React Frontend
Setup¶
The new React-based UI will not be available by default. In order to set your development environment up to view the frontend, follow this guide. The new UI requires a separate frontend server to run to serve data for the new Frontend.
Install¶
The React frontend requires its own packages that aren't installed via the usual invoke tasks.
Docker¶
Run the following command:
docker compose run inventree-dev-server invoke frontend-compile
This will install the required packages for running the React frontend on your InvenTree dev server.
Devcontainer¶
This guide assumes you already have a running devcontainer
All these steps are performed within Visual Studio Code
Open a new terminal from the top menu by clicking Terminal > New Terminal
Make sure this terminal is running within the virtual env. The start of the last line should display (venv)
Run the command invoke frontend-compile. Wait for this to finish
Running¶
After finishing the install, you need to launch a frontend server to be able to view the new UI.
Using the previously described ways of running commands, execute the following:
invoke frontend-dev in your environment
This command does not run as a background daemon, and will occupy the window it's ran in.
Accessing¶
When the frontend server is running, it will be available on port 5173. i.e: https://localhost:5173/
Backend Server
The InvenTree backend server must also be running, for the frontend interface to have something to connect to! To launch a backend server, use the invoke server command.
Debugging¶
You can attach the vscode debugger to the frontend server to debug the frontend code. With the frontend server running, open the Run and Debug view in vscode and select InvenTree Frontend - Vite from the dropdown. Click the play button to start debugging. This will attach the debugger to the running vite server, and allow you to place breakpoints in the frontend code.
Backend Server
To debug the frontend code, the backend server must be running (in a separate process). Note that you cannot debug the backend server and the frontend server in the same vscode instance.
Information¶
On Windows, any Docker interaction is run via WSL. Naturally, all containers and devcontainers run through WSL. The default configuration for the frontend server sets up file polling to enable hot reloading. This is in itself a huge performance hit. If you're running an older system, it might just be enough to block anything from running in the container.
If you're having issues running the Frontend server, have a look at your Docker Desktop app. If you routinely see the container using almost ALL available CPU capacity, you need to turn off file polling.
Turning off file polling requires you to restart the frontend server process upon each file change
Head to the following path: src/frontend/vite.config.ts and change:
const IS_IN_WSL = platform().includes('WSL') || release().includes('WSL');
to
const IS_IN_WSL = false;
Make sure to not commit this change!
This change will require you to restart the frontend server for every change you make in the frontend code
Caveats¶
When running the frontend development server, some features may not work entirely as expected! Please take the time to understand the flow of data when running the frontend development server, and how it interacts with the backend server!
SSO Login¶
When logging into the frontend dev server via SSO, the redirect URL may not redirect correctly.