Quick Start Guide#

Before reading this guide, please first read the Setting Up Environment. This guide will lead you step by step to learn how to use Module Federation. We will build two independent Single Page Applications (SPAs) that will share components using Module Federation. If you encounter unfamiliar terms in the following text, please refer to the Glossary.

Note: You can also use Nx to rapidly scaffold Module Federation projects for React and Angular.

Creating a Producer#

1. Initializing the Project#

Use Rsbuild to create a producer and call the following command:

npm create rsbuild@latest

Complete the project creation according to the prompts.

? Input target folder -> federation_provider
? Select framework -> React
? Select language -> TypeScript

2. Installing Module Federation Build Plugin#

Following the steps above for initializing the project, we created a React project named federation_provider. Execute the following commands in sequence:

cd federation_provider
npm add @module-federation/enhanced
npm add @module-federation/rsbuild-plugin --save-dev

3. Exporting Modules by the Producer#

Change the entry file to asynchronous

// Move src/index.tsx to a newly created src/bootstrap.tsx file
// src/index.tsx
import('./bootstrap');

// src/bootstrap.tsx
import React from 'react';
import ReactDOM from 'react-dom/client';
import App from './App';

const root = ReactDOM.createRoot(document.getElementById('root')!);
root.render(
  <React.StrictMode>
    <App />
  </React.StrictMode>,
);

Add a Button Component

// src/button.tsx
export default function Button() {
  return <div>Provider button</div>;
}

Export the Button component through Module Federation

import { defineConfig } from '@rsbuild/core';
import { pluginReact } from '@rsbuild/plugin-react';
import { pluginModuleFederation } from '@module-federation/rsbuild-plugin';

export default defineConfig({
  plugins: [
    pluginReact(),
    pluginModuleFederation({
      name: 'federation_provider',
      exposes: {
        './button': './src/button.tsx',
      },
      shared: ['react', 'react-dom'],
    }),
  ],
  server: {
    port: 3000,
  },
});

4. Starting the Producer#

npm run dev

➜  federation_provider npm run dev

> federation_provider@1.0.0 dev
> rsbuild dev --open

  Rsbuild v0.5.1

  > Local:    http://localhost:3000/
  > Network:  http://10.94.55.204:3000/
  > Network:  http://10.4.255.21:3000/

start   Compiling...
[ Module Federation Manifest Plugin ] Manifest Link: http://localhost:3000/mf-manifest.json

After the project starts, the Manifest Link: http://localhost:3000/mf-manifest.json message appears, which is the manifest information link for Module Federation.

Creating a Consumer#

1. Initializing the Project#

Use Rsbuild to create a consumer and call the following command:

npm create rsbuild@latest

Complete the project creation according to the prompts.

? Input target folder -> federation_consumer
? Select framework -> React
? Select language -> TypeScript

2. Installing Module Federation Build Plugin#

Following the steps above for initializing the project, we created a React project named federation_consumer. Execute the following commands in sequence:

cd federation_consumer
npm add @module-federation/enhanced
npm add @module-federation/rsbuild-plugin --save-dev

3. Consuming the Producer#

Declare the Module Federation type path in tsconfig.json

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "paths":{
      "*": ["./@mf-types/*"]
    }
  }
}

Add Module Federation plugin to consume remote modules

import { defineConfig } from '@rsbuild/core';
import { pluginReact } from '@rsbuild/plugin-react';
import { pluginModuleFederation } from '@module-federation/rsbuild-plugin';

export default defineConfig({
  plugins: [
    pluginReact(),
    pluginModuleFederation({
      name: 'federation_consumer',
      remotes: {
        federation_provider:
          'federation_provider@http://localhost:3000/mf-manifest.json',
      },
      shared: ['react', 'react-dom'],
    }),
  ],
  server: {
    port: 2000,
  },
});

Change the entry to be asynchronous

// Move src/index.tsx to a newly created src/bootstrap.tsx file
// src/index.tsx
import('./bootstrap');

// src/bootstrap.tsx
import React from 'react';
import ReactDOM from 'react-dom/client';
import App from './App';

const root = ReactDOM.createRoot(document.getElementById('root')!);
root.render(
  <React.StrictMode>
    <App />
  </React.StrictMode>,
);

Reference the remote module

import './App.css';
// The remote component provided by federation_provider
import ProviderButton from 'federation_provider/button';

const App = () => {
  return (
    <div className="content">
      <h1>Rsbuild with React</h1>
      <p>Start building amazing things with Rsbuild.</p>
      <div>
        <ProviderButton />
      </div>
    </div>
  );
};

export default App;

Summary#

Through the above process, you have completed the export of a component from a 'producer' for use by a 'consumer' based on Module Federation. Along the way, you have preliminarily used and understood the configurations of remotes, exposes, and shared in the Module Federation plugin.

If you wish to learn how to directly export and consume remote modules on Webpack and Rspack build tools, you can refer to: Rspack Plugin, Webpack Plugin

Next Steps#

You may want to: