React — Javascript Library

I had my first real front-end experience while studying at Flatiron School under their Software Engineer program. React is a very powerful Javascript Library that is designed for S.P.A (Single Page Application) web application.

This will be a basic overview of what React is and what it isn’t.

React is:
A Javascript Library — This means that this is just a library of functions that can be called by an application perform well defined function
Designed specifically for Single Page Applications — This means there’s only one HTML file in the entire front end application and the application itself requires no reloading or server routing unless fetching for data. This allows for a very fast and responsive web application
Component Based — React is designed to be modular and isolated from other parts of your web application via components. Develop a form component that has completely separate logic from your navbar component. This allows the you the developer to unmount and mount components on the fly without it ever conflicting with others.
Is perfect for managing the Dom — The Virtual Dom is a storage of sort for where changes to the Dom are stationed before React determines it’s a good time to rerender the Real Dom and upate that component. This gives a completely different way of Dom management than Jquery.

React is NOT:
A framework — A javascript framework is different than a library in the way that a framework defines how an application can be designed and then calls on application code. It is a skeleton of of the application showing how each part of the application should be designed.
A quick library to learn — React may be simple to learn, but it has a very different way when dealing with data and how to pass said data around. It can take time to wrap your head around state vs props and then throwing React Redux into the mix can further complicate things

At the end of the day, I personally love React, but perhaps this is because it’s my first real introduction to front-end development. I shall be spending time learning a full frontend framework such as Angular to boost my portfolio but also I want to see the difference myself between React and Angular which seems to be in an internal struggle since the release of React.

If anything about this post is wrong please don’t hesitate to let me know via Linkedln: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandontyus/ I’d love a chance to fix it and learn something more.

Thank you for taking the time to read this quick post!