How to serve static assets like json file in webpack dev server?

Question

I am building a react app. I have used yeoman to generate the react app structure. I am using webpack to bundle all js files. My package.json is -

{
  "dependencies": {
    "axios": "^0.15.0",
    "classnames": "^2.2.5",
    "es6-shim": "^0.35.0",
    "react": "^15.0.1",
    "react-dom": "^15.0.1",
    "react-mdl": "^1.7.2",
    "react-redux": "^4.4.5",
    "react-router": "^2.4.0",
    "redux": "^3.5.1",
    "todomvc-app-css": "^2.0.4"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "autoprefixer": "^6.2.2",
    "babel-core": "^6.13.0",
    "babel-eslint": "^6.0.2",
    "babel-loader": "^6.2.0",
    "babel-plugin-istanbul": "^2.0.1",
    "babel-polyfill": "^6.7.4",
    "babel-preset-es2015": "^6.2.0",
    "babel-preset-react": "^6.1.18",
    "browser-sync": "^2.9.11",
    "browser-sync-spa": "^1.0.3",
    "css-loader": "^0.23.1",
    "del": "^2.0.2",
    "es6-shim": "^0.35.0",
    "eslint": "^3.2.2",
    "eslint-config-xo-react": "^0.7.0",
    "eslint-config-xo-space": "^0.12.0",
    "eslint-loader": "^1.3.0",
    "eslint-plugin-babel": "^3.1.0",
    "eslint-plugin-react": "^5.0.1",
    "extract-text-webpack-plugin": "^2.0.0-beta.3",
    "file-loader": "^0.9.0",
    "gulp": "gulpjs/gulp#4ed9a4a3275559c73a396eff7e1fde3824951ebb",
    "gulp-filter": "^4.0.0",
    "gulp-hub": "frankwallis/gulp-hub#d461b9c700df9010d0a8694e4af1fb96d9f38bf4",
    "gulp-sass": "^2.1.1",
    "gulp-util": "^3.0.7",
    "html-webpack-plugin": "^2.9.0",
    "jasmine": "^2.4.1",
    "json-loader": "^0.5.4",
    "karma": "^1.3.0",
    "karma-coverage": "^1.1.1",
    "karma-jasmine": "^1.0.2",
    "karma-junit-reporter": "^1.1.0",
    "karma-phantomjs-launcher": "^1.0.0",
    "karma-phantomjs-shim": "^1.1.2",
    "karma-webpack": "^1.7.0",
    "node-sass": "^3.4.2",
    "phantomjs-prebuilt": "^2.1.6",
    "postcss-loader": "^0.8.0",
    "react-addons-test-utils": "^15.0.1",
    "react-hot-loader": "^1.3.0",
    "sass-loader": "^3.1.2",
    "style-loader": "^0.13.0",
    "webpack": "2.1.0-beta.20",
    "webpack-dev-middleware": "^1.4.0",
    "webpack-hot-middleware": "^2.6.0"
  },
  "scripts": {
    "build": "gulp",
    "serve": "gulp serve",
    "serve:dist": "gulp serve:dist",
    "test": "gulp test",
    "test:auto": "gulp test:auto"
  },
  "eslintConfig": {
    "root": true,
    "env": {
      "browser": true,
      "jasmine": true
    },
    "extends": [
      "xo-react/space",
      "xo-space/esnext"
    ]
  }
}

I am using axios to make http requests. Presently, I have not coded a server to return a json data. Hence, to test the app's functionality, I want to serve static json data from a json file.

How can I achieve this ?

Since this setup is running a web-server, I hope a json file can be served using something like - axios.get('http://localhost:3000/user.json').

Answer 1

If you're starting your app from the Facebook's 'create-react-app' instructions found here: https://facebook.github.io/react/docs/installation.html

Then I found an easy way to be able to access JSON files from the URL without having the React Router get in the way and intercept the request.

All you have to do is in your index.js of that 'create-react-app' scaffolding, add something like this as the very first line: import './myJsonFile.json';

And that's it, as afterwards going to: http://localhost:3000/myJsonFile.json would correctly fetch the file without React router interfering in the lookup.

(maybe it wasn't exactly your question as you've used a different way to generate the app, but this would be an answer for those who use the 'create-react-app' as a base).