create-react-app running on Smart TV browser

Question

I am facing a big problem with create-react-app environment on trying to run my application inside a Smart TV browser.

Specification TV and browser (http://whatismybrowser.com)

• TV: Panasonic TC-32DS600B
• Browser: Chrome 23 FreeBSD
• userAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11;FreeBSD;U;Viera:pt-BR) AppleWebKit/537.11 (KHTML, like Gecko) Viera/3.18.1 Chrome/23.0.1271.97 Safari/537.11

Here is what I am trying to:

1. create a fresh create-react-app project
2. run yarn build
3. yarn global add serve && serve -s build
4. Use my LAN IP (not localhost) and type on url address browser http://<my-lan-ip>:5000 (5000 port as default port provided by serve command)

When I follow these steps I get a blank page. The blank page only occours in a TV browser. On PC and Mobile runs fine.

So I am wondering and ask here to have some share thoughts:

1. Old TV browsers doesn't support React?
2. Or maybe is just a polyfill problem?
3. Or it doesn't support HTML5, CSS3?

Anyone have already face this problem? Any solution or No, it is not possible?

EDITED: Solution

Thanks to @Rikin and @JoeClay I came up with a solution. First, after download the Chrome version 23, I could see the problem is polyfills (Set and Map).

So after install yarn add core-js --dev and yarn add raf --dev.

Update src/index.js

import 'core-js/es6/map'; // <-- added this line after installed packages
import 'core-js/es6/set'; // <-- added this line after installed packages
import 'raf/polyfill'; // <-- added this line after installed packages

import React from 'react';
import ReactDOM from 'react-dom';
import './index.css';
import App from './App';
import registerServiceWorker from './registerServiceWorker';

ReactDOM.render(<App />, document.getElementById('root'));
registerServiceWorker();

Also, the portion of React Docs which helped to find this solution.

Monoploid

It might be helpful to know which make/model of TV you're trying to run it on. – Ado

@JoeClay updated. I have forgot to provided these infos. – Monoploid

Probably download older desired Chrome version: oldapps.com/google_chrome.php and work on that in local and see if its successful. Remember its not React running in browser rather JS running in the browser. – Pantagruel

@Pantagruel yes, you are right. JS running in the browser :) – Monoploid

Thanks, man, saved my day! – Species

so you completed with react js? or html5, css3? which one is the best to support the following TVs: Samsung Tizen, LG WebOS, Hisense TV app & PS4. – Infantilism

Answer 1

Newer versions of React (v16+) require:

• The Map and Set data structures
• The window.requestAnimationFrame() API

According to MDN, basic Map and Set support weren't added to Chrome until version 38, and you had to use a vendor prefix to access requestAnimationFrame until Chrome 24.

Since your TV uses Chrome 23, you'll need to polyfill those APIs. The React docs suggest using core-js or babel-polyfill for this purpose.

Ado

If I install core-js package I have to eject the create-react-app application? – Monoploid

@marquesm91: Not as far as I know! It should literally be as simple as doing npm install core-js --save and then following the example from the docs page I linked. Same deal with the RAF polyfill. – Ado

I follow the docs and add in index.js the first two lines import 'core-js/es6/map' and import 'core-js/es6/set' and even further I added import 'raf/polyfill'. Plus, I run yarn add core-js --dev and yarn add raf --dev. I have generated the build ant yet still gets the same results: blank screen on TV :( – Monoploid

Agh - then Rikin's suggestion of downloading Chrome 23 to your PC might be a decent one, unless you can figure out how to access the developer tools/Chrome remote debugging on your TV. – Ado

I have search a way to see a developer tools remote on TV but haven't find any solution. I will follow Rikin's suggestion and later come up with a feedback – Monoploid

Well, even if this answer doesn't end up being the solution, I wish you luck figuring out the issue :) – Ado

I got it Joe, thank you so much. I will update the answer with the solution – Monoploid

I tried this. It started working but my UI is not looking as expected. The same UI looks good on my laptop. Any suggestions? @Monoploid – Terni

@YadyneshDesai I solved this CSS problem using styled-components because it resolves old css prefix for you. You could give it a try! – Monoploid

@Monoploid I have already created the css for this using bootstrap. Do I have to change everything? – Terni

Answer 2

If your desired aim is to have your app run just on a smart TV perhaps give react-tv a look: https://github.com/raphamorim/react-tv

Kleenex

Even if I want to, react-tv isn't a accepted solution because only supports LG's television. So will not attend me :( – Monoploid