Django React Server Side Rendering

Test project for server side rendering React within Django using GraalVM polyglot programming.

Based on the GraalVM Java + Python polyglot example.

Concessions

• The code quality is bad
• A lot of patching was needed
• It feels like it barely works
  • Django runs on a single thread
  • Django does not refresh on code changes
• I was unable to get GraalPy running and supporting JavaScript without running it via Java

Requirements

• JAVA_PATH pointing at GraalVM JVM
• node
• npm
• maven

Running

Run npm install and npm build in the react-ssr folder.

Copy the resulting react-ssr/dist/client-bundle.js to src/main/resources/vfs/proj/static/client-bundle.js

Run mvn package

Somehow apply the patch in patches/django/django.patch. You can for example use patch pip package.

Run mvn exec:exec

The React app should be SSR'd and hydrated when you open http://localhost:8000/?user=weee

Patch example

patch -p1 < patches/django/django.patch

Packaging for Native might work

mvn package -Pnative