Why Consider Migrating from CRA to Vite?
Migrating from Create React App (CRA) to Vite can offer several benefits:
- Improved Development Experience: Vite provides faster cold start times and hot module replacement (HMR), resulting in a smoother development experience compared to CRA.
- Performance: Vite leverages ES modules and native ESM browser support, resulting in faster bundling and serving of assets, which can lead to improved application performance.
- Simplified Configuration: Vite requires minimal configuration, reducing boilerplate code and making it easier to set up and customize your project compared to Webpack-based setups like CRA.
- Support for Modern JavaScript Features: Vite supports modern JavaScript features out of the box, allowing developers to leverage features like ES modules, TypeScript, and JSX without additional configuration.
- Optimized Build Output: Vite generates optimized build outputs, including tree-shaking and code-splitting, resulting in smaller bundle sizes and faster load times for end-users.
Overall, migrating from CRA to Vite can help improve the developer experience, application performance, and build optimization, making it a compelling choice for React developers looking to modernize their projects.
Preparing for the Migration
Setting Up the Existing CRA Project
In this quick demo, I'll be migrating a simple React 17 to-do list app I created using CRA to Vite. Even though this is a small app, the process is going to be similar for a bigger project. If you want to play along, feel free to download the to-do list source from the following link.
After downloading the project, navigate to the project folder and run npm install
. You may notice vulnerability warnings; ignore them for now and run the app with npm start
. If everything works correctly, the app will build and open in your browser.
Addressing Compatibility Issues
If you encounter errors related to the Webpack build process (e.g., hash issues due to OpenSSL incompatibility), try using an earlier Node.js version. For instance:
nvm use 16
node -v
npm start
Once the app compiles successfully and runs at http://localhost:3000
, you’re ready to migrate.
Starting the Migration
Creating a New Branch
First, create a new branch for the migration:
git checkout --orphan vite-migration
Setting Up the Vite Project
Create a fresh Vite app in a temporary folder:
npm create vite@latest
- Name the folder
vite-app
(or any other name). - Choose
React
andJavaScript
.
Aligning React Versions
Before installing dependencies, modify the React version in the vite-app/package.json
to match the CRA React version (React 17). Afterward, run:
yarn
Moving Source Files
- Delete the
src
andpublic
folders invite-app
. - Copy the
src
andpublic
folders from the CRA project intovite-app
. - Replace the root
index.html
with the one from the CRApublic
folder. - Restructure the folder by moving files from
vite-app
to the root directory.
Adapting the Project for Vite
Updating the Entry Point
Rename src/index.js
to src/main.jsx
. Modify the index.html
to include:
<script type="module" src="/src/main.jsx"></script>
Fixing %PUBLIC_URL%
Remove instances of %PUBLIC_URL%
in the <head>
section of index.html
. Additionally, clear out any unnecessary comments.
Handling JSX Files
Rename any .js
files containing JSX code to .jsx
, such as src/App.js
to src/App.jsx
. This ensures compatibility with Vite’s parsing rules.
Running and Configuring the App
Run the app with:
yarn dev
If it works, but you want to change the port to 3000, update the vite.config.js
:
server: { port: 3000 }
Troubleshooting and Final Notes
For larger projects, additional challenges may arise, such as dependency conflicts or environment variable configurations. If you need help, drop a comment!
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Top comments (1)
Yes, migrating to vite is a good choice 👍