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What IS React

Short introduction to React

React, also known as React.js or ReactJS, is an open-source JavaScript library for building user interfaces (UIs) and web applications. It was developed and is maintained by Facebook and a community of individual developers and companies. React is widely used for creating interactive and dynamic UIs, particularly in single-page applications (SPAs) and mobile app development.

What IS React - Tutorial provided by AppSeed.

✅ The Concept​

React's core concept is the component-based architecture. UIs in React are built by creating reusable components that encapsulate a part of the user interface. These components can be composed together to create complex UIs.

React also emphasizes a declarative approach to building UIs, where developers specify what the UI should look like based on the current application state, and React takes care of efficiently updating the UI when the state changes.

Here's a simple example of a React component:

import React, { Component } from 'react';

class Counter extends Component {
  constructor(props) {
    super(props);
    this.state = { count: 0 };
  }

  incrementCount = () => {
    this.setState({ count: this.state.count + 1 });
  };

  render() {
    return (
      <div>
        <h1>Counter: {this.state.count}</h1>
        <button onClick={this.incrementCount}>Increment</button>
      </div>
    );
  }
}

export default Counter;

In this example, we've created a Counter component that maintains a count in its state. When the "Increment" button is clicked, the incrementCount method is called, updating the state and triggering a re-render of the component.

To use this component in a React application, you would typically import it and include it in your application's JSX:

import React from 'react';
import Counter from './Counter';

function App() {
  return (
    <div>
      <h1>My React App</h1>
      <Counter />
    </div>
  );
}

export default App;

React provides a virtual DOM (a lightweight in-memory representation of the actual DOM) and a reconciliation algorithm that efficiently updates only the parts of the real DOM that have changed. This approach results in faster UI updates and improved performance.

React also has a large ecosystem of third-party libraries and tools that complement its capabilities, including state management libraries like Redux, routing libraries like React Router, and UI component libraries like Material-UI and Ant Design.

✅ In Summary​

React is often used in combination with other technologies such as Babel for JavaScript transpilation and Webpack for bundling assets. When combined with a backend technology like Node.js or Python, React can be used to build full-stack web applications.

React has gained widespread adoption in the web development community and is commonly used by companies to create modern web applications and user interfaces. It's known for its developer-friendly tools and strong community support, making it a popular choice for front-end development.

✅ Resources​