If you are a developer or a business owner with a digital identity, you may have come across React JS at some point or other. This open-source Javascript library was first introduced by Meta (Facebook) in 2013 and is still maintained by the same.
Ever since its release, the rich front-end javascript library has been used for developing impressive user interfaces and many renowned names like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Skype, Myntra, Walmart, Airbnb, etc. are still using React for this venture.
Thus, it is undoubtedly a preferred choice for developing stellar websites and web application UI. However, you may have to hire ReactJS developers if you want to best utilize React.
With its many benefits and impressive features, Meta also released React 18 in March 2022. The upgrade is intended to improve the performance of existing features and also update the rendering engine.
Here, we will discuss elaborately the most innovative things happening with React JS in 2022 and why it is still a preferable choice for front-end development.
What’s New in React 18?
Released in 2022, React 18 allows developers to do more with the javascript library and create more stellar front-end experiences. Here’s what all you can do with React 18 in 2022.
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Concurrent rendering
Before this update, rendering in React was synchronous and uninterrupted. This means that once React started a rendering, there was no way to interrupt it and any user requests would have to wait until the rendering was processed. This sometimes caused delays in tending user requests and the performance of the application was somewhat compromised.
But with React 18, it is now possible to pause, interrupt, or abandon a render and serve other rendering requests based on priority. Thus, React can pause a heavy rendering operation in the middle and respond to user interaction and then again get back to resume the heavy rendering task.
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Transitions
Transitions are a way to differentiate non-urgent UI updates from urgent UI updates. And the non-urgent updates are called transitions and help React understand which updates to prioritize. One can use ‘StartTransition’ to mark these non-urgent updates.
And in case you are wondering how it is different from setTimeout or debouncing, transitions have no delay and execute immediately. They can be interrupted and tracked by React JS as well.
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Server rendering over client rendering
Before React 18 was in the picture, client rendering was used to load HTML from the server along with JS code so that users can access the interactive front-end. But, users often observed slow loading web pages as the Javascript code bundle was huge or because of poor or slow connection.
Thus, users had to wait a long time before they could see the page structure or interactive elements. However, the server rendering in React has helped overcome this issue as the HTML outputs are first rendered followed by HTML codes.
Since all the Javascript bundles are loaded later, users can still view some of the UI elements before getting their hands on the entire interactive front end. It reduces the TTI (time to interactive) and elevates the user experience of the pages.
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Suspense on server
This feature is extremely useful for loading web pages quickly. Now, one of the bottlenecks of React applications was that it increased the page loading time even if one of the components were slow, which is improved in React 18.
Now, with suspense on server features working for React 18, React can load the entire application while slowing down the component at fault. React can retrieve and load all the HTML elements along with a placeholder for the component which has been delayed. You can rather display a loading icon or message at that place until it finishes loading and users can have immediate access to the rest of the content.
These features and improvements made in React 18 can improve the overall performance and user experience of React JS applications. For more information about these features and to implement these on your app for a performance boost, you can look for skilled Reactjs developers for hire and get the job done.
Reasons to Choose React JS in 2022
While these are a few interesting additions to the rich React javascript library, there are plenty of other reasons why React is still a preferable choice for businesses and developers.
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Simple learning curve – While it sure is not the easiest to learn React JS for front-end development, it requires one to brush up on the basics of CSS, HTML, and Javascript. And compared to its adjacent technologies like Angular or Vue.js, developers have a simpler learning curve to ace.
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Reusable components – In React JS, the various components like comments feed, dropdown, chat window, etc. exist in the same space and interact effortlessly with one another. Developers need to take inputs using a prop and return values using functions passed by these properties to reuse components.
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Developer tools variety – React JS has an extensive combination of frameworks, extensions, and libraries, all working in favor of minimizing development time and improving application performance. With many testing utilities, extensions for code debugging, and code generators, React developers have a plethora of tools to write impeccable codes.
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Javascript XML – This is nothing but an addition to javascript syntax that enables the usage of HTML codes clubbed with React JS and JS. Thus, developers don’t have to worry about isolating HTML codes from javascript codes.
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Extensive community – React is not only backed by Facebook but the 165k contributors from React’s Github repository. There’s another community named React Flux of 110k individuals who discuss, code, and share React-related issues and solutions.
These aforementioned reasons are why React is preferred by developers from all over the world. And the new additions and improvements are the icing on the cake and can improve the performance of React applications significantly.
In 2022, it will be interesting to see what more innovation developers can bring by utilizing these features and techniques. Now, hire dedicated Reactjs developers from reputed organizations and get started creating stellar front-end UIs.
