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
Simplicity :
React is very simple to learn, build professional web / mobile applications, and support it.
React uses the component-based approach with a well-defined lifecycle.
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.
Reusable Components :
The concept of Reusable Components draws a distinction for React.js from its competitive front end development technologies.
A component in React.js is a piece of UI.
These components are combined to build a complex, extensive user interface.
React.js enables building a Single Page Website (SPA) or a web app using independent, isolated, and reusable components.
In any React.js application, there is at least one root component, which further contains other components, making a tree-like hierarchy.
These components, once developed, can be used in other pages of an application, thereby speeding up the development cycle.
Concept of Virtual DOM :
Virtual DOM is a JavaScript object, which is a lightweight, in-memory representation of real DOM.
Every component in React.js has a State and Render method.
The State method takes care of the data that is displayed on the screen.
The Render method illustrates the look of UI.
The output of the Render method is a JavaScript object that maps to the DOM element.
Whenever there is a change in the State of an element, the UI gets re-rendered in a virtual DOM.
The changes in the elements are then compared and updated in the real DOM to keep everything synchronized.
Since React.js updates the virtual DOM instead of the real DOM, it makes the websites and web apps perform faster.
Single-Way data flow :
A set of fixed values are passed to the components’ renderer as properties in its HTML tags.
The component cannot directly modify any properties
It can pass a callback function with the help of which we can do modifications.
This complete process is known as “properties flow down; actions flow up”.
Server-Side Rendering:
By combining a Node.js server and React.js, it helps us build even more complex applications by pre-rendering the initial state of our React.js components.
Common issues of Single Page Applications such as indexing by crawlers, initial loading speed can be easily handled using Server Side Rendering.
Solid-state management tools like Redux can still be used to provide a wonderful user experience.
Adaptability :
React.js can be used in any application irrespective of the existing technology stack.
Rewriting Legacy application can be done using React.js incrementally, as small parts of the application can be written in React.js and rendered from within the legacy application.
React.js also allows for the development of mobile applications using “React Native”.
Business Aspects
Why Big Brands use React.js:
Facebook, Tesla, DropBox, Netflix, AirBnB, PayPal, Uber are some of the top brands that use React.js for crafting their websites and web apps.
React.js allows these enterprises to build apps with better UI to enhance user experiences.
They are assured of better performance compared to those that use other frameworks
React.js is highly efficient because of its capability of scaling an application by integrating React components into the existing code.
React.js can also be integrated with a number of external libraries or frameworks like jQuery, Backbone.js that help to scale the application.
React.js applications are super easy to test.
React.js has a community of millions of developers.
The learning curve is not that steep. Hence companies need not spend a fortune to educate their employees.
Why Developers choose React.js?
React.js is quite flexible, so developers are free to use the latest JavaScript tools like webpack, browserify, rollup, babel, etc.
They can still start with ES5 or jump straight away to ES6 syntax.
They can use TypeScript or Flow to add type checking into the codebase
They can use whatever tool they prefer, such as fetch, Axios, superagent, etc. to implement async requests
They are free to choose the right state management libraries such as Redux, Flux, and MobX
Components can easily get unit-tested using tools like Jest & Enzyme
It is important that the React.js is developed professionally following the best practices. Prevaj is a ReactJS development company that has enormous experience in application development and has a team of high-end React.js developers.