React JS Roadmap
Interested in becoming a ReactJS developer but confused about what to learn? This roadmap perfectly guides you through the different technologies you must master to become a ReactJS developer.
React JS Roadmap
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With React being a front-end library for creating user interfaces, it is essential to learn the basics of the front-end. The front end of web applications is the portion visible to end-users or the part the end-users can interact with. As a React developer, you should be knowledgeable about all the popular front-end technologies.
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HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language. It is a standard, de-facto language for creating the structure of web applications and websites. Hypertext implies text within a text, i.e., the text having a link within it that refers to another text. Meanwhile, a markup language is a computer language for applying layout and formatting conventions to text documents.
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CSS is an acronym for Cascading Style Sheets. It is a style sheet language that describes how the documents scripted in the markup language should appear on the screen. In simple terms, CSS describes the presentation of HTML elements on web pages. It makes web pages more presentable and appealing.
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A CSS framework is a software program containing ready-to-use CSS stylesheets that facilitate the designing of web pages. You, as a ReactJS developer, should have working experience with popular CSS frameworks, such as Bootstrap, Tailwind CSS, Foundation, Bulma, and Skeleton.
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JavaScript, along with HTML and CSS, is one of the core web technologies. All these three technologies together make it possible for developers to create dynamic websites. JavaScript, or simply JS, is a client-side scripting language that helps developers make web pages more interactive and engaging.
Only understanding the front end of web applications and learning its associated technologies is not enough as a ReactJS developer. You also need to acquire other core skills that every software developer possesses. The following are some core developer skills you should possess to become a ReactJS developer.
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Version control, also known as source control, is a way of tracking changes to source code in all the files of a project. Git is the most popular version control system in use today. It is an open-source, free, and distributed version control system that allows multiple programmers to collaborate and work simultaneously on a single project.
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GitHub is an internet hosting service for version control using Git and software development. Along with Git’s distributed version control, it offers bug tracking, access control, continuous integration, task management, software feature request, and wikis for each project you develop using it.
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With Linux being one of the most popular operating systems out there, you should be able to navigate through the platform and perform various tasks quickly and efficiently. For this purpose, Linux commands come in handy.
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REST is an acronym for REpresentational State Transfer, whereas the full form of API is Application Programming Interface. REST API is an API that is in compliance with the REST architectural style and enables interaction with RESTful web services.
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Web designing is the process of planning and creating the design of websites or web applications that you see on the internet. In simple terms, it is the process of planning and arranging digital content on web pages so that they reflect an organization’s brands and provide users with an amazing experience.
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Node.js is an open-source runtime environment for JavaScript. With Node.js, it has become possible for developers to leverage JavaScript to develop the back-end of web applications or websites. It runs on top of the JavaScript engine and runs JavaScript code outside a browser.
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NPM is an acronym for Node Package Manager. It is a default package manager for Node.js, JavaScript’s runtime environment. It comprises a repository that hosts JavaScript packages and a command-line interface (CLI) for downloading and installing those hosted packages.
After you understand the basics of the front end and acquire some essential developer skills, you have to move on to learning and mastering the basic concepts of the React library. Start with understanding what React is, how to install and set up, and move forward to learn its components, syntax, state, and other aspects.
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React is a front-end library based on JavaScript for creating interactive user interfaces (UIs) based on UI components. It makes creating UIs painless. Developed and maintained by Meta, it is a free and open-source components-based library concerned with only state management and rendering that state to DOM.
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Now, it is time to install and set up React on the system. To do so, you need first to install and configure Node.js. Though there are a lot of ways to set up React, doing it using npm is one of the efficient ones as it assists in accelerating the development process further.
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JavaScript Syntax Extension is the full form of JSX. It is the React extension to the JavaScript language. It provides a way for developers to structure component rendering through the syntax they are familiar with. JSX is primarily used to build React components. However, many components are also developed using pure JavaScript.
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React components are simply pieces of code that are reusable. They are analogous to JavaScript functions but operate in isolation. There are two types of React components: Class components and Function components.
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A state in React is a built-in object that stores the data or information about a component. Over time, it is possible to change the state of components. Whenever a component’s state changes, the component re-renders. The change in the state of the component takes place in response to user actions or any system-generated event.
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Pros in React are simply arguments passed to React components. HTML attributes help in passing the arguments to React components. In other terms, we can refer to props as elements to pass data from one React component to another (from a child component to a parent component(s)).
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A key is a string attribute that you need to include while you create a list of elements in React. It identifies which elements in the list have changed, removed, and added.
In React, a map is a data structure that stores data in the form of key-value pairs. Each data stored in a map is unique, and there are no duplicates.
After learning the basics you can scratch the intermediate topics of reacts which includes, different hooks, custom hooks, form handling, etc.
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In react styling we can use all three types of CSS styling with React, which include, inline, internal, and external.
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Form Handling is used to verify and filter the data entered by the user before it is used to send to the server. In React from handling, we use the useState() along with onchange event to handle the form data.
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We use the normal JavaScript fetch API to access the data from the server and use the React components to render the data.
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Hooks were introduced in React 16.8 version, and they allow us to manage the state and use the other features of react, without writing the class.
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Custom Hooks offer the flexibility of sharing logic that wasn't possible in React components before.
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Using the context we can pass the properties along in the React component trees without writing the props manually in every component.
After you develop an in-depth understanding of the basic concepts of React, go with learning the advanced concepts.
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In React, lazy loading is the concept of loading a component or part of code whenever it is required. It is often referred to as code splitting and data fetching. Alternatively, we can define lazy loading as a technique of rendering only the needed or critical UI items first and, later, rolling the non-critical ones.
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React applications are the combination of UI components, where each component manages its state internally. This works well for small applications with a few UI components. When it comes to large applications with more components, it becomes complex to manage the state of components. This is where state management is essential for React applications.
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Portals offer an approach to rendering the child component into a DOM node that is outside the DOM hierarchy of the parent component. Since React’s 16.0 version, portals have been introduced.
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In React, React Router is a standard library for routing. It helps you navigate through the views of various components of a React application. In addition, it assists in changing the browser URL and maintaining the UI in synchronization with the URL.
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Themes play a vital role in web applications as they provide a consistent tone to all web pages. They control and set values for the different elements of web pages, backgrounds, font properties, colors, etc.
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Only writing the source code and deploying it to create a web application is not enough. Instead, developing applications that provide high performance and an excellent user experience is crucial. To ensure this, it is better to leverage the best practices for developing React applications.
Once you are done with learning and mastering both the basic and advanced React concepts, it is time to put them to practice by building several projects. Initially, start with simple and small projects, understand how the concepts you learned function practically, and then go with complex projects.
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A Notes app is a beginner-level React application that lets users create and save notes. Make sure to add the feature of deleting and updating existing notes. In addition, allow users to view the list of notes they created in the past. For a more advanced application, you can provide a feature of searching for a specific note.
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A weather app is another beginner-level React project idea that you can develop using the free API from OpenWeather. Develop an application that requires users to enter the fields, such as the state or country, and the application will display the results on its UI. For more features, you can have an option to display the date, month, and year.
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An eCommerce application is an advanced-level React project. For developing this type of app, you need to leverage a stack called MERN (MongoDB, Express.js, React, and Node.js). You can create an eCommerce application analogous to popular ones available today, such as Amazon, Flipkart, and many others.
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A photo gallery app is an intermediate-level React project idea. Create an application that will allow users to store and view their images. Also, provide an option to search for images. It is a full-stack project that you can accomplish using React and Node.js.
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A chat application is another intermediate-level project. You can create clones of popular instant messaging applications, like WhatsApp. In addition, you can even add your own features, along with the features of the application that you are cloning. You will require Node.js and React to complete this project.
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Creating social media clones using React is an advanced-level project. Try developing a clone of Instagram or Facebook using the MERN stack. Implement all the features in your clone analogous to the original one.
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