I'm wondering if it's possible to use command line arguments with ReactJS (not react-native). For example, is it possible to input a simple string and have it be saved as a variable so it can be displayed? The npm yargs module is the kind of thing I'm looking for, but I couldn't get that to work because the child process it spawns apparently doesn't work in a browser.
Edit: I've also tried something like including {process.argv[0]} in say an h1 tag, but nothing shows up.
For example you run this command in terminal or cmd
npm start -- foo
foo is your argument. You can print your like this
// print process.argv
process.argv.forEach(function (val, index, array) {
console.log(index + ': ' + val);
});
in your script.
React is a client-side library. It runs in a web page, on a browser. The end-user doesn't use the command-line to "run" React, therefore command-line arguments are not available to the end-user.
As a developer, you do use tools to start a development server and launch a browser that is running React. Most likely, you're using Create React App. You can use environment variables to pass variables/arguments to React. Specifically, the documentation offers these examples:
# on Linux and macOS
REACT_APP_NOT_SECRET_CODE=abcdef npm start
# on Windows (cmd.exe)
set "REACT_APP_NOT_SECRET_CODE=abcdef" && npm start
Note that these variables are embedded into React at build time, when Create React App bundles and builds your app (kind of like compiling). This means that if you build your React project and then transfer the output files to another server and try to pass new variables, nothing will change.
If your React build files are on a server and you want to be able to pass command-line arguments to the server and have React change, this is also possible, but largely depends on what software you are using to serve. Broadly, the server would take the runtime argument and pass it into the template which renders your React app. Then any Javascript that runs on that page can access the arguments.