Learning React is one of the best things that you can do for your professional career. No matter where you are on your journey or what kind of job you have with web development, this is definitely something you should take some time to learn how to do. In fact, as a developer you have probably heard about React in some form or another. This modern library from JavaScript can really make your life a whole lot better as a developer.
Now, there is a lot that we can do with React so this article will not have time to walk you through it all. However, we can take some time to learn more about how to start exploring React and all it has to offer. So, let’s jump right in and learn some of the basics of React and how to make this work for us.
Before diving into the ideas of React, you need to have at least a good foundation of JavaScript and how all of this is going to work. The good news is you don’t need to be a professional to use React, but at least some of the fundamentals should be mastered. Understanding how well you know the JavaScript language is important because it can help dictate your pace and what you can do overall with React and all its features.
Once you have some of the basics of JavaScript mastered, it is time to go on to learning how to work with React. It is easy as a beginner to see all the shiny things that come up with the world of React, and then you find yourself working with React, Routing, Tooling and a bunch of other cool things at once.
While learning all these things is not necessarily a bad thing, it can take your attention away from what you really should work on. You should start out only learning React and none of the other fancy things that are out there. This helps you to really get to the basics and see what React is capable of doing. You can then move on to other options, without the frustration, if that works best for you.
As a beginner, you need to spend time building up the small projects first. This will make it easier for you to learn how everything works. A good place to start is with a To-do list app or even clone your Facebook feed. These are simple enough for you to learn, without adding the complications of bigger projects. Once you learn the simple projects, it is easier to do some of the bigger projects as well.
After you get some of the basics down, it is time to learn a few of the other concepts as well. React has a great community and a ton of tools, so you are able to learn quite a bit as you go through this process. Two of the tools that all beginners should learn, once they get some of the basics down, includes
Almost all modern projects with JavaScript will have routine into them. This helps the user easily move between the different states or pages. You should learn how to work with React Router and then you are more prepared to move on to Redux.
As you see your application grow, you may need to do an app with more complex parts. This could include learning how to manage states across many components. Redux can help you do this. You need to make sure that your app really needs this complexity before you start though because it isn’t always necessary. Redux has its time and place, but sometimes as a beginner you can get excited and want to jump in too early.
While you are learning more about React and how to use it for some of your projects, there are a few different options and topics that you should be aware of to make your learning process a little bit better.
First, you need to learn the concepts with one after the other. You should not be frustrated if you feel like there are a ton of terms that seem complicated. React is a big community and there are really a ton of shiny things that are distracting. It will pay more to keep your head down and instead of letting all of it come together and get you confused, you should learn one skill and then move on to another and so on.
Another option is to avoid boilerplate projects. These will often contain a ton of stuff and will force a directory structure. You may find as a developer that it is going to force you in the wrong way. It is not going to provide you with any room to pick out what you need and learn why some packages are part of that project. It sometimes works better if you use the create-react-app tool to get things started and then work from there.
React is one of the best options for you to choose from. It is designed to work with the JavaScript coding language, which is one of the best languages to use when you want to create a new app or do other work with web development. React can add to some of the functionality that you get in your app or program and is one of the best options out there.
The most important thing to remember is to take things one at a time. It is tempting to go through and try out everything that the library has to offer. It has a lot of bells and whistles that are a lot of fun. But you will find that if you try to hit all of them at once, it is just going to confuse you and make you want to stop with React all together. When you take things one at a time, you will find that it is a lot easier to learn when you do one thing at a time and just focus on the basics.