How To Run A React App Through Maven

You can run React and SpringBoot on the same port and Package them as a single artifact !! Please follow the steps that I have explained here, that should get you up and running. To answer your questions-

The directory structure has been show below. Both will be under the same root directory.
Regarding react app development workflow- you can just develop it the way you develop a front-end react project, with hot reloads(save the file and the changes will reflect automatically) and meaningful error messages. You will have to use proxying to communicate.

Here is the Github link of the demo project that I am going to explain here

Spring Boot can serve static content from src/main/resources/static folder. We will exploit the above mentioned feature of Spring Boot to serve the single page of the react project. We will serve a html page from the static folder in the target directory, not in the source directory.

The Project structure-

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First, create a spring boot project with https://start.spring.io. Add the Web dependency. Set the groupId and artifactId to whatever you want. Generate the project and unzip it into your project directory.

Or, if you are using Spring Tools Suite you can simply click File->New->Spring Starter Project and mention the required details to create a spring boot project.

The frontend folder inside src/main should have your react application build using create-react-app.

So, there are two steps-

create a production build of the frontend.
copy the production build into ${target/classes/}.

We we will use two maven plugins and Thymleaf for that.

frontend-maven-plugin for step 1.
maven-resources-plugin for step 2.

For frontend-maven-plugin at Step 1-- If you closely look at the pom.xml there I have mentioned the src directroy from where frontend-maven-plugin will take the files, create the production build and place the contents inside the output directory mentioned(inside src/main/frontend/build).

                      <workingDirectory>${frontend-src-dir}</workingDirectory>  <installDirectory>${project.build.directory}</installDirectory>

For maven-resources-plugin at step 2-- It will take the production build that was just created by frontend-maven-plugin and place it inside your root directory then target/classes/static.

Then we will use Thymleaf to serve the static content from the target/classes/static using a rest endpoint in the controller. Or else you have to type in the name of the html file, like http://localhost:8080/index.html

Your pom.xml should look like this-

          <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"     xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"     xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 https://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">     <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>     <parent>         <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>         <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>         <version>2.4.2</version>         <relativePath /> <!-- lookup parent from repository -->     </parent>     <groupId>com.springreact</groupId>     <artifactId>demo</artifactId>     <version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>     <name>demo</name>     <description>Run React Frontend and SpringBoot Backend on the same port.</description>     <properties>         <java.version>1.8</java.version>         <frontend-src-dir>${project.basedir}/src/main/frontend</frontend-src-dir>         <node.version>v14.15.4</node.version>         <yarn.version>v1.16.0</yarn.version>         <frontend-maven-plugin.version>1.7.6</frontend-maven-plugin.version>     </properties>     <dependencies>         <dependency>             <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>             <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>         </dependency>         <dependency>             <groupId>org.projectlombok</groupId>             <artifactId>lombok</artifactId>             <optional>true</optional>         </dependency>         <dependency>             <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>             <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-test</artifactId>             <scope>test</scope>         </dependency>         <dependency>             <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>              <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-thymeleaf</artifactId>         </dependency>     </dependencies>      <build>         <plugins>             <plugin>                 <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>                 <artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>                 <configuration>                     <excludes>                         <exclude>                             <groupId>org.projectlombok</groupId>                             <artifactId>lombok</artifactId>                         </exclude>                     </excludes>                 </configuration>             </plugin>             <plugin>                 <groupId>com.github.eirslett</groupId>                 <artifactId>frontend-maven-plugin</artifactId>                 <version>${frontend-maven-plugin.version}</version>                  <configuration>                     <nodeVersion>${node.version}</nodeVersion>                     <yarnVersion>${yarn.version}</yarnVersion>                     <workingDirectory>${frontend-src-dir}</workingDirectory>                     <installDirectory>${project.build.directory}</installDirectory>                 </configuration>                  <executions>                     <execution>                         <id>install-frontend-tools</id>                         <goals>                             <goal>install-node-and-yarn</goal>                         </goals>                     </execution>                      <execution>                         <id>yarn-install</id>                         <goals>                             <goal>yarn</goal>                         </goals>                         <configuration>                             <arguments>install</arguments>                         </configuration>                     </execution>                      <execution>                         <id>build-frontend</id>                         <goals>                             <goal>yarn</goal>                         </goals>                         <phase>prepare-package</phase>                         <configuration>                             <arguments>build</arguments>                         </configuration>                     </execution>                 </executions>             </plugin>             <plugin>                 <artifactId>maven-resources-plugin</artifactId>                 <executions>                     <execution>                         <id>position-react-build</id>                         <goals>                             <goal>copy-resources</goal>                         </goals>                         <phase>prepare-package</phase>                         <configuration>                             <outputDirectory>${project.build.outputDirectory}/static</outputDirectory>                             <resources>                                 <resource>                                     <directory>${frontend-src-dir}/build</directory>                                     <filtering>false</filtering>                                 </resource>                             </resources>                         </configuration>                     </execution>                 </executions>             </plugin>         </plugins>     </build> </project>

Here is the Controller code.

          package com.springreact.demo.controller;  import org.springframework.stereotype.Controller; import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.GetMapping; import org.springframework.web.servlet.ModelAndView;  @Controller public class IndexController {      @GetMapping("")     public ModelAndView home() {         ModelAndView mav=new ModelAndView("index");         return mav;     }  }

If you follow the above mentioned steps , you should see your React App being spun up on http://localhost:8080/.

enter image description here

For further details you can checkout the blog that I have written on it. Here are the links of the blog on two different platforms-

Dev Community- https://dev.to/arpan_banerjee7/run-react-frontend-and-springboot-backend-on-the-same-port-and-package-them-as-a-single-artifact-14pa

Medium- https://medium.com/codex/run-react-frontend-and-springboot-backend-on-the-same-port-and-package-them-as-a-single-artifact-a790c9e10ac1