* created using create-react-app
In this tutorial, I'll show you how you can create a React app and deploy it to GitHub Pages.
To create the React app, I'll be using create-react-app, which is a tool people can use to create a React app from scratch. To deploy the React app, I'll be using gh-pages, which is an npm package people can use to deploy things to GitHub Pages, a free web hosting service provided by GitHub.
If you follow along with this tutorial, you'll end up with a new React app—hosted on GitHub Pages—which you can then customize.
This tutorial has been translated from its original English into the following languages:
- Traditional Chinese (credit: @creaper9487)
-
Node and npm are installed. Here are the versions I'll be using while making this tutorial:
$ node --version v16.13.2 $ npm --version 8.1.2
Installing npm adds two commands to the system—
npmandnpx—both of which I'll be using while making this tutorial. -
Git is installed. Here's the version I'll be using while making this tutorial:
$ git --version git version 2.29.1.windows.1
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A GitHub account.
- Sign into your GitHub account.
- Visit the Create a new repository form.
- Fill in the form as follows:
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Repository name: You can enter any name you want*.
* For a project site, you can enter any name you want. For a user site, GitHub requires that the repository's name have the following format:
{username}.github.io(e.g.gitname.github.io)The name you enter will show up in a few places: (a) in references to the repository throughout GitHub, (b) in the URL of the repository, and (c) in the URL of the deployed React app.
In this tutorial, I'll be deploying the React app as a project site.
I'll enter:
react-gh-pages -
Repository privacy: Select Public (or Private*).
* For GitHub Free users, the only type of repository that can be used with GitHub Pages is Public. For GitHub Pro users (and other paying users), both Public and Private repositories can be used with GitHub Pages.
I'll choose: Public
-
Initialize repository: Leave all checkboxes empty.
That will make it so GitHub creates an empty repository, instead of pre-populating the repository with a
README.md,.gitignore, and/orLICENSEfile.
-
- Submit the form.
At this point, your GitHub account contains an empty repository, having the name and privacy type that you specified.
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Create a React app named
my-app:In case you want to use a different name from
my-app(e.g.web-ui), you can accomplish that by replacing all occurrences ofmy-appin this tutorial, with that other name (i.e.my-app-->web-ui).$ npx create-react-app my-app
That command will create a React app written in JavaScript. To create one written in TypeScript, you can issue this command instead:
$ npx create-react-app my-app --template typescript
That command will create a new folder named
my-app, which will contain the source code of a React app.In addition to containing the source code of the React app, that folder is also a Git repository. That characteristic of the folder will come into play in Step 6.
The Git repository will have one branch, which will be named either (a)
master, the default for a fresh Git installation; or (b) the value of the Git configuration variable,init.defaultBranch, if your computer is running Git version 2.28 or later and you have set that variable in your Git configuration (e.g. via$ git config --global init.defaultBranch main).Since I have not set that variable in my Git installation, the branch in my repository will be named
master. In case the branch in your repository has a different name (which you can check by running$ git branch), such asmain; you can replace all occurrences ofmasterthroughout the remainder of this tutorial, with that other name (e.g.master→main). -
Enter the newly-created folder:
$ cd my-app
At this point, there is a React app on your computer and you are in the folder that contains its source code. All of the remaining commands shown in this tutorial can be run from that folder.
-
Install the
gh-pagesnpm package and designate it as a development dependency:$ npm install gh-pages --save-dev
At this point, the gh-pages npm package is installed on your computer and the React app's dependence upon it is documented in the React app's package.json file.
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Open the
package.jsonfile in a text editor.$ vi package.json
In this tutorial, the text editor I'll be using is vi. You can use any text editor you want; for example, Visual Studio Code.
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Add a
homepageproperty in this format*:https://{username}.github.io/{repo-name}* For a project site, that's the format. For a user site, the format is:
https://{username}.github.io. You can read more about thehomepageproperty in the "GitHub Pages" section of thecreate-react-appdocumentation.{ "name": "my-app", "version": "0.1.0", + "homepage": "https://gitname.github.io/react-gh-pages", "private": true,
At this point, the React app's package.json file includes a property named homepage.
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Open the
package.jsonfile in a text editor (if it isn't already open in one).$ vi package.json
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Add a
predeployproperty and adeployproperty to thescriptsobject:"scripts": { + "predeploy": "npm run build", + "deploy": "gh-pages -d build", "start": "react-scripts start", "build": "react-scripts build",
At this point, the React app's package.json file includes deployment scripts.
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Add a "remote" to the local Git repository.
You can do that by issuing a command in this format:
$ git remote add origin https://github.com/{username}/{repo-name}.gitTo customize that command for your situation, replace
{username}with your GitHub username and replace{repo-name}with the name of the GitHub repository you created in Step 1.In my case, I'll run:
$ git remote add origin https://github.com/gitname/react-gh-pages.git
That command tells Git where I want it to push things whenever I—or the
gh-pagesnpm package acting on my behalf—issue the$ git pushcommand from within this local Git repository.
At this point, the local repository has a "remote" whose URL points to the GitHub repository you created in Step 1.
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Push the React app to the GitHub repository
$ npm run deploy
That will cause the
predeployanddeployscripts defined inpackage.jsonto run.Under the hood, the
predeployscript will build a distributable version of the React app and store it in a folder namedbuild. Then, thedeployscript will push the contents of that folder to a new commit on thegh-pagesbranch of the GitHub repository, creating that branch if it doesn't already exist.By default, the new commit on the
gh-pagesbranch will have a commit message of "Updates". You can specify a custom commit message via the-moption, like this:$ npm run deploy -- -m "Deploy React app to GitHub Pages"
At this point, the GitHub repository contains a branch named gh-pages, which contains the files that make up the distributable version of the React app. However, we haven't configured GitHub Pages to serve those files yet.
- Navigate to the GitHub Pages settings page
- In your web browser, navigate to the GitHub repository
- Above the code browser, click on the tab labeled "Settings"
- In the sidebar, in the "Code and automation" section, click on "Pages"
- Configure the "Build and deployment" settings like this:
- Source: Deploy from a branch
- Branch:
- Branch:
gh-pages - Folder:
/ (root)
- Branch:
- Click on the "Save" button
That's it! The React app has been deployed to GitHub Pages! 🚀
At this point, the React app is accessible to anyone who visits the homepage URL you specified in Step 4. For example, the React app I deployed is accessible at https://gitname.github.io/react-gh-pages.
In a previous step, the gh-pages npm package pushed the distributable version of the React app to a branch named gh-pages in the GitHub repository. However, the source code of the React app is not yet stored on GitHub.
In this step, I'll show you how you can store the source code of the React app on GitHub.
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Commit the changes you made while you were following this tutorial, to the
masterbranch of the local Git repository; then, push that branch up to themasterbranch of the GitHub repository.$ git add . $ git commit -m "Configure React app for deployment to GitHub Pages" $ git push origin master
I recommend exploring the GitHub repository at this point. It will have two branches:
masterandgh-pages. Themasterbranch will contain the React app's source code, while thegh-pagesbranch will contain the distributable version of the React app.
- The official
create-react-appdeployment guide - GitHub blog: Build and deploy GitHub Pages from any branch
- Preserving the
CNAMEfile when using a custom domain
- Special thanks to GitHub (the company) for providing us with the GitHub Pages hosting service for free.
- And now, time to turn the default React app generated by
create-react-appinto something unique! - This repository consists of two branches:
master- the source code of the React appgh-pages- the React app built from that source code
Thanks to these people for contributing to the maintenance of this tutorial.
This list is maintained manually—for now—and includes (a) each person who submitted a pull request that was eventually merged into master, and (b) each person who contributed in a different way (e.g. providing constructive feedback) and who approved of me including them in this list.
![dependabot[bot] avatar](https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/in/29110?v=4 "dependabot[bot]")
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