ReactJS import component outside src/ directory

Question

I have two react apps(A-app, B-app). I need to import one component from A-app to B-app. But when I tried to do this I have seen this error.

./src/App.js
Module not found: You attempted to import ../../src/components/Dashboard/container which falls outside of the project src/ directory. Relative imports outside of src/ are not supported. You can either move it inside src/, or add a symlink to it from project's node_modules/.

I tried to do symlink on this component in B-app node_modules. But it didn`t work.

Also I tried to create .env file in root project directory and put this NODE_PATH=src/ in file. But this solve doesn`t work too.

How can I fix this?

Sorry for my English.

Answer 1

I stumbled on this post while trying to solve a similar issue. I think the solution might be relevant so I'm posting it here.

As of NPM 2.0 you can declare local dependencies in package.json. This allows you to maintain local modules in a folder outside of src/ and have them copied to node_modules during npm install.

Place your module anywhere outside of src/, for example:

./packages/app-b-dashboard

Declare a local dependency in package.json using the file: prefix:

"dependencies": {
  "app-b-dashboard": "file:./packages/app-b-dashboard"
}

Run

npm install

Now you can import it in your A-app

import Dashboard from 'app-b-dashboard/container' 

Answer 2

Got to your A-app node_modules folder and run the following

ln -s ../../../src/components/Dashboard ./app-b-dashboard

After creating the following symbolic link in your node_modules folder you can import in you A-app

import Dashboard from 'app-b-dashboard/container'

The names might be different depending on the specific layout of your project. This is my best guess based on the info you provided.