How to create a Monorepo in React using Yarn Workspaces with Example?

Introduction

A monorepo is a software development strategy where multiple projects or applications are stored in a single repository. It allows multiple teams to collaborate on different parts of a project while maintaining a consistent codebase. Yarn Workspaces is a popular package manager that makes it easy to manage dependencies across multiple packages in a monorepo. In this blog post, we will discuss how to create a monorepo in React using Yarn Workspaces, and provide an example of how it can be implemented.

Creating a Monorepo in React using Yarn Workspaces

1. First, create a new directory for your monorepo and initialize a new Yarn project.

mkdir my-monorepo
cd my-monorepo
yarn init -y

1. Next, create two folders in the root directory of your monorepo: packages and apps. These folders will contain your shared packages and applications, respectively.

mkdir packages apps

1. Create a new React application in the apps folder using create-react-app.

cd apps
npx create-react-app my-app

1. Install Yarn Workspaces in the root directory of your monorepo.

cd ..
yarn add -D yarn-workspaces

1. In the package.json file, add the following configuration:

"private": true,
"workspaces": [
    "packages/*",
    "apps/*"
]

This tells Yarn to manage the packages and applications in the packages and apps folders.

1. Create a new folder in the packages directory for your shared package.

cd packages
mkdir my-package

1. Initialize a new Yarn project in the my-package folder.

cd my-package
yarn init -y

1. Create a new file called index.js in the my-package folder and export a function.

// index.js
export const myFunction = () => {
  console.log('Hello from my package!');
};

1. In the my-app React application, import and use the myFunction function from my-package.

// App.js
import { myFunction } from '@my-monorepo/my-package';

function App() {
  useEffect(() => {
    myFunction();
  }, []);

  return (
    <div className="App">
      <h1>Hello from my React app!</h1>
    </div>
  );
}

export default App;

1. Finally, start the React application.

cd ../apps/my-app
yarn start

Example

In this example, we created a monorepo with a shared package (my-package) and a React application (my-app). We then imported a function from my-package into my-app and used it in the App component.

Conclusion

Creating a monorepo in React using Yarn Workspaces can be a powerful way to manage multiple projects or applications. By using a single repository and managing dependencies with Yarn, it is easier to share code and collaborate across teams. We hope this example has been helpful in understanding how to create a monorepo in React using Yarn Workspaces.