May 31, 2022 - Slitigenz

The world can’t live without mobile and web applications in this day and age. Everything is digitized, from booking cabs to ordering food to make bank transactions. Thanks to the efficient frameworks that provide a seamless user experience. One such robust frontend library is React. This tutorial on ‘what is React’ will help you understand the library’s fundamentals and work with a simple demo.

What Is React?

React.js was released by a software engineer working for Facebook – Jordane Walke in 2011. React is a JavaScript library focused on creating declarative user interfaces (UIs) using a component-based concept. It’s used for handling the view layer and can be used for web and mobile apps. React’s main goal is to be extensive, fast, declarative, flexible, and simple.

React is not a framework, it is specifically a library. The explanation for this is that React only deals with rendering UIs and reserves many things at the discretion of individual projects. The standard set of tools for creating an application using ReactJS is frequently called the stack.

Why use React?

Now, the main question arises in front of us is why one should use React. There are so many open-source platforms for making the front-end web application development easier, like Angular. Let us take a quick look on the benefits of React over other competitive technologies or frameworks. With the front-end world-changing on a daily basis, it’s hard to devote time to learning a new framework – especially when that framework could ultimately become a dead end. So, if you’re looking for the next best thing but you’re feeling a little bit lost in the framework jungle, I suggest checking out React.

1. Simplicity

ReactJS is just simpler to grasp right away. The component-based approach, well-defined lifecycle, and use of just plain JavaScript make React very simple to learn, build a professional web (and mobile applications), and support it. React uses a special syntax called JSX which allows you to mix HTML with JavaScript. This is not a requirement; Developer can still write in plain JavaScript but JSX is much easier to use.

2. Easy to learn

Anyone with a basic previous knowledge in programming can easily understand React while Angular and Ember are referred to as ‘Domain-specific Language’, implying that it is difficult to learn them. To react, you just need basic knowledge of CSS and HTML.

3. Native Approach

React can be used to create mobile applications (React Native). And React is a diehard fan of reusability, meaning extensive code reusability is supported. So at the same time, we can make IOS, Android and Web applications.

4. Data Binding

React uses one-way data binding and an application architecture called Flux controls the flow of data to components through one control point – the dispatcher. It’s easier to debug self-contained components of large ReactJS apps.

5. Performance

React does not offer any concept of a built-in container for dependency. You can use Browserify, Require JS, EcmaScript 6 modules which we can use via Babel, ReactJS-di to inject dependencies automatically.

6. Testability

ReactJS applications are super easy to test. React views can be treated as functions of the state, so we can manipulate with the state we pass to the ReactJS view and take a look at the output and triggered actions, events, functions, etc.

Features of React

JSX

JSX stands for JavaScript XML. It is a JavaScript syntax extension. Its an XML or HTML like syntax used by ReactJS. This syntax is processed into JavaScript calls of React Framework. It extends the ES6 so that HTML like text can co-exist with JavaScript react code. It is not necessary to use JSX, but it is recommended to use in ReactJS.

Components

ReactJS is all about components. ReactJS application is made up of multiple components, and each component has its own logic and controls. These components can be reusable which help you to maintain the code when working on larger scale projects.

One-way Data Binding

ReactJS is designed in such a manner that follows unidirectional data flow or one-way data binding. The benefits of one-way data binding give you better control throughout the application. If the data flow is in another direction, then it requires additional features. It is because components are supposed to be immutable and the data within them cannot be changed. Flux is a pattern that helps to keep your data unidirectional. This makes the application more flexible that leads to increase efficiency.A virtual DOM object is a representation of the original DOM object. It works like a one-way data binding. Whenever any modifications happen in the web application, the entire UI is re-rendered in virtual DOM representation. Then it checks the difference between the previous DOM representation and new DOM. Once it has done, the real DOM will update only the things that have actually changed. This makes the application faster, and there is no wastage of memory.

Simplicity

ReactJS uses JSX file which makes the application simple and to code as well as understand. We know that ReactJS is a component-based approach which makes the code reusable as your need. This makes it simple to use and learn.

Performance

ReactJS is known to be a great performer. This feature makes it much better than other frameworks out there today. The reason behind this is that it manages a virtual DOM. The DOM is a cross-platform and programming API which deals with HTML, XML or XHTML. The DOM exists entirely in memory. Due to this, when we create a component, we did not write directly to the DOM. Instead, we are writing virtual components that will turn into the DOM leading to smoother and faster performance.

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Flutter vs native development: Which one to pick for your next project?

Flutter was created by Google around four years ago and has made steady progress through the market since its original inception. It’s a UI framework that aims to unify Android and iOS interface development using the same basic library of controls and a single codebase. It’s based on a language that was also developed by Google — Dart — which should feel very familiar to developers who have experience with JavaScript or similar languages.

It’s important to note that Flutter only covers the front end. How applications work behind the scenes is still up to developers, and the market offers different options for that. Flutter is meant to address a common annoyance encountered in mobile app development — the differences in how UI frameworks operate on Android and iOS. If developers use native tools, they have to adapt the app to the specific quirks of the native UI frameworks, even if they are working with a central mockup/design for both platforms.

What are native technologies?

Unlike cross-platform tools, native application development is application-specific to either Android or iOS. Native apps are coded in languages that are supported by the device’s OS vendor:

Android languages: Kotlin, Java. Development environment: Android Studio
iOS languages: Swift, Objective-C. Development environment: Xcode

As a rule, native apps do not have serious drawbacks, and their users can take full advantage of sophisticated features such as an accelerometer, camera, GPS, and others. Users can install native apps through major app stores such as Google Play and App Store.

At the same time, the development and support of native apps require significant investments. This is because you need two different development teams for two different platforms. And they have to adjust business logic, duplicate interface logic and layout to the features of each platform.

With Flutter, you need a single development team therefore the working process runs much easier and faster. Hence, low-budget Flutter is becoming more popular with hi-tech businesses, compared to native technologies, as illustrated by the figure below.

Which one to pick for your next project?

Flutter makes a strong case over native in more than one area.

Widgets everywhere

The ease of development mentioned above comes from using widgets, reusable components that build applications. From buttons to images and even text, everything is a widget. You can mix and match them easily to create any user interface you like.

Hot reload & hot restart

Flutter benefits from the features “hot reload” and “hot restart”, appreciated by developers for making the development process faster and easier. Hot reload allows you to see any changes in the UI instantly, reducing the waiting time between two changes. This means that a developer and a designer can sit side by side and try different layouts in real time.

Hot restart, on the other hand, destroys the current app state and rebuilds it to default. It allows you to check the business logic changes several times faster than on native platforms.

Consistent cross-platform UX

Flutter is a great choice for UI-heavy applications because it gives you control over every pixel displayed to the user. It enables a consistent user experience across different devices and platforms. You can also make your widgets look exactly as designed. When you don’t have to be concerned about platform abilities, the only limitations are your imagination and time.

Light & dark mode

Switching between dark and light mode can also be done painlessly. There is no need to create another widget just for the dark theme, you can use an existing one, set its theme to dark, and you’ll have it in dark mode.

Bug spotting

Bugs are actually another plus in Flutter. Since the code is shared, bugs are too. It might seem like a problem, but actually this means they occur more frequently and are therefore more noticeable. They can also be fixed with just one change for all platforms.

Extra testing

The write-once-run-anywhere aspect has implications in testing as well. You’re essentially writing one app, so the testing is more thorough because you do it twice.

The human factor

No technology makes sense without people. It’s people who come up with an idea for an application, it takes people to build it and people to use it.

Sometimes, during the application development process, the idea outgrows its original scope, and the team building the app grows with it. In large teams, communication is key, and if it doesn’t run smoothly, it impacts the project.

When developing the same application for Android and iOS, normally there’d be two separate teams. With Flutter, there is only one, which makes communication better, saves time on syncs between departments, and reduces the estimates for future features, leaving more room for application development. With only one mobile team, you also remove the risk of having different behaviors for the same use case appear on different platforms.