React (.JS)

Espen @

React (.JS)

Made by

Developer-
Happiness
& Sanity

Model

View

Controller

Key points

  • Mix DOM-generation,
    display logic
  • Re-rendering on every state change
  • Synthetic events
  • Virtual DOM

Components

  • Reusable
  • Composable
  • Testable

<JSX />

Optional sugar

Read: build step "required"

Vanilla JS



render: function() {
    React.DOM.div({ className: 'my-thing' },
        React.DOM.a({ href: '/path' },
            'Link: ' + this.props.linkText
        )
    );
}

JSX



render: function() {
    return (
        <div className="my-thing">
            <a href="/path">
                Link: {this.props.linkText}
            </a>
        </div>
    );
}

What makes it

awesome?

Render on every change!

UIs: Hard, because

state changes

State change

What if:

  • CSS-class of some child changed
  • Text of some child changed
  • Children should be moved around
  • New DOM-elements should be inserted in the middle of a list?
  • and so on and so forth.

A total mess.

addClass()

$.fn.find

removeClass()

el.text()

if(this)
then {that}

new design!!1

wow

addEventListener()

amaze

insertBefore

nth-child(1n3+^414)

React: Rerender.


var EventListItem = React.createClass({
    render: function() {
        var e = this.props.event;
        return (
            <li>
                <div className={'icon icon-' + e.type} />
                <div className="minute">{e.minute}</div>
                <div className="text">{e.text}</div>
            </li>
        );
    }
});

List item:

React: Rerender.

var EventList = React.createClass({
    render: function() {
        var events = this.props.events;
        if (this.props.match.isFinished) {
            events = events.reverse();
        }
        
        return (
            <ul className="event-list">
                {events.map(EventListItem)}
            </ul>
        );
    }
});

List:

But... Slow?

Not with the

Virtual DOM

Virtual DOM

  • Never creating real DOM-elements
  • React handles that for you

Automagic DOM-diff

<li>
    <div class="icon icon-yellowcard"></div>
    <div class="minute">30</div>
    <div class="text">Gult kort: BIRGER HANSEN.</div>
</li>
<li>
    <div class="icon icon-redcard"></div>
    <div class="minute">30</div>
    <div class="text">Rødt kort: BIRGER HANSEN.</div>
</li>

vs

=

li.children[0].className = 'icon icon-redcard';
li.children[2].innerText = 'Rødt kort: BIRGER HANSEN.';

"VDOM"-diffing

Diffs virtual nodes
(comparing JS objects)

FAST

"VDOM"-diffing

Performs the operations
in batches

FAST

Minimal reflows

"VDOM"-diffing

Transparent to the developer - "Here's the new state, render it"

But wait,
there's more!

Server

Side

Rendering

It's all virtual!

var EventList = require('path/to/event-list-component');
var SomeApi = require('path/to/some-api');
var Server = require('someHttpServer').listen(80);

Server.on('request', function(req, res) {

    SomeApi.getEvents(req.params.matchId)
        .then(function(err, events) {
            var html = React.renderComponentToString(
                new EventList({ events: events })
            );
    
            res.send(html);
        });
});

Client side can now diff the tree and continue updating state on changes!

But wait,
there's still more!

Great feedback

Great developer tools

Auto-bound methods

React.createClass({
    onClick: function(e) {
        // "this" refers to the component! yay!
        this.setState({ clicked: true });
    },

    render: function() {
        return <button onClick={this.onClick} />;
    }
});

How do I get started?

One required method:

render()

Props

The "external interface" to your component.

propTypes allows validation of input

State

Components internal state

setState()

Triggers re-render of component.

Why should I use React?

  • It's really fun!
  • It's really easy!
  • It's fast!
  • It's being used on Facebook
  • It will might change your life

K,
Thx
Bye

rexxars

rexxars

Espen
Hovlandsdal

React.JS (Lightning Talk)

By Espen Hovlandsdal

Made with Slides.com

React.JS (Lightning Talk)

A quick lightning talk (sorry, not much text) about why I love React.JS and think it has a place in the future of frontend development.

  • 1,525

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