Why ReactJS has Become an Integral Part of the Digital World

ReactJS is a Meta framework developed in 2013, essentially made to build User Interfaces for web and mobile applications. It (updated to advanced versions over time) is so popular with front-end developers that it has become an integral part of the digital world today.

ReactJS is one of the most sought-after libraries because it enables developers to build complex websites and applications quickly and easily. Its powerful features support efficient interface rendering and allow developers to separate the code into reusable components. It offers simplicity, modularity, scalability, and stability, making it a popular choice.

How React Has Increased the Growth Potential of Fintech Companies

The recent pandemic compelled people to switch to a digital lifestyle. As people began purchasing online and conducting business on web platforms more and more, the need and demand for online transactions spiked. The banking and financial industry was propelled toward web-based innovation and ReactJS became the lynchpin of the financial technology (FinTech) revolution.

Online banking services, e-wallets, and web apps for mobile payments, insurance, asset management, and other monetary services are customer-centric innovations. Whether the user is a high-net-worth individual or merely any citizen, every fintech consumer’s experience and feedback will impact the company and its product’s success. For example, when an individual uses a banking app for a quick transaction, seeing it reflected in the account balance inquiries in real-time, without an error,  immediately establishes faith in the bank.

The Deloitte Insights on digital banking behaviors and channel usage suggest today’s consumers expect financial institutions to act and interact more like top technology brands. They need to be able to quickly deliver easy-to-use, highly tailored digital services to address changing consumer and business preferences, especially if they wish to distinguish themselves from their competitors.

With ReactJS, front-end developers can promise optimal quality, easy-to-navigate apps, and websites. A simple and comprehensible user interface, quick-to-load pages, and secure & fast data processing are essential features that React lends to FinTech product development. By reducing development time and increasing the scalability of FinTech products or web applications, ReactJS has contributed to accelerating the industry’s growth.

How React Supports E-Commerce Experiences

The modern e-commerce environment has been gaining traction due to attractive and creative web applications for a while now. We can safely say that ReactJS is the secret sauce that has helped many companies stay ahead of the e-commerce curve.

Whether it is Business-to-Business (B2B) or Business-to-Consumer (B2C), Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C), or any other type of business model on the Internet, the website or app is the crucial bridge between the customers and products or services. The user experience has to be dynamic if you wish to gain customer loyalty.

Sales depend on how enticing the app and/or site looks. The more user-friendly it is, the more visitors will get converted into customers. During an online shopping experience, the customer expects ease of interaction with online catalogs and a smooth shopping cart or real-time checkout experience, which increases repeat value for customers.

ReactJS is the most effective tool for developing high-quality e-commerce user interfaces. It not only provides a library of reusable components and templates, but its high-speed rendering also makes updating new features to the websites and apps very convenient. With React, you can keep pace with the rapidly evolving industry where innovation is paramount. The ReactJS framework facilitates compatibility with any back-end system. It enhances the capabilities of your e-commerce web applications, assuring a superb customer experience.

How React is Shaping eLearning, Medtech, and More …  

ReactJS has been a game-changer for many industries. It has made a largely positive impact on e-learning and Medtech sectors, among other verticals.

When academic material became available for interactive distance learning on the Internet, the education industry entered into a new era. Virtual lessons became accessible online for individual students, schools, universities, and government training centers too. Hosted on websites and in the cloud, dissemination of education through desktop and mobile applications started.

In education technology (EdTech), ReactJS can help present all the interactive course content in a highly-creative manner. Top e-learning apps and e-marketplaces, virtual classrooms, and more are created with the help of ReactJS. The most popular feature of ReactJS is its reusable components, which help develop highly-responsive websites and applications without having to start from scratch each time. ReactJS is the key script used in complex coding for generating a seamless educational session. ReactJS framework is designed to help front-end developers save a lot of time and effort while building a reliable digital product. The more engaging and user-friendly course content, the more subscriptions for the e-learning material. It’s a simple equation!

On the other hand, in the medical technology (MedTech) industry, React is being used to develop patient portals, healthcare products, medical consultation dashboards, diet & fitness apps, electronic health records (EHRs), medical billing & coding software, medical image processing software, and more. The success of a modern medical and healthcare app depends on its accessibility, even in unstable or slow Internet connection areas.

Trust and reliability are everything in e-healthcare. That is why React has become a popular choice for MedTech developers. It delivers easy-to-understand interfaces, making the apps user-friendly and convenient for all ages. React-based coding assists greatly in the security of your sensitive health or medical data. ReactJS ensures stability, flexibility, and efficiency of web apps and has helped to improve the overall quality of “care” for MedTech consumers and patients.

From Fortune 500s to new-age start-ups, the number of businesses lining up to leverage React is growing by the minute. Quick app-load time and incredible UI performance are the salient features that React brings to the table, making it the most sought-after open-source JavaScript library.

Why You Should Be Thinking of Integrating React into Your Business Strategy

In the digital world, where competition is growing thicker than ever, User Experience is everything. Launching a digital product or going digital with your company’s services requires seamless performance and agility in the software. ReactJS brings flexibility and finesse to website and application development. The ease of reusable components facilitates a faster turnaround time for your development team. In record time, ReactJS framework can deliver high-performance cross-platform apps that are astutely aligned with your business goals.

The React team at MetaSys makes the best use of all the new exciting features of React like React Hooks, React Bootstrap, React Query, React Redux and React Router to build complex web and mobile applications. We create engaging web applications, Opt for our Reactjs development service now!

What is React?

React is an independent and open-source front-end JavaScript library for building user interfaces.The current version of React 18 provides developers with improved features to create a Great User Experience. Some of the improvements are

• Automatic Batching: Groups all state updates which in turn improves performance.
• Transitions: Is now more sophisticated and differentiates between urgent and non-urgent user interactions.
• React Suspense: Allows for better Server-side rendering and improves the User Experience. as well as Performance

Let’s look at these in a bit more detail

1. Automatic Batching:
   

   Batching is one of the React features that combines all the updated states in a single update. Batched updates can be performed inside React event handlers, i.e., it only worked inside the synchronous React event handlers functions. These changes were made in React version 18 with automatic batching.In the example code below, it shows how the automatic batching helps to stop re-rendering the set Counter () function twice.

   

2. Transitions:
   

   Transition is an advanced concept introduced in React 18 that helps to differentiate between urgent and non-urgent updates.

   • Urgent Update: It reflects direct interaction like typing, clicking, pressing etc. This visual feedback is high priority for users.
   • Non-urgent Update: Non-urgent updates are not vital to the user like searching, which can be marked as no-urgent updates.

   For such use cases, startTransitions and useTransitions methods are used.

   • useTransitions: useTransitions is a hook concept that begins transitions, in addition to a value to track the pending state.
   • startTransitions: startTransitions is a method to initialize start transition where hooks can’t be used. Below is the example for startTransition where you can put your code which is non-vital to the end user.
     

3. Suspense:
   

   Suspense lets you declaratively specify the loading state for some of the component tree if it’s not prepared to be displayed. Suspense in React version 18 functions better when combined with transitions API. while you suspend the time of transition, React will halt already-visible content from being altered by a fallback. Rather, React will stop or delay the rendering until enough data has loaded to prevent an inferior loading state.
   Below is the example for Suspense that explains how to use a fallback property of it to show the loading state to the end-user.

   Concurrency

   Concurrency is the most important addition in React version 18. It is a confidential mechanism that makes it possible for React to prepare multiple versions of UI.

   For these, React uses a “dispatcher” internally which is responsible to compile and combine the callbacks.

   Before React 18, the user did not have any way to control the appeal order of these functions. Since the release of React version 18, React is providing some authority to this event loop to the user with a Transition API.

   How to upgrade to React version 18?

   You will need to install React 18 and DOM using npm/yarn.

   npm install react react-dom

   npm install react@latest react-dom@latest

   

   After upgrading to version 18, the following changes need to be made in the Index.js file:

   Note: – There is an error in the console while upgrading to version 18.
   
   To fix this console issue, the index.js is converted to the latest React version 18, which recommends a new root API. This new root API provides a user-friendly system for executing roots. The new root API also enables the new concurrent re-renders which fastens the coexisting features.
   
   Our React developers have experience of building complex applications using React technology. They use the latest Dev tools such as React-Redux, React Hooks, React Router, React Bootstrap etc. If you would like to develop a mobile or web application using React technology, then please feel free to contact us.

How React Query Enhances App Performance

React Query makes it possible to replace several lines of complicated code from a React application with just a few lines of code. This makes application maintenance and the addition of new features on top of the existing ones easier. The user experience is more responsive and quicker than before. It also helps to increase memory performance from an application perspective.

React Query in Action

If we look at the code for React Query, at the root level of the project, it provides a “QueryClientProvider” as a wrapper that handles and manages global data-fetching and caching.

React Query provides multiple hooks that connect with its global state controller and returns a Promise object for fetching/caching the server-side data. It calls the API client method to fetch/update/delete/create server-side data and also manages server states such as data, error, failurecount, isError, isIdle, isLoading, isPreviousData, isFetchedAfterMount, isFetching, isStale, isSuccess, refetch, remove, status.

The useQuery hook has multiple options so developers can pass them to customize the hook to meet their project needs. It has the “enabled” option, a powerful option that actually provides multiple features such as-

• an option to run multiple queries in parallel or even synchronously i.e., on the basis of the previous query execution;
• turning the queries on or off based on the functionality;
• sorting and filtering features in the queries to help improve performance; and
• an option to wait for inputs from the user; you can disable the query for any of the use-case.

React Query allows developers to create custom hooks based on their project requirements using React Query hooks. This feature keeps the code more generalized.

It provides multiple fetching features such as:

• refetching the data on window focus;
• retrying the query if an error occurs; and
• fetching the data on updating or deleting of the records. With this, the list is always up to date after “update” and “delete” actions.

Every query has four main statuses – idle, loading, error, and success. Based on these, React Query returns the server-side states for handling each query. And with those states, developers can build a view. That means it displays the loading view until the loading state is enabled. It correctly handles errors based on error states. It displays the data or processes the data, then shows the normalized data depending on the successor states.

React Query also offers the best ways to handle data pagination. It provides infiniteQuery and mutationQuery options for paginating the data properly, depending on what the users require.

It also helps resolve issues arising out of asynchronous server-side data handling. Before React Query, developers had to write custom code for handling asynchronous server-side data. React Query has solved this issue. Additionally, it integrates well with the react-testing-library, providing appropriate code coverage too.

What is React? 

You may not judge a book by its cover, but a web application gets assessed by the visual aesthetics of the User Interface (UI) and its functionalities. React is a JavaScript library that provides front-end developers an incredible framework and hence is getting increasingly popular. Aside from the encapsulated and reusable components, the customization features enable developers to build complex UI with simple views. Creating secure, responsive, and interactive web applications is no longer a challenging task but an exciting innovation with the sophisticated React.js framework.  

If you foresee a career or aspire to become a sought-after web app developer, you want to get well-versant with ReactJS.  

Which are the must-have skills you need to stack up? (Pun intended!)

Top 9 Must-Have React Developer Skills in 2022 

1. Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)+ Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)

Honing any skill always starts with getting the basics right. If you are a front-end developer, get familiar with HTML and CSS languages before moving into ReactJS. The more thorough you are, the firmer the foundation for constructing a well-developed page, website, and eventually an application. Well-scripted codes deliver a cleaner user experience.

Ensure you know how to: 

• Write the code for semantic HTML tags and use them 
• Use CSS for Inline styling  
• Build responsive CSS layouts with the box-sizing properties 
• Use Flexbox for creating beautiful and reusable components
• Implement CSS reset to avoid cross-browser differences 
• Apply the three main design principles—fluid grid system, flexible images, and media queries
  

2. JSX (JavaScript XML) + Babel
   

Simply put, JSX is the syntax extension of JavaScript that allows you to write HTML in React. JSX expressions simplify writing component codes and rendering tree-like structures of React elements. Essentially, JSX helps developers create simpler and elegant pieces of code even when they are large blocks. Developers familiar with HTML and CSS will appreciate the ease of building React applications with JSX.  

However, to implement JSX, you require the transcompiler—Babel that converts the ECMAScript2015 (ES6) + source code into a backward-compatible version of JavaScript. The toolchain helps you use modern JavaScript language features. 

3. JavaScript Fundamentals + ECMAScript 6 (ES6)

React is fundamentally JavaScript, and that is why knowing the programming language features and having substantial experience working with it is necessary for a front-end developer. The 6th version of the ECMAScript that standardized the JavaScript has certain modern features to take note of: 

• Arrow Functions 
• Variables (let, const, var) 
• Array Methods  
• Destructuring 
• Modules
• Ternary Operator 
• Spread Operator 

The new features will enable you to write asynchronous code making the process more efficient. 

4. Hooks

Hooks is a super-cool feature that makes a coder’s life far easier. Ask any experienced React developer, and they would tell you what a nightmare it was to refactor class components and render props with verbose code before Hooks got released in 2018. Hooks simplified the methods of updating the state and implementing the lifecycles of function components.  

Working with Hooks will help you improve the user interface with enhanced code readability, reusability, and testability.  

5. Virtual Document Object Model (VDOM) and Event Handling Facility

The biggest drawback of the actual DOM was that any manipulation of a single element in the tree structure would trigger the framework to rebuild every object. The more updates to the DOM, the slower the operations got, making it very cumbersome for developers. That problem got resolved only after the innovation of the Virtual DOM (VDOM). The React VDOM virtually handles all the changes made to the objects but updates only the necessary changes to those particular objects in the actual DOM when everything is finalized, thus saving you precious time.  

6. NodeJS + Node Package Manager (NPM)

Using NodeJS is NOT a prerequisite for ReactJS web app development but can definitely accelerate projects if utilized in combination. While ReactJS takes care of the front-end aesthetics of the web application, Node is a JavaScript language that is ideal for backend development. NodeJS helps maintain continuous streaming and server load balance for real-time data-intensive web applications. The full-stack JS framework improves scalability and speeds up code execution.  

Use the NPM cloud registry for managing all NodeJS package repositories or dependencies and the JavaScript libraries.  

7. Redux

One of the most important aspects of web applications is that they are expected to behave consistently across client, server, and native environments and must be easy to test, too.  You need Redux, the state management library for ReactJS to centralize and manage the global state of the application or to maintain specific patterns while updating the state.  

8. Technical Application Skills

Aside from having a command of the JavaScript language and system architecture, you must have knowledge and expertise of certain other tools crucial for writing clean code for the front-end development of ReactJS applications.  

• Build tools for component visualization 
• Modular bundle analyzer  
• Development automation tools 
• Tools for reporting crashes and managing testers, or beta version distribution tool. 
• Testing utilities or code evaluation tool to confirm if it complies with the JS 
• Form building API or libraries 
• Debugging extensions

9. Soft Skills

Even as you check every box for technical skills, your soft skills are equally important. You might want to cultivate these soft skills that employers or clients will value in a front-end developer: – 

• Creativity 
• Emotional intelligence 
• Clarity in communication  
• Learning/ Growth mindset 
• A keen eye for detail/observation  
• Critical/Analytical thinking 
• Time management, especially with deadlines 
• People management/ interpersonal skills 
• Accountability 
• Problem-solving attitude 
• Team player’s spirit 

 What Is the Future for React Developers? 

The post-Covid world has grown more digital than ever before. We rely on web/mobile applications for everything from buying groceries to improving physical and mental health. The growing majority of organizations are now showing a preference for ReactJS while creating a digital platform for their business since it provides a speedy, scalable, easy-to-maintain, and extremely SEO-friendly environment. Consequently, there is a noticeable upsurge in the demand for developers with a robust ReactJs skillset. And there’s no trough to this wave anytime soon!  

 Build on the 9 ReactJS skills, related technical skills, and 11 soft skills shared here. 

Create engaging web applications.  

And find yourself in the league of the most sought-after ReactJS developers of 2022.   

MetaSys React team makes the best use of all the new exciting features of React like React Hooks, React Bootstrap, React Redux and React Router to build complex web and mobile applications. So if you have any such requirement, then please feel free to contact our React Programmers.  

In a React application, we can pass data from parent component to child components using the prop. However, this is limited to certain type of properties such as Theme, locale preference, etc., which need to be used at global level in the application. With React Context, we can use the data or props without explicitly passing them as props to the component.

Context has three main elements. We need to understand these elements to utilize Context to the fullest.

1. Context Object – The Context object is designed to share data globally in the application.
2. Context Provider – The Context object comes with a provider that can be used to consume Context data in the React component.
3. Context Consumer – The Context Consumer is wrapped inside the Context provider, and it is used to get access to the Context data.

In this article, let us see how to create a Theme Context using typescript step by step.

1.Create Theme Context Object. Export ThemeContext and set the Context default value to ‘undefined’.

2.Create the Theme object by using two Themes, for instance, here we are going to use ‘dark’ and ‘light’.

3.Create Theme Context provider.

4.We created the Theme Context Provider by setting the Default Theme and function to change the Theme.

5.Subscribe Theme Context by wrapping the component with Context provider.

6.Use or set the Context data as shown in the screenshot below.

The concept of Context is simple yet effective. In this article, we covered how to use Context in the React Application with Theme Context example using TypeScript.

Should you have any queries, please contact MetaSys Software React experts, who have abundant experience in engineering applications using latest dev-tools such as React-Redux, React Hooks, React Router, React Bootstrap, etc.

You can reach out to us with any coding queries too! We would be happy to help!

Happy Coding!

My intention behind writing this blog is to help React-native developers create their own package. If any developer wants to share his own package on the NPM registry, then he needs to make it public. This allows developers to contribute to the NPM ecosystem. Steps to create and publish a react-native NPM package are as follows:

There are 3 phases to create and publish a package.

1. Creating the NPM package.
2. Testing the NPM package on the react-native app.
3. Publishing on the NPM website.

1. Creating the NPM package:

First create a folder where package information like package.json, .babelrc, webpack.config.js, etc will be stored. We will introduce these files soon.

Now navigate into that folder directory using terminal and run command – npm init

You will be prompted for the package name, version, main, keyword, etc. You can skip questions (by pressing enter) (it is easy to modify later). At this point, a package.json file will be created.

Now, open the package.json file in your IDE (code editor) and install all the dependencies as below using – npm install dependency-name.

Below is an example of package.json file.

Note: “main” should be the same as above.

Now create a file .babelrc and add the following lines. Babel is a compiler to convert JavaScript code into ES5 JavaScript.

Let’s create a file named webpack.config.js and add the lines below.
Remember, webpack is the builder. It compresses code into ‘build’ that can be deployed in the React-Native app. Make sure “entry” is either ./src/index.js or ./index.js depending upon your file structure.

Now, create a folder src, add the index.js file and add your component.

Whenever you make any change to your package, you have to create the build again using command – npm run build. After that, you must re-install it in the react-native app.

Once you configure the above steps, your folder structure should look as follows

2. Testing the package on React-Native app:

To test or use your package, you will need a React-Native app. Create a React-Native app by executing the run command npm create-react-app “your app name” and open it in your IDE.

You can install your package in two ways

1. Upload it on the NPM website and then install it using npm i “package name”.
2. Locally install it through a relative path of NPM package to react-native app npm i ../react-test-library

Note: We will try to avoid the first option because whenever there is any change in your NPM package, you have to re-publish it on the NPM website and re-install it on your project.

So we will test it locally first and then upload it on the NPM website.

To check your package, you have to install it through the relative path as shown in the above example and import your component from your package.

src/App.js

To see the result of the installed package, run the command in your react-native app – npm start.

Now, let’s see the final step.

3. Publishing on the NPM website:

For publishing any package, you should have an account on the NPM website (if not you can create one). While uploading the same package, the package version should be unique each time.

Steps to upload your package –

1. Using the terminal, navigate to your package directory.
2. Run command – npm login. Enter a username, password, and email id.
3. Run command – npm publish.

Once your package has been published, you can check it on the NPM website.

At last, you are able to create your own library. In case of any queries feel free to share your feedback in the comments section below.

Happy Coding…

There are two main aspects to internationalization, firstly the detection of the user’s local language, and secondly the modification of the content, including translation of the text, and switching relevant items such as currency.

This article addresses how to implement the internationalization of a React application using the library ‘React-intl’. The first step is to create a new React project and add the intl package:

• Create a React project using the commands –

$ npx create-react-app project_i18n

         $ cd project_i18n

• Add the ‘react-intl’ package.

Configuration of the package consists of four main steps: creating the locales, creating the provider, and finally creating a common translator. In the remainder of this article, I will elaborate on these steps.

1. Create the locales –

a.Create a folder with the name ‘i18n’ in your code folder.

b.Create a file ‘locale.js’ and export the locales object.

2. Create the provider –

a.Now, let’s create the Provider to hook the IntlProvider to the application.

In the above image, IntlProvider is imported from react-intl and a wrapper is created for the application, setting the default locale and passing the message content according to the locale.

b.To create the messages for the respective languages, create a folder called ‘MessageContent’ and create the locale files for messages within that folder.
Let us create two different message objects.
For English: – en-US.js –

For French:- fr-CA.js –

c. Create an ‘js’ file under the MessageContent folder to export the messages.
MessageContent-> index.js –

3. Create a common translator –

a.Let us create a common Translate function to translate the message according to the locale.
i18n-> translate.js –

b.Create ‘index.js’ under the ‘i18n’ folder to export the locales and provider as default.
i18n-> index.js –

c.Finally, let us wrap the application with IntlProvider and set the locale in App.js.
src-> App.js –

Example for French Locale –

fr-CA.js

export default {

[LOCALES.FRENCH]: { ‘hello’: ‘Bonjour’, ‘userName’: ‘le nom d\’ utilisateur est {uname}’

}

};

translate.js

const translate = (id, value={}) => <FormattedMessage id={id} values={{…value}}/>

d. We are looking for the following output:

translate(‘hello’)  => Bonjour

translate(‘userName’, {‘uname’: ‘Sam’}) => le nom d’ utilisateur est Sam

Internationalization can be achieved in react application by using ‘React-intl’ with minimal development efforts for handling multiple languages.

MetaSys has developed custom React solutions for clients across various industries and geographies. If you have any questions on internationalization in your React projects, then please feel free to contact us. Happy coding!

React Native and Flutter are currently competing with each other to become the leading product, and although both have their advantages, it is not yet clear which one will come out on top. This article compares the technologies by examining their features, and their respective advantages and disadvantages. We hope this can help you in choosing which technology to use for your application.

Before looking at the technical differences, let us briefly have a look at their positions in the market so far. In order to do this, we can use Google trends to look at the interest in the technologies since 2015, when React Native was launched.

The trend shows that both technologies have been gaining popularity steadily, and that although React Native is much older, Flutter is catching up quickly.

About Flutter

• Flutter is a free, open-source portable UI toolkit for creating web, desktop, and natively compiled mobile apps in a single codebase.
• It was created by Google in 2017.
• It uses a language named Dart.

 About React Native

• React Native is also a free, open-source mobile application framework.
• It enables the developers to use its parent framework React with the native platform.
• React was created by Facebook in March 2015.
• React Native is virtually identical to React.

Head to head comparison between Flutter and React Native

Let’s list a few of the major advantages and disadvantages of each technology.

Flutter

Advantages:

• Fast apps
• User-friendly design
• Perfect for MVC structure

Disadvantages:

• Large Apps can be difficult to program
• Limited libraries in comparison with React Native
• Currently small developer community (though growing)

React Native

Advantages:

• Active large community
• Uses widely popular JavaScript language
• Robust Performance
• Easy to learn

Disadvantages:

• Lots of abandoned libraries and packages
• App size is bigger than Natively developed Apps
• Fewer testing features compared to Flutter

Which technology should we choose in 2020?

React Native has a huge base of achievements to showcase its success in the market, compared to the new player. However, Flutter has a lot of potential and as of now there is a chance that it can become the leading technology for cross platform mobile app development and web applications. We hope that this article has highlighted some of the key differences and can help you choose the best technology for your app development.

Happy Coding…

To illustrate the advantages of this approach, have a look at the UI structure shown below.

Let’s say the functionality required is that when a user interacts with the big component, the application has to update the small component and the header. In other words, we need to sync the header and small component as well as manage the states of all the other components. Without a state management library such as the one provided by Redux, coding this implementation can easily become very complicated.

Using the state functionality in React allows only the use of local, component level states.

You can store the states using setState method, and fetch the stored state using state.[STATE_NAME]. However, these states are local, and only available within the class component in which it is declared.

To store the states at the application level, i.e. the global level, in order to access them from different components, we can use React-Redux.

Let’s see how React-Redux works

You will see three main elements in the Redux architecture – Store, Dispatch Actions and Reducers.

Store: holds the states at the application level, and allows any component to get data from the store in the form of Redux States.

Dispatch Action: a function of the Redux Store to trigger a state change.

Reducers: It handles the value change in Redux State.

How to configure React Redux in a React JS project –

The following packages are needed to be installed to configure  Redux in the project –

1. Redux: the core package of React Redux.
2. React-redux: needed for React bindings.
3. Redux-thunk: a middleware which allows you to call action creators, and which returns a function instead of the action object.

These dependencies can be installed by using the following NPM command –
“npm install redux react-redux redux-thunk –save”

After these dependencies are installed, a store can be created and initialized with data/null values as per the requirements. This can be done by creating the file store.js in the project.

First however, you need to create reducer.js to handle the next states. Below is the example of reducer.js to initialize the state. Here, it is just returning the initial value from the reducer.

Below is a slightly more complex example of the code in reducer.js to update the states based on the action executed from the component.

In the above example, it adds the data to the state upon the dispatch action (ADD_DATA). Now let’s create the action to dispatch. You can create a file with the name action.js, that contains the code shown below.

Once the action is created, now you can create a store and then connect the store to the application. You can create a file with the name store.js, that contains the code shown below.

To connect the store to the application, you will have to use the entry point. In the index.js (i.e. entry point of the app), import the store as shown below –

These are all the Redux configurations for an application. Refer the the image below to use it in your component –

React Redux can handle large amounts of data at the application level with cleaner components and is particularly useful for big applications.

Without redux, to transfer data from component 1 to component 5, you need to pass it through middle components. This increases the props for components and creates more complexity and the components are less clean.

Using React-Redux, you can get or set the data to the store from any of the components directly by mapping the redux states to component props. In this case, you do not need to pass props to the middle components. This allows for much cleaner components and increased clarity in the code.

If you are looking to build a mobile or web application using React technology, then please feel free to contact us.

React Hooks are functions that allow you to hook into React lifecycle and state features. They primarily serve as an alternative for classes. They can help in keeping your components clean and perform better. Hooks are a recent  addition in React version 16.8.0.

In this article, we are going to show you how to convert a React class into a functional component using the useState Hook.

Hooks don’t work inside classes because they let you use React without classes. We will use the built-in hooks instead of React lifecycle methods. Eg. useState, useEffect, useRef etc.

We are covering useState, useEffect, useRef React hooks in this article. useState() is used to replace the constructor functions and state declarations. While useEffect() is used to replace componentDidMount() and componentDidUpdate(). You can use useEffect as many times as you need to in single component. And the last one, useRef has another cool usage besides DOM refs, it is also a generic container whose current property is mutable, it also can hold any value similar to an instance property of a class.

Steps to convert a React class component into a functional component using React Hooks –

Step 1. Change ‘class ComponentName extends Component’ With ‘function ComponentName(props)‘

Step 2. Remove “this.” And “this.state” from the entire component.

Step 3. import React, { useState } from ‘react’

Step 4. Remove the constructor. Add its logic as shown above in the image for initializing the state variables with the help of useState hook.

Let’s understand conversion into useState, useEffect and useRef with examples –

• useState() Hook –

The parameter of the useState hook is the initial value of the state. This hook provides the array with two values – the first is the name of the state and the second is the function name which updates the value of that state.

Eg.

const [num, setNum] = useState(0); //declaration

setNum(10) //use

Here num is the state name, setCount is the function that you can use anywhere in the component to update that state.

Here are some examples of setting or initializing state variables for different data types –

//Set an Integer

const [num, setNum] = useState(0);

setNum(10);

//Set a String

const [name, setUsername] = useState(‘John’);

setUsername(‘Smith’);

//Set a Boolean

const [isValid, setIsValid] = useState(false);

setIsValid(true);

//Set and Array

const [items, setItems] = useState([]);

setItems([0,1,2,3,4]);

setItems([{id:0, color:”red”},{id:1, color:”green”},{id:2, color:”blue”}]);

//Set and Object

const [form, setValues] = useState({

id: 0,

firstName: ‘’,

lastName: ‘’,

subscribe: false

})

setValues({

…form,

firstName: ‘Jamie’,

subscribe: true

})

• Replace lifecycle methods (compentDidMount, componentWillUnmount,

 componentWillReceiveProps, componentDidUpdate) with useEffect

e.g.

const [items, setItems] = useState([]);

const [num, setNum] = useState(0);

1. compentDidMount

useEffect(()=>{

setItems(items);

}, [])   // Here empty array indicates don’t look for any updates

b.componentWillUnmount

useEffect(()=>{

return () => {console.log(‘unmounting the component’)}

},[])

c. componentDidUpdate/componentWillReceiveProps

This will get executed when your ‘num’ state variable and ‘id’ props will get updated.

useEffect(()=>{

if (!isEmpty(num))

{

console.log(‘num changed = ’,num);

setItems(items);

}

if(!isEmpty(props.id))

{

console.log(‘props.id changed = ’,props.id);

}

},[num, props.id])

• Use of useRef

const [num, setNum] = useState(0);

const prevNumRef = useRef();

useEffect(()=>{

prevNumRef.current = num;

})

const prevNum = prevNumRef.current;

return <h1>Current value : {num}, previous value = {prevNum}</h1>

Advantages

1.With React hooks, the component will be cleaner and easier to read (fewer lines of code). Hooks are easier to work with and to test.

2.It is easy to make code reusable. They don’t create another element in DOM like HOCs in React do.

3. useState – it allows to update different states with specific functions. The ability to move the state update logic as a separate hook.

Disadvantages

1.useEffect hook allows to merge three lifecycle methods such as componentDidMount, componentWillUnmount and componentDidUpdate into one and the issue with useEffect is the second parameters ,i.e. the array that we need to pass to define this behaviour. It is not explicit enough.

2.React Hooks are new additions to React. So to convert and test a complex class can be a time-consuming task initially .

3.Since it is relatively a new addition it may not be compatible with all third party libraries. But this is rapidly changing .

This is all about React Hooks in a nutshell. If you are looking to build any a mobile or web application using React technology, then please contact us.

Happy coding!

Native App

A Native application is a software programme developed for a particular operating system. This application can be developed using Java or Kotlin for Android and Objective-C or Swift for iOS and C# for Windows.

1. High performance – Native apps run much faster than hybrid apps because they are fully supported by the OS on the device.
2. Better UX/UI – User experience is much better because the higher performance allows everything to run smoothly. Depending on the business need, you can develop device-specific features directly within a Native app.
3.  Interactive – Native mobile apps run more smoothly in comparison to hybrid apps. The interaction with the user is intuitive and natural as they have specific UI standards for each platform.

The major disadvantage of Native apps, is that they work only for one OS, leading to extra development time, and cost in building apps for multiple platforms.

React Native

React Native is an open-source JavaScript framework for building iOS and Android apps. It is famous for its lightweight framework for mobile app development.

1. Faster development across multiple platforms – React Native allows sharing of the entire codebase between operating systems (Android and iOS). Once you develop an application for Android, you can compile it on iOS and vice versa. This results in a  significant saving in the development effort as compared to developing natively on both Android and iOS platforms.
2. It gives a Native app feel – With React Native, most of the features can be developed as a Native feature. This means that the user experience is the same as a Native app, despite the fact that hybrid technology has been used.
3. Large Community of Developers – React Native is a popular open-source JavaScript framework, with a well developed community. This means that queries are generally answered quickly on websites such as StackOverflow and GitHub. Furthermore, many helpful libraries created by other developers are freely available for download.
4. Easy and Live Reloading – When using React Native, code changes are immediately reflected on the simulator and can be tested instantly. By eliminating the need to recompile after every change, a lot of development time is saved.
5. Cost reduction and Code reuse – With React Native technology, more than 80% of the code can be reused between the Android and iOS platforms, saving a huge amount of development time and cost.

We found that React Native is a superior method that results in major time saving for mobile app development for multiple platforms. Two examples from our experience with React Native are:

1. App with SQLLite for multiple platforms
2. App with Bluetooth connectivity feature for multiple platforms

The reason we opted for React Native for these apps, is that in both cases the same business logic layer was required to create two Native apps. Our team successfully built a common business logic layer and UI for both the platforms. We saved significant time and cost due to the reusability of the code. Future maintenance will also be cost-effective. Furthermore, we found that Bluetooth and SQLLite features work efficiently in React Native even though they are not Native based.

MetaSys Software has developed custom solutions for clients who are in different sectors using React technology. For more info https://www.metasyssoftware.com/react

Now, let’s understand – what is TypeScript?

TypeScript is an open-source programming language maintained and developed by Microsoft since 2012. It is a set of tools which uses a strongly typed, object-oriented and compiled language. It is an extended JavaScript programming language with additional features. When a new developer joins the team and uses any existing component of the project, he can easily understand its props with their specific types.

According to GitHub, TypeScript is one of the fastest-growing technologies. It is downloaded 31 Million times per month. Developer survey results of 2019 on stack overflow, place TypeScript at 10th position for “Most popular technology” and 3rd position for “Most Loved technology”. So as a new developer, it is not something which you can ignore.

When to use TypeScript?

Development teams working together on coding projects can struggle with code complexity, particularly as projects increase in size. TypeScript is recommended for large projects as it is the best option for maintaining code quality. It enables self-explanatory code right from the initial stages of the project.

Some of the significant features of TypeScript are listed below:

1. Static typing –
The static typing feature is one of the common reasons for developers to migrate their existing project from JavaScript to TypeScript. You can add data-types for variables, functions, properties, interfaces, etc, and it indicates warnings and errors regarding data type issues even before the compilation. I think that’s a wonderful feature because as a young developer, I faced a lot of problems while doing scripting.

Note: Static typing is optional.

2. Object-oriented –
TypeScript supports object-oriented programming, i.e. you can use class, Inheritance, Encapsulation, and Polymorphism.

3. Code suggestion –
It is best to use TypeScript with the IDEs since IDEs provide features such as IntelliSense and error highlighting.
If a developer wants to access the component props {this.props.}, then Typescript suggests all the available props, and highlights any typos.

4. Display errors/warnings ASAP –
TypeScript highlights the errors immediately.

5. TypeScript is portable –
All companies have a different kind of IT infrastructure set-up, with different operating systems and browsers. The advantage of TypeScript is that it is a superset of Javascript, meaning it can run on any environment that Javascript runs on. It is portable across operating systems and browsers.

How to create a new React JS project enabled by Typescript? –
To create a new project which is enabled by Typescript, you can use the following command.
e.g. npx create-react-app <> –TypeScript

It creates tsconfig.json which has typescript configurations.
tsconfig.json
{
“compilerOptions”: {
“target”: “es5”,
“lib”: [
“dom”,
“dom.iterable”,
“esnext”
],
“allowJs”: true,
“skipLibCheck”: true,
“esModuleInterop”: true,
“allowSyntheticDefaultImports”: true,
“strict”: true,
“forceConsistentCasingInFileNames”: true,
“module”: “esnext”,
“moduleResolution”: “node”,
“resolveJsonModule”: true,
“isolatedModules”: true,
“noEmit”: true,
“jsx”: “react”
},
“include”: [
“src”
]
}

Here, you can find the set of rules defined for the project. You can also modify or add more constraints if you want.

How to add TypeScript to the existing React JS project?
To add TypeScript in the existing project, you will have to install TypeScript and other required types externally
e.g. npm install –save TypeScript @types/node @types/react @types/jest @types/react-dom

After this, two changes are needed in the projects:
– First, rename all the “.js” file to “.ts” or “.tsx”
– Secondly, create a tsconfig.json in the root directory with the set of rules mentioned in the first step.

Happy Coding!!