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Install libraries

Npm basics​

When you are using third-party libraries in your React project, you should know how to install them. The installation is done in the project folder using npm (Node Package Manager). Most third-party libraries are published publicly so that anyone can download and use them.

The following npm command is used to install libraries or packages to your React project. The command is executed in your project folder using the terminal.

npm install <package-name>

By default, the latest stable version is installed. If needed, you can specify the version number that you want to install.

npm install <package-name>@1.2.3

Npm is using the semantic version numbering. Read more in npm documentation https://docs.npmjs.com/about-semantic-versioning.

You can uninstall the installed package using the following command.

npm uninstall <package-names>

If you want to see a list of all installed packages and their versions in your project, you can execute the following command in terminal:

npm list

In our React projects, the list of dependencies can be really big, and often you are only interested in the top-level packages. Top level packages are the packages that you explicitly installed and specified for your project. To see a list of top-level installed packages and their versions, use the following command:

npm list --depth=0

Further reading​