Running the Examples
This step assumes you've already reviewed the Getting Started guide. If not, please start there!
React-JUCE includes an extremely simple utility gain plugin to demonstrate the minimal code required for integrating React-JUCE into a JUCE project. To get it running, we only need two steps: compiling the JavaScript bundle, and then compiling and running the native code.
All React-JUCE projects have two components: we have the native code that knows how to mount the React application into our JUCE project and satisfy calls from React's reconciler, and then we have the React.js application code that we want to run in the native environment. In order to ease this handoff, we're using a tool in this example called Webpack that can compile a complete JavaScript project into a single file. That single file is then the only thing we need to execute in the native environment.
To get the GainPlugin up and running for the first time, we have to first perform that compilation step. So, from the root of the React-JUCE git repository:
$ cd examples/GainPlugin/Source/jsui/
The jsui/ directory here is the top level directory of all the React.js application code that we used to build the example interface. We use a build step managed by npm to compile all of our application javascript into a single file that can be easily loaded up in the native app:
$ npm install$ npm run build
At this point, you'll see an output file in examples/GainPlugin/Source/jsui/build/js/. That file location is important, because that's where the native code looks for executing the output file.
Now that we have our JavaScript bundle, the last step is simple: just hit Build and Run from your IDE! When the JUCE PluginEditor gets initialized, it will find your JavaScript build and evaluate it within the embedded interpreter to draw the GainPlugin interface.
The GainPlugin example is preconfigured with hot reloading, so that as you edit the React application code, your interface will redraw itself instantly. In order to take advantage of this, we need to recompile our JavaScript bundle on the fly as we're editing our code. Fortunately, Webpack makes that simple, so from within the jsui/ directory:
$ npm start
This will first build your JavaScript bundle, then wait and watch your source files for changes. When it finds a change, it will pick that change up and incrementally rebuild your bundle. In turn, React-JUCE will pick up the change to the bundle file and redraw your interface.
Now that you're up and running, take a minute to tweak the GainPlugin React application to get a sense of the workflow! When you're done, let's move on to the next step, adding React-JUCE to your own project.
