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Getting Started with React
Getting Started with React

Getting Started with React: A light but powerful way to build dynamic real-time applications using ReactJS

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Profile Icon Danillo Corvalan Profile Icon Sengupta Profile Icon Singhal
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Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon 4 (9 Ratings)
Paperback Apr 2016 212 pages 1st Edition
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Arrow left icon
Profile Icon Danillo Corvalan Profile Icon Sengupta Profile Icon Singhal
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$38.99
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon 4 (9 Ratings)
Paperback Apr 2016 212 pages 1st Edition
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Getting Started with React

Chapter 2. Exploring JSX and the ReactJS Anatomy

In this chapter, you are going to explore the JSX syntax and learn what it is and why it makes it easier for us to understand UI components. You will learn about the ReactJS anatomy and code some common scenarios in order to demonstrate this efficient syntax so that we can step forward in next chapters and build a full application. This chapter will walk you through the following topics:

  • What is JSX?
  • The ReactJS anatomy
  • JSX Gotchas

What is JSX?

JSX is a JavaScript syntax extension that looks similar to XML. It is used to build UI components in ReactJS. It's very similar to HTML with some subtle differences. JSX extends JavaScript in such a way that you can easily build ReactJS components with the same understanding as building HTML pages. It's commonly mixed with your JavaScript code because ReactJS thinks about UI in a different way. This paradigm will be explained later in the chapter.

It's wrong to say that you are mixing up your HTML with JavaScript. As already said, JSX extends JavaScript. Actually, you're not writing HTML tags, but you're writing JavaScript objects in the JSX syntax. Of course, it has to be transformed into plain JavaScript first.

When you write this example:

var HelloWorld = React.createClass({
  render: function () {
    return <h1>Hello World from Learning ReactJS</h1>;
  }
});

It's transformed into this:

var HelloWorld = React.createClass({
  render...

Why JSX?

In general, HTML and JavaScript are segregated in frameworks by defining UI or a view to represent their mutable data, which normally is a template language and/or a display logic interpreter. The following is some jQuery code:

<html>
  <head>
    <title>Just an example</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div id="my-awesome-app">
      <!-- Here go my rendered template -->
    </div>
    
    <script id="my-list" type="text/html">
      <ul>
        {{each items}}
          <li>
            ${name}
          </li>
        {{/each}}
      </ul>
    </script>
  </body>
</html>

The script element represents a template component that will be rendered in the my-awesome-app div element. The code here is a JavaScript file that pushes data to that template and asks jQuery to do the job and render the UI:

$("#my-list").tmpl(serverData).appendTo("#my...

The ReactJS anatomy

Before going any further into JSX, we need to understand some basic rules to build ReactJS components. First, we're going to detail the basic methods that you've already used to create and render components. Then, we'll move to some rules to create them, and finally, we'll talk about children components.

Creating a component

In order to create a component, we need to use the React.createClass function. ReactJS components are basically classes. This method returns a ReactJS component definition that has a method named render, which is mandatory to implement. There are many other methods to configure your component and change its behavior that we are going to cover throughout the book.

This is an example of how to use the createClass and render method:

var HelloMessage = React.createClass({
  render: function() {
    return (
      <h1>Have a good day!</h1>
    );
  }
});

Note

It's a good practice to name all the classes and components in...

Learning JSX and Gotchas

Now it's time to master JSX and learn some Gotchas. You're going to learn some basic concepts to build ReactJS UI components using JSX. It includes practices when writing expressions, conditions, and creating lists of components. It will also walk you through how JSX differs from HTML (because it's not HTML) in some aspects.

Expressions

Consider the following code:

var Clock = React.createClass({
  render: function () {
    var today = new Date();
    return <h1>The time is { today.toLocaleTimeString() }</h1>;
  }
});

React.render(<Clock />, document.body);

JSX understands the curly braces {} whenever you want to put JavaScript code within your presentation code.

In the next example, let's improve our Clock component by supporting greetings depending on what the time is.

In the highlighted code mentioned later, if the current hour is lesser than 4, it should return day, and if the hour is greater than 4 but less than 18, it should...

Summary

In this chapter, you learned what JSX is, its syntax, and why it is necessary. We looked into some examples and how to build them using JSX. We covered very basic principles of ReactJS and how JSX helps you build components faster, easy to read, and reasonable.

In the next chapter, we are going to dive into ReactJS properties and how to break the UI into smaller components. You are going to learn it by creating a small application that will consume the Facebook Open Graph API and list your liked pages.

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Key benefits

  • Learn how to develop powerful JavaScript applications using ReactJS
  • Integrate a React-based app with an external API (Facebook login) while using React components, with the Facebook developer app
  • Implement the Reactive paradigm to build stateless and asynchronous apps with React

Description

ReactJS, popularly known as the V (view) of the MVC architecture, was developed by the Facebook and Instagram developers. It follows a unidirectional data flow, virtual DOM, and DOM difference that are generously leveraged in order to increase the performance of the UI. Getting Started with React will help you implement the Reactive paradigm to build stateless and asynchronous apps with React. We will begin with an overview of ReactJS and its evolution over the years, followed by building a simple React component. We will then build the same react component with JSX syntax to demystify its usage. You will see how to configure the Facebook Graph API, get your likes list, and render it using React. Following this, we will break the UI into components and you’ll learn how to establish communication between them and respond to users input/events in order to have the UI reflect their state. You’ll also get to grips with the ES6 syntaxes. Moving ahead, we will delve into the FLUX and its architecture, which is used to build client-side web applications and complements React’s composable view components by utilizing a unidirectional data flow. Towards the end, you’ll find out how to make your components reusable, and test and deploy them into a production environment. Finally, we’ll briefly touch on other topics such as React on the server side, Redux and some advanced concepts.

Who is this book for?

This book is for any front-end web or mobile-app developer who wants to learn ReactJS. Knowledge of basic JavaScript will give you a good head start with the book.

What you will learn

  • * Understand the ReactJS basics through an overview
  • * Install and create your first React component
  • * Refactor the ReactJS component using JSX
  • * Integrate your React application with the Facebook login and Graph API, then fetch data from your liked pages in Facebook and display them in a browser
  • * Handle UI elements events with React, respond to users input, and create stateful components
  • * Use some core lifecycle events for integration and find out about ES6 syntaxes in the React world
  • * Understand the FLUX architecture and create an application using FLUX with React
  • * Make a component more reusable with mixins and validation helpers and structure your components properly
  • * Explore techniques to test your ReactJS code
  • * Deploy your code using webpack and Gulp
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Publication date : Apr 29, 2016
Length: 212 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781783550579
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ISBN-13 : 9781783550579
Vendor :
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Table of Contents

11 Chapters
1. Getting Started with ReactJS Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
2. Exploring JSX and the ReactJS Anatomy Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
3. Working with Properties Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
4. Stateful Components and Events Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
5. Component Life cycle and Newer ECMAScript in React Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
6. Reacting with Flux Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
7. Making Your Component Reusable Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
8. Testing React Components Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
9. Preparing Your Code for Deployment Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
10. What's Next Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Index Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

Top Reviews
Rating distribution
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon 4
(9 Ratings)
5 star 55.6%
4 star 11.1%
3 star 11.1%
2 star 22.2%
1 star 0%
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Amazon Customer Aug 27, 2016
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
This book covers all the basic concepts in React.js and is very good for beginners.I would recommend this for any one who wants to start by learning the concepts andthen build the applications.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Amazon Customer May 15, 2016
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
This book allows the reader to fully immerse themselves into the world of ReactJS and grasp a solid foundation on how to build responsive applications with the newest release of React! I would definitely recommend as a technical read!
Amazon Verified review Amazon
simantini Jul 11, 2016
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
This book explains the basics of ReactJs in a simple and articulate manner. This is a great book for beginners who are looking to learn and experiment with the different properties of ReactJS. The best part of this book is that it doesn’t bog you down with unnecessary terms and it’s precise and to the point. Would definitely recommend this to anyone who is looking to learn ReactJs.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Didier Kebreau Sep 13, 2016
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Just fine
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Amazon Customer Jul 07, 2016
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
The book has touched the fundamentals of ReactJs in the most simple way.It is easy to understand even to the person who is new to ReactJs.This is a great way to start experimenting with Interactive UI.I would definitely recommend this book .
Amazon Verified review Amazon
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