So, what is this ‘React’?
My reaction to that would be —
So basically React.js is a JavaScript library created by a collaboration of Facebook and Instagram. It allows developers to create fast user interfaces.
Source: codementor.io (Not to be confused with the Big Bang Theory logo)
Let’s discuss some basic features of React.
· One of the unique features of React.js is — it can perform on both the client and server side.
· React lets you express how your app should look at any given point, and can automatically manage all UI updates when your underlying data changes.
· React has quite a small API. This makes it fun to use, easy to learn, and simple to understand.
· It uses bundling of JavaScript and HTML into JSX (JSX is a preprocessor step that adds XML syntax to JavaScript) which makes components easily understandable.
Things are about to get a little more technical. Don’t worry, just hold on, you will get through it. I promise.
Now let’s move on and discuss the Advantages of React —
· SEO — SEO is achieved by sending a completely rendered page from the server to the browser. React is designed with SEO in mind, rendering on either the client or the server, using Node.
· Unidirectional data flow — Unidirectional data flow is a technique found in functional reactive programming. The major benefit of this approach is that data flows throughout your app in a single direction and you have better control over it.
Source: facebook.github.io
· Improved Code Reuse — React is uniquely able to provide performance as well as a fully managed rendering lifecycle for components; the result is dramatically improved developer ergonomics.
· ReactJS is an exceptional framework for managing the DOM — (Document Object Model), especially when dealing with vast amounts of data. React works by creating a virtual DOM in JavaScript that acts as an intermediate representation of the DOM. This representation makes it easy to decide which elements to change in the DOM and what the results may be.
Source: mediatemple.net
· React is, famously, only the V (view) in MVC — Model–view–controller (MVC) is a software architectural pattern for implementing user interfaces on computers. It divides a given software application into three interconnected parts, so as to separate internal representations of information from the ways that information is presented to or accepted from the user.
You might think that this would be a drawback. Think again. This is what is it supposed to do and it was specifically designed for that particular purpose. You cannot compare it to the likes of Angular.js, which is apparently it’s most well talked about rival.
So you must be thinking, what all Companies have integrated React into their Websites. No worries, I have got you covered.
Let’s have a look at the major websites which are using React —
No prizes for guessing the first company to use it:
Facebook- React was developed by Facebook engineers. The feedback below a post and the notifications drop down are made on React since they are pretty client-side-intensive pieces of UI. Also business management tools, lookback video editor, page insights, and most, if not all, new JS development are done on React. Software Engineer at Facebook Mr. Spencer Ahrens said-
“It was extremely difficult to change without causing some side effect or bug somewhere else in the application … When the team rebuilt it in React they found that their rate of new bugs being introduced had gone through the floor”
Instagram- It is 100% built on React, both public site and internal tools.
Khan Academy- Most of the new development is on React. In one of his Quora posts Ben Alpert demonstrated how he used React to improve the interface. Here’s what he said-
The project that I rewrote in React (and am continuing to improve) is the Khan Academy question editor which content creators can use to enter questions and hints that will be presented to students:
The left side has the actual editor, while the right side of the page shows a live preview of the question you’re writing. Originally, the editor would serialize the entire question and give it to the previewer, which rendered the question to the page.
I think I have given you all enough reasons to prove that React is more than a handy tool at your disposal. It’s being used by over 500 websites and the number is not going to go down anytime soon.
Upcoming Workshops at HelloMeets-
Photoshop Workshop — Saturday | 27th August | 10am to 2pm
React Workshop — Sunday | 28th August | 2pm to 7pm
Digital Marketing Workshop — Sunday | 28th August | 11 am to 5pm
Blog Credits — Ishmin Singh, Tech Content Writer at HelloMeets