How React JS Consulting Can Save Technical Directors from Setting Fire to Their Budget
React JS Consulting - Top Questions from Google
What does a React consultant do?
A React JS consultant assists with a React application development architecture and utilises their knowledge of React JS and JavaScript to skills to boost productivity and minimise technical debt during web application development. A React JS Consultant coordinates with the web development team and other project stakeholders, to ensure that processes and technology choice in the project are well connected.
How is React JS so powerful?
ReactJS proves powerful due to its ability to assist in the creation of web applications by component development.
This means we keep the code DRY, so that each component is well tested, it’s easier to find bugs and the code can be reused for other aspects of the application.
By creating components, developers can create dynamic User Interfaces (UI) and its associated logic faster.
We know that maintaining web applications at scale in an everchanging business environment can be costly and complexed.
React thankfully, is an unopinionated library. This means that developers are free to use whatever tools alongside React which encourages responsiveness to change.
What are the disadvantages of React JS?
Since React is open-sourced and several tools that are utilised alongside React commonly change, open-source libraries that support React can have outdated documentation.
This means that when issues arise within implementation which isn’t covered by your typical StackOverflow copy and paste, your development team can find themselves in the rabbit holes of GitHub issues, to resolve their concerns.
React JS has a huge open-source community that rapidly contributes compatible tools and dependencies daily. So sometimes, simply upgrading your npm package is sufficient to resolve certain bugs.
Though, in other cases where upgrading an NPM package results in more bugs or a broken library API, you may find yourself having to create a mini workaround until you’re ready to upgrade any other neighbouring NPM dependencies of the project.
Finally, in addition to gaining new contributions to its library on a regular basis, React JS itself can evolve rapidly. Its core development team and supporting community constantly adjusts best practices, sometimes without pragmatism. As such, most developers feel the need to follow the herd when it comes to writing new ways of writing code. This can be very frustrating, not just for fellow developers, but for your software development budget, too.
Is React bad for large applications?
Despite its minor shortcomings, React JS library is well suited to large applications.
Here’s a few examples of household names that trust React for their enterprise apps.
· Netflix developed their TV UI with React
· Skyscanner developed their airport transfers product with React.js
· Discord boasts great performance of their iOS app with React Native
This evidences the stability and product market fit of React for applications at scale that handle millions of user requests, daily.
When developing and maintaining large applications, engineering architecture should be at the forefront of minimising technical debt.
By React being lightweight, it’s a small file-size library that packs a punch on performance and with its nature in being unopinionated, which means it doesn’t force you into using other tools with it; React is engineered with responsiveness to change.
The versatility of ReactJS enables your software development team to keep their code DRY by developing reusable components.
This specific characteristic is fundamental to building a complexed applications at scale.
Large applications are typically constructed by a team of developers in tandem. As a result, it’s beneficial help your team understand the wider business objectives of the software build.
Usually this information isn’t shared with developers merely because they are further down the chain to that of your chief executives. But the benefit of ensuring your developers understand the wider company OKRs can help them forecast how to build certain features.
Also, this extends to sharing success metrics with developers, too. Those juicy one liners we have for the board of directors like “we’ve increased our customer satisfaction score by 15%” should be shared with developers. Helping them to understand the wider domain can both motivate and captivate the imagination of your team.
Large applications can be intimidating. Thankfully, you can implement them using React JS whilst still adhering to the classic programming best practices such as SOLID, YAGNI and DRY.
Which is better: ReactJS or Angular?
ReactJS and Angular are the Superman and Batman of the web application development. Despite their common purpose, there are several differences between them. Coming in first as Superman outta the red corner it’s the React JS library, developed and maintained by the team from Meta’s Facebook.
In the blue corner; Angular the web-based framework. Developed and maintained by Google.
Angular though a powerful framework, it can shoehorn your web developers into the whole Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture, which can cause unnecessary code, tight-code coupling and overcomplication.
Angular is also known for having a steeper learning curve as a lot of the tools required to build a frontend app e.g. app state, routing etc are all Angular packages.
React on the other hand, has a shorter learning curve because its primary objective is to render UI components and all other learning takes place in the usage of ensuring other libraries work well with React itself.
When we look at the trends of Web development over the past 12 months, ReactJS has more interest to that of Angular, most projects we hear of are of clients who wish to migrate from Angular to React.
To tie things up, React is nimble enough to deliver applications at speed and accuracy. There’s a wider adoption of React to that of Angular which further alleviates the fear of becoming obsolete, and future proofs your application development.
Is React the future of Web development?
React JS can be considered the future of Web development. Developers can use this library to build web pages that accepts user input and present its results quickly without needing to reload, thanks to two-way binding. This promotes performance first.
Web development and JavaScript wholly, is well known to developers and Technology directors alike that it’s a tooling landscape that can change overnight.
So, React is the future; for now.
JavaScript Framework Meme, Acquired from devs.lol
So, we established above that we can build large scale web applications with React JS. It makes it easy and possible to develop applications that have a beautiful User Interface (UI). The React tools and ecosystem means that developers find smarter ways to complete tasks all the time. Finally, the architecture of reusable components reduces the chances of inconsistency, or errors in your applications.
Is Next.js the future of React?
Next.JS is a popular web framework that uses React JS. Think of it as the next step in the evolution of React.js Development.
React JS by default does what’s referred to as Client-Side Rendering (CSR). This means that all HTML code is created inside the browser, not on your website’s backend server.
Though this is great for dynamic web apps, it can reduce the website's Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and its rank in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).
Next.JS delivers Server-Side Rendering, by default. It pre-renders HTML code for every web page on the server-side. Which alleviates all your SEO fears of using React.
And for even deeper control, it provides two methods for pre-rendering including Static Site Generation (SSG), and Server-Side Rendering (SSR). Within Static Site Generation (SSG), the HTML code is generated during build time of your website (this means your website loads absolutely rapidly!).
On the other hand, Server-Side Rendering (SSR) causes the HTML code to be generated on every call to the server. Notably, Next.JS allows developers to pick between either SSG and SSR for the pre-rendering process. This flexibility along with the ability to render HTML code on the server-side only further shows Next.JS as the future React JS development.
The performance of Next.JS extends to your API and Database data fetching, too. Your web application probably has components that depend on external data or user-defined web routes. In such cases, Next.JS provides specific methods to pre-fetch static data from pre-determined browser routes, or external sources, for even faster loading times, cool right?
What makes a good React consultant?
A good candidate must have a specific set of skills to excel as a React JS consultant.
Taken gif acquired from tenor.com
Of course, their JavaScript proficiency must be top notch. In addition to flawless coding, a thorough understanding of the Document Object Model (DOM), and the JavaScript Object Model is compulsory. Then, you must comprehend the core principles of React JS and have experience using or knowledge of React tooling to fulfil client requirements. Notably, React JS has some immensely popular workflows such as using React Router, for web routing and Styled Components, for CSS. They need to gain maximum competency with these workflows, for optimum performance as a React JS consultant.
Secondly, they’re going to need to be great communicators. Those that can explain technical concepts to a non-technical audience with ease. Remember Albert Einstein’s quote “If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself.”
Albert Einstein acquired from Flickr
Finally, they’re going to need to be pragmatic. If you’re noticing road blocks, maybe they’re getting hung up on the shiny new libraries that aren’t tested and probably are still in beta, just because the React gods like Dan Abramov told ‘em to change line 115.
Maybe, you don’t need a React Consultant, you might just need a seasoned React developer, who’s seen several projects, used a plethora of different React libraries and understands how to pick the right tools for the job. If you want to learn how to hire one of these, read this blog post.
Summary
So, your key takeaways – a React consultant helps companies in making great technical decisions for their React apps.
A React consultant as a result, helps their clients avoid the pitfalls of choosing the wrong React tooling and guides them to understand whether or not React is the right choice for their project.
ReactJS is a powerful JavaScript library favoured to building granular UI components which enable less repetitive code and helps developers make great decisions while adhering to programming best practices.
Some of the minor disadvantages of ReactJS may include its rapid evolution in tooling which can be mitigated by picking well established React tooling.
ReactJS is nimble for startup MVP development and is proven at scale with several fortune 500 companies such as Netflix, Skyscanner and Airbnb.
In comparison to Angular, which is more of an opinionated framework, you’re more locked into the choices made for you by the Google team on your choice of tools to use alongside the framework.
In recent years, more clients have been interested in migrating from Angular to React than vice versa and Google trends further evidence the change of landscape in web development.
A good React consultant, is a great pragmatist, communicator, evangelist for change and stickler for best practice in React code.
We know you’re fed up with outsourcing to digital agencies that are overpriced and deliver little value. Or you’re probably struggling to find a reliable freelancer that has great attention to detail.
That’s why we should guide you in your React consulting journey here, at Cypher Digital. We’re experienced and have delivered successful React applications for TPX Impact and Global Freight Solutions, to name a few.
Feel free to claim your free ReactJS consulting call, here or sign up to our newsletter for more honest insight and how to increase velocity for your web development team.