Integrating React into Your Ruby on Rails Application: A Step-by-Step Guide

3 min readJul 24, 2023

Introduction: Building modern web applications often involves combining different technologies to achieve the desired functionality and user experience. In this blog, we will explore how to integrate a React frontend into a Ruby on Rails backend application, harnessing the power of both technologies. By doing so, you can create dynamic, interactive, and responsive web applications that provide seamless user experiences.

Prerequisites: Before we get started, make sure you have basic knowledge of React and Ruby on Rails. If you’re unfamiliar with either technology, consider taking some time to explore their documentation and tutorials.

Step 1: Create a New React Application To begin, let’s set up a new React application using the popular “create-react-app” tool. Open your terminal and run the following command:

npx create-react-app my-react-app

Step 2: Build the React App Once the React app is created, navigate into the “my-react-app” directory and build the production-ready version of the app:

cd my-react-app
npm run build

This step generates optimized static files for the React app within the “build” folder.

Step 3: Integrate React Build with Rails Next, copy the contents of the React app’s “build” folder and paste them into your Rails application’s public directory. The public directory is an appropriate location to serve static assets.

Step 4: Update Rails Layout or View Now, let’s integrate the React app into your Rails application. Depending on your needs, you can include the React app in a specific Rails layout or view. In this example, we’ll add the necessary script tags to the application layout.

<!-- app/views/layouts/application.html.erb -->

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <!-- Rails specific content -->
    <title>Your Rails Application</title>
    <%= csrf_meta_tags %>
    <%= csp_meta_tag %>
    <!-- End of Rails specific content -->    <!-- Load React app files -->
    <script src="/static/js/runtime-main.js"></script>
    <script src="/static/js/main.chunk.js"></script>
    <script src="/static/js/0.chunk.js"></script>
  </head>
  <body>
    <%= yield %>
    <!-- Optional: You can add your Rails views below -->
  </body>
</html>

Step 5: Mount the React App Identify an HTML element within your Rails layout or view where you want to mount the React app. For instance, create a div with an ID like “react-root”:

<!-- app/views/layouts/application.html.erb -->

<body>
  <div id="react-root"></div>
</body>

Step 6: Initialize React in Rails Layout Finally, in the same layout or view, add a script to initialize the React app and mount it into the specified HTML element:

<!-- app/views/layouts/application.html.erb -->

<!-- ... Other content ... --><script>
  // Initialize React app
  ReactDOM.render(React.createElement(App),     document.getElementById('react-root'));
</script>

Conclusion: By following these steps, you have successfully integrated a React frontend into your Ruby on Rails application. This powerful combination allows you to build feature-rich, interactive, and user-friendly web applications. The React frontend seamlessly interacts with your Rails backend, making it easier to develop and maintain sophisticated applications.

Remember to continue exploring the capabilities of both React and Ruby on Rails to unlock their full potential for your projects. Happy coding!