Embed react-native-web app into existing website

Question

I want to embed a react-native-web application into an existing website and am currently looking for options how to do so.

The application should be a quite simple questionnaire which needs to be embedded into a website created with Elementor. My idea was to use the Elementor HTML widget and insert my application somehow, but unfortunately I cannot figure out how to do this.

I've got a bit of experience developing React Native(RN) apps but I am pretty new to web development and therefore thought it would be easier for me to go with RN and the react-native-web library.

So far, I've created a RN project using npx react-native init WebApp, copied the App.js, index.js and package.json files from react-native-web CodeSandbox template, deleted the node_modules folders and ran npm install. Then I was able to start and build this example web app with the scripts from the package.json.

Now my question, how can I use the output from the build directory and embed it into an html tag?

I also tried to use webpack with the configuration from the react-native-web docs to bundle the app but I always got a new error as soon as I fixed the last one. Is it possible to bundle a RN app into a single JS file which I could then insert into the website?

Looking forward to any advice!

Marco

Answer 1

I solved it by using the below webpack config. The created bundle.web.js' content is put into a script tag (<script>...</script>). This can be embedded into the HTML widget.

// web/webpack.config.js

const path = require('path');
const webpack = require('webpack');

const appDirectory = path.resolve(__dirname, '');

// This is needed for webpack to compile JavaScript.
// Many OSS React Native packages are not compiled to ES5 before being
// published. If you depend on uncompiled packages they may cause webpack build
// errors. To fix this webpack can be configured to compile to the necessary
// `node_module`.
const babelLoaderConfiguration = {
  test: /\.js$/,
  // Add every directory that needs to be compiled by Babel during the build.
  include: [
    path.resolve(appDirectory, 'index.web.js'),
    path.resolve(appDirectory, 'src'),
    path.resolve(appDirectory, 'node_modules/react-native-uncompiled'),
  ],
  use: {
    loader: 'babel-loader',
    options: {
      cacheDirectory: true,
      // The 'metro-react-native-babel-preset' preset is recommended to match React Native's packager
      presets: ['module:metro-react-native-babel-preset'],
      // Re-write paths to import only the modules needed by the app
      plugins: ['react-native-web'],
    },
  },
};

// This is needed for webpack to import static images in JavaScript files.
const imageLoaderConfiguration = {
  test: /\.(gif|jpe?g|png|svg)$/,
  use: {
    loader: 'url-loader',
    options: {
      name: '[name].[ext]',
    },
  },
};

module.exports = {
  entry: [
    // load any web API polyfills
    // path.resolve(appDirectory, 'polyfills-web.js'),
    // your web-specific entry file
    path.resolve(appDirectory, 'src/index.js'),
  ],

  // configures where the build ends up
  output: {
    filename: 'bundle.web.js',
    path: path.resolve(appDirectory, 'dist'),
  },

  // ...the rest of your config

  module: {
    rules: [babelLoaderConfiguration, imageLoaderConfiguration],
  },

  resolve: {
    // This will only alias the exact import "react-native"
    alias: {
      'react-native$': 'react-native-web',
    },
    // If you're working on a multi-platform React Native app, web-specific
    // module implementations should be written in files using the extension
    // `.web.js`.
    extensions: ['.web.js', '.js'],
  },
};