Are you wondering whether to use NodeJS with React or not? Then you have reached the right place. Here in this blog, we will provide you with all the essential reasons why NodeJS and React would be highly beneficial for web development.
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In this current digital era, businesses are always looking for new and innovative ways to engage with their target audience on the devices they utilize to stay ahead of the competition. Today, we will talk about using NodeJS With React for web development.
To achieve this, a lot of them have started using a well-known JavaScript environment like NodeJS with React to build robust web applications.
NodeJS for Enterprise Application is also a reality. So, why not NodeJS and ReactJS be used as a combination.
Now, if you are also looking forward to using NodeJS and ReactJS together, then some of the questions that might appear in your mind are,
To help you out, we have created a detailed guide that explains all the above questions, besides some other important questions that you should consider while developing web applications using NodeJS with React.
Also, you will find essential reasons to use NodeJS with React.
But, before we move ahead, let’s have a basic introduction of ReactJS and NodeJS.
ReactJS is not a framework but one of the leading JavaScript libraries. It is released and maintained by Facebook as well as by various developers and companies.
It works according to the MVC architecture and updates all the things in the View part of the architecture. Moreover, ReactJS is widely useful for building attractive user interfaces.
It more or less provides solutions of issues that occur during the rendering of large databases.
Pros of ReactJS
Cons of ReactJS
NodeJS is mainly a JavaScript runtime environment that is built on the Chrome V8’s Engine. It is a bundle that consists of all the things needed to run a program in JavaScript.
NodeJS launched the callback concept to achieve the app-idea of event-driven single-threaded server programming and further builds JS on the server-side. Moreover, it enhances the process of building web applications.
Pros of NodeJs
Cons of NodeJS
React is a front-end library that is developed and maintained by Facebook from 2015. Like other libraries, it works well with any old web server such as Apache, NGINX, or using backend such as PHP, Ruby on Rails, etc.
It consists of a ReactDOM library that works efficiently with the web browser’s DOM. Later, it got upgraded to a cross-platform framework known as React Native, which is now used to build native-like apps for Android and iOS platforms.
Using React, it is possible to develop a web app that resolves all the issues of bad user interactions and performance because of its DOM manipulations.
This happens with VirtualDOM, which monitors changes regularly and scrutinizes an algorithm to identify the notable points between the two UI states.
As per the latest Node.js survey, above 43% of developers agreed that they use Node.js for enterprise development, as it is the best choice for developing trending solutions related to microservices, WebSockets, and event queries.
It’s a preferred choice for back-end more due to some essential reasons like an asynchronous model, non-blocking I/O, and event-driven architecture.
Moreover, its JavaScript runtime environment gives developers the freedom to run documents that aren’t executed in the web browser; hence, it is a widely used back-end environment.
Some of the leading tech giants around the world like Amazon, Netflix, PayPal, Walmart, etc., use Node.js for back-end development.
Node.js consists of an important feature that allows automatizing routine tasks, including testing of code, tool kit, etc., that is available under the front-end environment. Briefly, Node.js can be used for both front-end as well as back-end development.
Due to its scalability and huge developer community, Node.js is the first option for front-end development.
Without any doubt, Node.js is the most suitable platform for hosting and running a web server for a React application.
Due to the two most important reasons, you can use React JS and Node JS together:
Moreover, utilizing Node.js to host and run your web server is beneficial in various ways as given below:
Various developers think that for running React.js, they have to compulsorily use Node.js. But in reality, that’s not the case every time.
We know that React.js is a library and is well known for providing various user interfaces for the web and mobile apps.
In contrast, Node.js is a JavaScript runtime environment useful to manage communication on the server-side. It’s widely utilized in networking applications to offer real-time data management across systems.
Here, Reactjs is highly useful in developing UI components on the front end; however, Nodejs manages the data on the back end.
Far better, various popular tools such as react-router and redux can be utilized to make communication better at the server-side offered by Node.js.
This whole process enhances communication from one-end to another. Like, whenever a user engages with UI and a server request is generated, the browser provides relevant data from the backend.
Here is a summary of how Node JS and React can be used together: Reactjs functioning as a front-end framework, bundles all the components present to the particular routes.
Whilst, Node.js, which is a backend framework, doesn’t think much about the element that loads the specific URL. It’s just offering the environment for the entire data communication.
Yes, there are some of the most remarkable benefits of using React NodeJS together. Moreover, combining React with Node JS can help you to decrease overall development time along with some other awesome benefits.
Here is the list of reasons you should consider using ReactJS and NodeJS for your next development project:
Utilizing Node JS and React is beneficial for a web application that requires various requests and keeping server load balance.
In case your app’s basic part relies on the real-time data-intensive management or Data Streaming, integrating Node.js is the best choice for efficient server connection.
Developing JSON APIs for your web app is effective because of high code reusability and instant code sharing in React.js.
Building single-page applications in React and using Node to create a lightweight back-end model for asynchronous data loading via callback functions.
Nodejs can also be utilized with MERN (MongoDB, Express, React, and Nodejs) stack.
Consider that we are developing a new Blog with the CRUD (create, read, update, and delete) functionalities and consists of some lists of blog posts, contact us, and blog posts details page.
For this, we will use Node/ Express for the backend and React for the frontend.
Here, React will only modify the view part of the frontend. However, we also need to update the data coming from the backend API and enable routing. To achieve this, we have to use React router and Redux.
If you don’t want to use Redux, you will require three separate containers, mainly a list of blog posts, contact us, and blog post details. Every container consists of its own data that not shared with any of the other containers.
Here, we will utilize express that’s basically the framework of NodeJS.
Express allows us to create routes for all the pages required. Therefore, here we will have a
homepage ( list of blog posts ) at path=’/‘, details of a blog post at path=‘/:id’ and contact us at path=‘/contact’
All the route we define consists of two parameters, mainly request and response and also consists of a callback function.
app.get(‘/’, function(req, res) { res.send(‘Hello World’) })
Anytime a user visits the URL mapped to the path= ‘/’, a request sent to the server, and the server replies using the callback function. Within this callback function, we can write our logic.
In the same way, we can write functions for various paths.
app.get(‘/:id’, function(req, res) { res.send(‘New Post’) })
React looks after the frontend of the app. Anytime a new user visits the path = “/,” a query transferred to the express server, which answers with a response to the browser.
Here in the frontend, we possess routers mapped to look after the response coming from various routers and display the data.
You need routers in the frontend to load all the proper components for every path because the backend server remains neutral if any component loaded when the user visits the path = ‘/.’ It possesses all the details about the type of data to send when users visit a specific path.
The react-router only maps a path to the component.
<Route path=‘/‘ component={Homepage} /> <Route path=‘/contact‘ component={Contact} />
Anytime we visit the path = ‘/’, the homepage component will load.
As soon as we obtain data from a server in the form of JSON, we would display a list of blog posts.You can achieve it using a container in React (like Homepage container).
A component is mainly a class or function that narrates part of the React UI. In comparison, a container is only a component that has power over all the state and lifecycle ways.
In the Homepage container, we can form a function that processes all elements via JSON and builds a list of posts. It’s basically a standard HTML page; however, written in JSX.
You can store server-side data in any database (MongoDB, firebase).
Lastly, that’s the main point of integrating Express in backend and the React in frontend.
Read also: Step-by-Step Guide To Use React With Redux
The majority of developers love to utilize the combination of ReactJS and NodeJS to build reusable user interface modules. Node and ReactJS is a great combination in the long run.
React is a JavaScript library that used to serve the view component of the MVC architecture. It is a JavaScript virtual DOM because it is quicker as compared to other DOMs.
Despite the fact that ReactJS is particularly for browser, various ReactJS development firms utilize it to render a server accessing the combination of Node.js.
Here, the data & the modules are perfect for handling vast applications and enhancing readability across multiple devices.
From the above points, we can say that a combination of React with Node JS can do wonders for your web development project. For this, you first need to be familiar with NPM & implement it in your project to take it to the next level.
Whether you want to develop a new web application or update an existing one, you can approach us. We are a Node JS Development Company with years of experience building top-notch web apps for clients across the globe.
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