Vite Integration
Tags: javascript, programming, html, tutorial
Published: 2023-03-10 11:36:49

## Introduction

This guide will walk you through steps necessary to include and bundle MDB package in your project using Vite.

If you need more extensive support and step-by-step guidance, check out our [dedicated tutorial](https://mdbootstrap.com/learn/mdb-foundations/mdb-advanced-features/vite/).

---

## Vite starter

**If you want to use the starter prepared by us, use MDB CLI to create a new project.**

Note: If you don't have MDB CLI installed yet, you can do it with NPM: `npm install -g mdb-cli`. Now log in with your MDB account, type: `mdb login`. If you don't have account yet you can create one using `mdb register` command.

FREE - `mdb frontend init mdb5-free-standard-vite`
ESSENTIAL - `mdb frontend init mdb5-essential-standard-vite`
ADVANCED - `mdb frontend init mdb5-advanced-standard-vite`

Or download the repository - [MDB VITE STARTER](https://github.com/mdbootstrap/mdb-starter-vite)

Note: Vite starter on Github repo uses MDB Standard free installed via NPM. If you want to use a Pro version or a different installation method go to the [import MDB](https://mdbootstrap.com/docs/standard/getting-started/vite-integration/#section-import-mdb) section and check if it requires configuration changes. For example, changing the import paths of MDB files.

**Basic features**

- Bundling via [Vite](https://github.com/vitejs/vite) v3.1.0
- ES6+ Support via [babel-cli](https://github.com/babel/babel) v7.18.10
- SASS Support via [sass](https://github.com/sass/dart-sass) v1.54.8
- Linting via [eslint-webpack-plugin](https://github.com/webpack-contrib/eslint-webpack-plugin) v3.2.0
- Unit Testing via [Jest](https://github.com/facebook/jest) v29.0.2
- Code Formatting via [Prettier](https://github.com/prettier/prettier) v2.7.1
- Unused CSS removed via [PurgeCSS](https://github.com/FullHuman/purgecss) v5.0.0
- Deploy via [MDB CLI](https://mdbgo.com/) latest version

**Dev Server**

TERMINAL 
`npm install`

**If you decided to use a prepared starter, you can skip this tutorial. The starter is fully configured and ready to use.**

---

## Setup

Before you start make sure you have Node.js installed.

**Create a project folder and setup npm**

We’ll create the `my-project` folder and initialize npm with the `-y` argument to avoid it asking us all the interactive questions.

TERMINAL
`mkdir my-project && cd my-project`
`npm init -y`

**Install Vite**

Unlike our Webpack guide, there’s only a single build tool dependency here. We use `--save-dev` to signal that this dependency is only for development use and not for production.

TERMINAL
`npm i --save-dev vite`

**Install additional dependency**

In addition to Vite, we need another dependency (Sass) to properly to properly import and bundle MDB's CSS.

TERMINAL
`npm i --save-dev sass`

Now that we have all the necessary dependencies installed, we can get to work creating the project files and importing MDB.

---

## Project Structure

We’ve already created the `my-project` folder and initialized npm. Now we’ll also create our src folder to round out the project structure. Run the following from `my-project`, or manually create the folder and file structure shown below.

TERMINAL
`mkdir {src,src/js,src/scss,src/assets,src/assets/mdb}`
`touch src/index.html src/js/main.js src/scss/styles.scss vite.config.js`

When you’re done, your complete project should look like this:

```
my-project/
├── src/
│   ├── assets/
│   │   └── mdb/
│   ├── js/
│   │   └── main.js
│   ├── scss/
│   │   └── styles.scss
│   └── index.html
├── package-lock.json
├── package.json
└── vite.config.js
```

At this point, everything is in the right place, but Vite won’t work because we haven’t filled in our `vite.config.js` yet.

---

## Configure Vite

With dependencies installed and our project folder ready for us to start coding, we can now configure Vite and run our project locally.

Open `vite.config.js` in your editor

Since it’s blank, we’ll need to add some boilerplate config to it so we can start our server. This part of the config tells Vite were to look for our project’s JavaScript and how the development server should behave (pulling from the `src` folder with hot reload).

JAVASCRIPT

```
const path = require('path')

export default {
  root: path.resolve(__dirname, 'src'),
  server: {
    port: 8080,
    hot: true
  }
}
```

**Next we fill in `src/index.html`**

This is the HTML page Vite will load in the browser to utilize the bundled CSS and JS we’ll add to it in later steps.

HTML

```
<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
    <title>MDB w/ Vite</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div class="container py-4 px-3 mx-auto">
      <h1>Hello, MDB and Vite!</h1>
      <button class="btn btn-primary">Primary button</button>
    </div>
    <script type="module" src="./js/main.js"></script>
  </body>
</html>
```

We’re including a little bit of styling here with the `div class="container"` and `<button>` so that we see when CSS from MDB package is loaded by Vite.

**Now we need an npm script to run Vite**

Open `package.json` and add the `start` script shown below (you should already have the test script). We’ll use this script to start our local Vite dev server.

**JSON**

```
{
  // ...
  "scripts": {
    "start": "vite",
    "test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1"
  },
  // ...
}
```

**And finally, we can start Vite**

From the `my-project` folder in your terminal, run that newly added npm script:

`npm start`

In the next section to this guide, we’ll import all of MDB's CSS and JavaScript.

## Import MDB

**Here you need to decide which method of import you want to choose** - Other MDB import methods can be found [here](https://mdbootstrap.com/docs/standard/getting-started/vite-integration/) 


To install the MDB UI KIT in your project easily type the following command in the terminal. If you have PRO package remember to swap the access token before starting the installation.

**Token generation**

If you don't have access token yet please follow the [tutorial](https://youtu.be/d6JZQTgOe_k?t=68).

**Install MDB via NPM**

PRO ESSENTIAL - `npm i git+https://oauth2:ACCESS_TOKEN@git.mdbootstrap.com/mdb/standard/mdb-ui-kit-pro-essential`

PRO ADVANCED - `npm i git+https://oauth2:ACCESS_TOKEN@git.mdbootstrap.com/mdb/standard/mdb-ui-kit-pro-advanced`

FREE - `npm i mdb-ui-kit`

**Importing JS modules
**
```
import '../scss/styles.scss';
import * as mdb from 'mdb-ui-kit';
window.mdb = mdb;
```

**Importing SCSS file**
PRO ESSENTIAL - `@import 'mdb-ui-kit/mdb-ui-kit/src/scss/mdb.pro.scss';`
PRO ADVANCED - `@import 'mdb-ui-kit/mdb-ui-kit/src/mdb/scss/mdb.pro.scss';`
FREE - `@import 'mdb-ui-kit/mdb-ui-kit/src/scss/mdb.free.scss';`

**Now you're done**

With MDB's source Sass and JS fully loaded, your local development server should work and you should see MDB styles applied to button in the example.

---

## Create build

The starter that we have prepared for you is fully configured and we have added the build command to it. Just run the `npm run build` command. You will find the bundled files in the `dist` folder.

If you have decided to configure the project yourself, you must add the build command in the `package.json` file.

```
"scripts": {
  ...
  "build": "vite build",
  ...
},
```

After that you can use `npm run build` command. You will find the bundled files in the folder you set as the output directory. By default, this is the `dist` folder.