Web development is a fascinating area to explore, learn and understand about. But learning without a specific roadmap can lead to many dangers that lead to bad consequence. That why in this article, I’ll give you a roadmap for learning ReactJS, one of the best UI frameworks. If you are thinking of starting ReactJS and looking to get a step-by-step approach, this article is for you
ReactJS (aka React) is an open-source JavaScript-based user interface library. It is insanely popular in web development communities today. Also, if you are a ReactJS developer who is wondering what advance topic to tackle next, give this article a read.
Why do you need a roadmap to learn React?
Learning something new does not have to be very difficult. If you have a map or a guide that lets you know where you have to move next, then things much be smoother for you.
It may also help you decide on alternative routes, how far to get a stretch, and when to pause.
Keep in mind that you may feel a bit overwhelmed looking at this roadmap the first time. But no worry, you don’t need to learn all of these in a specific time, just take it slow since everything need time to be completed. I have spent a lot of time to know about these concepts so just relax and enjoy yourselves ok, just remember that there is no fast way led to success😁.
As ReactJS is very popular, you may find some resemblance here many other suggested roadmaps out there. But they aren’t exactly the same.
Breaking the roadmap down into small phases
You’ll need to be familiar with a few things (other than basic JavaScript knowledge) to accelerate your React learning at full speed.
✈ Git Version Control
Git is a version control tool that helps you manage your source code better. It doesn’t have a direct relationship with ReactJS or any programming languages. But instead, it helps if you learn its basic so you can leverage of the development ecosystem.
Git is easy to learn when you focus on a few fundamental things like:
- How to create a repository
- How to stage/unstage your changes
- How to commit your change to a specific repo
- How to push code to the remote repo
- How to resolve when conflict happen
Along with GIT, you will also need to know how to use a Git-based repository management service like GitHub.
🚓 HTML
HTML provide the structure of a web page. You will need to use the HTML structure in a new syntax called JSX when you code in ReactJS.
If you wonder do I need to master all HTML concepts, the answer is you don’t instead all you need to know is just a basic thing about HTML such as all the most-used tags and its purpose and that all.
🚍 CSS
When it comes to CSS, the scope is sky-high. However, as HTML you just need to focus on some basic CSS concepts like:
- Box model
- Flexbox layout
- Grid layout
- Position
- Pseudo-classes
- Basic selector
- Class
- Id
🏍 JavaScript
I should warn you that this is the biggest obstacle during your learning process :))
Just kidding, JS is huge but in order to learn ReactJS good you need to know the following concepts from JS:
- Variable declaration (let, const, var)
- Template Literals
- Functions & Arrow Functions
- Object Destructuring
- Spread and Rest operators
- Module Import and Export
- A bit of knowledge about asynchronous concept (Promise, Callback or Async/Await)
🚀 How to Deploy, Host and Make your App Public
It won’t be fun if your cool project just can only be used by you right. So, you should know how to deploy the app and make it visible to the real world.
Tools like Vercel or Netlify make it easy to deploy your project just within a few second.
If you want how to use Netlify to host your ReactJS project, then you are welcome to check my article here 🧡.
What to Learn as a Beginner to React
Let’s now focus on what you need to learn at the minimum to start enjoying React in practice. These are foundational pieces, so make sure to give enough time and hands-on effort to truly understand the concepts.
🧨 Understand What React is
You should understand what is so special about ReactJS. Well in my opinion, one of the signatures when using ReactJS is component term.
🎁 Learn How to Set Up your Development Environment
There are multiple ways to do it, at first you can use CDN in your script file. But in the long-term, you can use a tool like Create React App or Vite (I recommend using this tool 😋).
🎆 Learn about JSX
JSX is a syntax that looks like HTML but also has the power of JavaScript. In general, JSX is the combine between HTML and JavaScript. This syntax helps developers write UI logic with all necessary elements like data fetching, conditions, looping, expression, etc.
🎄 Lean about React Components
Components are the heart of ReactJS applications. We create independent components that are completely reusable and isolated.
In ReactJS, you can create components using JavaScript classes or functions (the latter is more widespread than the first one now a day).
👓 State in React
State is the data private to your component. We do not share states across components. The “state” of your component that you use to render information and modify information.
🧶 Props in React
In real-world programming, you will need components to interact with each other. States are private to a specific component, but you need to pass that state’s data between different components. That’s where Props come into the picture.
How to Move from Beginner to Intermediate ReactJS Developer
Let’s now understand what it takes to move from a beginner to intermediate level with React.
💄 Styling in React
We have to admit that we all want our application to look fresh and clean right? You can use plain old CSS to style your project, that’s completely okay. Or you can use some popular CSS framework as an alternative such as Bootstrap 5, Tailwind CSS. The choice is entirely yours 😘.
😎 Form Handling in React
Handling forms is an essential requirement in web applications. You need to understand how to handle form elements in the ReactJS way.
For instance, you can use the react-hook-form library to build forms.
🍔 Data Handling in React
This is crucial part of application development. You need to learn how to use the fetch API libraries like node-fetch or axios to interact with APIs and handle data in your project.
🍿 Virtual DOM concepts in React
ReactJS use the Virtual DOM to decide when and what to update in the actual DOM for rendering. It means that ReactJS is smart enough to know which elements in our DOM is changed and only update that changed part.
🧀 React Hooks
Hooks is one the most important definition that you really need to know when learning ReactJS since you will face this concept all the time when playing with React.
🍖 How to Move from Intermediate to Advanced React Developer
In this phase, you will deal with a few expert-level topics. You need to know these concepts only when you’re working on more extensive application development using ReactJS.
Note that, you can learn each of these advance concepts whenever you’re ready. Also, you don’t have to learn them all.
😴 Lazy Loading in React
ReactJS support code splitting. It is a way to lazy load what you need by the current use. It also avoid producing a large build bundle. The dynamic import feature is the best way to include code-splitting in a React app.
🎢 Routing in React
Routing is required for multi-page applications. It is also helpful to bookmark a particular page or traverse back-and-forth in the application using the browser’s back button.
react-router is the most popular routing solution that helps with declarative routing.
It’s 2022 — Should I Still Learn React?
Another frequently asked question — and the answer is YES. React is ever-growing, and the community is also growing quickly. There is no reason to stay back.
Also, ReactJS is a base for many other popular frameworks like Next.js…
🎈 Conclusion
I hope you found this post helpful. Please plan to get enough practice as you start your learning process.
If this post was useful to you, please leave me a like 💛 and follow me, that helps me a lot 😍 😘.
Also, if you want more interesting content like this from me you can have quick tour to my portfolio and GitHub 💛💛💛.
Again, thank you so much for reading this blog and have a good day 😘.
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