Creating React Project and the Manifest File

Redmond Chan
Nov 3 · 3 min read

It’s been a while since I started a new React Project since I’ve been focused on learning advanced CSS and SCSS. I’m writing this as a refresher for myself and hopefully it can be helpful to you as well.

If you don’t have react installed, type this into your terminal to install it as a global package:

npm install -g create-react-app

Now move to the directory where you’d like to create your react project and type this:

create-react-app name-of-project

Create-react-app is the generator to create your react project, followed by the name of the project.

I’m in the Projects folder and I’m creating a react app with the name of name-of-project.

This is what you should see when it has successfully created your new react project.


This is one of the folders that was created within your project. Mainfest.json provides metadata for when your react app is installed on a mobile device or desktop. Metadata is used to provide it with an icon and some basic information.

This is the default version.

The link above will go more in depth of this file. Below, I’ll briefly go through it.

Line 1 reflects the name that’ll be shown under the icon. Line 2 is the full name of your react project.

Line 4, it defines a set of icons to be used. The icons, you can change the src to a different image. You can also change the type and size, although I believe the default sizes are good.

Line 21, it defines the url for when the app is opened.

Line 22, it determines what the browser UI is when the app is launched. Standalone does this, “Opens the web app to look and feel like a standalone native app. The app runs in its own window, separate from the browser, and hides standard browser UI elements like the URL bar, etc.”. There are other options.

Line 23, sets the color of the tool bar.

Line 24, sets the color of the splash screen when the app is launched.

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