Times have changed and no one wants to wait longer to see their idea transformed into websites and web applications. Javascript development always started with an ambiguity between the rich environments with many libraries, tools, and frameworks and the confusion of using these libraries and tools.
And the ReactJs came in, as a blessing. ReactJs or React has become a buzzing word these days. May it be a small-scale startup or an enterprise, everyone is opting for ReactJs for front-end development.
More we dive deep into understanding the wide concept of ReactJs, its features, and Top Applications using ReactJs, let’s have a gist of ReactJs.
ReactJs Summary
Definition: ReactJs is an open-source JavaScript Library supported by Facebook. It is used for building front-end of the web applications.
Developed by: Jordan Walke ( May 2013 )
Supported by: Facebook
Type: Library
Structure: Component-based architecture using JavaScript
Purpose: Front-end development
Competitor: Angular
What is ReactJs and Why React Js was created?
ReactJs is an open-source JavaScript Library supported by Facebook. ReactJs can be broken down into 3 things mainly: Library, Javascript-based, and User Interface.
The intent behind the development of the ReactJs library was to provide the developers with component reusability.
Technologies like Angular need a lot of coding and had a lot of challenges like rewriting the code of different components. ReactJs took that out of the equation by providing an easy breakdown of complex components. It is specifically used for developing UI for SPA (Single page applications).
Why use ReactJs?
As discussed above, React breaks down the structure into small components. It is used for developing SPA with the reflection of Real-time data. Code reusability is the major reason why a group of large developers chooses it.
Here are some other Features of ReactJs that will boost your confidence to use it for your project and understand why ReactJs is popular?
Top features of ReactJS
Component-based architecture
The webpage is divided into small different components for view (MVC). Each part of this visual is contained inside a module known as a component.
Component logic is written in JavaScript instead of a template. The component view follows Model view controller (MVC) architecture.
Fast development
Carrying out any development process can be a tedious task and one doesn’t have the luxury of time. All the companies want to have their websites or applications developed within a certain Timeline.
Time constraint is very difficult to manage but React Js with its Reusable components helps developers to make the application faster and easy for maintenance.
Virtual DOM
DOM: The Document Object Model (DOM) is a programming interface for web documents. It represents the page so that programs can change the document structure, style, and content.
The maker of ReactJs brought in the concept of the Virtual DOM Model, which itself is being regarded as one of the biggest advantages of ReactJs in comparison with other technologies.
For each DOM object React provides Virtual DOM. A virtual DOM object is a representation of DOM.
Working of Virtual DOM
When an HTML document is loaded, it creates a lightweight DOM tree structure from the JavaScript object and saves it on the server. When the user will enter new data, react creates a new virtual DOM and then compares it with the previous saved DOM.
The library finds dissimilarities that exist between two object models and rebuilds the Virtual DOM with changed HTML.
This procedure is carried out on the server and reduces the heavy load on the browser.
Stability
Core in React is stable. The unidirectional flow of data is managed by the core. The loading time is also less because of the flow of data.
React Core: React Core provides components for creating a plugin-based component.
Any progressive changes can be made in the objects at any point during the development process. The process goes like this:
- Make altercation in the state
- Modification
- Finish Update
In any scenario, the parent structure remains unaffected.
React Native
React Native is the icing on the cake. It is powered by ReactJs used for cross-platform web-app development. Instead of web components, native components are used. Using the Native approach, React Native develops mobile web-application.
To start with React Native you will need to grasp some concepts like: JSX, Components, State, and Props.
JSX
JSX can be understood as a combination of JavaScript and XML. It is more like a markup syntax.
JSX is used for Writing:
- React components
- Building blocks of React UI
The similarity of JSX syntax with HTML gives an advantage to developers and that’s the reason why they go with ReactJs in the first place. JSX is considered the best feature of ReactJs.
Data Binding
React has one-way binding. This means it follows the unidirectional flow for information transfer. This in turn provides a strong authority and is always easy to observe the change in data.
Due to the single-direction flow, the code is easy to understand.
Performance
The one-way architecture in React is identified as Flux. Flux transfers the received object to an appropriate store and then updates itself. Once updated the view keeps on changing accordingly but it’s only feasible to transfer an action to the store when it is fully updated.
Flux is great for the dynamically updated areas and we can say that One-way binding keeps the complexity level low, it implies an easy debugging procedure.
Event Handling
The synthetic event in React is according to W3C standards. The Native events are wrapped by the instance of the synthetic events. It provides a cross-browser interface to a native event. This means that you will not have to be concerned about browser compatibility.
Synthetic Event: SyntheticEvent is a cross-browser wrapper around the browser’s native event. It has the same interface as the browser’s native event.
Rendering
Rendering in ReactJs is the Server side. The purpose of introducing React was to increase the page loading speed and not depend on the delivery of components.
React allows the browser to render without waiting for all of the JavaScript to be stacked and executed.
Testing
Testing in ReactJs is quite simple. Views are treated as functions so one can modify the state passed to the React view and take a glance at the followed output and triggered actions or functions.
SEO friendly
Today almost every company with a website requires SEO for ranking higher in search results.
React servers rendering capabilities are helpful here, it helps search engines to crawl web-application in their ultimate form.
This makes the indexing process easy for the website.
Learning perspective
React is easy to grasp in comparison to other technologies. Developers have found React easy to understand and learn. The libraries are fast, scalable, and simple gives the developer a sense of clarity.
How ReactJs works?
The features give us a brief idea of how ReactJs works, let’s have a look at this image for a better understanding. The working of Reactjs is connected with the working of Virtual DOM.
One can observe the tree component structures in the image which can be considered as the representation of the entire application with child components.
The JSX files combination of HTML template and JS. So preprocessed syntax is added by JSX into JavaScript and then it connects with virtual DOM for updating the objects of JavaScript. The view modification reflects in the virtual DOM after comparison with the original DOM. The time taken for the update is less due to this reason and providing high performance in React applications.
Top Applications and websites developed using ReactJs
Many ReactJs features can be observed on Instagram. The app maintenance became easy across the different platforms i.e. iOS and Android platforms. The simple way to understand a working feature is the New posts popup that is generated after some time, which eliminates the need to refresh the feed again and again to get new posts.
The reason why Reactjs exists, the beta version of React was tested on Facebook with the intent of improving features. The first library was completely rewritten in React Native and React Fiber.
Netflix
The leading streaming service was facing lots of performance issues with its UI/UX across different devices. React changed the game by improving runtime performance, modularity, compatibility, and the list goes on.
Pins are all over this customized media webpage and application. One can create pins, edit pins, save pins and even share them. These are pinboards.
NewYork Times
With the new layout and design, Newyork times have taken a great leap with React Native.
PayPal
The famous online payment framework which allows electronic cash transfer uses some React features as well.
WhatsApp is a worldwide famous chatting platform. Newly launched WhatsApp uses ReactJs to build interfaces from Facebook
Khan academy
One of the famous online learning platforms uses ReactJs. Using ReactJs changed the complete look and interface of the website.
Asana
Asana is a project management portal that brings your team on one platform. It helps team and project management from start to end. Assignments, activities, and discussions are some of the key features of Asana.
Social Networking cum content sharing platform where people can share their views and get in discussions on various topics. People can pick any topic of their interest and post queries. Content is voted up and down by the registered members.
Conclusion
So, we can conclude from the above blog that ReactJs proves to be a revolutionary JavaScript library in the web development world. A powerful tool for high-performance in the presentation layer for the application development.
Flux, Virtual DOM, and many other features give this library a tag of being the best. If you are dealing with a project with Real-time data as a feature, ReactJs will be the best choice.
Willing to take the next step with ReactJs for a smooth functioning website or web application? We are at your service …. Hire ReactJs developers and get your idea transformed into a reality.
