Linting in React

Recently I started experimenting with the idea of code linting via ESLint and Prettier. I recently wrote another article on this subject concerning my Nuxtjs Blog:

Webstorm and Nuxt.js Linting

Chuck ・ Jan 20 '20 ・ 3 min read

#nuxt #eslint #javascript #webdev

So, enter the story of three tools:

• EsLint: According to ESLint's website, "ESLint is a tool for identifying and reporting on patterns found in ECMAScript/JavaScript code, with the goal of making code more consistent and avoiding bugs." This article explores how to setup ESLint and Prettier along with husky to format the code before a commit to GitHub.
• Prettier: Where as Prettier, is concerned with ensuring "that all outputted code conforms to a consistent style."
• Husky: An NPM package which utilizes GIT hooks to integrate tools and increase quality code submissions to your repository. In addition, using these three together as a pre-commithook strategy, means all contributors to your project submit with the same code standards.

TLTR: Go to the repository.

Setup

To get started create a React App: yarn create react-app react-linting or npx create-react-app react-linting. Create React App comes pre-configured with some of the necessary ESLint packages and we need to extend that default configuration. So, we need to install a few additional packages as devDependencies: yarn add -D eslint-config-prettier eslint-plugin-prettier prettier or npm install --save-dev eslint-config-prettier eslint-plugin-prettier prettier. These packages will set up the additional linting we require. Since, React uses the package.jsonfor ESLint configuration, so will I, but you could just as easily is a separate configuration file. Add the prettier plugin to the eslingConfigsection of the package.json file:

"eslintConfig": {
    "extends": [
      "react-app",
      "plugin:prettier/recommended"
    ]
  },

Instead of a .prettierrc configuration file we will add a new section to the package.jsonfile. This section is my configuration but you can change as you desire:

"prettier": {
    "printWidth": 90,
    "bracketSpacing": true,
    "trailingComma": "es5",
    "semi": false,
    "singleQuote": true
  },

To make these tools more usable, we can add the following to the script section of our package.jsonfile:

"scripts": {
    "start": "react-scripts start",
    "build": "react-scripts build",
    "lint:fix": "eslint src/**/*.js --fix",
    "lint": "eslint src/**/*.js",
    "prettify": "prettier src/**/*.js --write"
  },

We could stop here, but we are going to automate these task. You need to install two more packages: yarn add -D husky lint-staged or npm install --save-dev husky lint-staged. We need to add the following tweo short sections to the package.json file:

"husky": {
    "hooks": {
      "pre-commit": "lint-staged"
    }
  },
  "lint-staged": {
    "*.js": "npm run lint:fix"
  },

So now the magic begins. Based on our prettier configuration, change something in a javascriptfile: add a semi-colon or change from single to double quotes. When you commit a change, husky will run lint-stagedand fix your files automagically. This is just a very basic setup but you get the idea.

Happy coding.