Allow private npm packages as templates

[itelo]

Is your proposal related to a problem?

No. I just had to create a project like CRA in my work and we allowed private repositories. I want to know if it is a thing that the CRA community wants in the CLI. If it's ok I could work in a PR.

Describe the solution you'd like

probally a flag like:

npx create react-app --template some-template-name --npm-access-token="123"

[ianschmitz]

Supporting this use case sounds reasonable, but couldn't it be solved through existing methods such as a .npmrc file?

[itelo]

hmmm, I didn't know about .npmrc file, I believe puting the access token there should work fine.

[ricardoamedeiros]

Supporting this use case sounds reasonable, but couldn't it be solved through existing methods such as a .npmrc file?

Hi,

Even configuring the .npmrc correctly, at the end of the build the customization module is not found in the private npm.

log:

$ npx create-react-app my-app --template sebrae

Creating a new React app in /Users/ricardo/workspace/my-app.

Installing packages. This might take a couple of minutes.
Installing react, react-dom, and react-scripts with cra-template-sebrae...


> [email protected] install /Users/ricardo/workspace/my-app/node_modules/jest-haste-map/node_modules/fsevents
> node-gyp rebuild

  SOLINK_MODULE(target) Release/.node
  CXX(target) Release/obj.target/fse/fsevents.o
  SOLINK_MODULE(target) Release/fse.node

> [email protected] install /Users/ricardo/workspace/my-app/node_modules/watchpack/node_modules/fsevents
> node-gyp rebuild

  SOLINK_MODULE(target) Release/.node
  CXX(target) Release/obj.target/fse/fsevents.o
  SOLINK_MODULE(target) Release/fse.node

> [email protected] install /Users/ricardo/workspace/my-app/node_modules/webpack-dev-server/node_modules/fsevents
> node-gyp rebuild

  SOLINK_MODULE(target) Release/.node
  CXX(target) Release/obj.target/fse/fsevents.o
  SOLINK_MODULE(target) Release/fse.node

> [email protected] postinstall /Users/ricardo/workspace/my-app/node_modules/babel-runtime/node_modules/core-js
> node -e "try{require('./postinstall')}catch(e){}"


> [email protected] postinstall /Users/ricardo/workspace/my-app/node_modules/core-js
> node -e "try{require('./postinstall')}catch(e){}"


> [email protected] postinstall /Users/ricardo/workspace/my-app/node_modules/core-js-pure
> node -e "try{require('./postinstall')}catch(e){}"

+ [email protected]
+ [email protected]
+ [email protected]
+ [email protected]
added 1811 packages from 770 contributors in 102.158s

58 packages are looking for funding
  run `npm fund` for details

internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:638
    throw err;
    ^

Error: **Cannot find module 'cra-template-sebrae'**
    at Function.Module._resolveFilename (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:636:15)
    at Function.resolve (internal/modules/cjs/helpers.js:33:19)
    at module.exports (/Users/ricardo/workspace/my-app/node_modules/react-scripts/scripts/init.js:110:13)
    at [eval]:3:14
    at Script.runInThisContext (vm.js:122:20)
    at Object.runInThisContext (vm.js:329:38)
    at Object.<anonymous> ([eval]-wrapper:6:22)
    at Module._compile (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:776:30)
    at evalScript (internal/bootstrap/node.js:589:27)
    at startup (internal/bootstrap/node.js:265:9)

Aborting installation.
  node  has failed.

Deleting generated file... node_modules
Deleting generated file... package.json
Done.

Custom template at nexus:

.npmrc config:

Any solution?

[ricardoamedeiros]

hmmm, I didn't know about .npmrc file, I believe puting the access token there should work fine.

not working.

[ricardoamedeiros]

I discovered the problem. The template path within node_modules was not being found. I made the pull request with the following adjustment:

javascript:

create-react-app/packages/react-scripts/scripts/init.js

befor:

const templatePath = path.dirname( require.resolve(${templateName}/package.json, { paths: [appPath] }) );

after:

const templatePath = path.dirname( require.resolve(${templateName}/package.json, { paths: [${appPath}/node_modules] }) );

[mrmckeb]

Hi @itelofilho, can you please confirm that your template has a main field?

We've resolve this issue, but until our next release, templates must have a main field - which is required by require.resolve. See:
e0b179c#diff-1453d9590326c639309801105bc967c2

[ricardoamedeiros]

with field main worked.

[mrmckeb]

Closing this off, thanks for confirming. We'll release the fix for this soon, sorry again.