A lot of times when I'm just trying to test something with fake data I'll just put the JSON into a javascript object and import it into my file. If it's non-parsed JSON that's basically just a big string I first just go into the development tools console of chrome and do a JSON.parse(); of the string. And then copy and paste the output into an object. So if I had this sample JSON: { "data": { "forms": [ { "id": -4, "name": "New Form 2", "published": false, "publishedDate": null, "format": "[\"g:-1\", \"g:-4\"]", "groups": [ { "id": -1, "name": "Testing Edit", "format": "[]", "settings": "{\"locked\": false, \"showTitle\": true}", "type": "SECTION" }, { "id": -4, "name": "Section", "format": "[]", "settings": "{\"locked\": false, \"showTitle\": true}", "type": "SECTION" } ] } ] } } I would just put it in a file called fakeData.js and just have it export the object: // fakeData.js const jsonResponse = { "data": { "forms": [ { "id": -4, "name": "New Form 2", "published": false, "publishedDate": null, "format": "[\"g:-1\", \"g:-4\"]", "groups": [ { "id": -1, "name": "Testing Edit", "format": "[]", "settings": "{\"locked\": false, \"showTitle\": true}", "type": "SECTION" }, { "id": -4, "name": "Section", "format": "[]", "settings": "{\"locked\": false, \"showTitle\": true}", "type": "SECTION" } ] } ] } }; export jsonResponse; Then in your other file you just import that object and reference it in your component: //index.js import React from 'react'; import ReactDOM from 'react-dom'; import './index.css'; import registerServiceWorker from './registerServiceWorker'; // Fake Data import { jsonResponse } from './fakeData'; import {NavBar} from './NavBar/navbar'; import {Concert} from './Concert/concert'; ReactDOM.render(<NavBar />, document.getElementById('navbar')); ReactDOM.render(<Concert source={jsonResponse} />, document.getElementById('concert')); registerServiceWorker(); Might be a quick workaround if all you're attempting to do is work with fake data to get better at using react. Another option would be to use http://jsonstub.com/