React UI Component Libraries: Material-UI

Introduction

Material-UI is a very powerful React UI component library. I initially learned about Material UI from one of my Flatrion School classmates. In the ever-evolving world of web development, creating visually stunning and responsive user interfaces is crucial. In this blog post, we will discuss the what it is, how it is used, and the basic setup for using this amazing library.

Why use Material-UI

There are a lot of reasons to use Material-UI. Here are just a few:

Consistency: Material-UI enforces design consistency across your application, as it adheres to the Material Design guidelines.

Modern Aesthetics: Material-UI design principles result in a modern and visually appealing user interface.

Productivity: The library provides a ton of pre-built components that can significantly speed up the development process.

Documentation: Material-UI has extensive documentation for all the built-in components. They also provide example use cases to show the true capability of the pre-built components.

In summary, Material-UI is an essential tool for React developers seeking to create visually appealing and responsive user interfaces. Whether you're building a small project or a large-scale application, Material-UI can be a valuable asset in your web development toolkit.

Setup

Installation

Assuming that you already have a React project, the first step is installing Material-UI. Material-UI can be installed by using npm or yarn.

npm install @mui/material @mui/icons-material

yarn add @mui/material @mui/icons-material

Note: You can start using Material-UI components after you have installed the above libraries. However, it is recommended that you setup the style and theme for the best results.

Optional: Styles

Material-UI offers styling components that allow users to keep styles consistent across their projects. To utilize this, you need to import a few items in you src/index.js or equivalent entry point.

import CssBaseline from '@mui/material/CssBaseline';
import { ThemeProvider } from '@mui/material/styles';
import { createTheme } from '@mui/material/styles';

Optional: Themes

Material-UI allows users to define a custom theme to match your applications design. You can create a them with a preferred color palette, typography, and other design specifications. Here is an example on how to create a theme:

const theme = createTheme({
  palette: {
    primary: {
      main: '#2136f3',
    },
    secondary: {
      main: '#f51057',
    },
  },
});

After you have created your theme, you need to wrap your app component with the ThemeProvider and CssBaseline you imported in the second step.

ReactDOM.render(
  <ThemeProvider theme={theme}>
    <CssBaseline />
    <App />
  </ThemeProvider>,
  document.getElementById('root')
);

Once you have wrapped your app component with the ThemeProvider and CssBaseline, you can start utilizing Material-UI components that are consistent with your applications design.

Built-in Components

Material-UI provides a ton of pre-built components that range from alerts to tables. A few components that I have found very useful are the Button, TextField and Select.

Button

Buttons always seem to cause problems for me when trying to style them with only CSS. The Button component is a core button element in Material-UI. It's highly customizable and can be used in various contexts, such as forms, dialogs, and navigation. Here is a basic example of a simple, yet visually appealing, button you can create with Material-UI:

<Button variant="contained">Contained</Button>

It is as simple as that to create a nice looking button with Material-UI. They also provide a ton of different styling props that allow you to create a button exactly how you want it.

Forms

The TextField and Select components all are very useful when making forms with Material-UI.

The TextField component is a versatile input field that serves various purposes in forms. The Select component simplifies the creation of dropdowns and select inputs in your forms. Both of these components come with many different props that allow users to handle input validation, autocomplete, controlled inputs and other styling options.

Conclusion

Material-UI, with its vast array of prebuilt components, opens up a world of possibilities for web developers. Whether you're a seasoned developer or just starting, Material-UI simplifies the process of crafting user-friendly forms and engaging user experiences, ensuring that your web applications not only meet but exceed design standards. So, dive in and let Material-UI elevate your web development projects to new heights.
Happy coding!