I like to think that most things can be achieved. Whatever you have in your head you can probably pull off with code as long as it's possible within the constraints of the universe.
It's just a matter of time... and money... and attention.
Tom Preston-Werner -Full Stack Radio
Note: Redwood has not yet reached v1.0 and this material is subject to change. All code samples and commands will be for the current version (v0.37.2)
Part 1 - Setup, Pages
RedwoodJS is a fullstack, serverless framework for the Jamstack. I will start at the very beginning and assume no prior knowledge of Redwood although I do assume a basic knowledge of React. But I'm talking really basic, you'll be fine if you:
- Know what a component is
- Have written at least a dozen lines of JSX
- Have generated at least one project withcreate-react-app
If none of that made sense you should click the link to thecreate-react-app docs and work through those before reading this. This series is geared towards someone who has at least a few months experience, around the point where they start getting comfortable with the workflows of git, npm/yarn, and the terminal.
You will needyarn for this tutorial which has slight differences fromnpm. You can find installation instructionshere or just enternpm install -g yarn.
1.1yarn create redwood-app
The first step is to create our Redwood project. You can call your project anything you want, just make sure to keep using your name anytime I useajcwebdev-redwood in a terminal command.
yarn create redwood-app ajcwebdev-redwoodOutput:
success Installed "create-redwood-app@0.37.2" with binaries: - create-redwood-app ✔ Creating Redwood app ✔ Checking node and yarn compatibility ✔ Creating directory '/Users/ajcwebdev/ajcwebdev-redwood' ✔ Installing packages ✔ Running 'yarn install'... (This could take a while) ✔ Convert TypeScript files to JavaScript ✔ Generating typesThanks for trying out Redwood!This creates a folder calledajcwebdev-redwood holding all the generated code. It also provides a handy-dandy guide to a list of community resources.
Join the Community
Get some help
Stay updated
Become a Contributor
Come hang out with us, we're super fun!
yarn rw is the same asyarn redwood and can be used to save a few keystrokes. Before entering the next commands create an empty repository onGitHub. All the code for this series can be foundon my GitHub.
Initialize git repo
Enter your new project directory and change the GitHub URL in the last command to the repo you just created in the previous step.
cdajcwebdev-redwoodgit initgit add.git commit-m"Nailed it"git branch-M maingit remote add origin https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME_HERE/YOUR_PROJECT_HERE.gitPush to main
git push-u origin main#pushtomain club; feels like github should give me an achievement for that.
Dominic Saadi after pushing to main
1.2yarn redwood dev
Start the development server
yarn rw dev✔ Generating the Prisma client...api | [nodemon] 2.0.12api | [nodemon] to restart at any time, enter `rs`api | [nodemon] watching path(s): redwood.tomlapi | [nodemon] watching extensions: js,mjs,jsonapi | [nodemon] starting `yarn rw-api-server-watch`gen | Generating TypeScript definitions and GraphQL schemas...gen | 10 files generatedapi | Building... Took 625 msapi | Starting API Server... Took 5 msapi | Listening on http://localhost:8911/api | Importing Server Functions... api | /graphql 1374 msapi | ... Imported in 1374 msweb | assets by path static/js/*.js 2.55 MiBweb | asset static/js/app.bundle.js 2.5 MiB [emitted] (name: app) 1 related assetweb | asset static/js/runtime-app.bundle.js 48.8 KiB [emitted] (name: runtime-app) 1 related assetweb | asset static/js/src_pages_NotFoundPage_NotFoundPage_js.chunk.js 3.37 KiB [emitted] 1 related assetweb | asset README.md 1.9 KiB [emitted] [from: public/README.md] [copied]web | asset favicon.png 1.83 KiB [emitted] [from: public/favicon.png] [copied]web | asset index.html 483 bytes [emitted]web | asset robots.txt 24 bytes [emitted] [from: public/robots.txt] [copied]web | Entrypoint app 2.55 MiB (2.56 MiB) = static/js/runtime-app.bundle.js 48.8 KiB static/js/app.bundle.js 2.5 MiB 2 auxiliary assetsweb | orphan modules 432 KiB [orphan] 115 modulesweb | runtime modules 32.7 KiB 17 modulesweb | modules by path ../node_modules/ 2.08 MiB 532 modulesweb | modules by path ./src/ 10.8 KiBweb | modules by path ./src/*.js 3.46 KiBweb | ./src/App.js 1.59 KiB [built] [code generated]web | ./src/Routes.js 1.88 KiB [built] [code generated]web | modules by path ./src/pages/ 5.18 KiBweb | ./src/pages/FatalErrorPage/FatalErrorPage.js 2.81 KiB [built] [code generated]web | ./src/pages/NotFoundPage/NotFoundPage.js 2.37 KiB [built] [code generated]web | modules by path ./src/*.css 2.19 KiBweb | ./src/index.css 1.89 KiB [built] [code generated]web | ../node_modules/css-loader/dist/cjs.js??ruleSet[1].rules[0].oneOf[4].use[1]!./src/index.css 305 bytes [built] [code generated]web | webpack 5.51.1 compiled successfully in 4921 msOur server is now running onlocalhost:8910 (to remember just count 8-9-10). Open a browser and enterlocalhost:8910 into the address bar. If you have done everything correctly up to this point you will see the Redwood starter page.
WHOOPS, it worked, we're up and running. Don't worry too much about what it says about custom routes, we'll talk about that in the next article. Here is the file structure that has been created for us.
├── api│ ├── db│ │ ├── schema.prisma│ │ └── seeds.js│ ├── src│ │ ├── functions│ │ │ └── graphql.js│ │ ├── graphql│ │ ├── lib│ │ │ ├── auth.js│ │ │ ├── db.js│ │ │ └── logger.js│ │ └── services│ └── package.json│├── web│ ├── public│ │ ├── favicon.png│ │ ├── README.md│ │ └── robots.txt│ ├── src│ │ ├── components│ │ ├── layouts│ │ ├── pages│ │ │ ├── FatalErrorPage│ │ │ │ └── FatalErrorPage.js│ │ │ └── NotFoundPage│ │ │ └── NotFoundPage.js│ │ ├── App.js│ │ ├── index.css│ │ ├── index.html│ │ └── Routes.js│ └── package.json│├── .env├── .env.defaults├── .env.example├── .gitignore├── README.md├── package.json├── redwood.toml└── yarn.lockIn Redwood, our frontend code is contained in theweb folder and our backend code is contained in theapi folder. We'll look at theweb folder first. Redwood structures theweb folder a bit likecreate-react-app projects with apublic andsrc folder.
1.3redwood generate page
With our application now set up we can start creating pages with thegenerate page command
Generate home page
Thegenerate page command accepts two arguments for setting the name of the page and its path.
yarn rw g page home /Theg page home / command creates a home page and a folder to hold that page. It also creates a couple of extra files that will be useful later in the series. These include a Storybook file along with testing and mocking files.
✔ Generating page files... ✔ Successfully wrote file `./web/src/pages/HomePage/HomePage.stories.js` ✔ Successfully wrote file `./web/src/pages/HomePage/HomePage.test.js` ✔ Successfully wrote file `./web/src/pages/HomePage/HomePage.js`✔ Updating routes file...Since I only enteredhome it will use that to name both the folder and the component file but you can specify each if necessary.
└── pages ├── FatalErrorPage │ └── FatalErrorPage.js ├── HomePage │ │── HomePage.js │ │── HomePage.stories.js │ └── HomePage.test.js └── NotFoundPage └── NotFoundPage.jsReturn to your browser and you will now see a new page instead of the landing page.
Let's look at the code that was generated for this page. It's a component calledHomePage that returns a<div> with a header<h1> and a paragraph tag<p>. TheMetaTags component can be used to set relevant SEO tags such astitle,description, andog:image.
// web/src/pages/HomePage/HomePage.jsimport{Link,routes}from'@redwoodjs/router'import{MetaTags}from'@redwoodjs/web'constHomePage=()=>{return(<><MetaTagstitle="Home"// description="Home description"/* you should un-comment description and add a unique description, 155 characters or less You can look at this documentation for best practices : https://developers.google.com/search/docs/advanced/appearance/good-titles-snippets *//><h1>HomePage</h1><p> Find me in<code>./web/src/pages/HomePage/HomePage.js</code></p><p> My default route is named<code>home</code>, link to me with `<Linkto={routes.home()}>Home</Link>`</p></>)}exportdefaultHomePageThis should be pretty self-explanatory if you have experience with React. If this doesn't look familiar it would be helpful to spend a little time studying React by itself before jumping into Redwood.
Now we'll edit the page and see what happens.
// web/src/pages/HomePage/HomePage.jsimport{MetaTags}from'@redwoodjs/web'constHomePage=()=>{return(<><MetaTagstitle="Home"description="The home page of the website"/><h1>ajcwebdev</h1><p>This page is the home!</p><footer><h3>Find me online:</h3><ul><li><ahref="https://dev.to/ajcwebdev">Blog</a></li><li><ahref="https://twitter.com/ajcwebdev">Twitter</a></li><li><ahref="https://github.com/ajcwebdev">GitHub</a></li></ul></footer></>)}exportdefaultHomePageFeel free to include links to your own social accounts. With those changes made return to your browser.
Generate about page
Now we are going to generate ourabout page.
yarn rw g page about✔ Generating page files... ✔ Successfully wrote file `./web/src/pages/AboutPage/AboutPage.stories.js` ✔ Successfully wrote file `./web/src/pages/AboutPage/AboutPage.test.js` ✔ Successfully wrote file `./web/src/pages/AboutPage/AboutPage.js`✔ Updating routes file...Like before, this creates anAboutPage component inside of anAboutPage folder along with files for Storybook and testing.
└── pages ├── AboutPage │ │── AboutPage.js │ │── AboutPage.stories.js │ └── AboutPage.test.js ├── FatalErrorPage │ └── FatalErrorPage.js ├── HomePage │ │── HomePage.js │ │── HomePage.stories.js │ └── HomePage.test.js └── NotFoundPage └── NotFoundPage.jsWe don't have a link to the about page, but we can enter the route manually into our browser by adding/about afterlocalhost:8910.
Open up the code and it's another React component much like the last! Components are kind of a big deal in React.
// web/src/pages/AboutPage/AboutPage.jsimport{Link,routes}from'@redwoodjs/router'import{MetaTags}from'@redwoodjs/web'constAboutPage=()=>{return(<><MetaTagstitle="About"// description="About description"/* you should un-comment description and add a unique description, 155 characters or less You can look at this documentation for best practices : https://developers.google.com/search/docs/advanced/appearance/good-titles-snippets *//><h1>AboutPage</h1><p> Find me in<code>./web/src/pages/AboutPage/AboutPage.js</code></p><p> My default route is named<code>about</code>, link to me with `<Linkto={routes.about()}>About</Link>`</p></>)}exportdefaultAboutPageWe can also edit this page just like thehome page.
// web/src/pages/AboutPage/AboutPage.jsimport{MetaTags}from'@redwoodjs/web'constAboutPage=()=>{return(<><MetaTagstitle="About"description="The page that tells you about stuff"/><h1>About</h1><p>This page tells you about stuff!</p></>)}exportdefaultAboutPageWith those changes return to your browser.
1.4yarn redwood --help
If at any point you're having trouble remembering commands you can get a quick reminder of all the commands with the--help command.
yarn rw--help| Command | Description | Alias |
|---|---|---|
rw build [side..] | Build for production | |
rw check | Structural diagnostics for a Redwood project (experimental) | diagnostics |
rw console | Launch an interactive Redwood shell (experimental) | c |
rw data-migrate | Migrate the data in your database | dm,dataMigrate |
rw deploy | Deploy your Redwood project | |
rw destroy | Rollback changes made by the generate command | d |
rw dev [side..] | Start development servers for api, db, and web | |
rw exec | Run scripts generated with yarn generate script | |
rw generate | Generate boilerplate code and type definitions | g |
rw info | Print your system environment information | |
rw lint | Lint your files | |
rw open | Open your project in your browser | |
rw prerender | Prerender pages of your Redwood app at build time | render |
rw prisma [commands..] | Run Prisma CLI with experimental features | |
rw serve [side] | Run server for api or web in production | |
rw setup | Initialize project config and install packages | |
rw storybook | Launch Storybook: An isolated component development environment | sb |
rw test [filter..] | Run Jest tests. Defaults to watch mode | |
rw ts-to-js | Convert a TypeScript project to JavaScript | |
rw type-check [sides..] | Run a TypeScript compiler check on your project | tsc,tc |
rw upgrade | Upgrade all @redwoodjs packages via interactive CLI |
Options
--help- Show help--version- Show version number--cwd- Working directory to use (whereredwood.tomlis located)
1.5redwood.toml
redwood.toml contains the configuration settings for your Redwood app and is what makes your Redwood app a Redwood app. If you remove it and try to runyarn rw dev, you'll get an error. You can see the full list of options on theApp Configuration doc.
[web]title="Redwood App"port=8910apiProxyPath="/.redwood/functions"includeEnvironmentVariables=[][api]port=8911In thenext part we'll take a look at Redwood's router and create links for the pages we created.
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- LocationAnn Arbor, Michigan
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A quick note: the link to "my Github" (see below) is bad.
Before entering the next commands create an empty repository on GitHub. All the code for this series can be found on my GitHub.
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