ReactJS

Since last couple of months, specially after I was enrolled in Web and Mobile App Development course, I heard the name ReactJS a lot. I was familiar with many programming languages, but this name was completely new to me and I came to know that there is a new language in the market which is very widespread and in demand. So, I thought of learning it so that it helps me in my future.

Here is a brief study of React.

About React

React is a front-end library developed by Facebook. Currently, it is one of the most popular JavaScript libraries and has a very strong foundation and huge community behind it. It encourages the creation of reusable UI components, which present data that changes over time. A lot of people use React as the V in the “MVC”. React abstracts away the DOM from the user, offering a much simpler programming model and a better performance. React implements a one-way reactive data flow, that decreases the boilerplate and is easier to reason about than the traditional data binding.

Prerequisites

Before working with ReactJS, you should have solid knowledge of JavaScript, HTML5, and CSS. Even though ReactJS doesn’t use HTML, the JSX is similar. So, your HTML knowledge will be very helpful.

Also, NodeJS and NPM are the platforms needed for the ReactJS development.

React Features

· Components − In React, everything is a component. Thinking everything as a component will help you maintain the code when working on larger scale projects.

· JSX − JSX is JavaScript syntax extension. It is not necessary, but it is recommended to use JSX in React development.

· One-directional data flow and Flux − React implements one-way data flow which makes it easy to reason about your app. Flux is a pattern that helps keeping your data unidirectional.

· License − React is licensed under the Facebook Inc. Documentation is licensed under CC BY 4.0.

React Advanteges

· Easy to learn, Easy to use — React is an easy to learn and easy to use language and comes with a very good supply of documentation, tutorials and various learning resources. Anyone who comes from a good JavaScript background can understand and start using React very easily in a few days. This makes all the great things it does even greater because you can actually use them in short order.

· Reusable Components — Components are wonderful and React is totally based on them. You start with small things, which you use to build bigger things and later to build apps. Each component has its own logic and controls its own rendering, and can be reused wherever you need them. Code re-using makes your apps easier to develop and maintain. It also helps you implement a consistent look-n-feel across the whole project.

· THE VIRTUAL DOM — One of the really cool parts of React is the virtual DOM. React uses virtual DOM which is a JavaScript object. This improves apps performance, since JavaScript virtual DOM is faster than the regular DOM.

· Great Developer Tools — New technologies can be fun, but only if you can actually use them in a development environment. That means having some tools that helps you design and debug the new technology, and React is well covered in terms of designing and debugging tools. React Developer Tools(available for Chrome and Firefox) are browser extensions for React. They allow you to inspect the React component hierarchies in the virtual DOM. You can select any individual component and examine and edit its current properties.

I shall continue with creating a simple app with react in my next post.