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Simple and easy to use Create-React-App plugin for Salesforce DX

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React Plugin for Salesforce DX



Simple and easy to use Create-React-App plugin for Salesforce DX


Salesforce DX

  • Salesforce DX is a Command Line Interface tool based on the Node.js Open CLI Framework (OCLIF) built by Heroku.
  • To extend the features of the CLI tool, we are given the capability to create custom plugins (Salesforce DX plugins).

Salesforce DX Plugins

  • There are several use cases in which we can use Salesforce DX plugins:

    • File manipulation scripts
    • Automation scripts
    • Source code generators
    • Code clean up scripts
    • Etc
  • Plugins are written in TypeScript

    • TypeScript is a typed superset of JavaScript that compiles to plain JavaScript.
      • Strongly typed
      • Gains the capability of writing interfaces
    • Compatible with the latest ECMAScript specification.
  • Packages are managed with Yarn

    • Easy integration with 3rd party Libaries (e.g. Webpack)
  • Code can be easily tested with a variety of test frameworks

Why use SFDX plugin instead of just a Shell Script?

  • Org information is available in SFDX
  • Shell script is less flexible than TypeScript
  • We can use open source libraries with plugins

React Plugin

  • The objective is to build a simple React code generator similar to Facebook's create-react-app.
  • We will only include the essential starter libraries -- which means that we will not include libraries that we don't usually run.
  • The plugn assumes that it will run in a VisualForce context which means that it will not need a Node.js server in which React usually runs.
  • App security will be handled by the Salesforce platform which means that creating a login component is less than necessary in building a React Visualforce App.
  • The react app will be uploaded as a static resource and embedded in a VisualForce page.
  • The plugin will be responsible for the creation of metadata and relevant paths for assets such as images, icons and stylesheets.
  • It will also compress assets (i.e. images) such that the 5mb limit for static resources will not be reached.

What we need

  • NPM and Yarn
  • Webpack
    • CSS Loader plugin
    • Style Loader plugin
    • URL Loader
    • Webpack Image Loader
  • Babel
  • Babel presets
  • Bootstrap

Quick Start Guide

Before you begin, you will need to install


Install the plugin

  • Clone this project
git clone https://github.com/Gurenax/sfdx-react-plugin
  • Install the packages
cd sfdx-react-plugin
yarn install
  • Link the plugin to SFDX
sfdx plugins:link .

Running the plugin

  • To create a new React App, run:
sfdx react:create -n HelloWorld -u OrgName
  • After making changes to the React App, run:
sfdx react:update
  • Push changes to your Org
sfdx force:source:push -u <Org Name>

SFDX Generated Docs

$ npm install -g sfdx-react-plugin
$ sfdx-react-plugin COMMAND
running command...
$ sfdx-react-plugin (-v|--version|version)
sfdx-react-plugin/1.0.0 darwin-x64 node-v8.9.4
$ sfdx-react-plugin --help [COMMAND]
USAGE
  $ sfdx-react-plugin COMMAND
...

sfdx-react-plugin react:create

USAGE
  $ sfdx-react-plugin react:create

OPTIONS
  -h, --help=help                                 display the help texts
  -n, --name=name                                 name of the app
  -u, --targetusername=targetusername             username or alias for the target org; overrides default target org
  --apiversion=apiversion                         override the api version used for api requests made by this command
  --json                                          format output as json
  --loglevel=(trace|debug|info|warn|error|fatal)  logging level for this command invocation

EXAMPLES
  $ sfdx react:create -n HelloWorld -u OrgName
  $ sfdx react:create -n HelloWorld -u OrgName --apiversion 43.0

See code: src/commands/react/create.ts

sfdx-react-plugin react:update

USAGE
  $ sfdx-react-plugin react:update

OPTIONS
  -h, --help  show CLI help

EXAMPLE
  $ sfdx react:update

See code: src/commands/react/update.ts

Debugging your plugin

We recommend using the Visual Studio Code (VS Code) IDE for your plugin development. Included in the .vscode directory of this plugin is a launch.json config file, which allows you to attach a debugger to the node process when running your commands.

To debug the hello:org command:

  1. Start the inspector

If you linked your plugin to the sfdx cli, call your command with the dev-suspend switch:

$ sfdx hello:org -u [email protected] --dev-suspend

Alternatively, to call your command using the bin/run script, set the NODE_OPTIONS environment variable to --inspect-brk when starting the debugger:

$ NODE_OPTIONS=--inspect-brk bin/run hello:org -u [email protected]
  1. Set some breakpoints in your command code
  2. Click on the Debug icon in the Activity Bar on the side of VS Code to open up the Debug view.
  3. In the upper left hand corner of VS Code, verify that the "Attach to Remote" launch configuration has been chosen.
  4. Hit the green play button to the left of the "Attach to Remote" launch configuration window. The debugger should now be suspended on the first line of the program.
  5. Hit the green play button at the top middle of VS Code (this play button will be to the right of the play button that you clicked in step #5).

    Congrats, you are debugging!