If you are a webdeveloper,you are a JavaScriptdeveloper--by choice or by force.I mentionbyforce because notmanyweb developers like to work with vanillaJavaScript,especiallyones who have worked with frameworks and languages where Object Oriented concepts are made easier for developers to work with.But thisdoes notstop JavaScriptfrombecoming themost widely used language intheworld.The popularity of JavaScript has been growing rapidly over the past years, and with it comes the need to understand the advantages and disadvantages of React JS.
For anyweb development,alot oftheworkgetsdone byJavaScriptattheuser’s browserandat times it becomes difficult to manage vanillaJavaScriptin large applicationsasitlacksthestructure which developers enjoy in languages like Java, C#at theback end.
Technology leaders identified thisproblem,and theycameup with multiple solutions to makeJavaScriptnot just easier to work with but also to give it performance boost and empowering browsers to do lot more without having to worry about managing complex state of applicationsastheygrow to meet customer demand.React is one such solution along with Angular and Vue. When considering React pros and cons, it's helpful to know more aboutuseReducerhooks in React for better understanding.
What is React JS?
ReactJSis acomponent-basedJavaScriptlibrary created by Facebook.React makes it easier to create interactive UI using components and efficiently manage states of those components.Multiple components can be composed together to make complex applications without losing theirstate in DOM.
Considering the React pros and cons, it's noteworthy that even though we are talking about React as a tool for web applications here, it can also be used for mobile application development with React Native, a powerful and open-source native library for mobile applications.
This is how a simpleReact component looks like.
class HelloWorld extends React.Component { render() { return ( <div> Helloworld! </div> ); }}
React JS Pros
1. Component based architecture
It is not uncommon for vanillaJavaScriptbased apps to get into astage,whenmanaging state of data at user’s browser becomes a headache for developers. Asthedata and complexityof an applicationgrow,it becomes difficult to maintain using vanillaJavaScript.
Theintroductionof Reactcomponentsbringsahighly sophisticated unit of a webpagewhich can be independently created, maintained, and even reused.You can divide your web page into multiple components, and they can work independently. You can update one of them without having to worry about changes in others. This makes it very loosely coupled and at the same time available for working togetherby mergingwith other components to bringout thebest of the web application’sabilities.
This is not something unique in React library. In fact,components arethebasic building blocksintheAngular framework as well,and asimilar concept has been there in many MVC frameworks sincealong time.
2. High Performance
Withcomponent-basedarchitecture,Reactallows to create highly scaledSinglePageApplicationorSPA,in which content is dynamically loadedduringuser interaction without loading the entire page.However,this can turn into a trap.Imagine having to update DOMforeverychangecausedbyuser’s interactionon web page. Every action might force DOM(which is a tree structure)to refresh itself. And if your web page is complex, having multiple UI components this can causemassiveperformanceblockage.
To solve this,Reactusestheconcept of Virtual DOM, whichyou canthink ofasacopy of your real DOM. Now all the changes caused by user’s interaction or other events are handled bythevirtual DOM first, and only ifit(the intelligence ofReact) thinks it is important enough to refresh the real DOM, the real DOM is refreshed. This saves us from massively repeating recreation oftheDOM tree for every trivialchangeresulting in high performance application.
3. Redux
Back to our SPA (Single Page Application),where there are multiple components sitting on one page and updated dynamically without reloading theentirepage.Now all this sounds very simple and smooth.Which it is,until your componentsstart talking toeach other.Let’s say you have a web page where therearefewform componentswhichcontains largeformswith lot of controls, few table components, and a sidebar and header, footer.Content in tablesmustbeupdatedwhen user submits form or part of forms.Also,you might want to update header whenanew record is created.Now here, our table components have dependency on form components. These dependencies,along withcommunication between themcan grow as your application grows.
Allthiscanmake our dataunstable as there is no way to know which data is latest or which is correct. There is no single source of data.This can cause poor user experienceand alsoperformance issues.
To make sure that all your components are in sync with latest data,we need to have a--let’s just call it--a‘manager’who manages our data,andprovidesa single trustworthy source which makes sure the data whichthecomponentshave is correct and truthful.This manager anditsteamareknown asReduxinReact.
Redux forces components to avoid talking to each otherdirectlyor being dependent on each other, instead components send their data to redux and it istheresponsibility of redux to update the components (which need those data) with new data.This way components are always updated withthelatest data available without having to dependon each other.
4. Easy to Learn
This is another pro of working withReact as any developer with understanding of html and JavaScript can start learning React. Unlike other JS frameworks like Angular which introducealot of new terminologies,Reactuses most of what is already available.This makes it very easy to start with--another reason why it has grown to bethemost popular JS library.
It provides more flexibility (which it derives from Vanilla JavaScript) anddoes notforce developers to follow any specific pattern like MVC or any other architectural pattern. Development teams are free to choose their own styleorpatterns while working with an application.This allows vanillaJavaScriptdevelopers to work with component-based architecture without having to lose the freedom they enjoyed with vanillaJavaScript.
5. Mobile App Development
In a world where every platform,andevery stack of an application requires you to learn a whole new toolorlanguage or frameworks;React brings us the flexibility of usingthesame library overweb andmobile applications.React Nativeallows us to create mobile applications on any mobile platform withthesameReact concepts and syntaxes.ReactNative helps you create interactive andhigh-performancemobile apps foranymobile device without having to learnanew tool or language.
Sofar,we talked about what makes React so popular among development teams, but everytechnology hasprosandcons.Let’s talk aboutwhy many teams are not willing to work with React and what makes it less reliable when you need awell-structuredand stable JS library to work with.
Cons of React JS
1. High Pace of Development
This is arguablythemost discussed con of using React. React is not justarapidly growing library, it is also rapidly changing,which forces its developers to update the way they write code. Now this is obviously annoying for most of the developers whoare not comfortablewithadoptingnew ways every Monday they start or the ones whoare working onanapplication where changes are critical to customers.There are many industries which are critical to change wherecustomers look for more stable tools and technologies. But this again depends on how expert team members are and if theycanconvince their customers to trust them with React.
2. Flexibilityand Lack of Conventions
Yes, you read it right. I knowthatwe discussed it as an advantage of using React, but at the same time it is alsoadisadvantage in a broader sense.Libraries,languages,or frameworks have their global standards of how developers work with them,andwhat styles or patterns they follow. This is useful because when developers changeteams,they have an idea of what patterns or stylesthenew team might be following;whereas among React development teams it is not easy to predict what styles or standards a team might follow, making it harder for new developers towork with new teams and their standards.Developers who have worked with frameworks which follow a fixed structure and set of conventions might not find React very attractive to work with.
3. Not a full-featured framework
Even though React is a richJavaScriptlibrary withaset of interactive and useful features required for creating large scale applications, developersdo notenjoywhatthey canhave in a fully featured framework such asAngular(anotherpopular JS Framework).If you look at the MVC (Model View Controller) architecture,Reactonly handles the view part. For Controller andModelyou need additional libraries, and tools.This can result in poor structure of code, and its patterns. Whereasframeworks likeAngular provide the complete MVC featuredground,which is more structured, and well managed.
This all soundslikejQueryagain. When we talkaboutempowering JavaScript to structure like we do our code at backend, arguably you might be looking for a full featured,well-structuredtoolwhere similar practices and patterns are followed globally, and this is where React might not be very helpful. If not careful,you might end up havingthesame problem which React claims to resolve.It needs a quite deeper understanding of JavaScript and its core behaviors to make React work the way you want it to.Whereas working with Frameworks like Angular (although it ismoredifficult to learn than React)force developers to followastrict structure where you enjoy similarpatterns as backend development.
4. Poor Documentation
Since React is changing so fast,new tools and patterns are adding up every now and then, andit is becoming difficult for the community to maintainthedocumentation. Thismakes it difficultto work withfor new developerswho want to start withReact.Lack of poor documentation can also result in slower development among teams with less experienced developers.
5. JSX
React has introduced JSX to work with html, and JavaScript. This islikeJavaScriptand html syntax,and allows to mix html and JavaScript togetherbut has some new attributesandsyntaxes,whichmakes itdifficult to work with when you start with React.Forexample,while working with class attribute, in JSX it becomesclassName.Also,the lack of rich documentation makes it more difficult to work with JSX.
This iswhata JSX lookslikewhile creating a simple login form.
<form> <h1>Header {this.state.content}</h1> <p>Enter your username:</p> <input className='form-control' type='text' onChange={this.userNameHandler} /> <p>Enter your password:</p> <input className='form-control' type='password' onChange={this.passwordHandler} /> <button className='form-control' type='submit' onClick={this.submitHandler} /></form>
6. SEO Handling
If you are building an application in React which is SEO (Search EngineOptimization) sensitive wherethepopularity of your application, its appearance and ranking inGoogle search resultsare priorities,then this, although not proven,isaconcern.The concern is about ability of search engine crawlers to list dynamically loaded content.There are tools available to test your app for SEOresults and rankings.
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Pros and Cons of React from Developer’s Perspective
Let's discuss the advantages and disadvantages of React, straight from a developer's point of view:
Pros of Reactfrom Developer’s Perspective
- EasytoLearn:The biggest advantage that React has fromthedeveloper’s perspective,which is also the reason behind React getting more popular than other JavaScript librariesand frameworks,is that it is very easy to begin with. Anyone with basic understanding of HTML and JavaScriptcan quickly get started with React.Even though it has JSX to mix JavaScript and HTML togetherwhich is bitunconventional, it hasn’t stopped React from becomingthemost loved JavaScript library among developers.
- Structural FlexibilityUnlike other conventional frameworks,Reactdoesn’t draw boundaries on how a developer should treatcode. This gives Reactdevelopersfreedom to express their own architectural styles tobuild apps. Developers who like to work withvanilla JavaScript love thisflexibility as they are not used to the idea ofaframework controlling the structure of code in an application.
Prosfrom Business Owner’s Perspective
- One framework for all PlatformsMost of the technology stacksforcetheuseofdifferent tools, language or frameworks for web and mobile app development.This requires business owners to hire developers of different skill sets for web and mobile app development,increasing the cost of app development and maintenance inthelongrun. With React, the easier learning curveallows aReact web developer to quickly start withReactNative,which is a mobile development framework based on React. This reduces the cost of hiring developers of multiple skill setsand alsoreduces the cost of maintenance,asthesame technology is being used at both the platforms.
- Rapid DevelopmentTime is another significant factor when it comes to software development, as it directly impacts the cost of project development.React is easy to get started with, andhas thestructural flexibilitythatallows developers to dorapid application development,reducing both the time and cost of software development. This not only applies to web but mobile development as well. There are many businesses who had to choose between web and mobile appswhile in their initial phases because of time and costconstraints.React has been able to give the confidence to start with mobile and web app development simultaneously,allowing them to reach a lot more customers than they would have had if they had to choose between web and mobile.
When considering React pros and cons, developers often highlight the ease of learning and structural flexibility as major benefits. On the flip side, the need to learn JSX and manage component states can be seen as drawbacks.
For business owners, the unified framework for both web and mobile development and the rapid development capabilities stand out, although initial setup and optimization might pose challenges.
What Can WeBuild Using React JS?
Being one of the most popular JavaScriptlibraries,Reactcan be used to create anything you see ontheweb.It can be used for multiple requirements; be ita simplebutinteractiveapp likeInstagram, or a complex streaming appwith large userbase and support for multiple languages and regionslike Netflix or an applicationlike Facebook,with very large datasetandhigh complexitywith the power toprocessmore than a billionusers’requestsparallelly.
However,it is not just limited tohighly scalablewebapplications,andyou can also createmobileapplications using React Nativewhich is anopen-sourcemobile application framework. You can create Android, iOSandWindows apps using this framework.In fact,theabove-mentionedweb applications “Instagram, Facebook, Netflix” mobile apps are also created using React Native. It gives developers a rich library to utilize the native features ofadevice to deliver high performanceandhighly interactive applications to users across the world.
Conclusion
Honestly,there is no solid conclusion on whether these pros or cons can be summed up to decide if you shouldor should notgo withReact. It entirely depends on customer needs, domain needs and expertise in your team. With the right team of experts, React pros and cons can be weighed to determine its implementation at its best, overcoming its cons like “rapid change or lack of documentation and lack of convention.”
A team of expert developers can agree to follow a convention, document the practices and patterns they are following for any future developers who might join their team.With all these covered,Reacthasanumber ofadvantagesincluding “Hight performance usingVirtualDOM, State Management using Redux”, whichyou can use to makethebest of weband mobileapps available today.
