mind but like all things, it is your call ultimately.



{
  "env": {
    "browser": true,
    "es2021": true
  },
  "extends": [
    "plugin:react/recommended",
    "standard-with-typescript",
    "plugin:import/typescript",
    "plugin:prettier/recommended"
  ],
  "parser": "@typescript-eslint/parser",
  "overrides": [],
  "parserOptions": {
    "ecmaVersion": "latest",
    "sourceType": "module",
    "project": "./tsconfig.json"
  },
  "plugins": ["react", "prettier"],
  "rules": {
    "@typescript-eslint/triple-slash-reference": "off"
  }
}

NOTE: Do remember to add a .eslintignore file and keep non-essential files such as build, node_modules, dist, etc. in there otherwise the linter will keep yelling at you to fix those changes as well.

SETTING UP PRETTIER

This is comparatively a simple process cause most of the setup for prettier was already taken care of when we set up eslint and the related config file. Hit up the following command:-

npm i --save-dev prettier eslint-config-prettier eslint-plugin-prettier

Add a .prettierrc.js file as follows:



module.exports = {
  arrowParens: "avoid",
  bracketSameLine: true,
  bracketSpacing: false,
  singleQuote: false,
  trailingComma: "all",
  tabWidth: 2,
  useTabs: false,
  semi: true,
  printWidth: 80,
};

NOTE:

Just like a .eslintignore, add a .prettierignore file containing elements that don't need to be checked.
Don't forget to check the format on save setting in VSCode to allow prettier to enforce your changes automatically when you save your code.

SETTING UP HUSKY**

We are almost there. This is probably the trickiest and yet the easiest part of everything. The Husky CLI makes it really easy to set things up. Once again, power up a terminal and run the following command:-
npx husky-init && npm install

This creates a .husky folder at your root level with an existing file called pre-commit and this is the file where you want to add some things so that your codebase is scanned for issues before you are able to commit your code. But before we jump to this file, you wanna edit the scripts part of your package.json by adding the following lines:



"lint": "eslint .",
"lint:fix": "eslint --fix .",
"prettier": "prettier --write .",

Once this is done, you head over to the pre-commit file discussed earlier and add a simple line over there:
npm run lint
which ultimately translates that before you commit your changes, run the lint script as specified in the package.json file.

To be absolutely sure of things, before committing your code, run the following commands in order:
npm run prettier

npm run lint:fix

These will make sure that your code is at least formatted properly and devoid of as many errors that eslint could have fixed automatically for you. If you still see errors on your terminal, head over to the erroneous files and fix the issues manually and then only can you move forward with committing your code.

And that wraps it up. You are all done towards making and keeping your code well maintained. HAPPY HACKING!

Top comments (4)

Bravostack || ReactJS⚛️ • Nov 26 '23 • Edited

I got this error after running npm run lint:fix

ESLint couldn't find the config "standard-with-typescript" to extend from. 
Please check that the name of the config is correct.

Any suggestions on how to resolve it?

Anubhav • Dec 5 '23

sounds pretty straightforward @bravostack
Looks like it cannot find the node modules for it. Try doing a simple npm i or yarn. It should fix it.
If not, do drop a snippet of the versions of the packages you are utilising. Could be an issue with some of the newer versions. Be glad to check it out with you.