Add Refine to an existing React project?
I'm wondering what the best way is to add Refine to an existing project.
I tried adding the CLI,
yarn add @refinedev/cli
, and added a refine
script to package.json.
But when I run yarn refine
, it fails with an error: TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'description')
Any suggestions how to integrate refine into an existing app?41 Replies
passive-yellow•2y ago
this error does not seems related to refine. can you double check your "undefined" controls please?
like this
{data?.description}
Sorry @nilsb7531, I am experiencing especially high traffic right now, please try again. :technologist:
stormy-goldOP•2y ago
TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'description')
at Kr (frontend/node_modules/@refinedev/cli/dist/cli.js:19:1139)
at Object.<anonymous> (frontend/node_modules/@refinedev/cli/dist/cli.js:19:1540)
at Module._compile (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1101:14)
at Object.Module._extensions..js (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1153:10)
at Module.load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:981:32)
at Function.Module._load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:822:12)
at Function.executeUserEntryPoint [as runMain] (node:internal/modules/run_main:81:12)
at node:internal/main/run_main_module:17:47
Thanks for the reply. This is the error stack. it seems to be in Refine?
I can't tell exactly what it's looking at, it's compressed JS in the node_modulepassive-yellow•2y ago
we will investigate the issue. meanwhile you can use refine without CLI
but this error very cryptic. i'm not sure whats going on
stormy-goldOP•2y ago
Cool. one piece of data is that the only package i've "yarn added" is the CLI. Maybe just a dependency issue?
My question is really what's the best way to adopt Refine into an existing React app. I was hoping installing the cli would then be smart and recognize an existing react app, and install the right additional packages on top
but since i can't use the CLI, do you have any other tips on best way to adopt this into an existing React app? eg list of packages i have to directly install, things I should do besides adding a <Refine> component etc
absent-sapphire•2y ago
Hello @nilsb7531, my friend will give you some context about CLI, meanwhile I can help you get set up Refine.
Depends on your router, we have some examples (React Router, NextJS, Remix), from these examples you can review and integrate Refine. Even though these examples are purely refine apps, it's not so different other than having to define some things manually, which is cumbersome, we'll check what we can do to integrate into existing apps.
absent-sapphire•2y ago
Here you can see our list of examples:
https://github.com/refinedev/refine/tree/next/examples
GitHub
refine/examples at next · refinedev/refine
Build your React-based CRUD applications, without constraints. - refine/examples at next · refinedev/refine
stormy-goldOP•2y ago
cool! I'm using react-router. Specifically the package is react-router-dom
i'm not on nextjs, it's vanilla react
absent-sapphire•2y ago
Most of our examples are also with React Router since it's more straightforward! Do you have a UI package preference?
stormy-goldOP•2y ago
yeah, i'm using mantine. I set up a Refine+Mantine+react-router-6 project in a clean directory. So I have that example to look at too. but if there's a cleaner example in your github i could use that
absent-sapphire•2y ago
We have this example with a single resource and some authentication, that wouldn't be so much different than what you have tho
https://github.com/refinedev/refine/blob/next/examples/pixels/src/App.tsx
GitHub
refine/App.tsx at next · refinedev/refine
Build your React-based CRUD applications, without constraints. - refine/App.tsx at next · refinedev/refine
stormy-goldOP•2y ago
ok cool
Should things work with React v 17 and Node v16? Or is there a higher minimum?
absent-sapphire•2y ago
That should be perfectly fine
We've recently released v4, where we detached refine from any tightly-coupled router logic, so it's not so different than what you would do normally without refine.
However, definitely we'll look how to improve integrate into existing apps, we could do something with codemod I think.
stormy-goldOP•2y ago
yeah, or honestly an MVP could be writing it into docs -- install these 4 packages, add a Refine component here, and you might want to add X or Y or Z , see the instructions here.
but of course if you do it you have to maintain it, i realize it's work. but some basic playbook could be helpful
absent-sapphire•2y ago
Definitely! We had been working hard on refine v4, that's a lot of examples, documentation to maintain on top of API changes, but you are right, we'll look into what we can do, since refine is headless
stormy-goldOP•2y ago
if my cli isn't working, am i going to be missing out on a lot of the value? I wouldn't be able to do the generators
absent-sapphire•2y ago
Unfortunately, the CLI does not have such a feature. The CLI already has tools to speed up the development process of the Refine project, such as "create-resource", "swizzle", "check-updates", etc.
see: https://refine.dev/docs/packages/documentation/cli/
CLI | refine
refine CLI is a command line application that allows you to interact with your refine project and perform some tasks. This includes creating a new resource, managing updates, swizzle components, and runs your project (build, start, dev).
stormy-goldOP•2y ago
yes and congrats on that. i know it's a big effort but it looks awesome
absent-sapphire•2y ago
I'll look into your issue, that should be fixable
stormy-goldOP•2y ago
cool, it would be great if you can figure it out.
lmk if i can give you any more info or try anything
absent-sapphire•2y ago
Could you be missing "version" key in your package.json ?
absent-sapphire•2y ago
I think I managed to get same error
absent-sapphire•2y ago
When I delete "version" field from my package.json, got the same error
stormy-goldOP•2y ago
well, you're on to something... when i add version, the error changes: "Error: Project type not found"
absent-sapphire•2y ago
That's where we try to
guess
your project type from your dependencies.
https://github.com/refinedev/refine/blob/25179c4ede7d9acb2e10891237e83c1cc56e4cf7/packages/cli/src/utils/project/index.ts#L15GitHub
refine/index.ts at 25179c4ede7d9acb2e10891237e83c1cc56e4cf7 · refin...
Build your React-based CRUD applications, without constraints. - refine/index.ts at 25179c4ede7d9acb2e10891237e83c1cc56e4cf7 · refinedev/refine
stormy-goldOP•2y ago
ah ok
absent-sapphire•2y ago
This is useful to understand which script to use, to start the server
stormy-goldOP•2y ago
ok so the issue is i bundle with parcel. it didn't start out as a CRA
absent-sapphire•2y ago
I see, tbh, to run commands like create-resource, we don't really need that
That's one thing we can improve
stormy-goldOP•2y ago
right, you do check for it at the moment so i can't do
yarn refine create-resource
for example
can i stub it out? eg if i add react-scripts in dev environment or somethingabsent-sapphire•2y ago
Yeah, temporary workaround would be to install react-scripts into your dependencies
stormy-goldOP•2y ago
i don't want to create more problems than i'm solving
lol
success Saved 469 new dependencies.
when i add react-scriptsabsent-sapphire•2y ago
👊
Haha, that's ridicilous
Perhaps, vite could be better into dev dependencies
stormy-goldOP•2y ago
at least i only added as a devDependency.
absent-sapphire•2y ago
We'll look into that issue tomorrow for sure
absent-sapphire•2y ago
GitHub
refine/index.ts at 25179c4ede7d9acb2e10891237e83c1cc56e4cf7 · refin...
Build your React-based CRUD applications, without constraints. - refine/index.ts at 25179c4ede7d9acb2e10891237e83c1cc56e4cf7 · refinedev/refine
stormy-goldOP•2y ago
cool. thanks so much for making a noob to refine feel welcome
absent-sapphire•2y ago
Actually thank you for your suggestions, they will be nice improvements on top of what we have
stormy-goldOP•2y ago
anytime you need my malformed package.json and weird bundling just lmk.
btw
vite
was a better choice, it added 14 dev dependenciesabsent-sapphire•2y ago
Hello @nilsb7531, I have a PR fixing the issues you mentioned yesterday, it will be released soon! https://github.com/refinedev/refine/pull/3976
Thanks for your contribution!
GitHub
fix(cli): wrong version output, added unknown project type, added p...
fixed: refine --version doesn't return refine cli's version.
fixed: add error message if user tries to run script with unsupported package.
fixed: added "unknown" project type as ...
stormy-goldOP•2y ago
you even added Parcel support for your one Parcel user! 🤣