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React Cookbook
React Cookbook

React Cookbook: Create dynamic web apps with React using Redux, Webpack, Node.js, and GraphQL

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Profile Icon Carlos Santana Roldán
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Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 2.5 (6 Ratings)
Paperback Aug 2018 580 pages 1st Edition
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Arrow left icon
Profile Icon Carlos Santana Roldán
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Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 2.5 (6 Ratings)
Paperback Aug 2018 580 pages 1st Edition
eBook
$35.98 $39.99
Paperback
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React Cookbook

Conquering Components and JSX

In this chapter, the following recipes will be covered:

  • Creating our first React component
  • Organizing our React application
  • Styling a component with CSS classes and inline styles
  • Passing props to a component and validating them with PropTypes
  • Using local state in a component
  • Making a functional or stateless component
  • Understanding React lifecycle methods
  • Understanding React Pure Components
  • Preventing XSS vulnerabilities in React

Introduction

This chapter contains recipes related to how to create components in React. We are going to learn how to create React components (class components, pure components, and functional components) and organize our project structure. We'll also learn how to use React local state, implement all the React lifecycle methods, and finally, we'll see how to prevent XSS vulnerabilities.

Creating our first React component

The component is the essential part of React. With React you can build interactive and reusable components. In this recipe, you will create your first React component.

Getting ready

First, we need to create our React application using create-react-app. Once that is done, you can proceed to create your first React component.

Before you install create-react-app, remember that you need to download and install Node from www.nodejs.org. You can install it for Mac, Linux, and Windows.

Install create-react-app globally by typing this command in your Terminal:

  npm install -g create-react-app

Or you can use a shortcut:

  npm i -g create-react-app
...

Organizing our React application

In this recipe, we will learn how to structure our project in a better way.

How to do it...

We can create React components with the default structure that create-react-app provides, but in this recipe, I'll show you a better way to organize the project so that we are ready when for when the application grows.

  1. We need to create a new React app (check the last recipe if you haven't created a React app yet)
  1. Currently, our React application directory tree looks like this:
  1. We need to create src/components and src/shared directories
  2. After this, we need to create the src/components/Home directory for our component and move Home.js into this folder
  3. The App.js file stays...

Styling a component with CSS classes and inline styles

In the last recipe, we learned how to create a class component. Now let's add some CSS to our Home component.

In React, one of the best practices is to have the style file in the same directory as the component. If you have worked with PHP, Node, or any other server language, you probably write your styles in a style.css file, and you include it using a link tag in your template. React uses Webpack, which is the most popular module bundler at the moment. With Webpack, we can configure the way that we want to handle our styles (using CSS directly or by using a CSS preprocessor such as Sass, Stylus, or Less CSS), and with Webpack we can implement CSS modules. This is a powerful way to avoid the three main issues of CSS:

  • No more conflicts (unintentional CSS...

Passing props to a component and validating them with PropTypes

So far, you are getting familiar with React components, but there is more to it than rendering static HTML. Like any application, we need to be able to send information (via props) to different elements. In this recipe, we are going to create new components: HeaderContent, and Footer (we will group these components into a folder called layout), and we will send some props (as attributes and as children) and validate them with PropTypes.

How to do it...

Taking the same of the React application we created before, let's create first our Header component. 

  1. At this point, our current header is placed on...

Using local state in a component

The local state is a fundamental feature of React for creating dynamic components. Local state is only available on class components, and each component manages its state. You can define the initial value of the state on the component's constructor, and when you update the value of the state, the component will be re-render itself.

Local state is helpful with toggles, for handling forms, and is used to manage information within the same component. It is not recommended to use local state if we need to share data between different components. In that scenario, we need to implement Redux state, which we will cover in Chapter 5, Mastering Redux.

How to do it...

...

Making a functional or stateless component

So far, we have only learned how to create class components in React. These components are useful when you need to handle local state, but in some cases, we will need to render static markup. For static components, we need to use functional components, also known as stateless components. This will improve the performance of our application.

In the Passing props to a component and validating them with PropTypes recipe, we created some layout components (Header, Content, and Footer). These components, as you may imagine, are frequently not dynamic (unless you want to have a toggle menu or some user information in the header), so in this case, we can convert them into functional components.

How to do it.....

Understanding React lifecycle methods

React provides methods to handle the data during the lifecycle of a component. This is very useful when we need to update our application at particular times.

How to do it...

In this section, we are going to explain each example independently.

Todo list – implementing ComponentWillMount

In this recipe, you will learn about the lifecycle methods in React. We will see how the information flows through the methods since the component is pre-mounted, mounted, and unmounted. The Todo list that we will develop...

Understanding React Pure Components

Many people get confused by the difference between a Functional Component and a Pure Component. Most of them think they are the same, but this is not true. When we use a Pure Component, we need to import PureComponent from React:

    import React, { PureComponent } from 'react';

If your React component's render method is "pure" (that means it renders the same result, given the same props and state), you can use this function to improve the performance of your application. A Pure Component performs a shallow comparison for the props and nextProps objects as well as the state and nextState objects. Pure components do not include the shouldComponentUpdate(nextProps, nextState) method, and if we try to add it, we will get a warning from React.

In this recipe, we will create a basic example to understand how Pure Components...

Preventing XSS vulnerabilities in React

In this recipe, we are going to learn about cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities in React. XSS attacks are widespread in web applications, and some developers are still not aware of this. XSS attacks are malicious scripts that are injected into the DOM of unprotected web applications. The risks can vary with each application. It could just be an innocent alert script injection or, worse, someone can get access to your cookies and steal your private credentials (passwords), for example.

Let's create an XSS component to start playing around a little bit with some XSS attacks. We are going to have a response variable that is simulating a response from a real server, and we will simulate that we are using Redux's initial state (we are going to see Redux in ...

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Key benefits

  • Use essential hacks and simple techniques to solve React application development challenges
  • Create native mobile applications for iOS and Android using React Native
  • Learn how you can write robust tests for your applications using Jest and Enzyme

Description

React.js is Facebook's dynamic frontend web development framework. It helps you build efficient, high-performing web applications with an intuitive user interface. With more than 66 practical and self-contained tutorials, this book examines common pain points and best practices for building web applications with React. Each recipe addresses a specific problem and offers a proven solution with insights into how it works, so that you can modify the code and configuration files to suit your requirements. The React Cookbook starts with recipes for installing and setting up the React.js environment with the Create React Apps tool. You’ll understand how to build web components, forms, animations, and handle events. You’ll then delve into Redux for state management and build amazing UI designs. With the help of practical solutions, this book will guide you in testing, debugging, and scaling your web applications, and get to grips with web technologies like WebPack, Node, and Firebase to develop web APIs and implement SSR capabilities in your apps. Before you wrap up, the recipes on React Native and React VR will assist you in exploring mobile development with React. By the end of the book, you will have become familiar with all the essential tools and best practices required to build efficient solutions on the web with React.

Who is this book for?

If you’re a JavaScript developer who wants to build efficient and scalable solutions, this book is for you. Although not necessary, some knowledge of React will be an advantage. Also, if you have experience working with React, this book will help you improve your skills.

What you will learn

  • Understand complex topics such as Webpack and server-side rendering
  • Implement an API using Node.js, Firebase, and GraphQL
  • Maximize the performance of your React applications
  • Create a mobile application using React Native
  • Deploy a React application on Digital Ocean
  • Get to know best practices when organizing and testing a large React application

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Publication date : Aug 30, 2018
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Length: 580 pages
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Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781783980727
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Table of Contents

16 Chapters
Working with React Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Conquering Components and JSX Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Handling Events, Binding and Useful React Packages Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Adding Routes to Our Application with React Router Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Mastering Redux Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Creating Forms with Redux Form Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Animations with React Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Creating an API with Node.js Using MongoDB and MySQL Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Apollo and GraphQL Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Mastering Webpack 4.x Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Implementing Server-Side Rendering Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Testing and Debugging Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Deploying to Production Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Working with React Native Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Most Common React Interview Questions Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Other Books You May Enjoy Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

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(6 Ratings)
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4 star 16.7%
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Maxx Traxx Sep 18, 2018
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Being new to React I really needed something that was beyond the ole "Hello World" or "To Do" app tutorials and this book is great for that! Easy to follow with real world examples, I enjoyed that and the author's casual style; excellent code samples and a good approach for solving real problems. Recommended!
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Peter Pham Nov 14, 2018
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Overall, I believe the book is good, but there are certain things that are not explained in detailed that should be. It could be confusing to some people that are complete beginners to web development. One instance would be, that some of the CSS is using SASS notation and won't work properly.The code examples are great and are easy to follow. If you take the time to understand the underlying code, it is a great foundation to build off of.I would recommend this book to people learning React.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Nick May 20, 2019
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This book has a good source of information but it is poorly written for a beginner and full of typos. Much of the code is written without any explanation. Fortunately I was able to Google much of what was being introduced. None of the firebase commands are explained but I found them from reading the docs. The author just expects you to be familiar with firebase. The Redux chapter starts off with a good introduction but fails to explain the code as it continues rattling off commands without any explanation. My coding background helped me to understand many other unexplained concepts but I can't imagine if I didn't have any coding experience how lost I would be.CONCLUSION:The good: it shows how to use fullstack react using mongo, graphql, redux, node, Express, and several other methods to build the frontend and backend of web apps. It provides a good path on how to move forward in your journey on react.The Bad: Most of the book contains unexplained code and assumes that you understand the new concepts being introduced without any explanation such as the use of axios without defining the arguments and firebase commands and redux section. This book introduces great concepts such as how to integrate mongodb, using apollo, etc. But requires the reader to pick up many other books or read documentation or blogs to understand the specifics. I would recommend fullstack react over this book as it offers better explanations such as the two ways setState method works in accepting an object or a arguments of current state and a callback function.
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Lynn and Scott May 29, 2019
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I am a raw React beginner. This book starts off OK. But, after that the code is not explained well and (for me) several instructions are not working. I had high hopes for this book because of all the topics related to React it covered. If you are a beginner try another book.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
martin pszczola May 19, 2019
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If you are going to shell out the high price of texts like this, get the paper version. The Kindle version formatting is terrible.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
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