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 A Complete Guide to Use Bootstrap with React

Table of content

A Complete Guide to Use Bootstrap with React

Are you struggling to create responsive and visually appealing websites within a short span of time? For many developers, ensuring consistent design across various screen sizes and devices is already a daunting task. When a deadline is also a concern, it becomes nearly impossible. Bootstrap is a CSS framework that provides a comprehensive toolkit of pre-styled components and a responsive grid system, saving you hours of manual coding and testing. Bootstrap with React offers instant development of responsive and dynamic user interfaces that work seamlessly across mobile and desktop devices. Welcome to a world where web development is simpler, faster, and more effective!

What is Bootstrap?

Bootstrap stands as the most popular CSS Framework for developing mobile-first websites. It is a free-open-source web development framework. Bootstrap makes the development tasks of websites and apps easy. It provides a set of syntax for template designs. Moreover, Bootstrap assists web developers in developing faster as they get basic commands and functions instantly. Bootstrap framework consists of CSS, HTML, and JS-based scripts for different functions and components. Bootstrap 5 is the latest version of Bootstrap.

The flexibility of Bootstrap makes it famous and a favourite among web developers. Another reason for its popularity is its browser compatibility. Bootstrap offers an invariant design as it uses reusable components. Bootstrap is an easier framework to learn also.
Here is an example of the Bootstrap framework.

what is Bootstrap

What is React?

React is a free, open-source front-end Javascript library mainly used to build user interfaces. It was created by Meta/Facebook for its internal purposes. React has a component-based architecture. Developers consider it primarily to accommodate interactivity. React is mainly used as a tool for building UI components. React released version 18 recently with great updates.

Enhancing React Projects with Bootstrap: Key Benefits

The benefits of using Bootstrap in a React-powered application include customization, faster development with prebuilt components, a responsive grid system that reduces development time and effort, and a large community. To be specific:

Rich Component Library

React Bootstrap is a library of reusable components with which web applications can be built quickly. The library of components includes such as buttons, navigation bars, forms, modals, and carousels, each of which can be customized according to your specific needs.

Flexibility and Customization

Flexibility and customization options are the highlight of Bootstrap and React, allowing you to apply custom CSS classes, override default styles, and extend component functionality as required.

Instant Access

Accessibility is a vital aspect of web development. React and Bootstrap ensures that all components comply with web accessibility standards, making it easy for individuals to use your web applications.

Regularly Updated

React Bootstrap is frequently updated and maintained to align with the latest web development trends and best practices.

Smooth Migration

If you’re already familiar with Bootstrap, the transition will be smooth for you.

Setting Up the Environment

Prerequisites

  • Understanding of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
  • Installed VS Code or any other code editor on your development machine
  • Basic familiarity with React

Let’s get started with Bootstrap ReactJS

If you need to learn how to get started with Bootstrap ReactJS, let us walk you through the most basic steps and hands-on training in just a few minutes.

Before we move on to the next section, let me remind you to avoid confusion between Bootstrap React JS and React-Bootstrap. Bootstrap, ReactJS, and React-Bootstrap play distinct roles in web development, especially when creating responsive and interactive user interfaces. We will look deeper into it in the upcoming sections.

Step 1: Set Up Your React Project

You need to set up a new React project to use Bootstrap with React. To do this, run the following commands in your terminal.

npx create-react-app my-app cd my-app

This will start a new React project named “my-app” and navigate you to the project directory.

Step 2: Install Bootstrap

This will create a new React project named “my-app” and navigate you to the project directory.

npm install Bootstrap

The above command will install the Bootstrap package in your project.

Step 3: Import Bootstrap

After installing Bootstrap, import it into your React project. You can do this by adding the following line of code to your index.js file:

import 'bootstrap/dist/css/bootstrap.css';

This will import the Bootstrap CSS file into your project.

Step 4: Create Your Components

The next thing to do is to create your React components. You should make a new file for each element in your project directory. For instance, you could create a Header.js file for your application header.

Step 5: Style Your Components with Bootstrap

Now that you have all your components, it’s time to apply Bootstrap styling. You can do this by including Bootstrap classes in your component’s HTML elements. For example, you can use the “navbar” class in your application header to create a Bootstrap navbar.

style your components with Bootstrap

Step 6: Add Responsive Design

With Bootstrap, you can easily create responsive designs that display well on all devices. Achieve this by incorporating Bootstrap’s responsive classes into your HTML elements. For instance, you could apply the container class to your application container in order to establish a responsive layout.

add responsive design with Bootstrap in React

 

What is React-Bootstrap?

React-Bootstrap is a library of UI components designed to build user interfaces within React.js projects. It offers a collection of ready-made elements like buttons, dropdown menus, forms, tables, and more, which can be utilized to simplify the UI development process. Additionally, integrating Bootstrap, importing Popper, and adding buttons or button components are made simple due to the library’s reliance on the widely used Bootstrap framework. Bootstrap lends a suite of styles and UI components for constructing responsive, contemporary web pages and web applications.

The components in this case are constructed using the most current web technologies and industry best practices. This ensures that they are fine-tuned for performance and accessibility while also including all of Bootstrap’s built-in classes. These components are created to be effortlessly customizable, allowing you to tailor the appearance and style of your application to align with your brand and design standards. Furthermore, the library offers a collection of tools and plugins to assist you in streamlining your development process and efficiently constructing intricate user interfaces.

The package offers a complete solution for creating user interfaces for React.js projects. It doesn’t matter if you’re beginning a new project or enhancing an existing one; The combination provides a variety of pre-built components, tools, and plugins that can help minimize the time and effort needed to develop top-notch, responsive user interfaces.

Installing React-Bootstrap

Using npm, you can install the React Bootstrap package in a Create React App (CRA) project. Below is an example of installing and utilizing the React Bootstrap library in a CRA project:

To install the React Bootstrap package, navigate to your project directory and open a terminal. Then, execute the provided command:

npm install react-bootstrap bootstrap

Now import the Bootstrap CSS file in your src/index.js file. Insert the following code at the top of the file:

{/* The following line can be included in your src/index.js or App.js file */}

import 'bootstrap/dist/css/bootstrap.min.css';
```sh

You can now start using React Bootstrap components in your React app.

Using React-Bootstrap in your React Apps

Now import the Bootstrap CSS file in your src/index.js file. Insert the following code at the top of the file:

create button using react bootstrap

Courtesy: Bootstrapdash React-Bootstrap admin templates

This is an example where React-Bootstrap is utilized to create a ‘Button’.

When using CoreUI for React.js, it’s important to remember that you’ll have to import the specific components you wish to use from the react-bootstrap package.

What is the difference between Bootstrap, ReactJS and React-bootstrap?

Bootstrap, ReactJS, and React-bootstrap play different roles in web development, especially when creating responsive and interactive user interfaces. Bootstrap is a popular front-end framework that offers a comprehensive range of CSS classes and JavaScript tools for styling and responsive design. In contrast, ReactJS is a JavaScript library that focuses on building user interfaces using a component-based architecture, enabling efficient state management and dynamic UI rendering. React-bootstrap serves as a bridge between the two by providing React components specifically designed for Bootstrap. Developers are able to make use of Bootstrap’s design components and responsive grid system as React components, allowing for a smooth integration that takes advantage of React’s declarative style and Bootstrap’s styling features. While Bootstrap can be used directly with React by applying its classes to JSX elements, react-bootstrap takes a more React-centric approach, making it easier to manage components and integrate Bootstrap’s interactive components.

Conclusion

Bootstrap and React is shaping the future of web development. Bootstrap 5 is constantly improving its toolkit to make it more responsive and accessible while keeping it user-friendly. Similarly, React’s component-based architecture and efficient rendering have contributed to its widespread use. As these frameworks progress, their integration, as exemplified by libraries such as react-bootstrap, will further simplify development and improve user experiences. Embrace these advancements to create contemporary, responsive web applications that cater to the requirements of the ever-evolving digital environment.