React Hot Loader

Tweak React components in real time ⚛️⚡️

Watch Dan Abramov's talk on Hot Reloading with Time Travel.

Install

npm install react-hot-loader

Note: You can safely install react-hot-loader as a regular dependency instead of a dev dependency as it automatically ensures it is not executed in production and the footprint is minimal.

🔥 HOT-LABS 🔥

Latest (4.5.0+, beta) version of React-Hot-Loader could be quite 🔥!

RHL will patch React, React-DOM and work with fiber directly

• (required) use webpack plugin to let RHL patch React-DOM for you.
• (optional) set configuration to ignoreSFC:true (this will fix hook)
• (optional) set configuration to pureRender:true (this will remove side effect from Classes)

import { setConfig } from 'react-hot-loader'

setConfig({
  ignoreSFC: true, // RHL will be __completely__ disabled for SFC
  pureRender: true, // RHL will not change render method
})

Getting started

1. Add react-hot-loader/babel to your .babelrc:

// .babelrc
{
  "plugins": ["react-hot-loader/babel"]
}

2. Mark your root component as hot-exported:

// App.js
import React from 'react'
import { hot } from 'react-hot-loader'

const App = () => <div>Hello World!</div>

export default hot(module)(App)

3. Run webpack with Hot Module Replacement:

webpack-dev-server --hot

Recipes

Migrating from create-react-app

1. Run npm run eject
2. Install React Hot Loader (npm install --save-dev react-hot-loader)
3. In config/webpack.config.dev.js, add 'react-hot-loader/babel' to Babel loader configuration. The loader should now look like:

  {
    test: /\.(js|jsx)$/,
    include: paths.appSrc,
    loader: require.resolve('babel-loader'),
    options: {
      // This is a feature of `babel-loader` for webpack (not Babel itself).
      // It enables caching results in ./node_modules/.cache/babel-loader/
      // directory for faster rebuilds.
      cacheDirectory: true,
      plugins: ['react-hot-loader/babel'],
    },
  }

4. Mark your App (src/App.js) as hot-exported:

// ./containers/App.js
import React from 'react'
import { hot } from 'react-hot-loader'

const App = () => <div>Hello World!</div>

export default hot(module)(App)

Migrating from create-react-app without ejecting

Users report, that it is possible to use react-app-rewire-hot-loader to setup React-hot-loader without ejecting.

TypeScript

As of version 4, React Hot Loader requires you to pass your code through Babel to transform it so that it can be hot-reloaded. This can be a pain point for TypeScript users, who usually do not need to integrate Babel as part of their build process.

Fortunately, it's simpler than it may seem! Babel will happily parse TypeScript syntax and can act as an alternative to the TypeScript compiler, so you can safely replace ts-loader or awesome-typescript-loader in your Webpack configuration with babel-loader. Babel won't typecheck your code, but you can use fork-ts-checker-webpack-plugin (and/or invoke tsc --noEmit) as part of your build process instead.

A sample configuration:

{
  // ...you'll probably need to configure the usual Webpack fields like "mode" and "entry", too.
  resolve: { extensions: [".ts", ".tsx", ".js", ".jsx"] },
  module: {
    rules: [
      {
        test: /\.(j|t)sx?$/,
        exclude: /node_modules/,
        use: {
          loader: "babel-loader",
          options: {
            cacheDirectory: true,
            babelrc: false,
            presets: [
              [
                "@babel/preset-env",
                { targets: { browsers: "last 2 versions" } } // or whatever your project requires
              ],
              "@babel/preset-typescript",
              "@babel/preset-react"
            ],
            plugins: [
              // plugin-proposal-decorators is only needed if you're using experimental decorators in TypeScript
              ["@babel/plugin-proposal-decorators", { legacy: true }],
              ["@babel/plugin-proposal-class-properties", { loose: true }],
              "react-hot-loader/babel"
            ]
          }
        }
      }
    ]
  },
  plugins: [
    new ForkTsCheckerWebpackPlugin()
  ]
};

For a full example configuration of TypeScript with React Hot Loader and newest beta version of Babel, check here.

As an alternative to this approach, it's possible to chain Webpack loaders so that your code passes through Babel and then TypeScript (or TypeScript and then Babel), but this approach is not recommended as it is more complex and may be significantly less performant. Read more discussion here.

Parcel

Parcel supports Hot Module Reloading out of the box, just follow step 1 and 2 of Getting Started.

We also have a full example running Parcel + React Hot Loader.

Electron

You need something to mark your modules as hot in order to use React Hot Loader.

One way of doing this with Electron is to simply use webpack like any web-based project might do and the general guide above describes. See also this example Electron app.

A webpack-less way of doing it to use electron-compile (which is also used by electron-forge) - see this example. While it requires less configuration, something to keep in mind is that electron-compile's HMR will always reload all modules, regardless of what was actually edited.

Source Maps

If you use devtool: 'source-map' (or its equivalent), source maps will be emitted to hide hot reloading code.

Source maps slow down your project. Use devtool: 'eval' for best build performance.

Hot reloading code is just one line in the beginning and one line at the end of each module so you might not need source maps at all.

Preact

React-hot-loader should work out of the box with preact-compat, but, in case of pure preact, you will need to configure it:

• create configuration file (setupHotLoader.js)

import reactHotLoader from 'react-hot-loader'
import preact from 'preact'

reactHotLoader.preact(preact)

• dont forget to import it

Preact limitations

• HOCs and Decorators as not supported yet. For Preact React-Hot-Loader v4 behave as v3.

React Native

React Native supports hot reloading natively as of version 0.22.

Using React Hot Loader with React Native can cause unexpected issues (see #824) and is not recommended.

Webpack plugin

We recommend to use babel plugin, but there are situations when you are unable to use it. Then - try webpack loader (as seen in v3), but remember - it is not compatible with class-based components, but help with TypeScript or spreading "cold API" to all node_modules.

It is safe to enable this loader for all the files. But place it after babel-loader, if babel-loader is present.

// webpack.config.js
module.exports = {
  module: {
    rules: [
      {
        test: /\.jsx?$/,
        include: /node_modules/,
        use: ['react-hot-loader/webpack'],
      },
    ],
  },
}

Code Splitting

If you want to use Code Splitting + React Hot Loader, the simplest solution is to pick one of our compatible library:

• Loadable Components
• Imported Component
• React Universal Component
• React-Loadable

If you use a non-yet-friendly library, like react-async-component you have to mark all your "loaded components" as hot-exported:

// AsyncHello.js
import { asyncComponent } from 'react-async-component'

// asyncComponent could not `hot-reload` itself.
const AsyncHello = asyncComponent({
  resolve: () => import('./Hello'),
})

export default AsyncHello

// Hello.js
import { hot } from 'react-hot-loader'

const Hello = () => 'Hello'

export default hot(module)(Hello) // <-- module will reload itself

Checking Element types

Because React Hot Loader creates proxied versions of your components, comparing reference types of elements won't work:

const element = <Component />
console.log(element.type === Component) // false

React Hot Loader exposes a function areComponentsEqual to make it possible:

import { areComponentsEqual } from 'react-hot-loader'
const element = <Component />
areComponentsEqual(element.type, Component) // true

Another way - compare "rendered" element type

const element = <Component />
console.log(element.type === <Component />.type) // true

// better - precache rendered type
const element = <Component />
const ComponentType = <Component />.type
console.log(element.type === ComponentType) // true

But you might have to provide all required props. See original issue. This is most reliable way to compare components, but it will not work with required props.

Another way - compare Component name.

Not all components has a name. In production displayName could not exists.

const element = <Component />
console.log(element.displayName === 'Component') // true

This is something we did not solve yet. Cold API could help keep original types.

Webpack ExtractTextPlugin

webpack ExtractTextPlugin is not compatible with React Hot Loader. Please disable it in development:

new ExtractTextPlugin({
  filename: 'styles/[name].[contenthash].css',
  disable: NODE_ENV !== 'production',
})

Disabling a type change (❄️)

It is possible to disable React-Hot-Loader for a specific component, especially to enable common way to type comparison. See #991 for the idea behind ⛄️, and #304 about "type comparison" problem.

import { cold } from 'react-hot-loader';

cold(SomeComponent) // this component will ignored by React-Hot-Loader
<SomeComponent />.type === SomeComponent // true

If you will update cold component React-Hot-Loader will complain (on error level), and then React will cold-replace Component with a internal state lose.

Reach-Hot-Loader: cold element got updated

Disabling a type change for all node_modules

You may cold all components from node_modules. This will not work for HOC(like Redux) or dynamically created Components, but might help in most of situations, when type changes are not welcomed, and modules are not expected to change.

import { setConfig, cold } from 'react-hot-loader'
setConfig({
  onComponentRegister: (type, name, file) =>
    file.indexOf('node_modules') > 0 && cold(type),

  // some components are not visible as top level variables,
  // thus its not known where they were created
  onComponentCreate: (type, name) => file.indexOf('styled') > 0 && cold(type),
})

! To be able to "cold" components from 'node_modules' you have to apply babel to node_modules, while this folder is usually excluded. You may add one more babel-loader, with only one React-Hot-Loader plugin inside to solve this. Consider using webpack-loader for this.

React-Hooks

🔥 HOT-LABS 🔥: You dont need this if you are using beta version of RHL, and ignoreSFC configuration is set.

React-hot-loader does not support React 16.7 Hooks at all. You have to

• cold components using hooks.

import { setConfig, cold } from 'react-hot-loader'
setConfig({
  onComponentCreate: (type, name) =>
    (String(type).indexOf('useState') > 0 ||
      String(type).indexOf('useEffect') > 0) &&
    cold(type),
})

• set a special flag

import { setConfig, cold } from 'react-hot-loader'
setConfig({
  onComponentCreate: (type, name) =>
    (String(type).indexOf('useState') > 0 ||
      String(type).indexOf('useEffect') > 0) &&
    cold(type),
})

PS: react-emotion would break due this operation.

API

hot(module, options)

Mark a component as hot.

import { hot } from 'react-hot-loader'

const App = () => 'Hello World!'

export default hot(module)(App)

AppContainer

Mark application as hot reloadable. Prefer using hot helper.

import React from 'react'
import ReactDOM from 'react-dom'
import { AppContainer } from 'react-hot-loader'
import App from './containers/App'

const render = Component => {
  ReactDOM.render(
    <AppContainer>
      <Component />
    </AppContainer>,
    document.getElementById('root'),
  )
}

render(App)

// webpack Hot Module Replacement API
if (module.hot) {
  module.hot.accept('./containers/App', () => {
    // if you are using harmony modules ({modules:false})
    render(App)
    // in all other cases - re-require App manually
    render(require('./containers/App'))
  })
}

areComponentsEqual(Component1, Component2)

Test if two components have the same type.

import { areComponentsEqual } from 'react-hot-loader'
import Component1 from './Component1'
import Component2 from './Component2'

areComponentsEqual(Component1, Component2) // true or false

setConfig(config)

Set a new configuration for React Hot Loader.

Available options are:

• logLevel: specify log level, default to "error", available values are: ['debug', 'log', 'warn', 'error']
• pureSFC: enable Stateless Functional Component. If disabled they will be converted to React Components. Default value: false.
• ignoreSFC: skip "patch" for SFC. "Hot loading" could still work, wit webpack-patch present
• pureRender: do not amend render method of any component.
• for the rest see react-hot-loader.d.ts.

// rhlConfig.js
import { setConfig } from 'react-hot-loader'

setConfig({ logLevel: 'debug' })

It is important to set configuration before any other action will take a place

// index.js
import './rhlConfig' // <-- extract configuration to a separate file, and import it in the beggining
import React from 'react'
....

Migrating from v3

AppContainer vs hot

Prior v4 the right way to setup React Hot Loader was to wrap your Application with AppContainer, set setup module acceptance by yourself. This approach is still valid but only for advanced use cases, prefer using hot helper.

React Hot Loader v3:

// App.js
import React from 'react'

const App = () => <div>Hello world!</div>

export default App

// main.js
import React from 'react'
import ReactDOM from 'react-dom'
import { AppContainer } from 'react-hot-loader'
import App from './containers/App'

const render = Component => {
  ReactDOM.render(
    <AppContainer>
      <Component />
    </AppContainer>,
    document.getElementById('root'),
  )
}

render(App)

// webpack Hot Module Replacement API
if (module.hot) {
  module.hot.accept('./containers/App', () => {
    // if you are using harmony modules ({modules:false})
    render(App)
    // in all other cases - re-require App manually
    render(require('./containers/App'))
  })
}

React Hot Loader v4:

// App.js
import React from 'react'
import { hot } from 'react-hot-loader'

const App = () => <div>Hello world!</div>

export default hot(module)(App)

// main.js
import React from 'react'
import ReactDOM from 'react-dom'
import App from './containers/App'

ReactDOM.render(<App />, document.getElementById('root'))

No patch required

Code is automatically patched, you can safely remove react-hot-loader/patch from your webpack config.

Error reporter is gone

React supports error handling out of the box since v16 using componentDidCatch. You can create your own Error Boundary and install it after hot has been applied:

import React from 'react'
import { hot } from 'react-hot-loader'
import ErrorBoundary from './ErrorBoundary'

const App = () => (
  <ErrorBoundary>
    <div>Hello world!</div>
  </ErrorBoundary>
)

export default hot(module)(App)

Known limitations and side effects

Note about hot

hot accepts only React Component (Stateful or Stateless), resulting the HotExported variant of it. The hot function will setup current module to self-accept itself on reload, and will ignore all the changes, made for non-React components. You may mark as many modules as you want. But HotExportedComponent should be the only used export of a hot-module.

Note: Please note how often we have used exported keyword. hot is for exports.

Note: Does nothing in production mode, just passes App through.

New Components keep executing the old code

There is no way to hot-update constructor code, as result even new components will be born as the first ones, and then grow into the last ones. As of today, this issue cannot be solved.

Troubleshooting

If it doesn't work, in 99% of cases it's a configuration issue. A missing option, a wrong path or port. webpack is very strict about configuration, and the best way to find out what's wrong is to compare your project to an already working setup, check out examples, bit by bit.

If something doesn't work, in 99% of cases it's an issue with your code. The Component didn't get registered, due to HOC or Decorator around it, which is making it invisible to the Babel plugin or webpack loader.

We're also gathering Troubleshooting Recipes so send a PR if you have a lesson to share!

Switch into debug mode

Debug mode adds additional warnings and can tells you why React Hot Loader is not working properly in your application.

import { setConfig } from 'react-hot-loader'
setConfig({ logLevel: 'debug' })

Contributors

This project exists thanks to all the people who contribute. Contribute.

Backers

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License

MIT