When and Why you should use React for your next project

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When and Why you should use React for your next project

React is one of the best and most widely used front-end JavaScript libraries, which was developed by Facebook approximately 7 years ago. The open-source JavaScript framework is commonly used for the sole purpose of building web and mobile applications. React JavaScript framework also has a large community of expert developers and a very strong client base.

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A bit of History

The React JavaScript framework was introduced because Facebook ran into a number of issues and difficulties when they were trying to create a dynamic UI with superior performance. They wanted to ensure a better experience for users like allowing the news feed updates to appear automatically even when people are using the chat feature.  

Jordan Walke decided to use JavaScript for the development process and he came up with the idea of putting Facebook markup syntax into the JavaScript coordinate system. Jordan and his team went on to build the ReactJS library based on XHP symbiosis and JavaScript. The developers at Facebook soon realized that ReactJS offered faster solutions than any other method or process.

The official release of ReactJS framework came a couple of years later, 2013. The JavaScript framework soon gained immense popularity among developers due to its unique and innovative approach to developing user interfaces. A hybrid mobile-app development framework, React Native was also introduced by the same group of developers two years after the official launch of ReactJS. 

How Popular is React, who uses React, 

Most of you would be probably familiar with the ‘State of JavaScript’ report. If not, then it is an annual survey which offers you a glimpse into different front end development frameworks and libraries. A report submitted in the State of JavaScript in 2019 revealed that there has been a significant increase in the interest of React from 64 percent to 71 years in a single year. 

The report also hints that the percentage of web developers who are not interested in React has been reduced from 9 to 7 during the time period of 2018 to 2019. Currently, the ReactJS framework is used by more than 3 million users from all over the world and it also has a massive developer community support. 

A number of internationally reputed and famous companies have also used the React framework to build websites. In fact, Dropbox, BBC, Reddit, Imgurm, and Flipboard are just a few companies that heavily rely on React. Here are a few reasons that will give you a clear idea on why web developers prefer to use the React JavaScript framework over other available choices.

Why Use React

As you would probably know, there are plenty of open-source platforms, libraries, and frameworks available to simplify the process of web app development. Angular, Vue, Bootstrap are just a few of the popular frameworks used by developers to build powerful web apps. So, we often hear several beginners asking Why React and what’s so special about it. These following reasons will explain why developers love to use React.

Easily Build Dynamic Web Applications

Creating dynamic web pages and applications used to be a challenging task until a few years ago and it required complex coding. However, everything changed with the arrival of React framework. React made use of JSX that contains a particular syntax and allowed HTML tags and quotes to render subcomponents. 

In addition, React also supports the process of building machine-reusable code and mixing components into separate variable files. Regular JavaScript is not used to create templates when it comes to React framework. 

Fast Development Speed

React JS framework comes with a fine selection of tools and components to help users easily build web apps. For instance, it contains a browser extension, React Developer tools that will make coding simpler and faster. In short, the reusable components and other essential development tools that are included with React speeds up the process of building web apps.

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This means that developers will be able to easily complete complex and sophisticated projects without wasting too much time. This in turn increases their productivity and helps them to earn more money. 

SEO-friendly features 

In some cases, we often encounter common search engine issues where they will fail to read JavaScript. React framework has come up with a simple and effective solution to this problem. It runs on a server, renders, and then returns virtual DOM to the web browser with the help of a regular webpage. 

The open-source framework comes with more SEO-friendly features that will help you acquire top ranks on not just Google, but on Bing, Yahoo, and other search engines. 

Easy to Learn

The increasing popularity of React framework is mainly due to the fact that it can be earned a lot faster and easily than most other popular frameworks. Developers, even beginners, will be able to easily proceed to the web app development process when using React. Learning React is easy not because there are hundreds of tutorials available on the internet, but because React is a simple library. 

Strong Community Support

Another obvious reason why several web developers choose React over other frameworks is that it receives a strong and excellent community support. A large community of expert developers are trying to make React better. 

Developers from all over the world have been putting up YouTube tutorials, in-depth articles, blog posts, and more to help beginners.

Essential Tools

React is also a user-friendly platform with plenty of essential and useful tools. Two major tools available with React are Redux Developer Tools and React to Developer Tools. You can install both these tools as Google Chrome extensions. 

The developer tools offered by React can be used to inspect react components, view component hierarchies, and do a lot more. Developers will be able to observe different dispatched actions and current store states. 

Features

Let us now take a look at some of the key features of the React JavaScript framework that makes it stand out from the rest of the frameworks. 

Virtual DOM

Virtual Document Object Model is one of the standout features of React which allows the framework to easily and quickly build fast and scalable applications. A memory reconciliation algorithm is included with the model that allows React to develop a representation of the web page in its virtual memory. So, in short, virtual DOM is a representation of the original DOM. 

As you make changes to the web application, the entire user interface will be re-rendered inside the virtual DOM. Original DOM updates only the components that are actually changed, and not to all components within virtual DOM. This prevents the wastage of memory. 

JSX

JSX which stands for JavaScript XML can be defined as a syntax extension that describes how the mobile or web app should really like. The markup syntax which is a combination of both XML and JavaScript have a close resemblance with HTML. JSX makes it possible for developers to easily build blocks of React UI and react components. 

React Native

As mentioned earlier, React framework comes with native libraries that offer react architecture to native applications that includes Android and iOS. In simple words, React Native can be defined as a mobile application that uses just JavaScript.

React Native uses the exact same design of the React framework too. You will need to have a clear understanding of React components like props, stats, and components to get a detailed idea of React Native. 

One-way Data Binding

One-way Data Binding prevents web developers from making edits or changes to React JS components directly. However, they will be able to modify the components by using the callback function. This process is called as one-way data binding. React follows one-way data binding to offer great control to developers throughout the web development process. 

All components included within the React JS library are immutable, which means that you can’t change the data within them. So, developers will have to use Flux to keep the data unidirectional. 

When to use React

From the above-statement, it would be pretty obvious to you that React is an excellent choice when it comes to building complex and powerful web applications. In addition, building applications for Android and iOS devices is also possible with React Native. 

If you have an expert JavaScript developer at your disposal, it is best to use React to easily and quickly build web and mobile apps. That said, React is a great fit for any budding or experienced web developer. Most individuals with minimum or basic will be able to easily and quickly learn React without any hassles. 

Why Learn React

Angular, React, and Vue are some of the most popular choices of developers when it comes to web app development. React has been the go-to choice of several experts even though the competition between these three frameworks (especially Angular and React) can be defined as quite intensive. So, if you are planning to learn React, here are a few reasons that will support your judgement.

  • React has a strong and massive community of dedicated developers
  • React Native simplifies the process of app development
  • React is component based
  • React is used by reputed companies and famous organizations
  • It is easy to learn

How to Learn React

Obviously, the first thing you need to do is to check out the official React tutorial. It has a very well written and comprehensive documentation, but it is more suitable for intermediate and advanced developers. So, if you are not one, you can find a number of courses on udemy and several other online websites. A wide selection of video tutorials will also be available on how to learn React JavaScript framework. 

 

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