React.js

React.js is one of the most popular JavaScript libraries that allows the creation of complex graphical user interfaces, and therefore enables user-computer interaction. It allows building complex structures through isolated components and uses a modern way of rendering websites, which become much more dynamic than when using other technologies. React.js was created in 2011 on the initiative of a Facebook employee, and since 2013 it has turned into open source software and is gradually conquering the development industry.

React js, by virtue of being a Javascript library, gives the possibility to use inside the whole ecosystem of libraries and add-ons from NPM, which are constantly being developed. This is a huge advantage for teams that need to deliver a production-quality solution. It easily programs dynamic elements such as lift and drop, advanced animations, or complex interfaces that trigger multiple asynchronous events. Thanks to the integration of tools such as Redux, Mobx or Saga, the application development process speeds up and shortens from months to weeks or even days.

React JS - speed and stability

React.js allows us to create isolated components that are reusable. This allows us to repeatedly build larger and larger modules, to which we pass relevant information via so-called props. React.js uses the so-called virtual DOM, as well as the virtual dom diffing method. In practice, it means that all changes in the DOM structure are first executed in the Javascript engine, and if there is a need to render the component anew the appropriate information will be passed to the DOM tree. This is innovative insofar as it reduces the number of refreshes of the component display and makes the processor take care of only what is needed.

React.js has a huge community that is constantly growing. It already has more than 360,000 questions with examples and answers on stackoverflow. Moreover, successive versions of React.js are made under the convention that each version must be compatible with the previous one. No, big changes are made at the level of invoked methods, so applications written in React version 15.00 are compatible with React version 17.

React JS - clear and clean code

All components used by the developer in the project are separated from each other, hence any error or change does not affect others. In addition, these components can be used at different levels of code, which makes the entire work on an application or website extremely faster and easier. An extremely important advantage of React.js is its stability. It is due to the fact that the child components do not affect the master components, and the entire flow of information in the state of the application is unidirectional - it takes place downwards. Moreover, together with React, we can use the Next.js or Gatsby.js framework, which are very well received by Google's robots in terms of SEO, because they change the rendering to server-side rendering (SSR). The entry threshold for this JavaScript library is relatively low, so it can be used by less experienced developers, plus it is being developed all the time.

In which applications does React JS perform best?

React works best in advanced user interfaces. Where application logic is complex, user actions are custom and advanced. It works very well in large teams, as it allows a good separation of the logical and presentation layers.

There are solutions based on serverless architecture as well as static hosting, which significantly increase the scalability of such an application. Thousands of users can use sites written in React JS and hosted on CDN-type solutions without any interface slowdown.

Solutions based on React JS:

There are many solutions on the market that use the React JS library. These range from large portals such as AWS, which has programmed its cloud console in React, to blogging services such as Medium.

• configurator applications, whose interface is no different from an application even years ago installed independently on windows, such as excell online, or word online
• applications stores, whose interface is independent of the backend and whose store has an exposed API, and need to replace their visual layer with a more visually appealing one
• dashboards and data visualizations
• admin panels
• Realtime applications using socket.io and constant communication with the server and interface updates
• landing page with optimization for SEO
• native applications using WebView and React JS