Create and Publish a Custom React Hook as an NPM Package

As React developers, we often come across scenarios where we want to reuse specific logic across multiple components. React hooks make this easy, but what if you want to share your hooks with the wider community? Publishing your custom hooks as NPM packages allows you to contribute to the open-source community while making your work reusable across different projects.

In this blog, I’ll guide you through the process of creating a custom hook and publishing it as an NPM package step-by-step. We will cover:

• Creating a custom hook in React.
• Setting up the project with Babel.
• Publishing the hook to NPM.

By the end of this tutorial, you will have your own React hook published on NPM, ready for the world to use.

It looked something like this:

Step 1: Creating a Custom React Hook

First, let's create a simple React hook that tracks the browser window size. This can be useful for responsive layouts.

Hook Code: useWindowSize

import { useState, useEffect } from 'react';

export function useWindowSize() {
  const [windowSize, setWindowSize] = useState({
    width: window.innerWidth,
    height: window.innerHeight
  });

  useEffect(() => {
    function handleResize() {
      setWindowSize({
        width: window.innerWidth,
        height: window.innerHeight
      });
    }

    window.addEventListener('resize', handleResize);
    handleResize();

    return () => window.removeEventListener('resize', handleResize);
  }, []);

  return windowSize;
}        

This hook listens to the resize event and updates the width and height whenever the window size changes.

Step 2: Setting Up the Project

To publish our hook as an NPM package, we need to set up a project and configure it to build our code. We will use Babel for transpiling our code into a format that can be consumed by projects using different versions of React.

1. Initialize the Project

Run the following command to create a new NPM project:

npm init        

Fill in the details like name, version, and description. Here’s an example of a package.json:

{
  "name": "usepcscustomhook",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "A custom hook for window size tracking",
  "main": "dist/useCustomHook.js",
  "scripts": {
    "build": "babel src --out-dir dist",
    "test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1"
  },
  "keywords": ["npm", "custom", "hook"],
  "author": "Praful Chauhan",
  "license": "MIT",
  "devDependencies": {
    "@babel/cli": "^7.25.7",
    "@babel/core": "^7.25.8",
    "@babel/preset-env": "^7.25.8",
    "@babel/preset-react": "^7.25.7"
  },
  "peerDependencies": {
    "react": "^18.0.0",
    "react-dom": "^18.0.0"
  }
}        

2. Install Babel and React

Now, install the necessary development dependencies:

npm install --save-dev @babel/cli @babel/core @babel/preset-env @babel/preset-react        

Add a .babelrc configuration file to the root of your project to tell Babel how to transpile your code:

{
  "presets": ["@babel/preset-env", "@babel/preset-react"]
}        

3. Organize Your Files

In the root of your project, create the following structure:

/src
  - useWindowSize.js
/dist (This will be generated after the build)
/index.js        

The index.js should look like this:

export { useWindowSize } from './src/useWindowSize';        

Step 3: Build the Hook

To compile your hook using Babel, run:

npm run build        

This command will transpile the source files in src/ to the dist/ folder, making them ready for publication.

Step 4: Publish as an NPM Package

Now that your hook is ready, you can publish it to NPM.

1. Login to NPM

Make sure you have an NPM account. If you don’t have one, create an account on NPM.

Then, log in via the command line:

npm login        

You will be prompted for your username, password, and email.

2. Set the Package Version

Make sure your package.json version is set appropriately (e.g., 1.0.0). Every time you publish a new version, you need to increment the version number.

3. Publish the Package

Run the following command to publish your package:

npm publish --access public        

Your hook will now be available on NPM, and you can install it in any project by running:

npm install usepcscustomhook        

Step 5: Adding Documentation

It’s important to provide clear instructions for using your hook. Here’s an example README.md for our useWindowSize hook:

README.md Example

# usepcscustomhook

A custom React hook for tracking window size.

## Installation

```bash
npm install usepcscustomhook        

Usage

import React from 'react';
import { useWindowSize } from 'usepcscustomhook';

const MyComponent = () => {
  const { width, height } = useWindowSize();

  return (
    <div>
      <h1>Window Size</h1>
      <p>Width: {width}px</p>
      <p>Height: {height}px</p>
    </div>
  );
};

export default MyComponent;        

License

MIT        

Conclusion

In this blog, we walked through the process of creating and publishing a custom React hook as an NPM package. This is a great way to make your reusable code available to the broader developer community.

Now, go ahead and create your own custom hooks, and don't hesitate to share them with the world via NPM!

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