Setting up React router: how to use {import} in the browser? - reactjs

Question

I am following the React-router docs, but I have encountered an obstacle that is not really related to the router itself: Babel transpiles the {import} as require, which would be used by Express or Node.js on the server, but from what I understand from the docs, it is actually intended for client-side rendering.
Of course, the JSX file with the router transpiled using Babel and included into a HTML browser page does not work, since require is only used by express/node server-side.
May I ask how is it actually supposed to work in the browser?
Thank you

Answer 1

Babel's transpile of import produces code relying on CommonJS require, you're correct.
You're also correct that node offers a natire require implementation, whereas browsers do not.
There are tools - such as webpack, browserify, and requirejs (among others,) which each do at least two things:
to package up source into a single bundle
to expose that source in a way that satisfies require to match node, allowing you to use the same code at either side.
To that end, what you need to do is to pair babel with one of the packaging tools.
Webpack is more powerful; browserify is easier to use.
Here's a tiny gulpfile where I've automated the process. The relevant source clip is this:
gulp.task('browserify', ['babel'], function() {
var browserifyConfig = {},
bpack = browserify(browserifyConfig, { 'debug' : !production });
return bpack
.require('./dist/pbar.es5.js', { 'expose' : 'pbar' })
.bundle()
.on('error', errorHandler)
.pipe(source('pbar.es5.js'))
.pipe(gulp.dest('./dist'));
});

Answer 2

In order for commonjs like require statement to work in a browser environment. You will need to look into a bundling solution like:
https://webpack.github.io/
http://browserify.org/
A bundler will statically parse your commonjs files and their dependencies to create a bundle which can be used in the browser.
Internet is full of great examples on how they work.
Browserify is easier to get started than Webpack, however I would suggest you learn Webpack over Browserify. Webpack provides you much much more than just loading JS files with its extensive loaders, for example you can do something like:
const imgSrc = require('images/test.svg')
magical right?