Is Learning ReactJS Absolutely Necessary Now

This is not meant to discourage or stop you from pursuing and learning ReactJS or the use of related frameworks and libraries. This article will help developers out there truly understand what ReactJS is when you should be learning it, and what purpose it will serve. This is supposed to help you learn about React and use ReactJS the right way. 

What is React?

It is a very popular library of programming language JavaScript. Its main use is in the building of user interfaces as well as applications with single pages. React gives you the ability to make use of a collection of prewritten snippets of code for performing functions in JavaScript. This means that ReactJS enables a developer to create User Interface components that are reusable. These various components help make up a website. The tweet section of the Twitter site is an example of a reusable User Interface component. Twitter developers worked on creating the component for the section and made use of it for all tweets. This shows how Twitter makes use of React in their web application. 

Many people wonder if React is for angle page application, how does Twitter, discussed in the example above have more than one page. This is because there are many supporting packages that are maintained along with the libraries that make up the complex application that spans over several pages like Twitter, with the help of React. Some people make use of packages that provide support, and others make use of React frameworks like Remix and Next to build complex as well as simple applications. 

React And Web Development

React today is playing an important role in the creation of web applications that are interactive. If you are looking forward to becoming a front-end web developer, or even a full stack developer, and wish to start working in a corporation, or even just for creating web applications for your startup or as a freelancer, you will have to learn React. 

A web application differs immensely from a website. You do not need to know React for creating websites or static web pages. A web application is a dynamic website that looks and feels like the applications you have used on your mobile phones or desktops. These websites will have functions that help you register or create an account, make a post or do things you generally do in various applications. 

With the help of React, it will become very tedious to make a dynamic website, and the website will also be difficult to use. That is because for transitioning each time, the browser would have to reload, which will not be the case if React is used to develop the application. 

When To Learn React

ReactJS is a library under JavaScript. Similar to other frameworks and libraries, ReactJS also requires one to have a good understanding of the language first. There is no point in trying to learn how the secondary tool works if the second tool is to make the primary tool easy, and you have no understanding of the primary tool’s working. ReactJS, similar to other libraries of JavaScript, is designed to make use of JavaScript easy. That means it is imperative to at least have a basic understanding of JavaScript before you can begin delivering to the libraries and frameworks of the language. 

It is important to keep in mind that React is not a separate language that a developer will have to learn in order to work on web applications. It is not about learning new syntax, it is about understanding how React works with JavaScript. React uses the syntax of JavaScript, along with a small amount of HTML. That means that knowing javascript is enough and it will not be difficult to move on to learning about different frameworks and libraries. The libraries and frameworks do not work by acting as a replacement for the syntax of JavaScript. A developer will not find a replacement for the if-else statements of JavaScript in a library. 

How Much JavaScript To Know Before Starting React?

If you are using a book or a course to study JavaScript, it is good to have a sufficient understanding of everything outlined in it. First, learn JavaScript, forget about React or any other framework or library. Do not work on studying JavaScript with the goal that you have to learn React, that is not the attitude to have while learning JavaScript. You must be learning JavaScript with the aim that you want to become a web developer who is capable of making web applications. Keep in mind that React will not always be in trend. 

The use of this framework may not be here in 5 years or so. Even if you finish your study of JavaScript, it is not good to jump straight into studying React. Try mastering your JavaScript syntax by doing more exercises, working on projects or even trying to design your own websites. To begin working on projects, you can google to find some ideas for projects that are suitable for beginners. 

When you have made around 20 projects all on your own, then you can consider yourself ready, to begin with, React. We have outlined the JavaScript basics that you have to be absolutely confident with in order to begin studying React.

• Data Types – string, booleans, number, arrays, undefined, objects, null.
• Loops – for in, for, while, for of, do-while
• Arithmetic operations and arithmetic operators, logical operators, ternary operator, variables like const and let, expressions, scopes
• Conditional statements – if and else, switch case
• Functions – arrow functions, callbacks, closures
• Asynchronous JavaScript – settimeout, setinterval
• JSON
• Classes and other ES6 features
• DOM
• The global object

Where To Learn React?

You should not think of React as a difficult or special thing you have to learn. That is the method to learn any framework or library. Sharing below a couple of tips to get a good grasp of React. 

Follow along with a tutorial

This means coding side by side a tutorial of React. Crash courses for React are available for free on YouTube, you do not have to pay a penny to learn. It is better to find a course or tutorial where the concepts are given with good explanations in order to understand how React works and one where they make you do a project in the end. The course should begin with a little introduction to React and it’s working. The short overview will help you understand what you will be working on and set the expectations right for the duration of the tutorial or crash course. 

Studying the Documentation

Very good documentation is available for React online. The documentation available gives great insight into this library and also tells you what you can do by working with it. The documentation for React is designed such that the person studying it will understand the basics to the advanced level of React step by step. To play around with the documentation means to study them and also try out the examples used to explain the concepts. You can begin studying the documentation of React when you are studying it as a part of your course. The documentation is helpful as it gets straight to the point. Studying it line by line or even chapter-wise is not going to be a waste of your time. The study of the entire document should not be taking more than one week. 

Build more projects

Not building projects but a number of them. If you have worked with a good crash course or tutorial, you probably already have worked on your first React project. Now you must continue and work on some more. The best way to find more tutorials that work on some basic projects, search for project-specific tutorials for better results. 

This will help you gain exposure to new concepts and different perspectives. Do not end up spending too much time on tutorials themselves, at max 2 tutorials from different authors should be enough. This will help you get a good grasp on the basics, get more projects under your belt and also gain an understanding of various perspectives, overall making you more efficient in React. 

When To Use React?

It is important that you remember, React is not always needed. Use React when there is a need to make the website dynamic, complex websites as some developers have termed it. Simple JavaScript can also be used for small projects or websites that are static. 

Suppose you are building a website for business for a client. The website will require some hard coding to be done for almost everything. The website lets visitors come and see the business, what it is about, gives the contact information for the business etc. Now consider a website for a law firm. Such a site would not require you to use React, no matter what pages you are working on, the task can be done better with simple, plain JavaScript. If you are building a project that is similar to Twitter or a personal blog that needs routine updation, you will have to use React for the development to be efficient. 

Conclusion

Think of React as a great tool for web development, which is also easy to study. To gain an advantage, you want to gain an understanding of this tool at the right time. If you wish to advance in your career as a web developer with the help of React, you can easily learn NextJS or Remix. The same steps can be followed for learning them as mentioned above. These are easier to learn than React.