Why we use React.Js in Website Development process

Shakun Grover
5 min readNov 19, 2019

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Few years ago, Facebook introduced ReactJS and now the framework has overhauled other programming languages in popularity. Before React, Angular JS, Ember JS, and Ajax were taking privilege of web and app development. Facebook considered the shortfalls of these programming languages while developing React so as to provide front-end developers, a better platform. Initially, Facebook engineers developed ReactJs as a test tool but it has become the best JavaScript library for web designing and development.

What is the React.js framework?

In short, it’s a tool to build UIs — a JavaScript library used for creating user interfaces. Most of engineers prefer not to call it a framework since it gives much freedom than Vue or Angular. The seven year old, open source framework provides a relatively new technology. React.js allows data and interface to be updated independently.

What does precisely React.js do?

React.js can be used to create user interfaces in JavaScript for different platforms. You can use ReactDOM for web applications, React Native for mobile app development (sharing the majority of code between Android and iOS), and cross-platform hybrid desktop applications with Electron.

React.js is a front-end technology but also can be executed for backend (server-rendered) and used for desktop applications. Furthermore, the main feature which distinguishes React.js from other popular JavaScript Frameworks is flexibility. It allows you to grab a library and use it to display a simple page or view; you can also combine React.js with other tools that will lay the foundation for a complex application.

Following are the React.Js Frameworks

1.Blueprint

2. React Bootstrap

3. Material UI

4. React Semantic UI

5. React Toolbox

6. Ant Design

7. React Foundation

Since then, React.js is taking over, new products are being made using it and some of the biggest and successful digital products are incorporating React.js into their stack. This encompasses world’s most renowned applications, likewise-

Social networks (Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter)

Sharing economy platforms (Airbnb, Lyft, Uber)

Media sites (Yahoo!)

Video platforms (Netflix)

SaaS tools (SendGrid, Asana, InVisionApp, Zapier)

Reasons to use React JS

1. Easy to learn and use

React is a user-friendly and easily comprehend JavaScript documentation. You can grasp the components right away even without guidance from other developer. Due to its component-based approach, React JS is easy to use as well as assists in creating effective website or applications. React uses plain JavaScript and its lifestyle is clearly defined. The simplicity of React makes it preferred to the complex Ember and Angular framework.

2. Reusable components

The framework has component-based structure which enables to start with small components and progress to large components. For example- you can start coding with small components, likewise- dropdown, checkbox or button and then make them use in order to generate larger wrapper components. Each component in React JS has a unique internal logic that signifies how component is rendered. The major advantage of components on this JavaScript library is that you can re-use them on any platform.

3. Propensity for creating dynamic web pages

The development of interactive elements and dynamic content is the forte of the library in discussion. The thing is: standard tools and technologies, such as- JS+HTML+CSS combination, don’t allow for creating something dynamic and interactive without sacrificing performance. In addition to this, the redrawing operation is quite resource intensive if it isn’t optimized the right way. It doesn’t redraw the whole tree from scratch, only the nodes that were changed. As a result, from the user perspective, we get an almost immediate reaction to any manipulations.

4. SEO Friendly

Do you know that search engines cannot read JavaScript heavy applications? Although, Google has made certain necessary adjustments but other search engines are struggling still to crawl JavaScript heavy apps. For this problem, React.js offers a perfect solution as it runs on a server, returning a virtual DOM request to the browser and providing it as a regular web page. It enables to increase the chance of getting ranked on the top of search engine index.

5. Testability

While using React.js to develop mobile applications, you can easily test the functions of the applications. The easiness or flexibility of testing apps makes React JS more popular than Angular. One of the reasons why it is easy to test apps with React Js is its views are treated as a function of specific state. Therefore, you can manipulate all the states that you pass through React view.

6. Great tool set for developers

When deciding which development platform to be chosen, it is crucial to deliberate the available tools. Compatibility and usability are the main aspects you should be considered with different browsers. One of the reasons why React JS is popular over other front-end developers is its toolset. It is essential to differentiate between toolsets while using React Js. The first toolset is React Develop tools whereas the second is Redux Developer tools.

7. Ability to create isomorphic apps

The ability literally implies that you can use same code base for both, the client-side and the server. For example- the initial launch of a webpage by a user in the browser, the browser downloads the minimal extent of a HTML page while the content is filled with the support of JavaScript code. In various cases, like- with a bad Internet connection, this can be a pretty resource intensive procedure (and, possibly, exceed the notorious normal UX speed curve of 2 seconds).

In turn, moving the part of JS code to server side, i.e. execution of rendering on the server can assists to resolve the issue and handle some hurdles with SEO.

The features outlined in this section explain React’s popularity in the field web design and development. You enjoy multiple benefits including high-performance apps and websites by choosing React JS. However, you need to check the library’s visibility and crawling on different browsers. Some of its features may not be fully functional on some browsers and search engines.

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Shakun Grover

I am a technology lover. Love about to write technology blogs. An author at volansoft.com