DEV Community

Cover image for How using React in a Laravel application - Tutorial
Lesly Villalobos
Lesly Villalobos

Posted on • Updated on

Laravel React How using React in a Laravel application - Tutorial

Reactive applications are a big part of the web world, that's why it is necessary to use the latest technologies to deploy. Laravel had integrated a Scaffolding to deploy React JS since version 5.5. In this tutorial, we’ll learn how to integrate React and Laravel.

Actually, it is really simple so let's start it!

Installing Laravel

To create a new project in Laravel, the first thing we've to do is download the Laravel installer using Composer:

$ composer global require laravel/installer

If you don't have composer installed please go to: https://dev.to/lvtdeveloper/installing-virtual-environment-with-laravel-homestead-tutorial-4p32
In this article I explain how to do it so check it out.

The first command to create our project is "laravel new" followed by the name we want to assign to the project. For instance, "laravel new dutylist" will create a directory named dutylist that contains a new Laravel installation with all of dependencies already installed.

$ laravel new dutylist

Once that’s is done enter to the new directory with the command:

$cd dutylist

Using React in a Laravel

By default, Laravel applications contain an ExampleComponent.vue Vue component located in the resources/js/components directory. The ExampleComponent.vue file is an example of a single file Vue component which defines its JavaScript and HTML template in the same file. Single file components provide a very convenient approach to building JavaScript driven applications. The example component is registered in your app.js file:

We need to change the default Vue.js scaffolding to React.js with the following command:

Now you can see that Laravel create a react component in the file Example.js located in the resources/js/components directory:

Run the command "npm install" to install all the javascript packages necessary for our project.

When we install a dependency with npm install, a node_modules directory is automatically generated where the installed packages are saved. Also it is generate a package-lock.json file who is responsible for keeping track of the changes made within node_modules or when changes are made to the file package.json

And now we start the app with the command:

Open the browser in the path "http://localhost:8000" and you can see the default view by Laravel

Let's change this view for a view using react.

Create an index.js file inside the resources/js/components directory

Copy all the content from the Example.js file to the index.js and make some changes:

Inside the app.js we add the new component

In order to render any element into the Browser DOM, we need to have a container or root DOM element. In this case will be

and everything inside it will be managed by React DOM. This change will be inside the welcome.blade.php located in the resources/views

To show a view through React JS, we need to compile JavaScript files using Laravel Mix with the "npm run dev" command:

And now we have a Laravel app using react.js

Thanks for reading!
Have a nice day, coders💜

Top comments (37)

Collapse
 
lucasca95 profile image
Lucas Camino

Hello, everyone!
Just wanted to say that in Laravel ^7.x to set your environment ready for a React development you should run

 composer require laravel/ui
 php artisan ui react
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Thanks for the post! It was really useful ;) !

Collapse
 
lordjack profile image
Jackson M

This video talks about another way to integrate with React and Laravel

youtube.com/watch?v=ie1yKbqkUFs

Collapse
 
karlkras profile image
Karl Krasnowsky

English version?

Collapse
 
imtridevsharma profile image
im-tridevsharma

Right 👍

Collapse
 
hominini profile image
Byron Pérez

is csrf configuration needed? because I have error with that, thanks

Collapse
 
lvtdeveloper profile image
Lesly Villalobos

Please, add this to your welcome.blabe file:

Collapse
 
yutakayoshida1 profile image
yutakayoshida1

now i have many problem in your article.
if you can teach me, please help me.

Collapse
 
yutakayoshida1 profile image
yutakayoshida1

Hello
how are you?
i am yoshida from japan.
can you explain in detail for me?
thanks.

Collapse
 
lvtdeveloper profile image
Lesly Villalobos

Please, add this to your welcome.blabe file:
thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i...

Collapse
 
maximruslan profile image
BlueBamboo

i made laravel and react project.
but there is an bug.
if i click button, page is working well.
but if i refresh page, it is not working.
"don't found page"
I think it happends because route manage.
so if i refresh page, project find this route in web.php in laravel.
But there isn't this route there.
because it is react route.
I think you can understand my explain because you are react and laravel developer.
So how i can fix this issue?
Thanks.

Collapse
 
lossez profile image
Rayha • Edited

need help, Command "preset" is not defined. when i run php artisan preset react

Collapse
 
cliffchristianson profile image
cliffchristianson • Edited

You've probably fixed this but for others with the same problem, the preset command was removed in Laravel 7, you will now want to use

composer require laravel/ui

php artisan ui react

auth and some other guys are here now too

Collapse
 
adelinghanaem profile image
Adelin

But documentation still shows php artisan preset react command !

Collapse
 
arbazargani profile image
Alireza Bazargani

first of all, thanks for article.
i got situation,
what if we want to use react in deployed project?
i mean that application is not new & clean.

cause i tested and nothing happens!

Collapse
 
lvtdeveloper profile image
Lesly Villalobos

It may be a caché problem.
Try this:

php artisan cache:clear
php artisan view:clear

Collapse
 
josealex27 profile image
joseAlex27

Hi, do you have deployed this app? cause im trying with mine and nothing happens!
thanks!

Collapse
 
josealex27 profile image
joseAlex27

im using cpanel to deploy the project and it doesn't work!

Collapse
 
vieckys profile image
Hemant Sankhla

Best and easy solution to get started.
Thanks.

Collapse
 
vishnu8742 profile image
Vishnu :)

Hey, Thanks. :)

Collapse
 
lvtdeveloper profile image
Lesly Villalobos

:3 thanks to you

Collapse
 
khyn profile image
Khyn Antoque

Amazing! Thanks :)

Collapse
 
lvtdeveloper profile image
Lesly Villalobos

;)

Collapse
 
yoyooo profile image
yoyooo

This is so helpful. Thanks!

Collapse
 
lvtdeveloper profile image
Lesly Villalobos

Thanks to you :)

Collapse
 
sobec201 profile image
carlos • Edited

Amazing job, so clear, thank you so much for you time and share your knowledge, and also you're so beauty ^^

Collapse
 
picwellwisher12pk profile image
Amir Hameed

thanks

Collapse
 
arahman1783 profile image
abdelrahman El Hoseeny

Thanks for this useful article

Collapse
 
imtridevsharma profile image
im-tridevsharma

Guys tell me your opinion on should I use laravel react scaffolding or a separate react ui for frontend?

Collapse
 
lftroya profile image
LFTroya

How can you pass props to the component?

Collapse
 
rohitsuthar profile image
Rohit Suthar

Thanks for sharing these nice articles!!