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Why use React JS for Web Development?

by Anika Chakraborty | Jan 19, 2023 | Software Development, Blog | 1 comment

ReactJS is one of the most popular JavaScript libraries used by major websites such as Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, and so on. It was even rated as the most loved web framework by developers in a survey by StackOverflow. But popularity alone isn’t a metric that can be used when deciding which library to use in your project. So in this blog, we will help you understand why you should use React JS for web development by explaining all its great features.

Why use React JS for Web Development?

As stated earlier, we will be exploring the features of React JS that make it possible to deliver the mentioned benefits.

• Reusable Functional & Class components
• Useful Lifecycle methods
• JSX syntax for extended HTML
• Unique React Hooks
• Flux and Redux Capabilities
• Virtual DOM in React
• Server-side and Client-side Rendering
• Great Community Support

Reusable Functional & Class components

Functional Components:

Functional components are JavaScript (or ES6) functions that return React elements. We can also write the method as a simple JS function or as an arrow function using the ES6 syntax in Functional Components.

In React, the term ‘props’ is short for properties. Props can be used to pass data from one component to another. Passing props allows you to effectively reuse the code in React and avoid repeating yourself. The use of prop destructuring makes it really convenient to see what’s going in and what’s coming out of the component.

Functional components will be instrumental in making your code easy to read, understand and debug. React’s team has even specified that the capability of functional components will be enhanced in the upcoming versions of React JS.

Example:

function Car(props) {
  return <h2>I am a {props.color} Car!</h2>;
}

const root = ReactDOM.createRoot(document.getElementById('root'));
root.render(<Car color="red"/>);

OUTPUT: I am a red Car!

Class Components:

Class components are very important as they are the only way you’ll be able to use state and lifecycle on a React component. Each React JS class contains constructors, life cycle methods, render function, and also state or data management functionalities.

So accessing and updating the state of the component would become very easy. Though it is complex to program class components, the functionalities it has to offer are definitely worth the effort.

Example:

class Car extends React.Component {
render() {
    return <h2>I am a {this.props.color} Car!</h2>;
  }
}
ReactDOM.render(<Car color="blue"/>, document.getElementById('root'));

OUTPUT: I am a blue Car!

Useful Lifecycle methods

There are a total of seven lifecycle methods in ReactJs. Of the 7, we will be exploring the 4 most useful lifecycle methods that make it great to use ReactJS for web development.

componentWillMount():

It gives us the option to perform certain activities before calling or rendering the HTML content. For example, there will be scenarios where the actual data being displayed to the user might be very different from what was intended to be shown to the user.

During such scenarios, we can use the componentWillMount() method, as this method always gets called before the call to render. Hence we will be able to change the contents before displaying them to the end user.

UNSAFE_componentWillMount() {
//Perform the required activity inside it
}
//Call the render method to display the HTML contents.
render(){
}

componentDidMount()

Once all the elements of the page are rendered correctly, this method can be called to change the state of our application after the user interaction and render the updated data-loaded JSX.
You can call this method by using setState() as shown in the below code.

class Header extends React.Component {
  constructor(props) {
    super(props);
    this.state = {favoritecolor: "red"};
  }
  componentDidMount() {
    setTimeout(() => {
      this.setState({favoritecolor: "yellow"})
    }, 1000)
  }
  render() {
    return (
      <h1>My Favorite Color is {this.state.favoritecolor}</h1>
    );
  }
}

componentWillUpdate():

This method can be used to decide whether a component should be rendered or not after checking the previous and current property states.

Let’s say you have to render a component, but also want to create a focus or lighting design, you can check the states and perform the required task based on the needs.

componentWillUpdate(nextProps, nextState) {
//We can write any conditional expression here and the scope will be decided on the basis of the conditional value execution of the if or else 
if (nextState.propName != this.state.propName) {
//Upon success, we can run the below statement and we can perform any particular action.
//Statement 1
//Statement 2
//Statement 3
} else {
//In this section we can write some code that we want to run if the above condition is false.
//Statement 1
//Statement 2
}
}

componentDidUpdate():

ComponentDidUpdate is a React component lifecycle method invoked immediately after a component’s updates are flushed to the DOM. This is one of the most used built-in methods, which is not called for the initial render nor applicable to your functional details.

We use it to react to external changes in the component’s props or internal state. With the componentDidUpdate method, you can modify the underlying DOM nodes, request remote data, and update the internal state of your component.

class MyComponent extends React.Component {
  componentDidUpdate(prevState, prevProps) {
    // we access props with this.props
    // and state with this.state
    
    // prevState contains state before update
    // prevProps contains props before update
  }

  render() {
    return <div></div>;
  }
}

JSX syntax for extended HTML

JSX can be expanded as JavaScript XML. It is a very useful tool for React JS developers as it can be used to write HTML elements in JavaScript and integrate them into the DOM(Document Object Model). It will also be instrumental in converting the HTML tags into React elements without the help of other methods like createElement() or appendChild().

Example:

Var greetings = <h1>Hello World!</h1>

Unique React Hooks

React hooks are simple JavaScript functions. They are a new addition that was introduced from React 16.8 onwards. But you’ll have to keep in mind that hooks will not work in React class components.

We have our regular functional component in React and then we have the props. They are destructured and passed right into our function so we can easily reuse this Author component in any section or component of our application.

Though there are 6 hooks in total, we will be exploring the 3 most useful hooks.

1. useState: It is one of the most important hooks that allow you to have state variables in functional components.

Example:

import React, { useState } from 'react';


function Example() {
 // Declare a new state variable, which we'll call "count"
 const [count, setCount] = useState(0);


 return (
   <div>
     <p>You clicked {count} times</p>
     <button onClick={() => setCount(count + 1)}>
       Click me
     </button>
   </div>
 );
}

2. useEffect: As this hook runs on every render, whenever the count changes, a render will happen, which then triggers another effect.

import React, { useState, useEffect } from 'react';


function Example() {
 const [count, setCount] = useState(0);


 // Similar to componentDidMount and componentDidUpdate:
 useEffect(() => {
   // Update the document title using the browser API
   document.title = `You clicked ${count} times`;
 });


 return (
   <div>
     <p>You clicked {count} times</p>
     <button onClick={() => setCount(count + 1)}>
       Click me
     </button>
   </div>
 );
}

3. useContext: “useContext” hook is used to create common data that can be accessed throughout the component hierarchy without passing the props down manually to each level. Context defined will be available to all the child components without involving “props”.

import {useContext} from ‘react’;
import React, { createContext } from ‘react’;
import ReactDOM from ‘react-dom’;
const MessageContext = createContext();
myApp=()=>{
   return (
      <MessageContext.Provider value=”hello”>
         <div>
            <Test/>
         </div>
      </MessageContext.Provider>
   );
}


In the child component test, we can access the message value as shown below 
Test =()=>{
   return (
      <MessageContext.Consumer >
         {value=><div> message : {value} </div> }
      </MessageContext.Consumer>
   );
}

Flux and Redux Capabilities

Flux:

Flux is an application architecture used in the development of a client-side web application. Flux is technically not a framework or a library. It uses a unidirectional data flow pattern to solve state management complexity. It will be useful if your project uses a lot of dynamic data.

Scalability is also another advantage that Flux provides when it comes to using React JS for web development. It solves major problems by embodying important principles of event controls that make the development and maintenance process easy.

Redux:

Whereas, Redux is a state container for JavaScript apps. It is most commonly paired with React to take control of the state away from React components and give it to a centralized place called a ‘store’. By doing so, we will be able to manage the state globally.

Centralizing the state makes it easier to implement things like logging changes to the data, or persisting data between page refreshes.

Virtual DOM in React

To understand the virtual DOM, we should be clear with the two major concepts; rendering and reconciliation. When you render a JSX element, every single virtual DOM object gets updated.

Likewise, whenever we render a web page or application, React creates the Virtual DOM tree. So when the state of a component changes, React updates the virtual DOM tree.

Once the virtual DOM has been updated, React then compares the current version of the virtual DOM with the previous version of the virtual DOM. This process is called “diffing”.

The major advantage of using Virtual DOM in React JS is that it frees up a lot of hardware resources that would be needed without virtualization. So an overall performance boost can be achieved by using React JS for web development.

Server-side & Client-side Rendering

Client Side Rendering:

Client-side rendering is used to allow developers to develop their web applications by completely rendering with Javascript.

This is a great advantage when it comes to using React JS for web development as it will dynamically create each route directly in the browser without refreshing the page. This will be important for applications that have a complex UI with many pages or features that require a large amount of dynamic data

Server-Side Rendering:

Server-side rendering is used to allow the developers to pre-populate a web page with custom user data directly on the server. With the help of server-side rendering, initial page load time can be reduced, and an overall better user experience can be achieved.

Server-side rendering-based applications break the JavaScript and CSS into chunks, optimize assets, and render pages on the server before serving to the client browser, resulting in a faster initial load time.

When we render an application’s user interface, React creates a virtual DOM tree representing that UI and keeps it in memory. On the next update, when the data that renders the app changes, React will automatically create a new virtual DOM tree for the update.

Great Community Support

As it is being widely used by many popular web applications, there are a number of experts who actively support the community. In addition to that, the answers you may get online will be reliable as they mostly would be from tried and tested solutions that have already been successfully implemented elsewhere.

This makes it very easy for people to learn React JS and use it for their web development projects.

Benefits of using React JS for Web Development

Being a web app development company, we have used React JS in numerous projects. Here are some of the benefits that you get when using React JS for web development

• You can develop large web applications that utilize data that can change in real time without having to reload the entire page
• It can be used to develop both the client & mobile side applications
• Since it has great code reusability, code maintenance will be simplified.
• The UI code is more readable and convenient for teamwork
• It is simple, scalable, efficient, and super fast.

Angular vs React JS for Web Development

Conclusion

We hope you now have a clear understanding of the features that make React JS great for web development. We ourselves have used ReactJS for web development in many of our projects and have always been pleased with the results. So we highly recommend you to use ReactJs for your web development as you will be able to build a high-quality product in the most efficient way. Make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to not miss out on any of our latest posts.

Django vs Flask: Make the Right Choice

by Charlotte Johnson | Dec 14, 2022 | Software Development, Blog | 0 comments

The words Python and Django might feel synonymous to each other for a few as Django has been the go-to framework for most developers. Flask was introduced as a simpler and lighter alternative to Django. Though there are other Python frameworks, these two are the most widely used. Having used both these frameworks in our software development projects, we are well aware of all the pros and cons on each side. So we will be going through the differences in detail in our Django vs Flask blog. But before that, let’s have a small introduction to both Django and Flask.

Django

Django was first launched in 2005 and due to its long presence in the field, it has great documentation and a large community of Django developers who are very supportive. So if you need help while adding new features or APIs, there will be a high chance for it to be readily available.

Django is commonly referred to as Model View Template (MVT) due to its architecture. So in our Django vs Flask blog, we will see how it differs from the Model View Controller (MVC) architecture of Flask.

Model:

The models are just regular Python files where we structure the table for making it easy to create, edit and delete the data. Using these models we can create tables in the database of your choice such as PostgreSQL, MariaDB, MySQL, Oracle, and SQLite. This is one of the major advantages of Django as you will not be needed to execute raw SQL queries.

View:

The view is used to accept HTTP requests, process them, and return the HTTP response. This is where the main logic is given (i.e) the required data will be retrieved from the database by using Django queries. After which, it will render the data to create the user interface using templates.

Template:

The Template is where we will have all the HTML files that will be rendered and shown as a web page. HTML pages can be dynamically created using an HTML template from views where data will be populated from the views. Flask will have a Controller in its architecture instead of this and we will be exploring that in the later stage of our Django vs Flask blog.

URL:

To make it even easier, Django has a file called urls.py that can be used to map the URLs to the views. So the URL mapper can be used in Django to redirect the HTTP requests to the respective view in views.py. In addition to that, will also be able to pass data like User ID to the URL and get that in the view.

Flask

Flask was released in 2010, 5 years after the launch of Django. Though it was launched later, it has been used by many top software development outsourcing companies and has been in the industry for more than a decade. So that one factor alone cannot be used to rule out Flask in our Django vs Flask comparison.

As stated earlier in our Django vs Flask blog, Flask uses the MVC architecture which is Model, View, and Controller. So the flow will be the user requesting to view a web page by entering the URL that will be handled by routes.

Models:

Models have access to the database. The direct access to the database by models for getting the data will be directly used by the controller.

The data from models will be accessed after it will be passed to the view so it renders the requested page.

Views:

The view in MVC is responsible for the part where we display the data. It could be just a string or a fully operational HTML page with great design.

In Flask there is a way to send the data during the rendering of an HTML page and display that data by looping through it using jinja syntax.

Controller:

Flask requires its users to define specific URL routes to determine which page has to be displayed or rendered for which URL. So when the user enters the URL, the application finds the relevant matching route. And when it finds the correct route, it calls the associated controller action. So the controller is like the middleman between the view and the model.

Now that we have seen an overview of both, let’s move on to the Django vs Flask tabular comparison.

Django vs Flask

Django vs Flask: Which should you Choose?

So by now, you would have understood that choosing between Django and Flask is not a simple this or that type of question. They are both great frameworks that have their own individual features and characteristics. But that doesn’t mean you can pick a framework that is most suitable for your needs. So we’ll now list out a few focus points that will help you choose.

Project Scale: Django is best suited for mega projects that require lots of logic, data, and APIs. But on the other hand, Flask is best suited for smaller and simple projects.

Learning Curve: Flask is easy to learn and so you can complete the project with less time compared to Django. On the contrary, you’ll need extensive knowledge for creating a project in Django.

UI: Django offers an administration interface that enables you to create, read, edit, and delete data from the admin UI. But this feature is not available in Flask.

Security: If security is a major concern for you when choosing the right framework, you can go proceed with Django as it offers built-in authorization features.

API Support: But if you need API support, then Flask is the best choice as Django doesn’t provide any support for API.

Conclusion

We hope you now have a clear picture as to which framework will be suitable for you after reading our Django vs Flask blog. We have used both Django and Flask based on the project’s needs to deliver top-notch software development consulting services. We recommend you make your decision in a similar way. Because it is not just about choosing the best option in the market, it is about choosing the best option for you. Make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to not miss out on any of our latest updates.

Flutter Vs React Native: What Makes Flutter Better?

by Chris Adams | Dec 12, 2022 | Software Development, Blog | 0 comments

According to a recent survey, Flutter surpassed React Native to become the most widely used cross-platform mobile app development framework. If Flutter is getting so much attention, then there will definitely be valid reasons for it. Being a leading Flutter development company, we have used Flutter for various development projects and reaped its benefits as well. So in this Flutter vs React Native blog, we’ll be analyzing the features that made Flutter achieve this feat. what makes both these frameworks great and how you can choose the best one that fits your needs. But before we proceed to the nitty gritty details, let’s first briefly introduce Flutter and React Native.

Flutter

Flutter can be described as a lightweight UI toolkit or as a Software Development Kit (SDK) filled with useful widgets and tools for developing cross-platform apps. Despite its large popularity, it is a fairly new Mobile Application SDK among developers. Flutter is created using Dart Programming language from a single codebase. One of the aspects that have caused the rapid growth of Flutter is its ability to let developers use a single codebase to create applications for Google Fuchsia, Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, Windows, and the web.

React Native

Unlike Flutter, React Native is an open-source UI framework. It can be used to develop genuine mobile apps that are equal to those created with Swift or Java. Since React Native makes use of the same essential UI building pieces that are utilized by iOS and Android, the components are simply combined using JavaScript and React.

In order to understand the core differences between the two, let’s first understand how an SDK differs from a Framework and then head to the in-depth Flutter vs React Native comparison.

Difference between SDK and Framework

Framework

In general, a software framework is an abstraction that enables user code to selectively override shared code that provides general functionality. Both software libraries and frameworks consist of reusable abstractions of code encased in clear APIs. Contrary to libraries, the framework controls the whole program’s flow of control rather than the caller. The distinctive quality of software frameworks is this inversion of control.

SDK

A software development kit (SDK or “devkit”) is generally a collection of programming tools that enables a software engineer to produce software for a certain software package, framework, hardware platform, computer system, video game console, operating system, or other platforms. It could be anything as basic as an application programming interface in the form of a few files, an interface to a certain programming language, or it might contain complex hardware to connect with a specific embedded system.

Common tools include utilities and debugging aids, which are frequently displayed in an IDE. Additionally, sample code, technical notes, and other supplementary documentation are usually included in SDKs to assist in elucidating concepts from the core reference material.

Flutter vs React Native: Key Highlights

The Major Convenience in Flutter

As previously stated in our Flutter vs React Native blog, Flutter is built using the quick object-oriented programming language Dart. It is fresh and simple to learn, especially if you are a seasoned professional who is more accustomed to Java and C#.

Even if you are new to software development, Flutter has great documentation that makes it extremely easy to understand what widgets are available and where to find them. Dart also provides the null safety feature that prevents errors caused due to unintentional access of variables set to null.

As Flutter supports cross-platform app development, it speeds up the development process and gets the project into production very fastly. It offers programmers a simple approach to creating and distributing aesthetically appealing, natively-compiling apps for desktop, web, and mobile (iOS, Android), all from a single codebase. It also enables the developer to publish the app in the Play store as well as the App Store. This creates a distinctive approach to developing apps in the current industry.

Flutter’s Web App Capabilities

Next up in our Flutter Vs React Native blog, we will be focusing on the Web App development capabilities of Flutter. With Flutter’s web support, users can enjoy the same mobile-like experiences online. It implies that you can now create apps for Android, iOS, and browsers using the same codebase.
So you will be able to develop Progressive Web Apps (PWA) that are integrated with the user’s environment and Single Page Applications (SPAs). Flutter’s web support has a browser-based delivery model for mobile apps already developed with the framework.

Flutter Vs React Native: How They Differ?

In contrast to React Native, Flutter uses a widget as its building block. It employs native components, which results in simpler and more distinctive code. This will result in the complication of a mobile developer finding it difficult to adapt code for the web components. And that is where Dart programming in Flutter comes into the picture as it makes it easier to adapt such code.

When it comes to React Native, it is totally different. The developer’s code is typically interpreted by Javascript. Then, the element sequences begin to join in a manner like a bridge and get natively compiled. As the code is written in JS and then has to be transpiled to the native code of the mobile platform, it impacts React Native’s performance.

Who Should Choose Flutter?

A developer can choose to work as a flutter developer if they are well-versed in Java or don’t have any prior web programming expertise. The primary reason is that Dart, the programming language used in Flutter is very similar to Java. The techniques utilized here are similar to Java’s usage of inheritance, polymorphism, and object-oriented programming.

Flutter vs React Native: The Architecture

The objective of Flutter is to make it possible for developers to create high-performance applications that work seamlessly across various platforms by embracing differences where they are present and utilizing as much code sharing as possible. Now let’s find out how Flutter achieves this with its 3-layer architecture.

• Framework
• Engine
• Embedder

Flutter intends to achieve its goal by having an expandable and layered structure. It exists as a collection of separate libraries, each of which is dependent on the base layer. Every component of the framework level is intended to be optional and changeable. Additionally, no layer has special access to a layer below it. Now let’s look at each of these layers in our Flutter Vs React Native blog.

Framework Layer:

It provides a responsive and contemporary framework based in Dart programming when the developer interacts with this level. It is made up of several layers and includes the majority of the platform, layout, and basic libraries.

Flutter has

• Basic classes and building block services that provide widely used abstractions over the underlying base include animation, painting, and gestures.
• The rendering layer helps you create a tree of renderable objects that can be dynamically changed. The tree will also adapt to the changes that you will be making.
• There is a class in the widgets layer for each rendered object in the rendering layer. In the widgets layer, you will be able to define the reusable class combinations. This is where the reactive programming happens.
• The complete control sets provided by the Material and Cupertino libraries help us implement the Material or iOS design languages using the widget layer’s composition primitives.

Engine Layer:

The engine conducts input, output, and network tasks as well as manages the different rendering transitions in this layer. The engine is responsible for rasterizing the new frames that have to be painted. And Flutter makes use of Skia to achieve this by converting the C++ code into classes in Dart.

Embedder Layer:

A platform-specific embedder acts as an entry point and collaborates with the underlying operating system to access services like input, rendering surfaces, and accessibility. A platform-specific language, such as Java or C++ for Android, Objective-C or Objective-C++ for iOS and macOS, or C++ for Windows and Linux, is used to create the embedder. Using the embedder, Flutter code may be added to an existing application as a module or as the entire application’s content.

The Benefits of the Architecture

Now that we have seen in-depth about Flutter’s architecture, let’s next focus on the benefits in our Flutter Vs React Native blog. Flutter renders the UI design with its own set of packages, and it converts the same design with native code. But in React Native, it varies with different designs for both iOS and Android.

Without writing a ton of code, Flutter architecture enables you to develop a truly native app. However, React Native involves a lot of components and it is really so tough to change the global component, which was declared so early.

The Flutter MVP architecture offers all the required features and is not significantly different from a native app architecture. Flutter is a great option if you need to quickly develop a mobile application for investors. Since you don’t have to concurrently develop two mobile apps for iOS and Android, it is substantially less expensive.

Foremost, the usability of Flutter comes from its Widget. It has huge compatibility and is used everywhere in the app. This confirms that the widget is so easy to use and easy to access the properties with different classes. We can have Parent and child class relationships in Flutter by using this architecture.

Conclusion:

We hope you now have a clear understanding of why Flutter is better than React Native after reading our Flutter vs React Native blog. We have delved down deep to even discuss how Flutter differs at an architectural level. Being a leading software development company, we will be publishing more insightful articles. So we recommend you subscribe to our Newsletter to stay up to date with all our latest updates. Thanks for reading.