Intro to React Concepts

Learning objective: By the end of this lesson, students will be able to describe React’s role in modern web development and how it came to be.

What is React?

React is a JavaScript library for building user interfaces - primarily for single-page web applications. It’s known for its component-based architecture where the UI is broken into independent, reusable pieces that manage their own state. React’s virtual DOM optimizes updates to the actual DOM, making the UI very responsive.

React was initially used to implement Facebook’s newsfeed, but has since been made open source, and is primarily maintained by Facebook along with a community of developers.

Core concept

React apps consist of components that we code using JavaScript.

React’s strength lies in its component-based architecture, allowing developers to encapsulate user interface elements into reusable building blocks. This approach facilitates a more modular development process and provides more dynamic user interfaces.

Component-based architecture

Usage and popularity

React is one of the most popular advanced front-end libraries in use today. It has been widely adopted by many prominent tech companies and boasts an active, open-source community. This widespread support makes it a dependable choice for tech companies, increasing the number of available React roles and further expanding the open-source community.

The virtuous cycle of React > Jobs > Community > React, and so on

Features of React

React is a powerful library that has become the go-to choice for many developers. It has several features that make it a popular choice for building user interfaces. These features include: