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The need to create dynamic and responsive websites has grown with the increase in the number of real-time websites. That’s where React, one of the most popular JavaScript libraries, comes into play.
React, with its cross-platform compatibility, virtual DOM, and declarative UI, offers numerous benefits for building websites. In this blog, we’ll dive into all the various features and the benefits React offers. We’ll also learn how React.js development experts use it to create websites. But before that, let’s understand what exactly React is.
What is React?
React, commonly known as React.js, is a JavaScript library used for building user interfaces, particularly single-page applications (SPAs). It allows developers to create reusable UI components, making it easier to manage and update the user interface.
It was developed by Facebook and is widely used in web development to create dynamic and responsive websites. React is widely used for building dynamic sites where performance, scalability, and reusability are crucial. That makes it a go-to choice for professional React developers.
Key Features of React
React’s innovative features make it a popular choice among developers for creating dynamic and interactive web applications. Here are the key features of React:
Component-Based Architecture
Component-based architecture is one of the core features of React. Components are the building blocks of a React application. Each component is a self-contained module that encapsulates its own logic and functionality. Components can be composed together to build complex UIs, making the code more modular, reusable, and easier to understand.
- Functional Components: These are simple functions that return a React element. They are often used for presentational components.
- Class Components: These are ES6 classes that extend React.Component. They can have their own state and lifecycle methods.
Virtual DOM (Document Object Model)
The Virtual DOM is a lightweight representation of the real DOM. React uses the virtual DOM to optimize updates. When the state of an object changes, React updates the virtual DOM first and then efficiently updates the real DOM to match. This process is known as reconciliation, and it helps improve website performance, especially on large-scale sites.
Declarative UI
React follows a declarative programming model, which allows developers to describe the UI based on the website’s current state. React automatically manages and updates the UI when the state changes, simplifying the development process. This approach helps to avoid manually manipulating the DOM, making the code more predictable and easier to debug.
JSX Syntax
JSX (JavaScript XML) is a syntax extension that allows developers to write HTML-like code directly within JavaScript files. JSX improves readability and easily integrates React components. While not required, JSX is commonly used in React applications, as it combines two web development technologies: JavaScript and HTML.
State and Props
In React, props and state are both JavaScript objects that hold information that affects the output of a component’s render. However, they differ in how they are used and managed.
- State: This is a built-in object that stores property values that belong to the component. When the state object changes, the component re-renders. State is typically used for data that changes over time.
- Props: Short for properties, props are read-only values passed down from parent components to child components. They are immutable and are used to pass data from parent to child components.
Hooks
Introduced in React v16.8, Hooks allows you to use state and other React features in functional components. The most commonly used hooks are useState and useEffect. Hooks provide a more concise and readable way to manage state and side effects in functional components. Common hooks include:
- useState: This hook lets you add state to functional components.
- useEffect: It lets you perform side effects such as fetching data, DOM manipulation, etc.
- useContext: This hook lets you access global data across multiple components.
These key features of React.js make it a powerful and flexible library for building modern web applications. By understanding these features, you will get a start on the React development journey.
Looking to build a robust website with React?
Why Use React?
React has become one of the most popular libraries for building user interfaces due to its numerous advantages. Here are some of the compelling reasons to use React:
- Efficient and Fast Performance: React’s Virtual DOM ensures efficient rendering by minimizing direct manipulation of the real DOM. This leads to better performance, especially in applications with frequently updated UIs.
- Reusable Components: Its component-based architecture encourages developers to create small, self-contained components that can be reused across different parts of the application. This reusability speeds up development, ensures consistency, and reduces code duplication.
- React for Web and Mobile (React Native): React’s ecosystem extends beyond the web, with React Native. That allows developers to use React’s architecture and component model to build cross-platform mobile apps. That means you can use the same skills to build both web and mobile apps, enhancing versatility.
- Better Flow Control: React enforces unidirectional data flow, meaning data flows from parent to child components. This controlled data flow makes it easier to understand how data moves through the application, enhancing predictability and improving debugging.
- SEO-Friendly: Traditional JavaScript-heavy applications have challenges with SEO, but React can be used with server-side rendering (SSR) through tools like Next.js. This helps improve page load speeds and enables search engines to better index the React website, making it more SEO-friendly.
- Excellent Developer Tools: React comes with developer tools that allow easy inspection of components, tracking of props, and state changes in real time. The React Developer Tools browser extension (available for Chrome and Firefox) helps developers debug their websites efficiently.
- Cross-Platform Development: With React Native, developers can use React’s component model to build cross-platform mobile applications for iOS and Android using a single codebase. That makes the app development quicker for various OS.
These benefits of React make it a preferred choice for our React.js development company to build dynamic sites efficiently. Now, let’s give an overview of using React to create a sample site.
How to Use React?
Getting started with React involves several steps, from setting up your development environment to creating your first components and managing state. Here’s a comprehensive guide to help you get started with React:
Step 1: Set Up Your Development Environment
Before you can start using React, you need to have Node.js and npm (Node Package Manager) installed on your machine. You can download and install them from the official Node.js website. After installation, verify the installation by running:
node -v
npm -v
Next, install a code editor like Visual Studio Code (VS Code), which has extensions that support React development, such as ESLint and Prettier.
Step 2: Create a New React Project
The easiest way to set up a new React project is by using Create React App, a command-line tool that sets up a new React project with a default configuration. To use it open a terminal and install Create React App globally by running:
npm install -g create-react-app
Once installed, you can create a new React app by running the following command:
npx create-react-app my-app
cd my-app
npm start
This will create a new React application and start a development server. You can then open your browser and navigate to http://localhost:3000 to see your new React app in action.
Step 3: Understanding the Project Structure
A typical React project created with Create React App has the following structure:
my-app/
├── node_modules/
├── public/
│ ├── index.html
│ └── ...
├── src/
│ ├── App.css
│ ├── App.js
│ ├── App.test.js
│ ├── index.css
│ ├── index.js
│ ├── logo.svg
│ └── ...
├── .gitignore
├── package.json
├── README.md
└── …
Here is a brief overview of some of the folders:
- node_modules/: Stores all the project dependencies.
- public/: Contains static files like index.html, which is the entry point of your application.
- src/: This is where all your React components and app logic will reside.
- App.js: The main component that acts as the root of your app.
- index.js: The entry point that renders the React application to the DOM.
- package.json: Contains metadata about your project and its dependencies.
Step 4: Creating Your First Component
React apps are made up of components. Each component is a JavaScript function or class that returns JSX (JavaScript XML), which looks similar to HTML. First, let’s create a simple functional component.
a. Functional Component
Functional components are the simplest and most common type of components in React. Here’s an example of a basic functional component:
// src/App.js
import React from 'react';
function App() {
return (
<div className="App">
<h1>Hello, React!</h1>
</div>
);
}
export default App;
This component renders an h1 tag with the text “Hello, React!” inside a div.
b. Class Component (Optional)
In older versions of React, developers often used class components. While functional components are more common now, here’s an example of a class component:
import React, { Component } from 'react';
class App extends Component {
render() {
return (
<div className="App">
<h1>Hello, React!</h1>
</div>
);
}
}
export default App;
Step 5: Using JSX Syntax
JSX allows you to write HTML-like code inside JavaScript. JSX is transpiled to JavaScript, and it’s commonly used in React to define the structure of components.
function Welcome() {
return <h1>Welcome to React!</h1>;
}
You can use JavaScript expressions within JSX by embedding them in curly braces {}:
const name = 'React';
function Welcome() {
return <h1>Welcome to {name}!</h1>;
}
Step 6: Managing State and Props
State and props are essential concepts in React for managing dynamic data and passing information between components.
a. State
State is used to store and manage data within a component. You can update the state to reflect changes in the UI. In functional components, you can use the useState hook to manage state:
import React, { useState } from 'react';
function Counter() {
const [count, setCount] = useState(0);
return (
<div>
<p>Count: {count}</p>
<button onClick={() => setCount(count + 1)}>Increment</button>
</div>
);
}
export default Counter;
b. Props (Properties)
Props are used to pass data from one component to another. Here’s an example of how to use props:
function Welcome(props) {
return <h1>Welcome, {props.name}!</h1>;
}
function App() {
return <Welcome name="John" />;
}
export default App;
Step 7: Using React Hooks
React hooks enable you to manage state and side effects in functional components. Two commonly used hooks are:
- useState(): Manages state within functional components.
- useEffect(): Handles side effects like API calls, subscriptions, and more.
Example of useState
import React, { useState } from 'react';
function Counter() {
const [count, setCount] = useState(0);
return (
<div>
<p>Count: {count}</p>
<button onClick={() => setCount(count + 1)}>Increment</button>
</div>
);
}
Example of useEffect
import React, { useState, useEffect } from 'react';
function Example() {
const [count, setCount] = useState(0);
useEffect(() => {
document.title = `You clicked ${count} times`;
});
return (
<div>
<p>You clicked {count} times</p>
<button onClick={() => setCount(count + 1)}>Click me</button>
</div>
);
}
Step 8: Routing with React Router
React Router is a popular library for managing routing in React apps, allowing you to create a single-page application (SPA) with multiple views. Here is how you can install it:
npm install react-router-dom
Once installed, you can add routes redirecting users to various sections of your website. Here is a code example with a Home and About page.
import React from 'react';
import { BrowserRouter as Router, Route, Link } from 'react-router-dom';
function Home() {
return <h2>Home Page</h2>;
}
function About() {
return <h2>About Page</h2>;
}
function App() {
return (
<Router>
<div>
<nav>
<Link to="/">Home</Link>
<Link to="/about">About</Link>
</nav>
<Route exact path="/" component={Home} />
<Route path="/about" component={About} />
</div>
</Router>
);
}
export default App;
Step 9: Deploying a React App
Once you’ve built your app, you can deploy it to services like Netlify, Vercel, or GitHub Pages. Here is a example deployment on GitHub Pages:
npm run build
npm install gh-pages --save-dev
Add the following script to package.json:
"homepage": "http://{username}.github.io/{repo-name}",
"scripts": {
"predeploy": "npm run build",
"deploy": "gh-pages -d build"
}
Now, to deploy the website run the command:
npm run deploy
This command will deploy the React website on the GitHub pages, making your website live on the internet.
With that, we have seen how one can set up and use the React library with the basic functionality. This overview will give you a start for building simple applications. If you are looking to build complex and highly dynamic websites, consider hiring React.js developers.
Popular Websites that Use React
React has become one of the most popular JavaScript libraries used by many high-profile companies and websites. Here are some notable examples of popular websites that use React:
React was originally developed by Meta (formerly Facebook), and the social media giant uses React extensively in its web application. It helps Facebook manage dynamic content updates, especially for features like the News Feed, chat, and notifications.
Instagram, owned by Facebook, also uses React for its web application. React helps Instagram deliver a smooth and responsive user experience, especially for features like feed, stories, and direct messages.
Netflix
Netflix uses React for its frontend, particularly on its user interfaces for its web and mobile platforms. React powers its real-time video streaming, movie recommendations, and dynamic content updates. Its ability to provide a dynamic user experience across devices made React a suitable choice for Netflix’s frontend.
Airbnb
Airbnb leverages React for rendering its search functionality, user interface, and property listings. Its reusable components, like date pickers and maps, are all powered by React. The platform’s need for scalability, flexibility, and a great user experience for property searches makes React a perfect fit.
Uber Eats
Uber Eats uses React to provide fast and interactive interfaces for both customers and restaurant partners. Real-time data updates for orders, search results, and navigation are powered by React. Uber Eats benefits from React’s speed and component-based architecture for handling the dynamic nature of its services.
Other notable mentions are as follows:
These examples clearly showcase the popularity of React in various sectors ranging from social media to the payment industry. If you are looking to build a site with a dynamic and responsive user experience, get in touch with our React JS development services.
FAQs About What is React
Final Thoughts
React.js has changed the way developers build websites with dynamic user interfaces. Its component-based architecture and virtual DOM make it a valuable tool for creating scalable and robust sites.
If you are building a real-time website, React could be a default choice for most developers. To begin with, using React, you can first install the necessary packages and set up a development environment. Once done, you can use tools such as JSX, Hooks, React Router, and more to build a functional site.
To build a complex site that can handle data in real-time and is well-designed, hire React.js developers.
