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Why React.js is so popular for Front End Development?

Updated: Jul 27, 2020

JavaScript is one of the most indispensable technologies that is used by most of the web applications around the world. Hence a number of revolutionary javascript libraries and frameworks are originating for developing modern, dynamic UI. ReactJS is one such library for building web user interfaces.



What is React.js?


React was first created by Jordan Walke, a software engineer working for Facebook. It was first deployed on Facebook’s newsfeed in 2011 and on Instagram.com in 2012.


ReactJS is an open-source javascript library for building interactive user interfaces, specifically for single-page applications (SPA), for websites and web apps. It is widely appreciated for handling a website’s DOM faster using the virtual DOM. This allows developers to create large web applications that can change data, without reloading the page.


Why React.js?


Technical Aspects

  1. Simplicity :

  2. React is very simple to learn, build professional web / mobile applications, and support it.

  3. React uses the component-based approach with a well-defined lifecycle.

  4. React Developers can either use a special syntax called JSX which allows them to mix HTML with JavaScript or simply use plain JavaScript through JSX is much easier to use.

  5. Reusable Components :

  6. The concept of Reusable Components draws a distinction for React.js from its competitive front end development technologies.

  7. A component in React.js is a piece of UI.

  8. These components are combined to build a complex, extensive user interface.

  9. React.js enables building a Single Page Website (SPA) or a web app using independent, isolated, and reusable components.

  10. In any React.js application, there is at least one root component, which further contains other components, making a tree-like hierarchy.

  11. These components, once developed, can be used in other pages of an application, thereby speeding up the development cycle.

  12. Concept of Virtual DOM :

  13. Virtual DOM is a JavaScript object, which is a lightweight, in-memory representation of real DOM.

  14. Every component in React.js has a State and Render method.

  15. The State method takes care of the data that is displayed on the screen.

  16. The Render method illustrates the look of UI.

  17. The output of the Render method is a JavaScript object that maps to the DOM element.

  18. Whenever there is a change in the State of an element, the UI gets re-rendered in a virtual DOM.

  19. The changes in the elements are then compared and updated in the real DOM to keep everything synchronized.

  20. Since React.js updates the virtual DOM instead of the real DOM, it makes the websites and web apps perform faster.

  21. Single-Way data flow :