stormy-gold•2y ago

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}

But when I run yarn refine, it fails with an error: TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'description')

But when I run yarn refine, it fails with an error: TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'description')

kapa.ai•2y ago

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_module

passive-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#L15

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

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 something

absent-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-scripts

absent-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

https://github.com/refinedev/refine/blob/25179c4ede7d9acb2e10891237e83c1cc56e4cf7/packages/cli/src/utils/project/index.ts#L30-L33

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 dependencies

absent-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! 🤣

Add Refine to an existing React project?

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