React is a framework released by Facebook for creating Single Page Applications (SPA). What is a Single Page Application? Most web applications are traditionally server-side applications. The server holds the business logic, stores data, and renders the website to the client. When a client clicks on a link, it sends a request to the server, and the server will handle this request and send back a response with HTML code which the browser will render and be viewed by the user.
The problem here is that with this approach, the server receives a lot of requests. For example, when we go to a website and click on its Home page, we send a request for which the server has to respond. We click on the About page and it sends another request, and the server responds. We click on Blog and it sends another request and again the server responds. Essentially, traditional websites consist of independent HTML pages and when a user navigates these pages, the browser will request and load different HTML documents.
The many requests, response incurs a lot of time and resources spent on these tasks lead to a slow feeling of web pages, whereas the apps on your mobile phone or desktop feel very fast most of the time.
React wants to bring this app like feeling to the browser where we don’t always have to load new pages each time there is an action from the user. A user still clicks on various links in a SPA.
However, this time, the client handles the requests on its own and will re-render the HTML page through Javascript, so the server is left out here if no data from the server is needed. This is much faster as we don’t have to send data over the Internet. The client doesn’t have to wait for the response, and the server doesn’t have to render the response.
Also, in a SPA, the browser loads one HTML document and when users navigate through the site, they stay on the same page as Javascript unloads and loads different views of the app onto the same page itself.
The user gets a feeling that she is navigating through pages but is actually on the same HTML page. Facebook newsfeed is a good example. Other examples are Instagram or Twitter where the content gets dynamically refreshed without requiring you to refresh or navigate to a different page.
Manipulating DOM Elements Efficiently Loading and unloading different views of the same page involve querying and manipulating DOM elements. Such DOM operations involve adding children, removing subtrees, and can be really slow.
This is where React addresses this shortcoming in manipulating DOM elements efficiently. React does this by updating the browser DOM for us. With React, we do not interact with the DOM directly. We instead interact with a virtual DOM which React uses to construct the actual DOM.
The virtual DOM is made up of React elements that look similar to HTML elements but are actually Javascript objects. It is much faster to work with Javascript objects than with the DOM API directly. We make changes to the Javascript Object (the virtual DOM) and React renders those changes for us as efficiently as possible.
Asynchronous Operations In times when we need to get or send data from/to the server, we send a request to the server. But these are mainly restricted to initial loading and necessary server-side operations like database operations. Besides these operations, we will not frequently need to request from the server. And if we do make server requests, we do it asynchronously, which means we still re-render
the page instantly to the user and then wait for the new data to arrive and incorporate it and re-render only the required view when the data arrives; thus providing a fluid experience.
Thinking in Components A React app is made up of components. For example, if we want to build a storefront module like what we see on Amazon, we can divide it into three components. The search bar component, sidebar component, and product component. A React component contains a JSX template that Components can also contain other components. For example, in products component where we display a list of products, we do so using multiple product components. Also, in each product component, we can have a rating component
StackOverflow Developer Survey Results 2020
In 2020 ReactJS Ranked 1st on Awareness, interest, and satisfaction ratio rankings, and also in opinions on the technologies survey
In 2019, React added 22.9k stars, making it the #3 most popular JavaScript project on GitHub
React JS is the 6th most popular in the Top 10k sites in JavaScript Library category according to Builtwith.com
Looking at the above, you can easily say that it is ReactJS development all over. The reaction to React is remarkable!
React JS — The Need & Key Benefits
Majorly leveraged to build rich user interfaces of web and mobile applications, ReactJS works on the concept of MVC.
It needs just a basic understanding of HTML and JavaScript, that is the prime reason it has gained so much popularity as a front-end web development tool.
Undoubtedly, when the popularity charts for ReactJS are soaring high, there ought to be certain key reasons why developers love this framework to such an extent. Though the list is quite a big one, here are the most significant features and benefits that it offers, that makes it a desirable technology by one and all:
Faster Go-To-Market Time
Organizations are keen to adapt to technologies that assist them in fastening their time to go to market, complete their software solutions on time and implement them without any hassle. ReactJS is just perfect for this since it has a high development speed because of its multiple reusable components.
Developers find it easy and manageable to build applications at a great speed. It ensures high-end productivity and accelerates maintenance. React also has React Native, a cross-platform mobile app development tool that works wonders.
A Secure Future
With technologies coming and going so haphazardly, the need for a stable technology is what organizations are looking for. And, ReactJS is just that, since it is backed by big names like Facebook, Instagram and millions of developers globally.
Even, with peer competition increasing, ReactJS has been able to sustain its popularity level and in fact, has been soaring high still. Hence, developers find security and stability in opting for React.
Ease Of Use
With so many tools and frameworks doing the rounds, what developers get attracted to is the simplicity with which the tool operates.
ReactJS has turned to be an easy option for novices and experts, alike. It has not only streamlined the job of programming but has also simplified resource administration to a great level.
Quick Rendering With V-DOM
The Facebook team has given Virtual Document Object Model (V-DOM) to ReactJS because of which it offers a high-speed rendering, less time wastage, enhanced user experience and better app performance. This is mainly for highly complex and dynamic applications.
Efficient Design And Developer Tools
React comes loaded with a great set of effective design, developer and debugging toolset. React developer tools are there for certain browsers like Chrome and Firefox. These empower developers to undergo inspection in the V-DOM. Even tracking of the hierarchy of components is possible.
Clear AbstractAs one of its key advantages, ReactJS offers a good level of abstraction that signifies that none of the complicated internal processes is exposed to the users.
Much so, because it is not needed too. Internal processes better stay away from the end-users to lessen the confusion and that is possible by using ReactJS.
The development team, who is using ReactJS, needs to have a proper understanding of the complete life cycle of the components and need not always follow any pattern base like MVC.
Top Organizations/Brands Using And Leveraging The Potential Of ReactJS
Indeed.com; Indeed is using ReactJS
Facebook ( 26 Billion visitors, Global Rank 3 )
Facebook needs no introduction when it comes to its widespread popularity. A user base of over 2.2 billion people! Who isn’t on Facebook?
Yes, even Facebook, the pioneer of the ReactJS library, uses React — obvious though. They have their webpage which is developed using React with the script blended in the app code. Their mobile app has been constructed with React Native, a step ahead in the React family and is accountable for showing the Android and iOS native parts, in place of the DOM components.
Around the year 2017, React Fiber has been launched by Facebook as an entirely reworked ReactJS version. This version has turned out to be the core component of any type of feature development and enhancements of the React framework. Making React more responsive, with this component framework, Facebook has been easily facilitating the display of comments, notifications, etc. without any page reload.
Square ( 24.33 Million visitors )
In 2009, superstar entrepreneurs Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey created Square, Inc. (SQ), fulfilling their dream of creating technology capable of aggregating merchant services and mobile payments into a single, easy-to-use service. Less than a decade later, Square was downloaded over 33.5 million times by small businesses that use it to accept credit card payments, track sales and inventory, and obtain financing.
Square has 24.33M visitors, which is growing faster.
Instagram ( 5.49 Billion Visitors, Global Rank 5 )
Instagram is one widespread social media platform, used lavishly by the young generation and the corporate world, to display videos, photos, and information. The Instagram app has been showcasing usage of a lot of modern-day features and its API has turned out good.
Instagram has entirely used the ReactJS library in its development and enabled the developers to enjoy its fruits. The single-page web app has been entirely developed with the ReactJS family. Thanks to React, the Instagram web showcases a fast performance and is swiftly responsive to different user-driven events.
A variety of features in the Instagram web-like Geolocations, Google MAPs, progressive loading, image/video delivery, and uploading, etc. are facilitated because of ReactJS.
A highly popular social media platform preferred by a huge community worldwide.
Twitter ( Global Rank 4, 6.12 Billion Visitors)
Twitter has started using React when they rewrote their entire website with modernized web technology. React is being utilized in the progressive web apps that they have implemented — offering a wide range of competencies just like an application, push notifications, and offline support.
These progressive web apps are developed with the help of technologies like ReactJS, Redux, and NodeJS.
Netflix ( Global Rank 18, 2.75 Billion Visitors )
Netflix is a recommended option when it comes to online video streaming. The development team at Netflix has leveraged the ReactJS components owing to its salient features like the fast speed of execution, runtime performance, and modularity. Netflix is amongst the list of best ReactJS websites.
Netflix uses React on Gibbon — their platform for low-performance TV devices and has been a favorite amongst the developer community. Other alluring features of ReactJS like initial loading period, runtime performance, etc. are playing an important role in making Netflix as popular as it is today.
Khan Academy ( 61.33 Million Visitors )
Khan Academy is a big name in the world of education, imparting modern-day knowledge to learners through online media. There is a huge chunk of coding done in React, in the Khan Academy portal. They are finding the ReactJS library quite useful and much better as compared to their earlier version.
The positives of ReactJS like the doing away of unwanted re-renders, changing of the element in an effective way have attracted the organization and hence they have been successfully implementing their eLearning portal with ReactJS.
WhatsApp ( 2.40 Billion Visitors )
Who doesn’t know or use WhatsApp? The app next door, everyone is hooked onto it. And this popular app makes use of React JS for its stable and secure performance.
It uses ReactJS to develop user interfaces from Facebook, as its prime engines. Even the WhatsApp Web version of the same leverages React, for enhanced web experience.
Dropbox ( 186.35 Million Visitors )
One of the most in-demand file hosting services adopting the cloud computing model, Dropbox has a massive user following all around the globe. It empowers users for storing and sharing unlimited files or folders with the help of file synchronization.
And of late, Dropbox has taken up ReactJS for its development work. Engineers at Dropbox have observed the many advantages that come along with ReactJS — Virtual DOM, the lesser size of files, heavy community support, and these are the reasons for Dropbox to take over ReactJS as their chosen technology.
ReactJS has been instrumental in implementing the cloud-based online backup solution and different storage level services in Dropbox, for its huge client community, worldwide.
Atlassian ( 77.34 Million Visitor )
A well-known product development organization worldwide, Atlassian has its own bouquet of products that are world-renowned — Jira, Confluence, HipChat, etc. Both internal and external applications of Atlassian have been leveraging the power of ReactJS and family. Almost all their single-page apps are developed using ReactJS. Developers at Atlassian have been highly impressed with key features of React such as its reusable libraries and easy deployment to all devices — desktop, web and mobile alike.
As a prominent team communication tool around the globe, HipChat has been garnering a lot of rave reviews. This team has taken up ReactJS while reforming their web edition. Amongst the peer lot, the engineers of HipChat chose to React over others, terming it as a declarative, confident and conventional framework. Even the Dynamic Forms for Jira and the extension module for the Jira service desk have been reworked upon with ReactJS.
Salesforce ( 87. 01 Million Visitors )
Undoubtedly, the world’s leading and largest CRM organizations — Salesforce is considered to the best amongst the lot. Salesforce is utilizing the power of ReactJS to render complicated Visualforce pages in a fast and efficient manner. Developers at Salesforce are creating views within Visualforce with ReactJS and thereby, rendering pages swiftly.
Codecademy ( 2.74 million Visitors )
As an expert online interactive learning platform, Codecademy has been doing a great job by offering free coding lessons for a variety of languages like Java, Python, SQL, C++, etc.
For a long time now, it has incorporated the entire library used by Facebook, ReactJS being an integral part of it. React is one of the important scripts integrated into the Codecademy framework, including the header, menu, navigation and more. Users at Codecademy find React easy to use, SEO friendly and flexible. It is ideal for their front-end development and UI development with JavaScript.
New York Times ( 608.4K Visitors )
A well-established, popular and happening newspaper based in New York City, The New York Times has been a regular with many, for years.
Recently, the New York Times came up with a new project that is completely designed and developed using ReactJS. It involves simulation of a variety of stars on the Oscar red carpet and filtration of a photo gallery.
They have utilized the re-rendering feature of ReactJS exhaustively and benefited from it from creating lightweight stores that handle data requests.
Reddit ( 1.58 Billion Visitors )
Reddit is a worldwide online platform, highly popular in the US, that offers a unified medium for collecting forums where users can discuss, comment and share their own content/views. It has over 300+ million users enjoying the portal.
Reddit has been using various components of ReactJS in its framework build and their team has been appreciating the different features of React that has been fruitful for them.
Cloudflare ( 15.42 Million Visitors )
As a competent web performance and security company in the USA, Cloudflare has been handling a huge network on the Internet. There are multiple top shot organizations that execute faster and efficient websites because of Cloudflare.
Cloudflare is one such organization that uses ReactJS development to a large extent. It has been a long time now since Cloudflare has enhanced its functioning and framework, owing to the salient features of React.
Tesla ( 13.52 Million Visitors )
Needless to mention how popular this organization is — Tesla is a brand when it comes to the automotive and energy sector. It has been playing a pivotal role in fastening the globe’s move to sustainable energy with electric cars, reusable energy solutions, and solar panels.
As an official move, the development team at Tesla has been utilizing the advanced web engineering technology of ReactJS.
BBC ( 471.01 Million Visitors )
An old favorite of many, a completely trustworthy source for millions, BBC has been a pioneer in the media industry. Business owners at BBC have a great responsibility of showcasing only trusted and authentic news in their online forum.
And that is one big reason, React development got chosen as their fundamental technology for showing their news online. The taskforce at BBC could realize the potential of React and the extent to which it can support its online version, with the least efforts and downtime.
GitHub ( 341.24 Million Visitors )
GitHub is the globe’s leading software development platform, that gets together a huge community of developers to design and build better quality software. It ranges from open source opportunities to business-specific functionalities; GitHub is competent enough to manage projects in its periphery.
Being an important and critical portal, GitHub sought to ReactJS in its own development framework. Developers at GitHub have trusted the goodness of ReactJS completely and unleashed its potential.
Asana ( 42.60 Million Visitors )
As an apt work management tool for all your team’s tasks, projects and online tasks, Asana is a big name worldwide. It is a web and mobile application that is designed to assist the taskforce in enhancing collaboration and communication.
The team at Asana has found that React development offers functional purity in the built components. They have been applying their major design principles using the ReactJS family.
Flipboard (7.14 Million Visitors )
Utilized by millions of users daily, Flipboard is a highly renowned news-reading app that gets together a variety of news, stories, and conversations of different natures. As a happening social magazine, it offers its users an insight into all types of news, events and different topics at a unified location.
Realizing the wide variety of industry segments that React can help, Flipboard has implemented ReactJS in its development environment, and is enjoying the advantages that it offers.
PayPal ( 581.95 Million Visitors )
A globally-renowned online payment portal, PayPal has been offering supreme services in terms of a quick way to send or receive money, make online payments or create merchant accounts. It is a secure and fast mode of payment to millions of users worldwide.
PayPal REST API is integrated tightly with ReactJS components which can be implemented with the PayPal business logic and can be reused at multiple places.
Podio ( 3.47 Million Visitors )
A project management and collaboration software, Podio offers a web-based platform to collaborate with your team from anywhere, handle business processes and data in project management workspaces.
As a social collaboration software, it facilitates users to develop applications and build workspaces to help their desired workflows.
Looking at the positive bent that ReactJS has generated, the development team at Podio has utilized many features of React in their development portfolio.
Uber ( 58.98 Million Visitors )
Who isn’t using Uber? Needs no introduction.
With almost a monopoly when it comes to connecting passengers with drivers on hire, Uber has its own top slot around the globe.
And it has more coming in. After Uber, came in UberEATS that is a portal to facilitate online food ordering. This portal has used the power of ReactJS development and React Native components in their dashboard section. It has been known that the Uber community appreciates the React Native technology big time.
Zendesk (82.04 Million Visitors )
The right organization when it comes to making your communication with customers happy, easy, and effective — Zendesk is a software development organization that offers a SaaS-based suite with features such as issue tracking and monitoring, help desk management, and customer service support.
Various Zendesk components have been built making use of ReactJS libraries and framework. Zendesk has a Garden design system that uses React components and utilities to offer visuals, localization, and keyboard navigations.
This list is not bound by numbers, there are many more organizations/applications that are reaping the fruits of this wonderful technology — ReactJS.
Conclusion:
The list seems endless, though the above list signifies the reasons why ReactJS is running great goings in the technology world. There are many more organizations that are enjoying the fruits of this wonderful technology.
The above list of popular organizations making the most of React signifies the extent to which the technology has raised its bars.
ReactJS’s high potential to undertake any type of web development is being witnessed closely and no wonder, the number of big tech giants is taking huge leaps to embrace ReactJS.
Let us wait and watch till this list keeps growing strong and so does the technology with its newer updates and finer innovations.
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