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Professional Preact Application Development

  • Before starting, make sure you have Node.js and npm installed on your system. If you don’t have them yet, download them from the official Node.js website.
  • Next, create an account on Square Cloud through the signup page. You can register quickly using your email.
  • Finally, ensure you have an active paid plan on your Square Cloud account. You can view and purchase a plan based on your needs here.

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Preact Configuration

To create a new Preact project, use Preact CLI. Install it globally: 
npm install -g preact-cli
Create a new Preact project: 
preact create default my-preact-app
Then install dependencies: 
cd my-preact-app
npm install

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Creating a Preact Project

Start the local development server with: 
npm run dev
Your Preact app will start at http://localhost:8080 (or another available port). To edit a simple component, modify: 
src/components/app.js
Example:
app.js
export default function App() {
  return (
    <div>
      <h1>Hello from Preact!</h1>
    </div>
  );
}

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Creating the Square Cloud Configuration File

Learn more about: how to create the configuration file for Square Cloud.

The squarecloud.app file defines your application’s name, description, version, build configuration, main entry file, and more.

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Purchasing a Plan Before Uploading the Project

Before deploying your project to Square Cloud, make sure you have an active plan that fits your application’s resource usage.
Unsure how much RAM or CPU a Preact application needs? Preact is extremely lightweight and optimized for performance, meaning most applications will run smoothly on the Standard plan (4GB RAM, 4vCPU). For larger workloads or more traffic, consider the Pro plan.

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Building Preact for Production

Before uploading, generate the production build: 
npm run build
Preact will output the optimized static files inside the build/ directory.

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Express library

To serve your static project on Square Cloud, ensure your server correctly delivers static files. To use Node.js with Express, a common setup is:
server.js
import express from 'express';
import path from 'path';

const app = express();

app.use(express.static({'dist/'}));

app.get('*', (req, res) => {
  res.sendFile('dist/index.html');
});

app.listen(80, () => console.log('Server running on port 80'));
Adjust dist paths parameters to your project build folder. If it is in a folder inside build or dist, use it path instead.

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Serve library

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Installing the Serve Library

To install the serve library, navigate to your project directory in the terminal and run the following command: 
npm install [email protected]
This command installs version 14.2.3 of the serve library. If you want to install the latest version, you can omit the @14.2.3.

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Configuring the Startup Script

After installing the serve library, you need to configure your project's startup script to use serve. To do this, open your project's package.json file and add a new script called start:prod: 
"scripts": {
  "start:prod": "serve -s dist -l 80",
  ...
}
In the start:prod script, serve -s build -l 80 does the following:
  • serve: This is the command to start the serve server.
  • -s dist: The -s option serves the dist directory in single-page application mode. This means all not-found requests will be redirected to index.html. The dist directory is commonly created when you run npm run build.
  • -l 80: The -l option followed by 80 tells serve to listen on port 80. Port 80 is the default port for HTTP traffic.
Adjust dist parameter to your project build folder. If it is in a folder inside build or dist, use it path instead.

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Uploading the Project to Square Cloud

After preparing your project, you can upload it to Square Cloud using the dashboard or the CLI.
  • Upload via Dashboard
  • Upload via CLI
Access the Square Cloud Dashboard and upload your project files.

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Additional Resources

For more information about Preact, visit the official documentation here

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Troubleshooting

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Custom Domain

To use a custom domain (e.g., mysite.com) instead of the default URL https://mysite.squareweb.app/, you need the Standard plan or higher. The subdomain is defined by the SUBDOMAIN field in the configuration file. See: How to set up your custom domain.

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Minimum RAM Requirements

Minimum: 512MB RAM for simple websites/APIs. For sites with frameworks (Next.JS, React, Vue, Angular, etc.), we always recommend at least 1GB RAM. For larger applications, use more RAM to avoid LACK_OF_RAM error and ensure performance.

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Could not find this site.

Check if the subdomain/domain matches what's configured in the SUBDOMAIN field or in the custom domain settings. If you just uploaded the site, wait up to 60 seconds for Square to enable first access.

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Site took too long to respond...

Check if you correctly configured port 80 and host 0.0.0.0 in the application. We recommend using Square's forced environment variables: PORT and HOST from the .env file.
If you continue facing technical difficulties, our specialized support team is available to assist you. Contact us and we'll be happy to help you resolve any issue.