Search code examples
reactjscreate-react-app

A way to know the version of the build of an React App


We are using the create-react-app to create our client React app. We are deploying the app several times a week. We'd like to version every build so we can check which version is online.

I'm thinking about adding a meta tag with the version to the index.html file. So currently the header has:

<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8" />
  <link rel="icon" href="/favicon.ico" />
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width,initial-scale=1" />
  <meta name="theme-color" content="#000000" />
  <meta name="description" content="Web site created using create-react-app" />
  <link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="logo192.png" />
  <link rel="manifest" href="/manifest.json" />
  <title>React App</title>
  <link href="/static/css/main.b100e6da.chunk.css" rel="stylesheet">
</head>

What do you think about adding a meta like this one:

<meta name="build-version" content="2019-10-08-15-42" />

With the content using the format: YYYY-MM-DD-HH-MM

What do you think about this idea? Or is there another way to version every build.

If it is a good idea, can you help me with some ideas on how to do it?


Solution

  • Thanks to the help of @Bhojendra Rauniyar I got this solution:

    1. Add this line to public/index.html:

    <meta build-version="%REACTBUILDVERSION%"/>

    1. Run this 3 commands:
    REACTBUILDVERSION=$(date +%Y-%m-%d)-$(date +%T)
    sed -i -- 's/%REACTBUILDVERSION%/'$REACTBUILDVERSION'/g' build/index.html
    echo React Build Version = $REACTBUILDVERSION
    

    To make it comfortable, these 3 commands can be added to the build in package.json:

    Original build in package.json:

    "build": "react-scripts build",

    NEW build in package.json:

    "build":
         "react-scripts build &&
          REACTBUILDVERSION=$(date +%Y-%m-%d)-$(date +%T) &&
          sed -i -- 's/%REACTBUILDVERSION%/'$REACTBUILDVERSION'/g' build/index.html &&
          echo React Build Version = $REACTBUILDVERSION",
    

    After the build you can see this meta tag in the build/index.html:

    <meta build-version="2019-10-16-16:31:43"/>