As web development increasingly moves toward component-based architecture, two powerful technologies often dominate the conversation: React and Web Components. But when it comes to deciding between React vs Web Components, how do you know which is the best fit for your project?

React is widely used for building dynamic, interactive user interfaces, thanks to its extensive ecosystem and developer-friendly tools. Meanwhile, Web Components offer a framework-agnostic, native approach to creating reusable UI elements that work seamlessly across various platforms.

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What are Web Components?

Web Components are a set of standardized web platform APIs that enable developers to create reusable, encapsulated, and self-contained custom elements. These elements can be integrated across various frameworks or even in standalone projects, making them highly versatile.

At their core, Web Components rely on three main technologies:

• Custom Elements: Allow you to define new HTML tags with their own behavior.
• Shadow DOM: Provides strict encapsulation of styles and content, ensuring components don’t interfere with other elements on the page.
• HTML Templates: Allow developers to pre-define reusable content structures, rendered only when activated by JavaScript.

Native Browser Support

One of Web Components’ greatest advantages is their native support in modern browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari. Because they are part of the web standard, Web Components don’t require additional frameworks or libraries to function. They are ideal for projects that require cross-browser compatibility and reusable components across different environments.

Key Benefits of Web Components

• Reusability: Create once, reuse anywhere. Custom elements are perfect for building consistent UI components across multiple projects or teams.
• Encapsulation: Thanks to the Shadow DOM, Web Components ensure that styles and scripts are self-contained and don’t interfere with the broader application.
• Framework-Agnostic: Web Components work in any framework or even standalone projects, making them a flexible choice for long-term scalability.

What is React?

React is a popular JavaScript library developed by Facebook in 2013. It is used to build dynamic user interfaces, especially for single-page applications (SPAs). React’s component-based structure, combined with its Virtual DOM, makes it an excellent choice for applications where the user interface frequently changes.

React allows developers to create reusable components that manage their own state, making UI development simpler and more efficient.

Virtual DOM and Component-Based Architecture

React’s Virtual DOM optimizes UI performance by only re-rendering parts of the DOM that have changed, making it highly efficient in dynamic environments. React’s component-based architecture allows developers to create self-contained UI elements that can be easily reused and scaled across large projects.

Key Benefits of React

• Vast Ecosystem: With a huge range of libraries and tools, React’s ecosystem offers solutions for routing, state management, and more.
• Developer Tools: React comes with powerful debugging tools like React DevTools, making it easier to inspect components and track state changes.
• Community Support: React’s large community ensures a wealth of resources, plugins, and tutorials, keeping it on the cutting edge of front-end development.

Key Differences Between React vs Web Components

When comparing React vs Web Components, several factors come into play, such as how each technology functions, their architecture, and ease of use.

Native vs Library-Driven

Web Components are built into the browser as native APIs, meaning they work out of the box without requiring third-party libraries. In contrast, React is a JavaScript library that needs to be installed and imported into the project. While React offers more control and features, Web Components provide a more lightweight, framework-independent solution.

Encapsulation

Web Components leverage the Shadow DOM for strict encapsulation, ensuring that styles and content remain isolated from the rest of the application. In contrast, React uses CSS-in-JS or scoped CSS for styling, offering flexibility but sometimes leading to more complex styling systems in large applications.

Learning Curve

Web Components have a lower learning curve for developers familiar with standard web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. React, however, requires developers to learn new concepts such as JSX, component lifecycle methods, and state management libraries, making its learning curve steeper, especially for newcomers.

Performance

React uses the Virtual DOM, which improves performance by optimizing UI updates. This makes it ideal for applications that require frequent interface changes. Web Components, by contrast, interact directly with the native DOM, which can be slower for dynamic updates but is excellent for reusable, self-contained elements.

Ecosystem and Support

React’s extensive ecosystem and large community make it easy to find solutions for common development challenges. While Web Components have a smaller, growing community, React currently offers more resources, libraries, and plugins, making it a better choice for larger-scale projects.

When to Use Web Components vs React

Best for Web Components

Web Components are perfect for reusable elements that need to work across multiple projects and frameworks. For instance, if you’re building a design system or want to create UI elements that can be reused in different environments (React, Angular, or plain JavaScript), Web Components are the ideal solution.

They are also a great choice when you want to minimize dependencies and avoid locking into a specific framework.

Best for React

React excels in dynamic, data-driven applications like social media platforms, dashboards, and e-commerce sites. Its Virtual DOM ensures optimal performance for applications with frequent updates. Additionally, React’s vast ecosystem provides out-of-the-box solutions for tasks like state management (Redux) and routing (React Router).

Can You Use Web Components and React Together?

Yes! Web Components can be seamlessly integrated into React applications. Since Web Components are framework-agnostic, they can be treated like native HTML elements in a React project. This allows you to leverage the power of Web Components within a React-based UI, creating reusable, consistent elements across different platforms.

Conversely, while using React components inside Web Components is less common, it can be done with extra configuration.

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UXPin Merge ensures that your design system, whether built with Web Components or React, remains in sync with the codebase, making collaboration smoother and more efficient.

FAQs: React vs Web Components

Can Web Components be used with React?

Yes, Web Components are framework-agnostic and can be easily used in React applications as custom HTML elements.

What is the key difference between React and Web Components?

The key difference is that React is a JavaScript library requiring installation, while Web Components are native browser technologies.

Which is better for performance: React or Web Components?

React’s Virtual DOM optimizes performance for dynamic interfaces, while Web Components offer native browser interaction, making them better for reusable UI elements.

Choosing Between React vs Web Components

In the battle of React vs Web Components, the right choice depends on your project’s needs. Web Components are ideal for framework-agnostic, reusable elements, while React excels in dynamic, single-page applications with frequent updates.

However, combining both technologies is also possible, giving you the flexibility to build scalable, maintainable applications. To further streamline your process, try UXPin Merge, where you can design using real, interactive components from React or Web Components—supercharging collaboration between designers and developers. Request access to UXPin Merge.

The post React vs Web Components – Which Is Best for Your Project? appeared first on Studio by UXPin.

Modern websites and apps rely on front-end frameworks to develop, maintain, and scale user interfaces. React’s Javascript library is arguably the most popular front-end framework with many component libraries to build digital products.

We’re going to explore the top React UI libraries and how to choose the right one for your next project.

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What is React Component library?

A React component library is a collection of pre-built UI components specifically designed for use with React applications. These libraries contain reusable components that cover a wide range of UI elements, such as buttons, forms, modals, navigation bars, cards, and more.

React component libraries aim to streamline the development process by providing ready-made components that adhere to best practices in terms of design, accessibility, and functionality.

What to consider when choosing a React component library

Below are six things to consider when choosing a React library for your next project. This is by no means an exhaustive list, and some of these factors may not apply to the product you’re building. 

1. Popularity

GitHub’s star rating allows you to quickly compare each React UI library’s popularity. The weekly downloads on npm also show how many people use the component library. Generally speaking, a React library’s popularity means it’s well established and serves its purpose.

2. Issues

Like star rating, a library’s GitHub issues can tell you a lot about its popularity and how well it’s maintained. Even if the library has minimal issues, do any of these affect the product you’re trying to build? 

3. Documentation & Support

Documentation is an important consideration when choosing a React UI library. You want to avoid running to Stack Overflow every time you run into trouble or want to know how to use specific components. Good documentation is updated regularly and gives you a comprehensive understanding of the library.

You also want to know if the React library has support directly from the creators or via a dedicated community forum. There are times when you need expert advice to overcome challenges. The ability to reach out for help (even if that means paying) is crucial to get issues sorted quickly and keep the project moving.

4. Customization

One of the downsides to using a component library is its constraints and lack of customization. For some projects, customization isn’t a factor, but if you’re looking to develop a unique UI, the ability to build your own design system is vital.

Explore the library’s documentation to see if they offer instructions for customizing the components and how easily you can achieve your desired results.

5. Browser or Device Compatibility

Depending on the app you’re designing, you’ll want to know the component library’s browser and mobile compatibility. The quickest way to research browser/device compatibility is by searching GitHub’s issues or Stack Overflow.

6. Accessibility

Accessibility is a time-consuming but necessary consideration for digital product design. If a React library hasn’t considered accessibility when designing components, then it’s something you’re going to have to do yourself, which takes us back to points 3 and 4–documentation and customization.

Which is the best React component library?

The best React component library for your project depends on your specific needs and preferences. It’s recommended to evaluate each library based on factors such as documentation quality, community support, active development, and alignment with your project requirements before making a decision.

Comparing the libraries involves assessing various aspects such as design philosophy, component offerings, theming capabilities, documentation, community support, and ecosystem. Take Material-UI (MUI) and Ant Design as examples.

Material-UI provides a comprehensive set of React components following the Material Design system. It includes components like buttons, cards, forms, navigation, and more, with a wide range of customization options.

Ant Design offers a rich collection of components tailored for enterprise applications, including layouts, forms, navigation, data display, and more. It provides components specific to data visualization and business logic.

5 React Component Libraries

These are our five best React UI libraries for 2024.

Note: Information regarding GitHub stars and NPM downloads are accurate as of March 2024.

MUI (Material-UI)

• GitHub Stars: 91.3k
• Weekly NPM Downloads: 3.4M
• Official website: mui.com

MUI is one of the most comprehensive and widely used React component libraries. The library is built on Google’s Material Design UI, one of the most extensive UI kits in the world.

MUI – Components

MUI has a massive component library for designers to build everything from mobile and web applications, websites, and even wearable apps. 

MUI Core features fundamental UI components you see in everyday digital products, while MUI X offers a list of advanced React components for building complex user interfaces, like data tables, data pickers, charts, and more.

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MUI – Theming & Customization

One of MUI’s biggest appeals is the ability to theme and customize components. Designers can use MUI as a foundation to scale designs fast but also adapt the library to build a custom design system for their product or organization.

Designers can also take advantage of Material Design and MUI’s comprehensive guidelines to avoid usability issues when customizing components.

MUI also has a template marketplace to purchase React theme templates for dashboards, eCommerce websites, landing pages, and more.

MUI – Documentation

MUI’s documentation is as detailed and comprehensive as its component library. Its curators have taken great care to provide designers and developers with step-by-step instructions and guidelines for installation, usage, customization, accessibility, and more.

There are also tons of videos on YouTube from MUI’s large community of users and contributors offering best practices, tutorials, tips and tricks, how-to guides, and more.

React-Bootstrap

• GitHub Stars: 22.2k
• Weekly NPM Downloads: 1.3M
• Official website: react-bootstrap.github.io

Founded in 2011, Bootstrap is one of the oldest and most popular open-source CSS frameworks for websites and web applications. Bootstrap was one of the first CSS frameworks to prioritize mobile-first web development, allowing designers to build and scale responsive websites quickly.

React-Bootstrap replaced Bootstrap Javascript while ditching resource-heavy dependencies like JQuery to build a comprehensive but simplistic React component library.

React-Bootstrap – Components

If you’re familiar with Bootstrap, then you’ll instantly recognize React-Bootstrap’s generic-looking component library. Like its CSS predecessor, React-Bootstrap features UI components that favor web design rather than mobile applications.

React-Bootstrap – Theming & Customization

React-Bootstrap is very generic with minimal styling, making it easy for designers to tweak and customize. Bootstrap’s defined classes and variants make it easy to select and customize components using CSS.

Due to Bootstrap’s long history and wide usage, you can find tons of free and premium React-Bootstrap themes and templates for everything from admin dashboards to multiple purpose websites, eCommerce, landing pages, and more.

React-Bootstrap – Documentation

React-Bootstrap has excellent documentation, albeit not as detailed and comprehensive as MUI. React-Bootstrap’s simplicity and naming convention make it one of the easiest React libraries to understand, use, and customize.

Bootstrap is also featured extensively on Stack Overflow, so you’ll likely find answers to most issues. There are also loads of blogs and YouTube videos offering advice, tutorials, design projects, and more.

Semantic UI React

• GitHub Stars: 13.2k
• Weekly NPM Downloads: 253k
• Official website: react.semantic-ui.com

Semantic UI React is a popular alternative to React-Bootstrap. Like React-Bootstrap, Semantic UI started as an open-source CSS framework that its contributors used to build React components.

Semantic UI React – Components

Semantic UI React offers an extensive range of UI components for websites and web applications. The components provide cleaner, more modern styling than Bootstrap while remaining minimalist and simplistic.

Semantic UI React uses the FontAwesome icon set, including over 1,600 free icons and 7,864 Pro (paid).

Semantic UI React – Theming & Customization

Semantic UI uses an intuitive, straightforward naming convention that makes it easy to customize components. The documentation also provides a step-by-step guide for theming with Semantic UI React. Unlike MUI and React-Bootstrap, Semantic has very few template options. 

Semantic UI React – Documentation

Semantic UI React’s interactive documentation provides you with CodeSandbox examples to inspect the code and play around with components. 

The docs also allow you to switch between an example, code, and props to visualize the component from multiple angles.

Ant Design (AntD)

• GitHub Stars: 89.9k
• Weekly NPM Downloads: 1.2M
• Official website: ant.design/docs/react/introduce

Ant Design (AntD) is another popular, widely used React component library developed by Ant Group–parent company to Alibaba, China’s biggest online marketplace. Like MUI, AntD offers a vast component library for both web and mobile applications.

AntD is the only React library featured in this article that uses TypeScript – a form of Javascript.

Ant Design – Components

AntD has a massive component library for desktop and mobile, including UI patterns like infinite scroll and pull-to-refresh for mobile devices. Ant Design ProComponents offers a range of advanced React UI elements ( similar to MUI X) for building complex interfaces.

You can also find a vast library of pre-made templates and scaffolds to kick start your project and build UIs much faster.

Ant Design – Theming & Customization

AntD uses design tokens or variables for devs to customize and theme components. The UI library uses Less and provides a complete list of all AntD variables in GitHub.

Ant Design – Documentation

AntD’s comprehensive documentation provides step-by-step instructions for using and customizing. You can also inspect each component in CodeSandBox, CodePen, or StackBlitz.

Chakra UI

• GitHub Stars: 36.4k
• Weekly NPM Downloads: 523K
• Official website: chakra-ui.com

Chakra UI is a Nigerian-based React component library founded by Segun Adebayo. You can choose between Chakra’s free component library or Chakra UI Pro, which offers pre-made complex UI components to build interfaces faster.

Chakra UI – Components

Chakra UI’s component library caters to web-based applications and websites. The library offers the choice between TypeScript or Javascript React components, depending on your preference. Chakra’s designers follow WAI-ARIA standards, so every element is accessible.

The stylish UI components look similar to Semantic UI, with dark and light options available.

Chakra UI – Theming & Customization

Chakra’s designers created the UI library to be fully customized using variables to meet product and brand requirements. Charka also integrates with Create React App, Framer Motion, React Hook Form, and React Table to extend the library’s usage and customization.

Chakra UI – Documentation

Chakra UI has excellent documentation with guides, video tutorials, examples, FAQs, links to connect with core team members, and an active Discord community. 

Chakra’s users are extremely passionate and enthusiastic about the React library, and there’s always someone to connect with to ask questions.

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The design system revolution of the last decade has brought with it all sorts of tools and strategies to enhance product development workflows.

Design tokens are one of those tools many design systems, including Google’s Material Design 3 and MUI, have adopted to make UI elements easier to implement, manage, and update.

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What is a Design Token?

Design tokens contain UI data like colors, fonts, spacing, animations, assets, etc. for styling and building cross-platform user interfaces. Instead of hard-coding static values for every operating system, a design token contains multiple formats, allowing front-end developers to use the same variable, whether they’re building an iOS or Android, and even web application.

One of the challenges with cross-platform product development is that operating systems use different style properties and formats. For example, UXPin’s website uses yellow for CTAs. The hex code for this yellow is #FCC821, which you can represent in several ways:

• RGB (CSS): rgb(252, 200, 33)
• RGBA: rgba(252, 200, 33, 1)
• Octal (Android/Flutter): 77144041

Instead of using these static properties, designers and engineers reference a token like “uxpin.cta.primary,” representing all four color codes. The color will always be the same regardless of the platform or programming language.

Design tokens within CSS

To implement design tokens in CSS, they are often converted into CSS variables (also known as custom properties). CSS variables allow you to define reusable values that can be applied throughout your stylesheet, making it easier to maintain and update styles consistently.

Example of Design Tokens as CSS Variables

/* Define Design Tokens as CSS Variables */
:root {
  --color-primary: #007bff;
  --color-secondary: #6c757d;
  --font-size-base: 16px;
  --font-family-base: 'Arial, sans-serif';
  --spacing-small: 8px;
  --spacing-medium: 16px;
}

/* Applying Design Tokens in CSS */
body {
  font-size: var(--font-size-base);
  font-family: var(--font-family-base);
  color: var(--color-primary);
  padding: var(--spacing-medium);
}

button {
  background-color: var(--color-primary);
  color: var(--color-secondary);
  padding: var(--spacing-small) var(--spacing-medium);
}

Here’s a section you can add to your blog post about Design Tokens within CSS:

Design Tokens within CSS

Design tokens are a crucial part of modern design systems, helping to maintain consistency and scalability across digital products. When used within CSS, design tokens ensure that your styles are cohesive and easy to manage, allowing for a more efficient and streamlined development process.

What are Design Tokens?

Design tokens are the smallest, repeatable elements of a design system that store visual properties such as colors, typography, spacing, and shadows. They act as a bridge between design and code, providing a single source of truth that can be used across various platforms and technologies.

Using Design Tokens in CSS

To implement design tokens in CSS, they are often converted into CSS variables (also known as custom properties). CSS variables allow you to define reusable values that can be applied throughout your stylesheet, making it easier to maintain and update styles consistently.

Example of Design Tokens as CSS Variables

/* Define Design Tokens as CSS Variables */
:root {
  --color-primary: #007bff;
  --color-secondary: #6c757d;
  --font-size-base: 16px;
  --font-family-base: 'Arial, sans-serif';
  --spacing-small: 8px;
  --spacing-medium: 16px;
}

/* Applying Design Tokens in CSS */
body {
  font-size: var(--font-size-base);
  font-family: var(--font-family-base);
  color: var(--color-primary);
  padding: var(--spacing-medium);
}

button {
  background-color: var(--color-primary);
  color: var(--color-secondary);
  padding: var(--spacing-small) var(--spacing-medium);
}

In this example, design tokens for colors, typography, and spacing are defined as CSS variables. These tokens are then applied throughout the CSS to style elements consistently. If you need to update a style, such as changing the primary color, you only need to update the variable definition, and the change will automatically apply everywhere the token is used.

Types of Design Tokens

Organizations use these design tokens for many style properties, including color palette, size, spacing, assets, and drop shadows, to name a few. When we’re at it – here are the primary types of design tokens:

1. Color Tokens: Define the color palette used in a design system. Examples include primary colors, secondary colors, background colors, text colors, border colors, etc.
   • Examples:
     • color-primary: #007bff
     • color-background: #f8f9fa
2. Typography Tokens: Specify text-related properties. These include font families, font sizes, line heights, letter spacing, and font weights.
   • Examples:
     • font-family-body: 'Roboto', sans-serif
     • font-size-heading: 24px
3. Spacing Tokens: Govern the spacing system, including margins, paddings, and gaps. They ensure consistent spacing throughout the design.
   • Examples:
     • spacing-small: 4px
     • spacing-large: 16px
4. Sizing Tokens: Define sizes for components and elements. These can include widths, heights, and maximum and minimum sizes.
   • Examples:
     • size-button-height: 48px
     • size-avatar-small: 32px
5. Border Tokens: Specify border properties, such as width, style, and radius.
   • Examples:
     • border-width-thin: 1px
     • border-radius-medium: 8px
6. Shadow Tokens: Describe the shadow effects used in the design system, including color, offset, blur, and spread.
   • Examples:
     • shadow-small: 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1)
     • shadow-large: 0 4px 8px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2)
7. Opacity Tokens: Define the opacity levels for elements.
   • Examples:
     • opacity-low: 0.3
     • opacity-high: 0.9
8. Breakpoints Tokens: Specify the breakpoints for responsive design, dictating how the design adapts to different screen sizes.
   • Examples:
     • breakpoint-mobile: 480px
     • breakpoint-desktop: 1024px
9. Duration Tokens: Govern the timing of animations and transitions.
   • Examples:
     • duration-short: 200ms
     • duration-long: 600ms
10. Easing Tokens: Define the easing functions for animations and transitions.
    • Examples:
      • easing-in-out: cubic-bezier(0.4, 0, 0.2, 1)
      • easing-bounce: cubic-bezier(0.68, -0.55, 0.27, 1.55)

Where did Design Tokens Come from?

It is said that design tokens were pioneered by Salesforce. In a 2014 article published in Salesforce Designer, Salesforce UX VP Sönke Rohde described how the company uses design tokens to apply the same design principles across multiple platforms and software.

“At Salesforce, we face this very challenge, and we came up with an agnostic solution: we define our design in a single location and use a system to cascade it down to all platforms. We call it our Single Source of Truth. It’s basically a set of JSON files which contain name-value pairs describing our design tokens.” excerpt from Living Design System by Sönke Rohde.

Instead of using static style properties, engineers reference the design token, which pulls the correct value, depending on the platform, from a JSON file. To automate this process, Salesforce developed Theo–“an abstraction for transforming and formatting design tokens.”

What is the Difference between Atomic Design and Tokens?

Atomic design and design tokens are both concepts used in design systems, but they address different aspects of design consistency and scalability.

Atomic design is a methodology for creating design systems developed by Brad Frost. It breaks down user interfaces into smaller, reusable components called atoms, molecules, organisms, templates, and pages (in ascending order of complexity). Atoms are the basic building blocks like buttons, input fields, icons, etc. Molecules are combinations of atoms, organisms are combinations of molecules, and so on.

Design tokens are a set of variables that define design properties such as colors, typography, spacing, etc., in a design system. They are abstract representations of visual design decisions. Rather than hardcoding specific values (like a hex code for a color) directly into UI components, design tokens provide a centralized way to manage and update design properties across an entire design system.

Design tokens deal with the abstraction and management of design properties. They abstract design decisions into variables, allowing for easier maintenance, scalability, and consistency. They provide a single source of truth for design-related values.

3 Design Tokens Examples

Here are three examples of design tokens for typography. These tokens help ensure that typography styles are consistent across different components and platforms.

Design Token Example #1: Font Family

{
  "font-family": {
    "base": "Roboto, Arial, sans-serif",
    "heading": "Montserrat, Arial, sans-serif",
    "monospace": "'Courier New', Courier, monospace"
  }
}

Design Token Example #2: Font Size

{
  "font-size": {
    "base": "16px",
    "small": "14px",
    "large": "24px",
    "heading": {
      "h1": "32px",
      "h2": "28px",
      "h3": "24px"
    }
  }
}

Design Token Example #3: Line Hight

{
  "line-height": {
    "base": "1.5",
    "tight": "1.25",
    "loose": "1.75",
    "heading": {
      "h1": "1.2",
      "h2": "1.3",
      "h3": "1.4"
    }
  }
}

Are Design Tokens Right for You?

Google’s Material Design 3 documentation offers a list of scenarios where design tokens are most helpful:

• You use a design system for more than one platform or product
• You want an easy way to maintain and update your product’s styles
• You plan to update your product design or build new products and features

Material Design also lists two instances where design tokens might be “less helpful:”

• You don’t plan to change your product in the next few years
• Your product does not have a design system

Benefits of Using Design Tokens

We’ve identified three key benefits to using design tokens.

1. Having a Single Source of Truth

Design tokens are most beneficial for creating a single source of truth–which is what drove Salesforce to start using them. Everyone must speak the same design language when multiple product teams, engineers, and UX designers work on the same product.

Design tokens allow teams to speak the same language, no matter their role, platform, programming language, or responsibilities.

2. Maintaining UI Consistency

UI consistency is a significant challenge when designing at scale. It’s not uncommon for designers to accidentally use slightly different sizing, brand colors, and spacing for a single product! These inconsistencies cause usability issues, increasing engineering and UX debt with every release.

Design tokens eliminate these inconsistencies so that every designer uses the same styles and properties–another single source of truth benefit!

3. Getting Flexibility to Scale

Design tokens give products and design systems flexibility to make changes and scale. If teams need to add platform-specific properties, they simply update the design token.

For example, Android uses octal color codes instead of HEX or RGB. To adapt a design system to accommodate Android, the DS team can add octal codes to each design token to maintain a single source of truth.

These tokens allow engineers to deliver new projects significantly faster with fewer errors or inconsistencies.

This flexibility is also helpful when making changes. For example, if a product changes its typeface from Montserrat to Roboto, the team only has to update the typography token to implement a product-wide change.

How to define a design token structure

While there are no rules for defining your design token structure, this example from Amazon’s Style Dictionary makes the most sense. Many organizations use a similar format for their design tokens.

Amazon’s Style Dictionary uses a hierarchical design token structure:

1. Category (color, time, line-height, size, asset, content, etc.)
2. Type
3. Item
4. Sub-Item
5. State

If we wanted to create a design token for a primary active button using this structure, it might look like color_background_button_primary_active or perhaps shortened color-bg-btn-primary-active. This token will contain every type of color code necessary for cross-platform implementation.

The key to a design token structure is consistency. It must use a predictable naming convention so users can easily find tokens and scale the system.

Architecting Tokens with Options and Decisions

UX expert and founder of eightshapes, Nathan Curtis, wrote an excellent article on architecting tokens. Nathan says the first step is to segment your design tokens into Options (or choices) and Decisions.

• Options: Creates the base token values. Tokens define what Style Dictionary describes above as categories–color, time, asset, content, etc.

• Decisions: Decisions use your Options to create properties for components. For example, interactive color, background color, text color, etc.

The benefit of this system is that if you want to change your white to a different shade, replacing the HEX code under the color Option will automatically sync to every design token and associated UI element. 

Nathan’s methodology also makes it easy to scale because you simply use your Options to create more Decisions. You can read Nathan’s full article for detailed instructions on architecting tokens.

Tips on Design Token Naming Conventions

Naming conventions are a crucial aspect of any design system, ensuring clarity, consistency, and ease of use across design and development teams. A well-thought-out naming convention helps communicate the purpose and function of design tokens, components, and styles, making it easier for team members to understand and use the system effectively. Here are some tips for creating effective naming conventions for your design system:

1. Be Descriptive and Concise

Names should clearly describe the element’s purpose or function without being overly verbose. Aim for a balance between specificity and brevity to ensure names are easy to read and understand.

Example:

• Use color-primary instead of main-blue-color.

2. Use Consistent Patterns

Establish a consistent naming pattern or structure that applies across all elements in your design system. This uniformity helps users quickly recognize the type of element they are working with and understand its role in the system.

Example:

• Use a pattern like [category]-[modifier], such as color-primary, spacing-small, or font-heading-large.

3. Avoid Ambiguity

Names should be clear and unambiguous, avoiding terms that could be interpreted in multiple ways. This helps prevent confusion and ensures that everyone on the team understands what each token or component represents.

Example:

• Instead of button-color, use button-background-color to clarify that the token refers to the button’s background color, not its text or border.

4. Reflect the Design Intent

Names should reflect the design intent rather than specific values. This approach allows for more flexibility and scalability, as the underlying values can change without requiring renaming.

Example:

• Use spacing-medium instead of spacing-16px. This way, if you decide to change the medium spacing from 16px to 20px, you don’t have to rename the token.

5. Align with Your Brand and Language

Ensure that your naming conventions align with your brand’s voice and the terminology used within your organization. This alignment creates a cohesive experience for both the design and development teams and ensures consistency in communication.

Example:

• If your brand uses specific terminology for sizes (e.g., compact, regular, spacious), incorporate these terms into your token names, like spacing-compact or button-size-regular.

6. Include Context When Necessary

When tokens or components could be used in multiple contexts, include contextual information in the name to clarify their use. This is particularly important for tokens that might have different values or meanings depending on the context.

Example:

• Use card-background-color instead of just background-color to specify that the token is for card components.

7. Use Common Abbreviations Sparingly

While abbreviations can save space, overusing them can make your names cryptic and harder to understand. Use common abbreviations where they add clarity and avoid using less common or internal jargon that might confuse new team members.

Example:

• bg for background is a common abbreviation and widely understood, so bg-color-primary is acceptable. However, avoid using abbreviations like clr for color.

8. Document Naming Conventions

Document your naming conventions and provide examples in your design system documentation. This helps ensure that everyone on your team understands the rules and follows them consistently.

Example Documentation Excerpt:

• “All color tokens should follow the pattern color-[modifier], where [modifier] describes the usage (e.g., primary, secondary, error). Example: color-primary, color-error.”

9. Plan for Scalability

As your design system evolves, new components and tokens will be added. Choose naming conventions that can easily accommodate growth and changes without requiring extensive renaming or restructuring.

Example:

• Instead of naming a token button-small, which might be limiting, use button-size-small to leave room for adding other size-related tokens, like button-size-large.

How Design Tokens Work in Practice

In an informative article, Design Tokens for Dummies, Louis Chenais outlines a typical design change workflow with vs. without design tokens.

The Traditional Workflow–Without Design Tokens

1. Designer updates a style in a design tool
2. Designer documents the changes for the design handoff
3. Engineer updates the component’s properties (CSS, LESS, SASS, etc.)
4. The design team confirms the changes during quality assurance (QA)

There are several problems with this workflow:

• It creates more work and attention to detail during the design handoff.
• It’s prone to errors and miscommunication.
• Creates more tickets, thus increasing technical debt.
• It costs unnecessary time and money making the changes and fixing any corresponding errors.

The Design Token Way

1. Designer updates a syle in a design tool.
2. A design tokens generator updates a centralized repository creating platform-specific files (JSON/YAML).
3. Engineers pull the new repo, add any new tokens, and automatically update the project’s styles.

Using design tokens reduces documentation for design handoffs and saves programming time for engineers. This automated system significantly reduces human error, streamlining the development and QA process.

A Single Source of Truth With UXPin Merge

As digital products get more complex, designers and engineers must find solutions to integrate workflows–a problem UXPin has solved with our revolutionary Merge technology.

Merge allows you to import a component library from a repository to UXPin’s design editor so designers can use the same UI elements engineers use to develop the final product.

Merge components have the same fidelity and functionality as those in the repository. The design system team can use React props (or Args for our Storybook integration) to restrict changes or provide designers with the flexibility to make design decisions.

Whenever engineers make changes to the repository, they automatically sync to UXPin, notifying designers of the update. Merge comes with version control, allowing designers to switch to an earlier version–helpful for updating older projects.

Take your product development to new heights and create a single source of truth with UXPin Merge. Visit our Merge page for more information and details to request access.

The post What Are Design Tokens? appeared first on Studio by UXPin.

Now that UXPin has a Storybook integration that breaks down design-dev inconsistencies and makes it easier than ever to manage your UI components library, you might want to take some time to look at Storybook examples.

Plenty of world-renowned websites use Storybook. Look at some of the best Storybook examples that you can use as inspiration for developing your digital products.

Take UI components directly from Storybook and import them to UXPin. Design interactive and visually stunning layouts without extensive design skills. Discover UXPin Merge.

Design UI with code-backed components.

Use the same components in design as in development. Keep UI consistency at scale.

Try UXPin Merge

What is Storybook?

Storybook is an open-source tool for developing UI components in isolation for React, Vue, Angular, and other frameworks. It allows developers to build, test, and document components in a standalone environment outside of the main application, promoting better modularity and reusability.

It enhances the efficiency of UI development by providing a focused environment for creating, testing, and documenting UI components, making it easier for developers to build consistent and robust user interfaces.

BBC iPlayer Web

BBC iPlayer Web switched to Storybook when it needed more custom components. Preview their Storybook here: BBC iPlayer Storybook.

A growing number of movie and television show producers now have streaming platforms that let people watch specific content when they like. BBC iPlayer Web makes it incredibly easy for viewers to find specific types of content by title, category, or topic.

When the streaming service started, it built its back end with Node.js. It didn’t take long, though, before the development team decided to make the migration to React. React components were an obvious improvement as the platform grew.

Around 2019, though, the team realized that its approach didn’t work as well as expected. The UX professionals and developers didn’t have a common language that helped them work toward goals. They also found it difficult to locate the components they needed to add content and update the website’s appearance.

Ultimately, the BBC iPlayer Web team realized that they were spending way too much time maintaining their component library.

Storybook became a significant tool that helped them address these problems.

BBC iPlayer Web has a public design system, so you can look at it to learn a few tricks and find inspiration when you feel stuck on a project.

The design system includes everything from iconography to navigation.

Spend some time browsing BBC iPlayer’s Storybook example. Then, visit the website. You will immediately see how the designers and developers combined components to create a tool that works exceptionally well for viewers.

Related reading: Top 9 Design System Examples

The Guardian

The Guardian publishes a tremendous number of articles daily. It’s often one of the first news outlets to report on breaking news. It also has frequent articles about sports, culture, and lifestyle topics. Considering that The Guardian covers events all over the world, it needs a fast, reliable way to turn written text into published web pages.

The Guardian Storybook components library (access the Guardian Storybook here) streamlines the design and publication process. Building the design system, however, must have taken quite a bit of time because it includes every component that the well-designed website could possibly need. It even features slightly different versions of designs. For example, the CaptionBlockComponent Story includes:

• with defaults
• PhotoEssay using html
• when padded
• with width limited
• with credit
• when overlayed

No matter what type of caption block the designers want to include, they just have to search the component library, choose the correct option, and add text for the specific story.

The design team even created multiple donut graphs to fit unique circumstances.

Of course, The Guardian also maintains designs that help readers identify what type of content they’re reading.

A Review headline doesn’t look the same as a Photo Essay headline.

Again, it took a lot of effort to build this Storybook design system. Now that The Guardian editors and publishers have it, though, they can quickly publish coherent content that keeps readers informed without misdirecting them.

Here’s a great video about The Guardian’s Storybook component library.

IBM‘s Carbon Design System in Storybook

Carbon, the design system used by IBM, primarily gets used to build digital products with specific functions, such as adding files to a project, submitting reports, and tracking an activity’s progress. IBM uses Carbon for internal and external products, so you might recognize some of the components in the Storybook UI design system.

This Storybook example contains countless components. You’ll find everything from tabs to pagination. The company just wants to make sure that it has functional tools that share an aesthetic.

The components in Carbon’s design system also tend to have extensive Stories that let coders make subtle changes when necessary.

Even the Basic Checkbox component has 184 lines of JavaScript code in its Story.

A significant advantage of using Storybook is that designers and developers can see how components respond to interactions.

Three interactions with the select button:

The designer or developer can see all of these interactions result from within the same environment. They don’t need to export it to a prototyping app or add it to a designing app. The interactions happen right there to save time and meet expectations.

Salesforce Lightning Design System for React

You can also find a Storybook with components of one of the best design systems – Salesforce Lightning. This design system is based in React, a JavaScript library, which is commonly used for building user interfaces. React is a popular front-end library developed by Facebook that allows developers to create interactive and dynamic UI components.

When we talk about React in the context of design systems, it usually means using React to implement the components and design guidelines provided by the design system.

By leveraging the Salesforce Design System, developers and designers can create applications that not only look great but also provide a consistent and intuitive user experience, ultimately leading to increased user satisfaction and productivity. Additionally, adherence to the design system ensures compatibility and seamless integration with other Salesforce products and services.

Salesforce Lightning Design System was created to be framework agnostic, yet it is still compatible with other front-end frameworks, and developers have the flexibility to choose the technology stack that best suits their needs and preferences.

This Storybook example is based on React and it has UI components such as a data table, checkbox, button, card, carousel, and more.

Audi UI React

Another React-based Storybook is a design system by Audi. Crafted with precision, the Audi Design System serves as the ultimate beacon of truth for our global teams dedicated to crafting Audi’s finest offerings.

From insightful Getting Started guides to indispensable Core Components, this Storybook example empowers every team member, ensuring a unified approach across all Audi products worldwide. The Audi Design System embodies the essence of precision, innovation, and seamless collaboration that the design team at Audi chose as its defining qualities.

It sets the standard for design systems in the automotive industry and beyond. Check out its Storybook to see for yourself. It has navigational, input, text, and many other useful components.

FAQ

1. What is Storybook used for?

Storybook is an open-source tool used for developing, testing, and documenting UI components in isolation. It provides a sandbox environment where developers can create and showcase components independently from the main application. This helps in building components that are reusable, consistent, and well-documented.

Storybook is particularly useful in the development of design systems and component libraries, as it allows developers to visualize and interact with components outside the context of the application, ensuring they function correctly and look as expected. It also supports a range of add-ons for accessibility, responsive design, and performance testing, making it a versatile tool for front-end development.

2. What are some advanced Storybook examples?

Advanced Storybook examples demonstrate the tool’s capability to handle more complex scenarios and enhance the development experience. Here are a few examples:

• Component Interactions: Using Storybook’s Controls add-on, you can create interactive components that respond to user input directly in the Storybook UI. This is useful for testing props and states dynamically.
• Composite Components: Showcase components that are composed of multiple child components, such as a form with inputs, buttons, and validation messages. This helps in understanding how components work together in a real-world context.
• Data Fetching and Mocking: Demonstrate how components behave with data fetching by using tools like MSW (Mock Service Worker) to mock API requests within Storybook. This is particularly useful for testing components that depend on external data sources.
• Theming and Styling: Create stories that demonstrate how components adapt to different themes or styles. This is especially useful for design systems that support dark and light modes or multiple branding themes.
• Accessibility Testing: Use the a11y add-on to automatically check for accessibility issues in your components and display the results directly in Storybook. This ensures your components are usable for all users, including those with disabilities.

3. What are public Storybooks?

Public Storybooks are Storybook instances that are accessible to the public over the internet. They are typically hosted on platforms like GitHub Pages, Netlify, or Vercel, allowing anyone to view and interact with the documented UI components. Public Storybooks are often used by companies and open-source projects to showcase their component libraries or design systems, providing developers and designers with a comprehensive reference for how each component should look and behave.

By sharing a public Storybook, teams can improve collaboration, provide clear documentation, and promote consistency across different projects. Public Storybooks are also valuable for onboarding new team members and for providing external contributors or users with insights into the UI components available within a project.

4. What is the difference between Storybook for React and Storybook for Angular?

Storybook is a versatile tool that supports multiple frameworks, including React and Angular, but the way it integrates and functions with each framework can differ slightly due to the inherent differences between React and Angular themselves.

Nevertheless, the core purpose of Storybook remains the same across both frameworks: to provide a powerful environment for developing, testing, and documenting UI components in isolation. Both Storybook for React and Storybook for Angular offer robust features that cater to the unique needs of their respective frameworks, ensuring that developers can maintain a consistent and efficient workflow.

5. How can I use Storybook with UXPin Merge?

Using Storybook with UXPin Merge allows you to import your React components directly from Storybook into UXPin, enabling a seamless integration between design and development. This integration ensures that designers are working with the exact same components that developers are using in production, leading to more accurate and efficient design processes. Here’s how you can use Storybook with UXPin Merge:

1. Set Up Storybook: Ensure that your React components are documented and organized in Storybook. You should have a well-structured Storybook instance with all the components you want to use in UXPin.
2. Sync Components: Integrate Storybook with UXPin and use UI components in your UXPin design projects, allowing designers to drag and drop components into their prototypes while maintaining full functionality and interactivity.
3. Design and Iterate: With the components imported from Storybook, designers can create high-fidelity prototypes in UXPin that are consistent with the development environment. This integration helps streamline the design-to-development workflow, reducing the risk of inconsistencies and ensuring that both teams are aligned.

Using Storybook with UXPin Merge is a powerful way to bridge the gap between design and development, ensuring that your UI components are consistent, reusable, and accurately represented across all stages of product development.

Try UXPin Merge and Storybook integration for fast prototyping

Use Storybook components to build interactive prototypes 8.6x faster than with vector-based tools like Figma. Import them to UXPin via our integration with Storybook and build products quickly. UXPin Merge’s Storybook integration lets you import your components within one minute. It doesn’t even require any technical knowledge, especially when you maintain a public Storybook design system. Discover UXPin Merge.

The post These Storybook Examples Will Inspire Your Component Library appeared first on Studio by UXPin.

Interactions are vital for prototyping because they provide usability participants and stakeholders with a realistic user experience. The problem many designers have is building interactive components is time-consuming, and the results are underwhelming in most design tools.

Discover component-driven prototyping with UXPin Merge and how you can use interactive components to create fully functional prototypes to enhance cross-functional collaboration and user testing. Visit our Merge page for more details and how to request access to this revolutionary UX design technology.

Reach a new level of prototyping

Design with interactive components coming from your team’s design system.

Discover UXPin Merge

What are Interactive Components?

Interactive components (or interactive elements) are reusable UI elements from a design system and include interactivity by default. This interactivity is a game-changer for designers who usually work with UI kits and have to add interactions for every project.

Design teams can set interactions, states, and other animations to create immersive prototypes that accurately represent the final product.

Interactive Components Benefits

Here are several benefits of interactive components.

1. Fewer Artboards

Traditionally, creating interactions using a design tool required multiple artboards to achieve basic functionality. Designers can achieve the same results with a single artboard using interactive components.

2. Faster Time to Market

Creating fewer artboards means less design work for designers, and interactive components are reusable, so designers only have to set interactions once–saving significant time during the design process.

Once engineers are familiar with the approved components, the design handoff process is much easier, saving further time on project delivery.

The result of all these time savings?–faster time to market.

3. Increased Consistency

UI kits increase design consistency, but they still leave some ambiguity regarding interactions. Designers must set these interactions themselves, leading to errors and inconsistencies–especially if the project doesn’t specify interactivity guidelines!

Interactive components have interactivity “baked in,” so everyone has the same states, microinteractions, and animations. These baked-in interactions increase consistency while enhancing efficiency because designers have fewer setup tasks and errors to fix.

4. Better Testing and Feedback

User and stakeholder feedback is crucial for design projects. This feedback drives decision-making to deliver user-centered products that align with business goals.

Most design tools lack the fidelity and functionality to perform simple interactions engineers achieve with a few lines of code. Interactive components make it easier to replicate code functionality, resulting in immersive, realistic prototypes for usability testing and stakeholders.

5. Increase Design System Adoption

One of the DS team’s jobs is evangelizing the design system to increase adoption. Interactive components are a powerful tool in design system evangelism because they create efficient workflows for product development teams, thus increasing the likelihood of adoption.

6. Scaling Design

At UXPin, we’ve seen how component-driven prototyping and interactive components help scale design. Our favorite example is how PayPal used UXPin Merge to scale its design process without hiring new staff.

Connecting Merge to interactive components hosted in a repository allowed PayPal’s product teams (with little or no UX/design tool experience) to complete 90% of design projects 8X faster than skilled UX designers previously could.

Interactive components made the design process more accessible to non-designers because they reduced the learning curve significantly.

PayPal’s UX team built an interactive component library, including layouts and templates, and used React props to set design system constraints. Product teams simply drag and drop to build prototypes for usability testing and design handoffs.

Interactive components allow orgs to give more UX responsibilities to non-designers, like product teams (or engineers in the case of another UXPin Merge user, TeamPassword), thus scaling design with growing the UX team.

You can create interactions depending on the conditions like click, hover etc. on the ready components!

How to Incorporate Interactive Components in UXPin Prototypes?

To incorporate interactive components into your product prototypes, there are many steps you can take. Make sure that forms can actually be filled out; boxes can be checked; and links can be clicked on.

Make as many components of your design actually workable as you can; this allows users to have the experience of trying to use the product, and it can give you some insight into how your product works and how people will (or want to) use it.

Using Interactive Components in UXPin

Since the first release of UXPin more than a decade ago, interactive components have been core to our design tool, providing designers with a solution to build prototypes that accurately replicate the final product experience.

UXPin has four powerful features to create interactive components:

• States: Create multiple state variants, each with different properties and interactions for a single component.
• Variables: Capture user input data and use it to create personalized, dynamic user experiences.
• Expressions: Javascript-like functions to create complex components and advanced functionality–no code required!
• Conditional Interactions: Set if-then and if-else conditions based on user interactions to create dynamic prototypes with multiple outcomes to accurately replicate the final product experience.

One helpful strategy is including pre-built components (called “forms” at UXPin)  that you can easily drag and drop in our platform. (No need to design these from scratch!) 

Advanced Component Customization with UXPin

In UXPin, components are not just static design elements; they offer advanced customization capabilities that enable designers to create dynamic, interactive prototypes.

Unlike traditional static components, UXPin components can be enhanced with multiple states, conditional logic, and even real data integration. This flexibility allows designers to create high-fidelity prototypes that closely mimic the functionality of the final product.

• Multiple States: Each component in UXPin can have multiple states (e.g., default, hover, active), which can be easily switched within the prototype. This feature allows designers to showcase different interactions and user flows without needing to create separate screens for each variation.
• Conditional Logic: UXPin allows components to change dynamically based on user actions or predefined conditions. For example, a form component can display error messages or success notifications based on the user’s input, providing a realistic preview of the user experience.
• Data Integration: Components in UXPin can integrate with live data, making them highly functional for testing and development. By connecting components to real data sources, designers can create prototypes that behave like real applications, enhancing the accuracy and effectiveness of usability testing.

4 Examples of Interactive Components in UXPin

Here are some interactive component examples from our examples page to see how you can start. For now, let’s see what you can do with states, variables, expressions, and conditional logic.

Example 1: Button

Example 2: Input and text area 

Example 3: Radio button 

Example 4: An interactive sign-up form

→ Download a ready .uxp file to import into your UXPin account. 

Want to create one by yourself? Here’s a tutorial. 

Interactive Components in UXPin Merge

Merge takes component-driven prototyping and interactive components to another level. Instead of designers building components in UXPin, Merge imports a design system library from a repository.

These Merge UI elements are truly interactive components because behind them is code from a front-end framework like React, Vue, Angular, etc. You can import your organization’s design system or use an open-source library.

Designers don’t ever have to see or write code to use Merge components; they only work with the visual elements to build fully functioning prototypes. They also have access to component properties via UXPin’s Properties Panel to make changes within the design system’s constraints.

Learn more about Merge and how to request access.

Designing with Merge Interactive Components

Step 1: Grab Components From the Design System

There are three ways to import interactive components into UXPin using Merge:

• Git Integration: Connect a React component library directly to UXPin
• Storybook: Sync front-end frameworks like Vue, Angular, HTML, Ember, Web Components, and more (see the complete list here)
• npm Integration: Import open-source libraries from the Node Package Manager (npm)–a fantastic DIY option for designers. Read more about the npm Integration and how it works.

Imported Merge components appear in UXPin’s Design System Libraries in the left sidebar. Designers click or drag the UI elements they need from the sidebar to appear on the canvas. They can also use multiple design systems and UXPin elements and even combine them to create new components which they can save as Patterns.

Step 2: Make Changes

When designers click on a Merge component, its properties appear in the righthand Properties Panel. Those with technical skills can switch to JSX and adjust the code directly–a flexible workspace to match your preferred workflow.

Step 3: Share and Test

Designers can use Preview and Share for usability testing or when sharing prototypes with stakeholders. UXPin’s Comments feature allows teams and stakeholders to collaborate on prototypes and assign comments for team members to action.

Step 4: Design Handoff

Preview and Share also features Spec Mode, where engineers can inspect elements and click on Merge components to view and copy JSX changes. Designers can also include prototype documentation with annotations explaining each element and user interface.

Check out Design Handoff: What it Looks Like with UXPin Merge for a short tutorial.

Interactive Components UXPin Merge vs. Figma

Here’s a quick overview of how Figma’s interactive components feature compares to UXPin Merge components.

Single Source of Truth

Figma’s interactive components allow designers to replicate some fundamental interactions. However, organizations must still manage two design systems–one UI kit for designers in Figma and a separate component library hosted in a repository.

The problem with this workflow is it requires additional resources to manage and update two systems while increasing the likelihood of errors.

With Merge, design teams and engineers pull components from the same repository. Designers see visual elements, and engineers use the code behind them. Any changes to the repository automatically sync to UXPin and notify all teams of the update. Designers can also use Version Control to switch between different design system versions.

Fully Interactive

Figma’s interactive components aim to mimic code, whereas code powers Merge, giving design teams fully interactive UI elements.

With Figma’s interactive components, you’re essentially creating states. With Merge, you get complex functionality like real date pickers, data tables, graphs, inputs, responsive design, and much more!

Smoother Design Handoffs and Cross-Functional Collaboration

Design handoffs are seamless, almost non-existent when using Merge because designers and engineers use the same component library. Design teams can’t make changes outside of properties set by the design system, so there are no surprises for engineers.

Merge significantly reduces development time because engineers can copy/paste production-ready code from the repository and grab component props from UXPin to begin front-end development.

Figma’s components are vector-based artboards. Although many plugins convert Figma design files to code, it’s rarely usable, and engineers must still re-program it to meet their product’s format and structure.

In summary, Merge is a code-based technology that syncs design and development to form a single source of truth. Figma’s interactive components offer basic functionality (mostly state variants) that reduces the number of artboards designers use to create interactions.

Use our Figma plugin to copy Figma designs into UXPin. Reach higher interactivity of prototyping.

Bridging Design and Development with UXPin Merge

One of the standout features of UXPin is its Merge technology, which bridges the gap between design and development by allowing designers to use actual code components within their prototypes. This feature ensures that the components in UXPin are the same as those in production, maintaining consistency and reducing the risk of discrepancies between the design and the final product.

• Code-Based Components: With UXPin Merge, designers can import coded components from a repository (like GitHub) and use them directly in their design projects. These components are not just visual representations; they are the actual components that will be used in the final product, complete with all the functionality and interactivity defined by the development team.
• Single Source of Truth: By using code-based components, UXPin ensures that there is a single source of truth for both designers and developers. This approach eliminates the need for redundant handoffs and rework, as any changes made in the design are immediately reflected in the code, and vice versa. This seamless integration fosters better collaboration and streamlines the product development process.

How to Get Started Prototyping With UXPin Merge

Ready to get started with component-driven prototyping in UXPin using Merge? You have two options:

• Open-source libraries: Open-source libraries are best for teams who lack an active dev support or they just want to get some basic understanding of how they can work with components before comitting to them.
• Private design systems: If you’d like to sync your product’s private design system to UXPin, visit our Merge page to request access, and one of UXPin’s technical staff will contact you to help with onboarding.

The post What are Interactive Components? Bring your Prototypes to Life in UXPin appeared first on Studio by UXPin.

Most front-end developers constantly seek ways to streamline our workflows and craft responsive, aesthetically pleasing websites. Tailwind CSS, with its utility-first approach, has emerged as a powerful tool to do just that – build website interfaces. If you’re looking to optimize your use of Tailwind, you’ve come to the right place. In this article, we’ll explore Tailwind best practices to help you harness the full potential of this utility-first CSS framework.

Bridge the gap between design and development by using fully coded Tailwind components in design. Use UXPin Merge with a built-in Tailwind UI library and empower your team to create consistent, high-quality user interfaces faster than ever before. Make it easier to collaborate, iterate, and innovate. Try UXPin Merge today and see how it can transform your Tailwind development process. Request access now.

Design UI with code-backed components.

Use the same components in design as in development. Keep UI consistency at scale.

Try UXPin Merge

What is Tailwind CSS?

Before diving into the best practices, let’s briefly discuss what Tailwind CSS is. Tailwind is a utility-first CSS framework that allows you to design directly in your markup by using classes. Unlike traditional CSS frameworks, which provide pre-designed components, Tailwind gives you low-level utility classes, such as flex, pt-4, text-center, and grid, enabling you to build custom designs without writing any CSS.

Why Tailwind CSS?

1. Flexibility and Customization

Tailwind offers unparalleled flexibility. You aren’t constrained by predefined styles and can customize your user interface to match the design specifications of your project.

2. Rapid Development

With Tailwind, you can build UIs faster. The framework’s utility classes allow for quick iterations and tweaks, enabling you to see changes in real-time as you code.

3. Maintainable Codebase

Using Tailwind leads to a more maintainable codebase. With a consistent set of utility classes, your styles remain clear and predictable, which is especially useful in large projects with multiple contributors.

Best Practices for Using Tailwind CSS

1. Leverage Tailwind’s PurgeCSS

One of the most common concerns with Tailwind is the potential for bloat due to the large number of utility classes. However, by configuring PurgeCSS, you can automatically remove unused CSS, reducing the final file size and improving performance. Tailwind makes it easy to integrate PurgeCSS into your build process:

module.exports = {
  purge: ['./src/**/*.html', './src/**/*.js'],
  // other configurations...
};

By specifying the files where your classes are used, PurgeCSS will strip out any unused styles, ensuring your CSS is as lean as possible.

2. Use Tailwind’s Configuration File

Tailwind’s configuration file (tailwind.config.js) is your best friend when it comes to customizing your design system. This file allows you to extend the default theme, add new utility classes, and even define custom screens and breakpoints.

For example, you can add custom colors to your theme:

module.exports = {
  theme: {
    extend: {
      colors: {
        brand: {
          light: '#3fbaeb',
          DEFAULT: '#0fa9e6',
          dark: '#0c87b8',
        },
      },
    },
  },
};

This not only keeps your code DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself) but also ensures consistency across your project.

3. Adopt a Mobile-First Approach

Tailwind encourages a mobile-first design methodology, which is an industry standard in modern web development. By default, Tailwind’s breakpoints are designed with mobile-first in mind:

<div class="text-center sm:text-left md:text-right">
  <!-- Your content here -->
</div>

In this example, the text is centered by default, left-aligned on small screens (sm), and right-aligned on medium screens (md). This approach ensures that your design adapts gracefully to different screen sizes.

4. Utilize Tailwind UI

To save even more time, consider integrating Tailwind UI, a library of pre-designed components built with Tailwind CSS. Tailwind UI provides a robust set of components, from navigation bars to form elements, which you can easily integrate into your project.

<div class="bg-gray-50">
  <div class="max-w-7xl mx-auto p-4 sm:p-6 lg:p-8">
    <!-- Tailwind UI component here -->
  </div>
</div>

Tailwind UI not only accelerates development but also ensures that your designs adhere to best practices in accessibility and responsiveness.

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5. Optimize for Performance

Even with PurgeCSS, it’s essential to keep an eye on performance. Tailwind CSS can lead to an excessive number of classes in your markup. While this is generally not an issue, it’s good practice to use reusable components and minimize redundancy.

Moreover, consider using the @apply directive to create reusable styles within your CSS:

.btn-blue {
  @apply bg-blue-500 text-white font-bold py-2 px-4 rounded;
}

This approach reduces repetition in your HTML and keeps your codebase cleaner.

6. Stay Organized with Components

As your project grows, it’s crucial to maintain an organized codebase. Tailwind’s utility classes can lead to cluttered HTML if not managed properly. Grouping related classes together and using semantic class names can make your code more readable:

<button class="btn btn-blue">
  Click me
</button>

In this example, btn and btn-blue are reusable classes that encapsulate specific styles. This method enhances readability and simplifies future updates.

7. Integrate with a Design System

To get the most out of Tailwind CSS, integrate it with a design system. Tailwind’s utility-first approach aligns well with modern design systems, allowing you to create a consistent and scalable UI. This integration helps bridge the gap between designers and developers, ensuring that both are on the same page.

Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

1. Overuse of Utility Classes

While utility classes are powerful, overusing them can lead to verbose and cluttered HTML. Strive for balance by using Tailwind’s @apply directive in your CSS to avoid repetitive code.

2. Ignoring Accessibility

Accessibility should never be an afterthought. Tailwind’s documentation provides guidance on how to build accessible UIs, but it’s your responsibility to implement these practices. Use appropriate ARIA attributes, and always consider users with disabilities.

3. Not Taking Advantage of the Full Ecosystem

Tailwind CSS is part of a larger ecosystem that includes Tailwind UI, Headless UI, and third-party plugins. Ignoring these resources can slow down your development process. Explore and integrate these tools to maximize your efficiency.

Conclusion

Tailwind CSS is a powerful framework that, when used correctly, can significantly enhance your front-end development workflow. By following the best practices outlined in this article—such as leveraging PurgeCSS, customizing the configuration file, and adopting a mobile-first approach—you can build responsive, maintainable, and scalable websites with ease.

Don’t forget to explore Tailwind UI for pre-built components that can save you time and ensure that your designs are both beautiful and functional. Tailwind’s utility-first approach might require a shift in mindset, but once mastered, it will become an indispensable part of your development toolkit.

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When building modern web applications, selecting the right UI library can make a significant difference in both development speed and user experience. For developers working with React, two of the most popular UI frameworks are Chakra UI and Material UI. Both offer extensive component libraries, robust customization options, and active community support, but they cater to different needs and design philosophies.

In this article, we’ll dive deep into a side-by-side comparison of Chakra UI and Material-UI to help you determine which framework best suits your project’s requirements in 2024. Whether you’re seeking a more flexible and minimalistic design approach or a framework that adheres strictly to material design guidelines, understanding the strengths and weaknesses of each can empower you to make an informed decision.

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Chakra UI vs Material UI – Feature Comparison

When selecting a UI library for your React projects, it’s essential to understand how each option can align with your design and development goals. Below, we break down the key features of Chakra UI and Material UI to help you decide which framework is the best fit for your needs.

Chakra UI and Material UI as Design Systems

A solid design system is the backbone of a cohesive user experience, and both Chakra UI and MUI (which Material UI is often called) offer robust theming capabilities. Chakra UI focuses on simplicity and flexibility, using design tokens to create a consistent look and feel across your application. Its theming system is intuitive, allowing for easy customization with built-in support for light and dark modes, as well as fine-grained control over typography, colors, and spacing.

Material UI, on the other hand, is built around Google’s Material Design guidelines, providing a more structured approach to design systems. It offers a comprehensive set of design tokens that help maintain visual consistency and coherence, especially for projects that adhere strictly to Material Design principles. The theming capabilities are powerful, allowing you to override almost any style or create custom themes tailored to your brand.

Quality of UI Components

A comprehensive component library is crucial for rapid development and design consistency. Chakra UI provides a wide array of accessible, lightweight components designed with flexibility in mind. Each component is fully customizable, ensuring that you can adapt the look and feel to match your project’s unique style. The library is continuously growing, with a strong focus on community feedback and contributions, making it ideal for developers who value versatility and simplicity.

Material UI offers one of the most extensive component libraries available for React. It provides a rich set of pre-designed components that align with Material Design specifications, ensuring a polished, professional look straight out of the box. MUI is particularly well-suited for projects that require a consistent, standardized design language, making it a great choice for enterprise applications or teams looking for a reliable, well-documented library.

Ease of Customization

Customization is key to creating a unique and engaging user experience, and both libraries excel in this area but with different approaches. Chakra UI is designed with developer experience in mind, offering an easy-to-use API and extensive documentation that make customizing components and themes a breeze. The library provides straightforward mechanisms for altering component styles through props, theme overrides, and style objects, allowing for rapid iterations and adjustments.

MUI also excels in customization, particularly for those familiar with CSS-in-JS. Its styling solution, based on Emotion or styled-components, gives you full control over component appearance, enabling deep customization through theme overrides and CSS variables. This flexibility allows developers to create highly personalized and responsive designs, although the learning curve may be steeper for those new to these styling methods.

Performance

Performance is a critical factor, especially for applications that need to deliver a seamless user experience. Chakra UI is known for its lightweight components and minimalistic approach, which can lead to faster load times and improved performance. The library emphasizes simplicity, which often results in smaller bundle sizes and more efficient rendering, making it an excellent choice for projects where performance is a top priority.

Material UI, while offering a richer set of components, may introduce a slightly larger bundle size due to its comprehensive features and dependencies. However, with careful tree-shaking and optimization, MUI can still deliver performant applications. It’s essential to consider the trade-offs between the out-of-the-box functionality and the potential impact on performance when choosing Material UI.

Accessibility

Accessibility should never be an afterthought, and both Chakra UI and Material UI prioritize building accessible applications. Chakra UI takes accessibility seriously by default, with components designed to be fully accessible and compliant with WAI-ARIA standards. The library’s commitment to accessibility ensures that developers can create inclusive experiences without additional overhead.

MUI also places a strong emphasis on accessibility, with many components built to support keyboard navigation, screen readers, and other assistive technologies. However, achieving full compliance may require additional configuration and testing, especially when deviating from the standard Material Design patterns. Both libraries offer a solid foundation for building accessible applications, but the choice may depend on how much customization and additional accessibility work you are willing to undertake.

By understanding these key features and how they align with your project’s goals, you can make an informed decision on whether Chakra UI or Material UI is the right choice for your next React application.

Chakra UI vs Material UI – Use Case Scenarios

Choosing between Chakra UI and Material UI depends on the specific needs of your project. Here’s when each library might be the better choice:

Use Chakra UI for:

• Custom Design Flexibility: Ideal for projects that need a unique, highly customizable design. Great for startups or applications with distinct branding.
• Performance: Perfect for performance-focused applications like dashboards and SPAs, where lightweight components and fast load times are crucial.
• Rapid Prototyping: Best for quick development cycles and MVPs, where simple APIs and easy customization allow for fast iteration.

Use Material UI for:

• Material Design Compliance: The go-to choice for projects that need to strictly follow Google’s Material Design guidelines, such as enterprise apps or internal tools.
• Rich Component Library: Excellent for applications requiring a wide range of pre-built components with extensive functionality, like CMS or CRM tools.
• Cross-Platform Consistency: Ideal for projects needing a consistent look and feel across different devices and platforms, ensuring brand uniformity.

These scenarios will help you decide whether Chakra UI or Material UI is the best fit for your project, based on your specific requirements and goals.

Community and Ecosystem of Chakra UI vs MUI

Choosing the right UI library often depends on the community support and ecosystem surrounding it.

Popularity and Community Support

Chakra UI

Chakra UI has quickly gained popularity in the React community, with over 37.3k stars on GitHub. It has an active user base, with many developers contributing to its growth through plugins and extensions.

The community is very supportive, often engaging on platforms like Discord and GitHub, where developers can share ideas, seek help, and contribute to the library’s ongoing development. This vibrant community ensures that Chakra UI remains well-maintained and up-to-date, with frequent updates and improvements.

Material UI 

MUI is one of the most established and widely used React UI libraries, with over 92.5k stars on GitHub. It has a large and active community, reflected in its extensive documentation, numerous plugins, and strong presence on forums like Stack Overflow.

Material UI’s long-standing presence has helped it build a robust ecosystem, making it a highly supported option for developers looking for reliable community backing.

Availability of Plugins and Extensions

Chakra UI

Chakra UI has a growing ecosystem with various third-party plugins and extensions that enhance its functionality. While it is relatively newer compared to Material-UI, its modular design encourages developers to create and share plugins, expanding the core library’s capabilities. This community-driven approach ensures that Chakra UI continually evolves with new features and improvements.

Material UI

Material UI boasts a well-established ecosystem of third-party plugins and extensions due to its long-standing presence in the React community. With a wide range of additional component libraries, themes, and utility packages available, developers have access to a broad array of tools to enhance their applications. This extensive ecosystem allows for easy customization and expansion, making Material UI suitable for projects of all sizes.

Documentation and Community Support

Chakra UI

Chakra UI is known for its well-organized and comprehensive documentation, which includes detailed guides, API references, and examples for both beginners and advanced users. The community support is also very responsive, especially on platforms like GitHub and Discord, where maintainers and contributors actively help resolve issues and answer questions.

Material UI

MUI offers extensive documentation that is regularly updated to reflect new features and changes. The documentation includes thorough API references, guides, and examples, making it easy for developers to learn and use the library effectively. The community support is robust, with active participation across various forums, ensuring that developers can find answers and troubleshoot issues quickly.

Real-World Benchmarks: Chakra UI vs. Material-UI

When choosing a UI library, understanding real-world performance and practical applications is key. Here’s how Chakra UI and Material-UI stack up based on performance benchmarks and case studies:

Performance Benchmarks

Chakra UI

• Bundle Size: Chakra UI is known for its lightweight bundle, which is around 279.6 kB minified and 89.0 kB when compressed using GZIP. This compact size makes Chakra UI a great choice for smaller projects or applications where loading speed is a priority. Its minimalistic design ensures that applications built with Chakra UI load quickly and efficiently.
• Performance: Designed with a CSS-in-JS approach, Chakra UI allows for dynamic styling but may introduce some performance overhead in applications that handle a large amount of data or require extensive real-time updates. However, for most small to medium-sized projects, Chakra UI performs exceptionally well, providing a balance between performance and customization​.

Material UI

• Bundle Size: Material-UI’s bundle is slightly larger, coming in at around 335.3 kB minified and 93.7 kB when compressed with GZIP. While this size is larger than Chakra UI, Material-UI employs several optimization techniques like tree-shaking and lazy loading to minimize its impact on performance. These techniques help manage the library’s size effectively, making it a viable choice even for large-scale projects.
• Performance: Material-UI is known for its efficiency in handling large, complex applications. It excels in scenarios that demand a robust UI framework capable of managing numerous components and styles, thanks to its efficient runtime performance. This makes it particularly suitable for enterprise-level applications where a comprehensive set of components and consistent design are crucial​.

Case Studies and Testimonials

Chakra UI

Adopted by companies like Coinbase and Brex, Chakra UI is praised for its simplicity and flexibility. These companies use Chakra UI to create user interfaces that are highly customizable and easy to iterate upon, highlighting its suitability for projects that require quick development and frequent design changes. Developers often commend Chakra UI for its intuitive API and ease of use, which facilitate the creation of accessible, performant user interfaces​.

Material UI

Trusted by major companies such as Spotify, NASA, and Netflix, Material-UI is celebrated for its reliability and ability to handle large-scale, complex applications. These organizations rely on Material-UI for its extensive component library, which adheres strictly to Material Design principles, ensuring a cohesive and polished look across various platforms. Material-UI’s robust community support and detailed documentation further enhance its appeal for developers working on enterprise-level projects​.

Final words – Chakra UI vs Material UI

Chakra UI is ideal for small to medium-sized projects that require a lightweight and highly customizable UI library with an intuitive API. It offers a smaller bundle size, which improves loading times, and built-in support for responsive design, making it a strong choice for performance-focused applications.

However, it may struggle with performance in data-heavy applications due to its CSS-in-JS approach and has fewer pre-styled components compared to MUI.

On the other hand, Material UI is better suited for larger, enterprise-level projects that require a robust, feature-rich UI framework. It provides a comprehensive set of pre-styled components that follow Material Design principles, ensuring consistency and a polished look.

While Material UI has a larger bundle size, it employs optimization techniques to enhance performance in complex applications. It also has a steeper learning curve and offers less flexibility for creating unique designs that deviate from Material Design guidelines. Choosing between these libraries depends on your project’s size, performance needs, and customization requirements.

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HTML and CSS are the core technologies behind every website, each serving a unique purpose. HTML, or Hypertext Markup Language, provides the structure and content, laying out the framework for a webpage. CSS, or Cascading Style Sheets, is responsible for styling and layout, bringing your HTML to life with colors, fonts, and layouts.

Understanding the differences between HTML and CSS is crucial for any web designer or developer. In this article, we’ll break down these two essential languages and explore how they work together to create beautiful, functional websites. 

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What is HTML?

HTML, or Hypertext Markup Language, is the standard markup language used to create and structure content on the web. It acts as the backbone of all web pages, providing a framework that defines the layout and organization of a website. HTML uses a series of elements or tags to specify different parts of a webpage, such as headings, paragraphs, links, images, and lists. Each element tells the browser how to display the content on the page.

Developed in the early 1990s, HTML has evolved significantly, with the latest version being HTML5. This version introduced a range of new features and capabilities, such as improved support for multimedia, better semantic elements, and more powerful forms, enhancing both user experience and website functionality.

At its core, HTML is all about structure. For example, an HTML file starts with a <!DOCTYPE html> declaration, followed by the <html> tag, which encompasses the entire document. Inside the <html> tag, you’ll find the <head> and <body> tags. The <head> contains meta-information like the title and links to stylesheets, while the <body> includes all the visible content on the page.

Example of HTML code

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>My First Web Page</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h1>Hello, World!</h1>
    <p>This is my first web page using HTML.</p>
  </body>
</html>

In this example, the <h1> tag is used to create a heading, while the <p> tag creates a paragraph. These HTML elements are the basic building blocks of web pages, and they form the structure that CSS and JavaScript can later style and enhance.

Understanding HTML is crucial for anyone involved in web design or development. It’s not just about creating content but also about ensuring that content is well-structured and accessible to all users, including those using screen readers or other assistive technologies. Additionally, well-structured HTML helps search engines understand and index your content effectively, which is vital for SEO.

In summary, HTML lays the foundation for all web content, providing the essential structure that defines how information is organized and displayed. Whether you’re creating a simple webpage or a complex web application, mastering HTML is a fundamental step in building a successful online presence.

What is CSS?

CSS, or Cascading Style Sheets, is the language used to describe the presentation and design of a webpage. While HTML provides the structure and content of a webpage, CSS is responsible for its visual style, including layout, colors, fonts, and spacing. In essence, CSS brings HTML to life, transforming plain text into visually engaging content that enhances the user experience.

CSS was first introduced in the mid-1990s to address the limitations of HTML when it came to styling and design.

Before CSS, all styling had to be done directly within HTML, leading to repetitive and cumbersome code. CSS revolutionized web design by allowing designers to separate content from presentation, making it easier to maintain and update websites. The latest version, CSS3, has introduced advanced features like animations, gradients, transitions, and flexible layouts, enabling more dynamic and responsive web designs.

The core concept of CSS is its cascading nature, where styles are applied based on a hierarchy of rules and priorities. A simple CSS rule consists of a selector, which targets an HTML element, and a declaration block, which contains one or more declarations specifying the styling properties for that element.

Example of CSS code

body {
  font-family: Arial, sans-serif;
  background-color: #f0f0f0;
}
h1 {
  color: #333333;
  text-align: center;
}

In this example, the body selector applies a default font and background color to the entire webpage, while the h1 selector styles all <h1> headings with a specific text color and alignment. This approach allows for consistent styling across a site and makes it easier to change the look and feel by simply modifying the CSS code.

CSS also supports different ways to apply styles: inline, internal, and external. Inline styles are applied directly within HTML elements, internal styles are defined within a <style> tag in the <head> section of an HTML document, and external styles are linked through a separate CSS file. External stylesheets are the most efficient way to manage styles across multiple pages, promoting cleaner code and easier updates.

By separating content from design, CSS empowers designers to create visually appealing and user-friendly websites without altering the underlying HTML structure. It also plays a crucial role in responsive web design, allowing pages to adapt to various screen sizes and devices. With media queries and flexible grid layouts, CSS makes it possible to design sites that look great on desktops, tablets, and smartphones alike.

In conclusion, CSS is an essential tool for web designers and developers, providing the means to control the visual presentation of a website. By mastering CSS, you can create more dynamic, responsive, and aesthetically pleasing web experiences that engage users and enhance the overall effectiveness of your site.

HTML vs CSS – 5 Key Differences

HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) are two fundamental technologies that work together to create and style web pages, but they serve distinct purposes and have different roles in web development. Understanding their differences is essential for anyone looking to build or design websites.

Purpose and Function

The primary difference between HTML and CSS lies in their purpose. HTML is a markup language used to structure and organize content on the web. It defines the elements of a webpage, such as headings, paragraphs, images, links, and lists, and establishes the framework for how the content is displayed in a browser.

In contrast, CSS is a style sheet language used to control the presentation and layout of HTML elements. CSS defines the visual aspects of a webpage, such as colors, fonts, spacing, and positioning, allowing designers to separate content from design.

Syntax and Structure

HTML and CSS also differ in their syntax and structure. HTML uses a tag-based syntax, where elements are enclosed in angle brackets (e.g., <h1>, <p>, <div>), and often come in pairs with opening and closing tags (e.g., <p>…</p>).

These tags provide the instructions for browsers on how to display content. CSS, on the other hand, uses a rule-based syntax. Each rule consists of a selector (e.g., p, .class, #id) that targets HTML elements, and a declaration block that contains one or more declarations defining the styling properties (e.g., color: blue; font-size: 16px;). This separation allows CSS to be more flexible and reusable, as a single style sheet can be applied to multiple HTML documents.

Dependency and Relationship

HTML and CSS have a complementary yet interdependent relationship. HTML can exist without CSS, but a webpage created solely with HTML would be plain and lack visual appeal. Conversely, CSS needs HTML to function, as it relies on HTML elements to apply styles.

Together, they create a complete and cohesive web page: HTML provides the structure and content, while CSS adds the style and visual enhancement. This separation of concerns is a key principle in web development, promoting clean, maintainable, and scalable code.

Implementation and Maintenance

Another key difference is how HTML and CSS are implemented and maintained. HTML is written directly within the HTML file of a webpage, making it integral to the content. CSS can be implemented in three ways: inline (within HTML elements), internal (within a <style> tag in the HTML document), or external (in a separate CSS file linked to the HTML document).

External CSS files are the most efficient way to manage styles across multiple pages, as they allow for centralized control over the design. This approach makes it easier to update and maintain the website’s appearance, as changes to a single CSS file can instantly affect the entire site.

Impact on User Experience and SEO

HTML and CSS also differ in their impact on user experience and search engine optimization (SEO). Well-structured HTML is crucial for accessibility and SEO, as it helps search engines understand and index the content of a webpage. Proper use of semantic HTML tags (e.g., <header>, <article>, <footer>) improves the accessibility of a webpage for screen readers and enhances SEO by giving search engines more context about the content.

CSS, while not directly affecting SEO, plays a vital role in user experience. It ensures that a webpage is visually appealing and responsive, adapting to different screen sizes and devices, which can reduce bounce rates and improve overall engagement.

How HTML and CSS Work Together

HTML and CSS are designed to work in tandem to create visually appealing and well-structured web pages. While HTML provides the foundational structure and content of a webpage, CSS enhances the visual appearance by applying styles to the HTML elements. This combination of structure and style is what brings a webpage to life, offering both functionality and aesthetics.

Separation of Content and Presentation

One of the core principles of modern web development is the separation of content and presentation, which is achieved through the use of HTML and CSS together. HTML focuses on defining the content and structure of a webpage using tags and elements. These elements outline where different pieces of content, such as text, images, and links, should appear.

CSS, on the other hand, is used to style these HTML elements, specifying how they should look and behave on the page. By keeping HTML and CSS separate, developers can maintain cleaner, more organized code, making it easier to update and modify either the content or the styling without affecting the other.

Applying CSS to HTML

CSS can be applied to HTML in several ways: inline, internal, and external. Inline CSS is added directly within the HTML element using the style attribute, allowing for quick and specific styling. Internal CSS is defined within a <style> tag in the <head> section of an HTML document, which applies styles to that specific page. External CSS involves linking an HTML document to a separate CSS file using the <link> tag.

External stylesheets are the most efficient method, especially for larger websites, as they allow for consistent styling across multiple pages and easier maintenance. For example, with an external CSS file, a single change in the CSS can be reflected on every page that uses that stylesheet.

Cascading and Inheritance

The “Cascading” in Cascading Style Sheets refers to how CSS rules are applied to HTML elements based on a hierarchy of rules and priorities. When multiple CSS rules could apply to an element, the browser determines which rules take precedence based on specificity, importance, and source order. This cascading nature allows for flexible and precise control over styling.

CSS also supports inheritance, where certain properties defined for a parent element are automatically passed down to its child elements, reducing the need for redundant code and making it easier to maintain a consistent design throughout a webpage.

Example of HTML and CSS Working Together

To illustrate how HTML and CSS work together, consider a simple example of a webpage with a header and a paragraph:

HTML:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="styles.css">
  </head>
  <body>
    <h1>Welcome to My Website</h1>
    <p>This is a simple example of HTML and CSS working together.</p>
  </body>
</html>

CSS (styles.css)

body {
  font-family: Arial, sans-serif;
  background-color: #f0f0f0;
  color: #333;
  margin: 0;
  padding: 20px;
}
h1 {
  color: #005f99;
  text-align: center;
}
p {
  font-size: 16px;
  line-height: 1.5;
}

In this example, the HTML file structures the content using <h1> for the header and <p> for the paragraph. The CSS file (styles.css) then styles these elements, setting the background color of the page, the font family, and the specific styles for the <h1> and <p> elements.

The HTML and CSS files work together seamlessly, with HTML providing the content and CSS enhancing the presentation.

Enhancing User Experience with HTML and CSS

By working together, HTML and CSS allow developers to create web pages that are both functional and visually engaging. HTML provides the semantic structure that search engines and assistive technologies rely on, improving accessibility and SEO. CSS enhances this structure with styling that makes the content more appealing and easier to navigate. Together, they ensure that web pages look good and perform well across a variety of devices and screen sizes, enhancing the overall user experience.

In summary, HTML and CSS are two complementary technologies that work together to build the modern web. HTML defines the content and structure of a webpage, while CSS provides the styling and layout, making the web visually appealing. By understanding how they interact, web designers and developers can create efficient, maintainable, and beautiful websites that meet both functional and aesthetic needs.

HTML vs CSS – Still Relevant in 2024?

Despite the rapid evolution of web development, HTML and CSS remain fundamental technologies in 2024. As the building blocks of the web, HTML structures content, while CSS handles styling and layout, making them essential for creating all websites and web applications. They have adapted well to new demands, with HTML5 and CSS3 introducing features like responsive design, advanced layouts, and multimedia support, ensuring compatibility with modern web standards.

HTML and CSS are also crucial for SEO and accessibility. HTML provides the semantic structure that search engines and assistive technologies rely on, while CSS allows for visual adjustments that enhance usability. Their universal compatibility across browsers ensures that websites reach a wide audience, making them indispensable tools in any developer’s toolkit.

Learning HTML and CSS is still a fundamental skill for web developers, as they form the foundation for more advanced technologies. As web development continues to evolve, HTML and CSS remain relevant, adaptable, and essential for creating interactive, user-friendly websites.

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In summary, while HTML and CSS are both essential for building and designing websites, they have distinct roles and functions. HTML provides the structure and content of a webpage, while CSS controls its presentation and style. Understanding these key differences allows web designers and developers to use both technologies effectively, creating web pages that are not only functional and accessible but also visually engaging and responsive.

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A React Hook is a special function in React that lets developers use state and other React features without writing a class. It makes code simpler and easier to manage by allowing functionality to be added directly within components.

React Hooks makes the code easier to read and write. It simplifies state management, enhances performance, and helps reuse logic across multiple components, making behavior consistent and easy to predict.

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What is a React Hook?

A React Hook is a special function provided by the React library that allows developers to use state and other React features in functional components.

Before the introduction of hooks, functional components were stateless and lacked lifecycle methods, limiting their capabilities compared to class components. Hooks solve this by enabling state management and access to lifecycle features within functional components, making them more powerful and versatile.

What does a Hook do?

A React Hook is a special function that allows you to “hook into” React features and lifecycle methods within functional components. Hooks enable you to use state, manage side effects, access context, and perform other tasks that were previously only possible with class components.

Why Hooks were introduced?

Hooks were introduced in React 16.8 to address several key issues and enhance the functionality of functional components. 

Before Hooks, functional components were stateless and could not directly handle side effects, which limited their utility. Developers often had to convert functional components to class components to incorporate state or lifecycle methods. Hooks resolved this limitation by enabling functional components to be stateful and manage side effects, making them more powerful and flexible. 

Additionally, sharing stateful logic between class components could be cumbersome and repetitive, often relying on patterns like render props and higher-order components (HOCs) that led to complex and less readable code. 

Hooks improve code reusability and composition by allowing stateful logic to be extracted into reusable functions. They also simplify and clean up the code, eliminating the verbosity and complexity associated with class components and using this keyword. 

By encapsulating and isolating related logic within custom hooks, Hooks enhances the codebase’s maintainability, making it easier to understand and manage. Furthermore, Hooks are backwards-compatible, allowing for gradual adoption. This means existing class components can remain unchanged while new components can be developed using Hooks, facilitating a smoother project transition.

How many Hooks are in React?

In the latest version of React, v18.3.1, a total of 15 React Hooks are available.
Let’s begin by stating some of the most widely used ones.

1. useState
2. useEffect
3. useContext
4. useReducer
5. useMemo
6. useRef
7. useCallback
8. useId
9. useDebugValue
10. useDeferredValue
11. useImperativeHandle
12. useInsertionEffect
13. useLayoutEffect
14. useSyncExternalStore
15. useTransition

Two new hooks on the horizon are currently in an experimental state and outside the scope of this article.

16. useActionState
17. useOptimistic

Types of React Hooks with Examples

Let’s delve into the functionality of each hook through individual examples.

1. useState

useState allows functional components to have state variables.

import React, { useState } from 'react';

function Counter() {
  const [count, setCount] = useState(0);

  return (
    <div>
      <p>You clicked {count} times</p>
      <button onClick={() => setCount(count + 1)}>
        Click me
      </button>
    </div>
  );
}

Inside the Counter function, the useState Hook creates a state variable called count, initialized to 0. The setCount function is used to update this state.

When rendered, this component displays the number of times the button has been clicked. Each click updates the count state, causing the component to re-render and display the updated count.

2. useEffect

useEffect performs side effects in functional components, such as data fetching, subscriptions, or manually changing the DOM.

import React, { useEffect, useState } from 'react';

function DataFetcher() {

  const [data, setData] = useState(null);

  useEffect(() => {

    fetch('https://api.example.com/data')

      .then(response => response.json())

      .then(data => setData(data));

  }, []); // Empty array ensures the effect runs only once

  return (

    <div>

      {data ? <pre>{JSON.stringify(data, null, 2)}</pre> : 'Loading...'}

    </div>

  );

}

The useEffect Hook performs a side effect when the component mounts. The empty dependency array [] ensures this effect runs only once when the component mounts.

When rendered, this component fetches data from the specified API once, updates the state with the fetched data, and displays it. While the data is being fetched, it shows a loading message.

3. useContext

useContext allows functional components to subscribe to context changes.

import React, { useContext } from 'react';

import { ThemeContext } from './ThemeContext';

function ThemedButton() {

  const theme = useContext(ThemeContext);

  return (

    <button style={{ background: theme.background, color: theme.color }}>

      I am styled by theme context!

    </button>

  );

}

Inside the ThemedButton function, the useContext Hook is used to access the current value of ThemeContext. The useContext Hook returns the context value, which is stored in the theme variable.

When rendered, this component displays a button styled according to the theme provided by ThemeContext.

4. useReducer

useReducer manages state with a reducer, an alternative to useState for more complex state logic.

import React, { useReducer } from 'react';

const initialState = { count: 0 };

function reducer(state, action) {

  switch (action.type) {

    case 'increment':

      return { count: state.count + 1 };

    case 'decrement':

      return { count: state.count - 1 };

    default:

      throw new Error();

  }

}

function Counter() {

  const [state, dispatch] = useReducer(reducer, initialState);

  return (

    <div>

      <p>Count: {state.count}</p>

      <button onClick={() => dispatch({ type: 'increment' })}>+</button>

      <button onClick={() => dispatch({ type: 'decrement' })}>-</button>

    </div>

  );

}

Inside the Counter function, the useReducer Hook is used to manage the component’s state. useReducer takes the reducer function and initialState as arguments. It returns the current state (state) and a dispatch function to send actions to the reducer.

When rendered, this component displays the current count and provides buttons to increment and decrement the count, updating the state accordingly.

5. useMemo

useMemo optimizes performance by memoizing a calculated value, preventing expensive recalculations on every render.

import React, { useState, useMemo } from 'react';

// An example function that simulates an expensive calculation
function expensiveCalculation(num) {
  console.log('Calculating...');
  for (let i = 0; i < 1000000000; i++) {} // Simulate a heavy calculation
  return num * 2;
}

function MemoExample() {
  const [count, setCount] = useState(0);
  const [input, setInput] = useState('');

  // useMemo to memoize the result of the expensive calculation
  const calculatedValue = useMemo(() => {
    return expensiveCalculation(count);
  }, [count]); // Only re-calculate if 'count' changes

  return (
    <div>
      <h1>useMemo Example</h1>
      <div>
        <button onClick={() => setCount(count + 1)}>Increment Count</button>
        <p>Count: {count}</p>
        <p>Calculated Value: {calculatedValue}</p>
      </div>
      <div>
        <input 
          type="text" 
          value={input} 
          onChange={(e) => setInput(e.target.value)} 
          placeholder="Type something..."
        />
        <p>Input: {input}</p>
      </div>
    </div>
  );
}

export default MemoExample;

The useMemo hook is used to memoize the result of expensiveCalculation(count). The function is only called again if the count changes, thus optimizing performance by skipping unnecessary recalculations.

The dependency array [count] ensures that the memoized value is only recalculated when count changes, not when other state variables like input change.

The component includes buttons to increment the count and an input field to show that changes to other state variables do not trigger the expensive calculation.

6. useRef

useRef provides a way to access and persist a mutable value across renders, often used to directly interact with DOM elements.

import React, { useRef, useEffect } from 'react';

function FocusInput() {
  const inputRef = useRef(null);

  useEffect(() => {
    // Automatically focus the input element when the component mounts
    inputRef.current.focus();
  }, []);

  return (
    <div>
      <h1>useRef Example</h1>
      <input ref={inputRef} type="text" placeholder="Focus on mount" />
    </div>
  );
}

export default FocusInput;

The useRef hook creates a reference object (inputRef) that is used to directly access the DOM element. Inside the FocusInput component, the useEffect hook is used to automatically focus the input element when the component mounts.

7. useCallback

This hook memoizes a function, ensuring that the same instance is used across renders unless its dependencies change, which helps optimize performance by preventing unnecessary re-renders or re-executions of effects.

import React, { useState, useCallback } from 'react';

function ChildComponent({ onClick }) {
  return (
    <button onClick={onClick}>Click me</button>
  );
}

function ParentComponent() {
  const [count, setCount] = useState(0);
  const [text, setText] = useState('');

  // useCallback to memoize the increment function
  const increment = useCallback(() => {
    setCount(prevCount => prevCount + 1);
  }, []); // Empty array ensures the function is memoized only once

  return (
    <div>
      <h1>useCallback Example</h1>
      <p>Count: {count}</p>
      <ChildComponent onClick={increment} />
      <input 
        type="text" 
        value={text} 
        onChange={(e) => setText(e.target.value)} 
        placeholder="Type something..."
      />
    </div>
  );
}

export default ParentComponent;

The useCallback hook memoizes the increment function, which increments the count state. This memoization ensures that the increment function maintains the same reference across renders, preventing unnecessary re-renders of the ChildComponent which receives it as a prop.

The useCallback hook takes the function to be memoized as its first argument and an array of dependencies as the second argument. Here, the empty array [] ensures the function is created only once.

This setup optimizes performance by reducing the number of times ChildComponent re-renders, which is especially beneficial in larger applications.

8. useId

The useId hook generates unique IDs that can be used to associate form inputs with their corresponding labels. Inside the Form component, useId is called to create a unique id which is then used to construct id attributes for the form elements.

import React, { useId } from 'react';

function Form() {
  // Generate unique IDs
  const id = useId();

  return (
    <div>
      <h1>useId Example</h1>
      <form>
        <div>
          <label htmlFor={`${id}-name`}>Name:</label>
          <input id={`${id}-name`} type="text" placeholder="Enter your name" />
        </div>
        <div>
          <label htmlFor={`${id}-email`}>Email:</label>
          <input id={`${id}-email`} type="email" placeholder="Enter your email" />
        </div>
      </form>
    </div>
  );
}

export default Form;

The label elements use the htmlFor attribute to reference these unique IDs, ensuring proper accessibility and form behaviour. 

This approach is particularly useful when creating multiple-form fields that need unique identifiers, avoiding potential conflicts or duplications in the DOM.

9. useDebugValue

This hook provides a way to display custom labels for custom hooks in React DevTools, helping with debugging and understanding the hook’s behaviour.

import React, { useState, useEffect, useDebugValue } from 'react';

// Custom hook that uses useDebugValue
function useFriendStatus(friendID) {
  const [isOnline, setIsOnline] = useState(null);

  useEffect(() => {
    function handleStatusChange(status) {
      setIsOnline(status.isOnline);
    }

    // Simulate subscribing to a friend's status
    const mockAPI = {
      subscribe: (id, callback) => {
        callback({ isOnline: Math.random() > 0.5 });
      },
      unsubscribe: (id, callback) => {},
    };

    mockAPI.subscribe(friendID, handleStatusChange);

    return () => {
      mockAPI.unsubscribe(friendID, handleStatusChange);
    };
  }, [friendID]);

  // Use useDebugValue to display a label in React DevTools
  useDebugValue(isOnline ? 'Online' : 'Offline');

  return isOnline;
}

function FriendListItem({ friend }) {
  const isOnline = useFriendStatus(friend.id);

  return (
    <li style={{ color: isOnline ? 'green' : 'gray' }}>
      {friend.name} {isOnline ? 'Online' : 'Offline'}
    </li>
  );
}

function FriendList() {
  const friends = [
    { id: 1, name: 'Alice' },
    { id: 2, name: 'Bob' },
  ];

  return (
    <div>
      <h1>useDebugValue Example</h1>
      <ul>
        {friends.map(friend => (
          <FriendListItem key={friend.id} friend={friend} />
        ))}
      </ul>
    </div>
  );
}

export default FriendList;

The useFriendStatus custom hook manages the online status of a friend by subscribing to and unsubscribing from a simulated API based on the friendID.

Inside useFriendStatus, useDebugValue is used to provide a custom label (‘Online’ or ‘Offline’) for the hook’s value. This label is displayed in React DevTools, making it easier to debug and understand the hook’s behaviour.

The FriendListItem component uses the useFriendStatus hook to get the online status of a friend and styles the friend’s name accordingly. The FriendList component renders a list of friends, demonstrating how useDebugValue can help with debugging custom hooks in a real-world scenario.

Here is how it will show on the React Developer Tools.

10. useDeferredValue

This hook defers the re-rendering of a value to avoid blocking the main thread, useful for improving performance when updating the state with expensive computations or rendering.

import React, { useState, useDeferredValue, useMemo } from 'react';

function List({ items }) {
  const deferredItems = useDeferredValue(items);
  const renderedItems = useMemo(() => {
    return deferredItems.map((item, index) => (
      <li key={index}>{item}</li>
    ));
  }, [deferredItems]);

  return <ul>{renderedItems}</ul>;
}

function App() {
  const [input, setInput] = useState('');
  const [list, setList] = useState([]);

  const handleChange = (e) => {
    setInput(e.target.value);
    const newList = Array.from({ length: 10000 }, (_, index) => `${e.target.value} ${index}`);
    setList(newList);
  };

  return (
    <div>
      <h1>useDeferredValue Example</h1>
      <input type="text" value={input} onChange={handleChange} placeholder="Type something..." />
      <List items={list} />
    </div>
  );
}

export default App;

In this example, the useDeferredValue hook is used to defer the re-rendering of the list state, which contains a large number of items.

The List component receives the list as a prop and uses useDeferredValue to defer the rendering of the items. The deferred value (deferredItems) ensures that the main thread is not blocked by expensive rendering operations, improving performance. The useMemo hook is used to memoize the list of rendered items, preventing unnecessary re-renders.

11. useImperativeHandle

Customizes the instance value that is exposed when using ref with a component. This is useful for controlling what is accessible to parent components, particularly when dealing with complex child component APIs.

import React, { useRef, useImperativeHandle, forwardRef } from 'react';

// Child component that exposes a custom instance value using useImperativeHandle
const CustomInput = forwardRef((props, ref) => {
  const inputRef = useRef();

  useImperativeHandle(ref, () => ({
    focus: () => {
      inputRef.current.focus();
    },
    clear: () => {
      inputRef.current.value = '';
    },
  }));

  return <input ref={inputRef} type="text" placeholder="Enter something" />;
});

function ParentComponent() {
  const inputRef = useRef();

  return (
    <div>
      <h1>useImperativeHandle Example</h1>
      <CustomInput ref={inputRef} />
      <button onClick={() => inputRef.current.focus()}>Focus Input</button>
      <button onClick={() => inputRef.current.clear()}>Clear Input</button>
    </div>
  );
}

export default ParentComponent;

This example defines a React functional component called ParentComponent that demonstrates the use of the useImperativeHandle hook within a child component named CustomInput. The useImperativeHandle hook is used to expose custom methods (focus and clear) to the parent component through a ref.

Inside the CustomInput component, a local ref (inputRef) is created using useRef to reference the actual input element. The useImperativeHandle hook takes the parent ref and a function that returns an object containing the methods you want to expose. In this case, the focus method sets focus on the input, and the clear method clears the input value.

The ParentComponent uses a ref (inputRef) to interact with the CustomInput component. By clicking the “Focus Input” button, the input field gains focus, and by clicking the “Clear Input” button, the input field is cleared. These interactions are made possible by the custom instance methods defined using useImperativeHandle.

12. useInsertionEffect

It runs a function synchronously before all DOM mutations, ideal for injecting styles or manipulating the DOM in a way that needs to happen before browser painting.

A pitfall of using this: useInsertionEffect is for CSS-in-JS library authors. Unless you are working on a CSS-in-JS library and need a place to inject the styles, you probably want useEffect or useLayoutEffect instead.

import React, { useState, useInsertionEffect } from 'react';

function StyledComponent() {
  const [color, setColor] = useState('blue');

  useInsertionEffect(() => {
    // Inject a style directly into the document head before DOM mutations
    const style = document.createElement('style');
    style.textContent = `
      .dynamic-color {
        color: ${color};
      }
    `;
    document.head.appendChild(style);

    // Clean up the injected style on component unmount
    return () => {
      document.head.removeChild(style);
    };
  }, [color]);

  return (
    <div>
      <h1 className="dynamic-color">useInsertionEffect Example</h1>
      <button onClick={() => setColor('red')}>Change to Red</button>
      <button onClick={() => setColor('green')}>Change to Green</button>
    </div>
  );
}

export default StyledComponent;

This example defines a React functional component called StyledComponent that demonstrates the use of the useInsertionEffect hook. The useInsertionEffect hook is used to inject a style into the document head synchronously before any DOM mutations occur.

Inside the StyledComponent component, the colour state is used to track the colour of the text. The useInsertionEffect hook is triggered whenever the colour state changes. It creates a new <style> element with the updated colour and appends it to the document head. This ensures that the styles are applied before the browser paints the changes.

The component also includes buttons to change the colour of the text, update the colour state and trigger the useInsertionEffect hook to update the styles accordingly. This setup is particularly useful for scenarios where styles need to be injected or manipulated before the DOM is painted, ensuring a smooth and flicker-free user experience.

13. useLayoutEffect

Runs synchronously after all DOM mutations but before the browser paints, useful for reading layout and synchronously re-rendering.

A pitfall of using this: useLayoutEffect can hurt performance. Prefer useEffect when possible.

import React, { useState, useLayoutEffect, useRef } from 'react';

function ResizableBox() {
  const [size, setSize] = useState({ width: 100, height: 100 });
  const boxRef = useRef();

  useLayoutEffect(() => {
    const handleResize = () => {
      const { offsetWidth, offsetHeight } = boxRef.current;
      setSize({ width: offsetWidth, height: offsetHeight });
    };

    window.addEventListener('resize', handleResize);
    handleResize(); // Initial size update

    return () => window.removeEventListener('resize', handleResize);
  }, []);

  return (
    <div>
      <h1>useLayoutEffect Example</h1>
      <div
        ref={boxRef}
        style={{
          width: '50%',
          height: '50%',
          backgroundColor: 'lightblue',
          resize: 'both',
          overflow: 'auto',
        }}
      >
        Resize me!
      </div>
      <p>
        Width: {size.width}px, Height: {size.height}px
      </p>
    </div>
  );
}

export default ResizableBox;

This example defines a React functional component called ResizableBox that demonstrates the use of the useLayoutEffect hook. The useLayoutEffect hook is used to measure and update the size of a resizable box synchronously after DOM mutations but before the browser paints.

Inside the ResizableBox component, the size state is used to track the width and height of the box. The boxRef is a reference to the box element. The useLayoutEffect hook sets up a resize event listener that updates the size state with the current dimensions of the box. It also triggers an initial size update.

The box element is styled to be resizable, and its dimensions are displayed below it. Using useLayoutEffect ensures that the size measurements are accurate and up-to-date before the browser paints, providing a smooth and flicker-free resizing experience.

14. useSyncExternalStore

useSyncExternalStore is used for subscribing to an external store that is not managed by React, ensuring that the component synchronously re-renders with the latest store state.

import React, { useState, useEffect, useSyncExternalStore } from 'react';

// Simulated external store
const store = {
  state: 0,
  listeners: new Set(),
  subscribe(listener) {
    store.listeners.add(listener);
    return () => store.listeners.delete(listener);
  },
  increment() {
    store.state += 1;
    store.listeners.forEach((listener) => listener());
  },
  getState() {
    return store.state;
  },
};

function useStoreState() {
  return useSyncExternalStore(
    (callback) => store.subscribe(callback),
    () => store.getState()
  );
}

function Counter() {
  const state = useStoreState();

  return (
    <div>
      <h1>useSyncExternalStore Example</h1>
      <p>Count: {state}</p>
      <button onClick={() => store.increment()}>Increment</button>
    </div>
  );
}

export default Counter;

In this example, a simulated external store is created with a state, a set of listeners, and methods to subscribe to the store, increment the state and get the current state. The useStoreState custom hook uses useSyncExternalStore to subscribe to the store and return to the current state.

Inside the Counter component, the state variable holds the current state from the external store. The component displays the state and includes a button to increment the state. When the button is clicked, the store increment method updates the store state and notifies all subscribed listeners, causing the Counter component to re-render with the new state.

15. useTransition

useTransition allows you to mark state updates as non-urgent, which can help improve UI responsiveness by deferring non-essential updates until more urgent updates have been processed.

import React, { useState, useTransition } from 'react';

function SlowList({ items }) {
  return (
    <ul>
      {items.map((item, index) => (
        <li key={index}>{item}</li>
      ))}
    </ul>
  );
}

function App() {
  const [input, setInput] = useState('');
  const [list, setList] = useState([]);
  const [isPending, startTransition] = useTransition();

  const handleChange = (e) => {
    setInput(e.target.value);
    startTransition(() => {
      const newList = Array.from({ length: 20000 }, (_, index) => `${e.target.value} ${index}`);
      setList(newList);
    });
  };

  return (
    <div>
      <h1>useTransition Example</h1>
      <input type="text" value={input} onChange={handleChange} placeholder="Type something..." />
      {isPending ? <p>Loading...</p> : <SlowList items={list} />}
    </div>
  );
}

export default App;

This example defines a React functional component called App that demonstrates the use of the useTransition hook. 

Inside the App component, the input state tracks the value of a text input, and the list state holds a large array of items. The isPending state indicates whether a transition is pending, and the startTransition function is used to start the transition.

The handleChange function updates the input state immediately when the user types in the input field. It then uses startTransition to defer the update of the list state, creating a new array of items based on the input value. This defers the expensive operation of generating a large list, improving the responsiveness of the input field.

The SlowList component renders the list of items. While the transition is pending, a loading message is displayed.

Should you learn all React Hooks?

Whether you should learn all React Hooks depends on your specific needs and goals. While it’s beneficial to have a good understanding of the commonly used React Hooks like useState, useEffect, and useContext, you may not necessarily need to learn every single hook in detail, especially if some are more specialized and less commonly used in your projects.

Focus on learning the hooks that are relevant to your current or planned projects. As you gain more experience with React, you can explore additional hooks as needed. It’s also important to stay updated with the React documentation and community to understand new hooks and best practices as they emerge.

React Hooks Best Practices

Here are some best practices for using React Hooks. First, let’s start with the rules for using React Hooks:

1. Only call Hooks at the top level

Do not call Hooks within loops, conditions, nested functions, or try/catch/finally blocks. Instead, ensure that Hooks are always used at the top level of your React function, preceding any early returns. You can learn more about it in detail here.

2. Only call Hooks from React functions

Avoid using Hooks within regular JavaScript functions; instead, utilize them within React function components or custom Hooks. Learn in detail here.

3. Components and Hooks must be pure

Components should be idempotent, returning consistent output based on their inputs (props, state, and context), while side effects are best executed outside the render phase to prevent multiple renders and maintain user experience integrity. React official docs wrote about it in more detail.

4. React calls Components and Hooks

Avoid directly calling component functions outside JSX; instead, use them within JSX elements. Similarly, refrain from passing hooks as regular values; use them exclusively within components to maintain proper functionality. Learn in detail here.

5. Avoid Unnecessary Dependencies in useEffect

Be cautious when adding dependencies to the dependency array of useEffect. Ensure that all dependencies are necessary for the effect to run correctly and avoid unnecessary re-renders.

6. Use Descriptive Names

Choose descriptive names for your custom hooks to make their purpose clear. This improves code readability and helps other developers understand the intent of the hook.

7. Separation of Concerns

Break down complex logic into smaller, reusable hooks. This promotes code modularity and makes it easier to test and maintain your codebase.

8. Keep Hooks Simple

Aim to keep individual hooks focused on a single concern. Avoid creating overly complex hooks that handle multiple unrelated tasks.

9. Document Your Hooks

Provide clear documentation and examples for your custom hooks to help other developers understand how to use them effectively. Include information about parameters, return values, and usage guidelines.

10. Test Your Hooks

Write unit tests for your custom hooks to ensure they behave as expected under different scenarios. Use testing libraries like React Testing Library or Jest to test hooks in isolation.

Build React apps faster

React Hooks have revolutionized the way developers build and manage state in functional components, making React development more efficient and code more maintainable.

If you’re creating a React app, start with planning! Use UXPin Merge to create a layout of your app’s interface, test it with users, and then, copy the production-ready code to develop the app. Try UXPin Merge for free and design portals, dashboards, and more apps with coded React components. Try UXPin Merge.

The post React Hooks – Examples, Definitions, and Best Practices appeared first on Studio by UXPin.

If you are looking to make your web application available to the public, then this article is for you. Today, Aneeqa will guide you through the detailed steps for deploying your ReactJS App created using UXPin Merge.

UXPin Merge is an invaluable tool for crafting stunning web applications effortlessly, sans any coding. By leveraging its array of built-in components, you can generate functional code, eliminating the necessity for a dedicated designer within your team.

While this plugin is predominantly accessible through paid plans tailored to various requirements, it’s also available for a 14-day trial period, allowing users to explore its capabilities firsthand. Try it for free.

Design UI with code-backed components.

Use the same components in design as in development. Keep UI consistency at scale.

Try UXPin Merge

What is React app deployment?

React app deployment is the process of making your React web application available online for users to access. 

To deploy your app, first, ensure that your code is optimized and ready for production. Then, choose a hosting service like GitHub Pages, Heroku, Netlify, or AWS Amplify where you’ll upload your app files. 

GitHub Pages allows you to host static websites directly from your GitHub repositories. Heroku provides a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) that enables developers to deploy, manage, and scale web applications effortlessly. Netlify offers a hosting platform with features like continuous deployment, and built-in CDN. AWS Amplify is a cloud platform that offers a comprehensive set of tools and services for building and deploying full-stack serverless and cloud-based web applications.

After deployment, thoroughly test your app across different devices and browsers to ensure it functions correctly. Monitor its performance, and optimize resources as needed. 

Finally, streamline future updates by implementing version control and automation techniques. 

By following these steps, you can effectively deploy and maintain your React app for users to enjoy.

Step 1: Create a React app

Firstly, let’s create a dashboard application to monitor analytics, order history, and sales.

1. Go to the UXPin Merge website and start the trial.
2. It’ll take you to the register account page. Enter your details and create your free account.
3. After your registration, it’ll take you to the dashboard screen which contains some trial kits with Ant Design, MUI and Bootstrap. 

4. I selected the MUI Trial Kit. It has some design examples available like a Store example, a Dashboard example, and a Blog example. You can also create your prototype by the bottom left button click.

5. I selected the dashboard prototype and clicked preview. You can also edit the design by clicking on the “Edit Design” button on mouse hover.

6. After you are satisfied with your application, you can get the code easily by switching to the “</>Spec” tab from the top menu bar.

7. Here you can copy the code, open it in StackBlitz, or download the application. I selected the download option. 
8. Open your app in StackBlitz and copy the package.json file code. You’ll need it later for running it on the local environment.
9. Once your application code is downloaded. Unzip it and add the package.json file to it. Now paste the downloaded package.json file code.
10. Run the following command to download the node modules and plugins and run the app on the local environment.

npm i && npm start

You’ve created the dashboard application in just 2 minutes.

Step 2: Prepare the app for deployment

We’ll do the following steps to prepare the app for the deployment process:

1. Optimise the code: Check for all the unnecessary code and dependencies and remove it. It’ll help you minimise the size of your application. For instance, by installing and activating the ESLint extension in your VS Code editor, you can receive warnings about unused code and unnecessary dependencies.

2. Update Dependencies: Make sure that all the dependencies are up-to-date. Run the following command in the terminal to update packages to the latest version.

npm update

3. Enable Production Mode: Generate optimised production build by running the following command in the terminal.

npm run build

It’ll create a build file in the build/static/js folder of your app.

Step 3: Choose a hosting service

Choosing the right hosting service for your React application is crucial for its performance, scalability, and security.

It all starts with identifying your needs and considering factors such as expected traffic volume, scalability needs, budget constraints, technical expertise, and specific features required for your app.

Some popular hosting options are AWS Amplify, Netlify, Vercel, Heroku, Firebase, and traditional web hosting providers like Bluehost and DigitalOcean.

But today I want to focus only on Vercel (formerly Zeit Now), which provides a free tier for hosting static and server-rendered applications, including React apps. It offers features like automatic deployments from Git, custom domains, SSL encryption, and serverless functions.

You can also view real-time performance metrics such as response time, latency, and error rates for your deployed applications from the Vercel dashboard.

Step 4: Deploy the React app

To deploy the app on Vercel, we first need to make our code available on GitHub. 

1. Simply create an account on GitHub and create a new repository. Type the name for your repo and make sure to make it public for deployment purposes.

2. After creating the repo, it will take you to the repo creation screen. You can select to commit the files or you can directly upload it in the repo.

3. Make sure to commit/upload all folders and files except the “node_modules” folder.
4. Create a README.md file in the root directory to give the description of the project and instructions to run or build the application. 

# Dashboard

React MUI dashboard web app created using UXPin Merge tool

To run the app in the local environment

npm start

To create a build

npm run build

5. Now go to the Vercel website and log in with your GitHub account. It will take you to the Vercel dashboard.
6. Go to the Overview tab, click the “Add New” button from the right-hand side and select the “Project” from the dropdown.

7. It will take you to another screen to select the repo from your GitHub account. I selected my dashboard repo and clicked import.

8. After import is done, click the “Deploy” button at the bottom of the screen to deploy your web app.

9. Vercel will start the deployment process.

10. After the deployment is done (usually takes a few seconds), it will take you to another screen to display that the application is deployed. It also shows you the next steps you can take such as “Add Domain”, “Enable Speed Insights” etc.

11. Now click on the deployed app image from the above screen or go to the dashboard by clicking the “Continue to Dashboard” button from the top. 

12. Here you can either click the “Visit” button or the link mentioned below the “Domains”. It will take you to the deployed web application.
13. Now you can add this deployed app link in your README.md file in GitHub.

Live [Demo](https://dashboard-uxpin.vercel.app/)

Step 5: Test the React app

Testing an app after deployment is crucial to ensure that it functions correctly and delivers a seamless user experience in the production environment.

• Cross-Browser Testing: Test your app across different web browsers (e.g., Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge) to ensure compatibility and consistent behaviour.
• Mobile Responsiveness Testing: Test your React app on various mobile devices and screen sizes to ensure it’s responsive and displays correctly on smartphones and tablets.

Here is an example of using the browser developer tool by toggling the device toolbar.

• Integration Testing: If your React app integrates with external services or APIs, perform integration testing to verify that data is being exchanged correctly and that integrations are functioning as expected. But our dashboard app doesn’t have any API integration yet so we do not need it.

Step 6: Monitor performance

Monitoring the performance of your web application is crucial to ensure its reliability and optimal user experience.

Here’s how you can monitor the performance of your web app in Vercel:

Deployment Logs

Check the deployment logs for your app in Vercel to monitor the deployment process and identify any issues or errors that may occur during deployment. 

You can see it on the Vercel dashboard by selecting the “Logs” tab.

Enable Speed Insights

Vercel Speed Insights provides a detailed view of your website’s performance metrics, facilitating informed decisions for its optimization. 

You can enable this feature by following these simple steps.

1. Go to the “Speed Insights” tab from the top toolbar in the Vercel dashboard.

2. Install the package by running this command

npm i @vercel/speed-insights

3. Add the <SpeedInsights/> component in the main file i.e., index.js 

import React from "react";

...

import { SpeedInsights } from "@vercel/speed-insights/react";

...

root.render(

 <div>

   <UXPinBox />

   <SpeedInsights />

 </div>,

 document.getElementById("root")

);

4. Push the code to the GitHub. Vercel will automatically start the build process.
5. You should start seeing the speed insights after some deployment. You can learn more about this here.

Enable Web Analytics

You can enable the web analytics on the Vercel dashboard to get valuable insights on user behaviour and site performance.

1. Go to the Web Analytics tab from the top toolbar and click the Enable button.

2. Select the paid or free option according to your project needs.

3. Next install the package by running this command.

npm i @vercel/analytics

4. Add the <Analytics/> component in the main file i.e., index.js

import React from "react";

...

import { Analytics } from '@vercel/analytics/react';

...

root.render(

 <div>

   <UXPinBox />

   <SpeedInsights />

   <Analytics />

 </div>,

 document.getElementById("root")

);

5. Deploy the application again and you can start seeing the analytics on the dashboard after some time.Learn more about Web Analytics from the Vercel Docs.

Step 7: Streamline future updates

Streamlining future updates in a Web app is essential for maintaining its relevance, fixing bugs, and adding new features efficiently.

Implement version control

Take advantage of version control systems like Git to manage changes to your React app’s codebase. By using branches, commits, and pull requests, you can track changes, collaborate with team members, and safely experiment with new features without risking the stability of your main codebase.

Adopt Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD)

Set up CI/CD pipelines to automate the process of building, testing, and deploying your React app. CI/CD allows you to automatically run tests, verify code quality, and deploy updates to production environments with minimal manual intervention. This not only reduces the time and effort required for deployments but also ensures a consistent and reliable release process.

Implement feature flags

Introduce feature flags to control the release of new features in your React app. By toggling feature flags on and off, you can gradually roll out new features to specific user segments, gather feedback, and monitor performance before fully releasing them to all users. Feature flags also provide the flexibility to roll back changes quickly if any issues arise during deployment.

Invest in Automated Testing

Prioritize automated testing to ensure the stability and reliability of your React app. Write unit tests, integration tests, and end-to-end tests to verify the functionality of individual components and the app as a whole. Integrate testing frameworks like Jest and Cypress into your CI/CD pipeline to automatically run tests on every code change, catching bugs early in the development process.

Stay Up-to-Date with Dependencies

Regularly update dependencies, including React, React Router, and other third-party libraries used in your app. Stay informed about new releases, security patches, and deprecations to keep your app up-to-date and secure. Tools like npm audit can help identify and address security vulnerabilities in your dependencies, ensuring the reliability and integrity of your app.

Conclusion

In wrapping up, deploying a React app involves more than just putting it online; it’s about guaranteeing its functionality, speed, and adaptability as it grows. By adhering to the steps outlined in this guide, you can deploy your React app confidently and position yourself for success in the long haul.

Starting from the creation phase using tools like UXPin Merge and moving through the optimisation of code and updates of dependencies, each step is vital in the deployment process. Selecting an appropriate hosting service, such as Vercel, and conducting thorough testing across various browsers and devices will ensure a seamless experience for your users.

Furthermore, monitoring performance metrics and collecting user feedback will help you pinpoint areas for enhancement and guide your decisions for future updates.

In essence, deploying a React app isn’t a one-and-done deal; it’s an ongoing journey of refinement and creativity. By embracing these best practices and maintaining a proactive stance, you can ensure that your React app continues to meet the evolving needs of your users and remains a valuable asset for your endeavours.

Build React app in minutes. Streamline design and front-end development workflows by using code-first design tool. With UXPin Merge AI product, you can create React app interfaces without having to learn React. Try UXPin Merge for free.

The post How to Deploy a React App: Step-by-Step Guide appeared first on Studio by UXPin.

If you’re developing a web application that requires both robust backend functionalities and a flexible, stylish frontend, Laravel and Tailwind CSS make a perfect combination.

There are several other popular CSS frameworks and libraries you can use with Laravel. Tailwind CSS stands out from other CSS frameworks due to several distinctive features that cater to modern web development practices, such as utility-first approach, high customizability, and more.

Let’s see how to make Laravel and Tailwind CSS work together.

Generate code-backed Tailwind UI components with UXPin Merge. Its Merge AI plan allows you to generate complex Tailwind components with a prompt. Do you need a table, navigational menu or user profile card? Our AI component generator have your back! Use this feature and our built-in library to design UI that you can copy the code off. Try UXPin Merge for free.

Design UI with code-backed components.

Use the same components in design as in development. Keep UI consistency at scale.

Try UXPin Merge

Why Tailwind CSS works great with new Laravel projects

Tailwind CSS stands out from other CSS frameworks due to several distinctive features that cater to modern web development practices. Here are some reasons why Tailwind CSS might be a better choice than other frameworks depending on your specific project requirements:

1. Utility-First Approach: Tailwind CSS is built around the concept of utility-first, meaning it provides low-level utility classes that you apply directly in your HTML. This approach encourages you to think about styling in terms of constraints and systems rather than traditional semantic CSS, which can lead to more consistent and maintainable codebases.
2. High Customizability: Unlike frameworks like Bootstrap or Foundation, which come with predefined component styles, Tailwind allows developers to create custom designs without fighting against the default styles that need to be overridden. You can design unique UIs that don’t look like they come from the same template.
3. Responsive Design Made Simple: Tailwind makes it extremely easy to build responsive designs with its mobile-first philosophy. You can control every style of your application on different screen sizes using simple modifiers appended to your utility classes, such as md:, lg:, and so on.
4. No JavaScript Dependency: Tailwind doesn’t include any JavaScript by default, which makes it purely focused on styling. This can be a significant advantage if you want to control exactly what JavaScript runs on your site or if you prefer to use other libraries for interactivity.
5. PurgeCSS Integration: Tailwind integrates seamlessly with tools like PurgeCSS, which strips out unused CSS when building for production. This means that despite having thousands of utility classes, the final CSS bundle that goes to the client can be extremely small and fast-loading.
6. Rapid Prototyping: The utility-first approach lets you quickly see changes and iterate on design directly in the markup. This can speed up the process of experimenting with different designs and layouts without the overhead of going back and forth between CSS files and HTML.
7. Developer Experience: Tailwind provides a consistent and easy-to-remember set of utility classes that can reduce the cognitive load when styling elements. This can lead to faster development times and less context switching between HTML and CSS.
8. Growing Community and Ecosystem: Tailwind CSS has a rapidly growing community and an increasing number of plugins and integrations that extend its functionality, such as Tailwind UI for complete design patterns and components.

While Tailwind CSS offers numerous benefits, it’s important to consider that it does have a learning curve, especially for those accustomed to traditional CSS or more semantic frameworks. The choice between Tailwind and other frameworks should depend on your project needs, team familiarity, and specific preferences in web development workflows.

What are typical Laravel and Tailwind CSS use cases?

Tailwind CSS can be a fantastic choice for a wide range of Laravel projects due to its flexibility, customizability, and utility-first approach. Here are some types of Laravel projects where Tailwind CSS particularly shines:

Single Page Applications (SPAs)

For projects where Laravel serves as a backend API and the frontend may be handled by Vue.js, React, or another JavaScript framework, Tailwind CSS provides a quick and efficient way to style responsive layouts and components. Its utility-first approach allows developers to rapidly prototype and iterate on the UI design.

Dashboards and Admin Panels

Tailwind’s utility classes make it easy to create custom and responsive dashboards or admin panels. The framework’s responsiveness and component-driven structure are ideal for building complex UIs that require a high level of customization.

E-commerce Platforms

Tailwind can help create visually appealing and highly customized interfaces for e-commerce platforms built with Laravel. It supports diverse product displays, complex form inputs, and varied layouts that are common in e-commerce sites.

Blogs and Content Management Systems

Tailwind can be used to style blogs and CMS platforms, providing the flexibility to customize themes and layouts easily. Its utility classes help in quickly adjusting typography, spacing, and other elements crucial for content-driven sites.

Educational Websites

For websites that feature online learning or courses, Tailwind CSS can help design clear, readable, and engaging interfaces. It’s particularly useful for creating layout grids, text utilities, and responsive designs that enhance the user experience on educational platforms.

SaaS Products

Startups and businesses building SaaS products with Laravel as the backend can benefit from Tailwind’s scalable and maintainable styling approach. Tailwind facilitates the creation of a cohesive look and feel across the entire application, which is vital for brand consistency.

Marketing Websites

When using Laravel to build a marketing or portfolio website, Tailwind CSS’s design flexibility enables developers to implement creative, modern designs that stand out, without heavy reliance on custom CSS.

Social Networks

For social networking platforms with complex user interfaces, Tailwind CSS helps manage various UI components such as modals, dropdowns, timelines, and feed layouts effectively and responsively.

How to integrate Tailwind CSS with Laravel

You could go traditional route of setting up a Laravel project and instaling Tailwind CSS. Yet, we have a tool that will help you streamline front-end development — UXPin Merge. This is a UI builder for creating interfaces with Tailwind UI components. Thus, the first step of integrating Tailwind with Laravel is to do UI exploration in UXPin.

Step 1: Create UI design in UXPin

Go to UXPin and start a new project. Open a Tailwind UI library (an official Tailwind CSS library of reusable components) that’s available on Merge AI plan (or on free trial.) Choose components that your project requires and set up their properties. Can’t see a relevant component? Use AI Component Creator to generate a component you need.

Let’s say we’re building a marketing website. What’s cool about UXPin Merge is that you can copy the code from Tailwind UI library and paste it to UXPin’s editor, using an extra component in Tailwind UI library called Custom Component.

Here’s how:

1. Go to Tailwind UI > Hero Section
2. Copy the code by clicking the Copy icon in the top right corner.
3. Open UXPin’s prototype.
4. Copy the code in the Custom Component.
5. Pick another section and repeat the steps above.

This is the fastest way of building a code-based UI. If you need a custom section that you can’t find in the Tailwind UI resources, use AI Component Creator to generate one based on your prompt. We cover how to use it in this article: ChatGPT in UI Design.

Then, you can use Global Theming for Tailwind UI library in UXPin to make your design consistent.

Step 2: Set up a Laravel project

The next step is to set up a new Laravel project or open your existing one.

1. Install prerequisites such as PHP, Composer (dependency manager), and Node.js with npm.
2. Install Laravel using Composer if you’re starting a new project.
3. Open your Laravel project in Visual Studio Code or StackBlitz.
4. Install recommended VS Code extensions for Laravel development, such as PHP Intelephense and the Laravel Extension Pack.
5. Configure your environment by adjusting settings in the .env file.

Step 3: Install Tailwind CSS

Install Tailwind CSS via npm, setting up your tailwind.config.js, and configuring your CSS files to include Tailwind’s directives. You’ll also need to adjust your Webpack configuration through Laravel Mix to ensure that Tailwind’s build process is integrated into your asset compilation pipeline.

What you want to do is incorporate the UI design that you’ve created in UXPin into your project. You can copy the code off the component and incorporate it into the thing you’re building. You just need to use a code editor like Visual Studio Code or StackBlitz.

Just open the Preview mode in UXPin and switch to an Inspect tab. Click on the component and you will see that you get the code behind it. Copy it and paste it to your Laravel project.

We covered this step in this webinar:

Step 4: Serve your application

“Serving your application” refers to the process of running your web application on a local development server so that it can be accessed through a web browser. This is a crucial step during development because it allows you to view and interact with your application as it would appear and function on a live web server, albeit in a local and controlled environment.

When you serve a Laravel application, you typically use Laravel’s built-in development server, which can be started with the Artisan command-line tool.

Use Tailwind CSS with Laravel

For developers working on web applications that demand both strong backend capabilities and a stylish, adaptable frontend, Laravel paired with Tailwind CSS is an excellent choice. Unlike other CSS frameworks, Tailwind CSS offers unique advantages for modern web development, including a utility-first approach and extensive customizability. This article also explores how to integrate Laravel with Tailwind CSS effectively.

Quickly build code-backed UIs with UXPin Merge – a powerful UI builder that integrates the power of design and code, so you can create UI designs of your app with pre-built components, AI generation and quick code copy features. Try UXPin Merge for free.

The post Laravel and Tailwind CSS — A Quick Integration Guide appeared first on Studio by UXPin.

Node.js and React.js are two popular technologies in web development, but they serve different purposes within the development stack. Node.js is a runtime environment used for backend services, while React is a front-end library focused on building user interfaces of web applications (frontend development).

Node.js and React.js are often used together in full-stack JavaScript applications to handle both server and client-side tasks effectively. Let’s examine them up close and decide if this pairing is fit for your project.

No designers to help you create a UI of your app? No problem! Design it on your own with a developer-friendly UI builder. Build user-friendly, responsive interfaces that are scalable. Try UXPin Merge.

Design UI with code-backed components.

Use the same components in design as in development. Keep UI consistency at scale.

Try UXPin Merge

What is Node JS?

Node.js is an open-source, cross-platform runtime environment for executing JavaScript code outside of a browser. Historically, JavaScript was primarily used for client-side scripting, where scripts written in JavaScript would run on the client’s browser and make web pages interactive.

However, Node.js allows developers to use JavaScript for server-side scripting—running scripts server-side to produce dynamic web page content before the page is sent to the user’s web browser. Thus, Node.js represents a “JavaScript everywhere” paradigm, unifying web application development around a single programming language, rather than different languages for server side and client side scripts.

Node.js operates on the V8 JavaScript engine—the same runtime used by Google Chrome—which compiles JavaScript directly into native machine code. This execution model provides high performance and low latency, making Node.js particularly well-suited for data-intensive real-time applications that run across distributed devices.

Moreover, Node.js uses an event-driven, non-blocking I/O model, which makes it lightweight and efficient, ideal for environments with high data throughput but low computational power requirements, such as web servers.

The ecosystem around Node.js is vast, with a thriving and active community. It uses npm (Node Package Manager), the largest ecosystem of open source libraries that can be easily installed and added to any project, thus enhancing functionality and reducing development time.

Who uses Node JS

Over the years, Node.js has become a foundational element for many web technologies, fostering innovative platforms and tools such as the MEAN (MongoDB, Express.js, AngularJS, and Node.js) stack, which simplifies the development of full-stack applications entirely in JavaScript. This extensive use and support have cemented Node.js as a pivotal technology in modern web development.

Several high-profile companies have adopted Node.js for various parts of their applications due to its efficiency and scalability.

1. Netflix — The streaming platform uses Node.js to handle its server-side operations for its streaming service, which demands low latency and high concurrency. This shift has significantly reduced startup time and improved the overall performance of their application.
2. PayPal — It has transitioned from Java to Node.js for its web applications, which resulted in faster response times and quicker development cycles. The company reported that using Node.js allowed them to handle double the requests per second at a fraction of the response time compared to their previous Java application.
3. LinkedIn — Other notable examples include LinkedIn, which utilizes Node.js for its mobile app backend, vastly improving the app’s performance and load times.
4. Uber — It employs Node.js in its massive matching system, valuing the platform’s ability to handle a huge volume of network requests efficiently and effectively.

These companies’ use of Node.js not only highlights its capabilities in handling web-scale applications but also illustrates the growing trend of JavaScript usage across the full stack of technology development, confirming Node.js’s role as a key component in modern web architectures.

Pros and cons of Node JS

Advantages of Node JS

Node.js offers numerous advantages that make it a preferred platform for developers working on various types of projects, especially web-based applications. Here are some of the key advantages:

1. Speed and Efficiency: Node.js leverages the V8 JavaScript Engine from Google, which compiles JavaScript directly into native machine code. This allows for faster execution of applications. Its event-driven architecture and non-blocking I/O operations further enhance its speed and efficiency, making it suitable for handling data-intensive real-time applications.
2. Scalability: One of the core strengths of Node.js is its scalability. The event loop, as opposed to traditional threading, allows Node.js to perform non-blocking I/O operations. This means Node.js can handle numerous connections simultaneously, making it ideal for high-load applications like live chat apps, online gaming, and collaboration tools.
3. Unified Programming Language: Node.js uses JavaScript, which is traditionally a client-side programming language. This allows developers to use a single language for both server-side and client-side scripts. This unification helps streamline the development process, as the same team can manage the entire code base, reducing context switching and redundancy.
4. Robust Technology Stack: Node.js is a key component of various stacks, such as the MEAN stack (MongoDB, Express.js, AngularJS, and Node.js), which allows developers to build powerful and dynamic web applications using end-to-end JavaScript. This integration simplifies the development process and accelerates the delivery of applications.
5. Strong Community Support: With a vast and active community, Node.js developers have access to countless modules and tools available through npm (Node Package Manager). This extensive ecosystem ensures that developers can find libraries and tools for nearly any functionality they need to implement, significantly speeding up the development process.
6. Cross-Platform Development: Node.js supports cross-platform development and can be deployed on various operating systems including Windows, macOS, and Linux. This makes it easier for developers to write code that runs seamlessly across different platforms.
7. Ideal for Microservices Architecture: Node.js fits well with microservices architecture due to its lightweight and modular nature. Companies looking to break down their applications into smaller, interconnected services find Node.js a suitable choice due to its ability to handle asynchronous calls and its efficiency with I/O operations.
8. Corporate Backing: Node.js has robust corporate support from major tech giants like Microsoft, Google, and IBM, which helps in ensuring continuous development and reliability. This backing also reassures businesses adopting Node.js of its capabilities and long-term viability.

These advantages make Node.js a compelling option for both startups and large enterprises looking to develop efficient, scalable, and innovative web applications.

Weak spots of Node JS

While Node.js offers numerous advantages and is a popular choice for many development scenarios, there are some drawbacks that should be considered when deciding whether it’s the right tool for your project. Here are some of the cons of using Node.js:

1. Performance Limitations with CPU-Intensive Tasks: Node.js is not suitable for heavy computational tasks. Its single-threaded nature can become a bottleneck when handling CPU-intensive operations. Such tasks can block the event loop, leading to delays in processing other concurrent activities. This makes Node.js less ideal for applications that require complex calculations, image processing, or large data transformations on the server-side.
2. Callback Hell: Node.js heavily relies on asynchronous code which can lead to what is known as “callback hell” or “pyramid of doom,” where there are multiple nested callbacks. This can make the code hard to read and maintain. Although this issue can be mitigated with modern features such as Promises and async/await, it remains a challenge for beginners or in legacy codebases.
3. API Stability: In the past, Node.js has faced issues with API stability, where frequent changes have led to backwards-incompatible updates. Although this has improved significantly with the establishment of a stable LTS (Long Term Support) version, rapid changes can still pose a challenge for maintaining and upgrading applications.
4. Understanding Asynchronous Programming: Asynchronous programming is a core concept in Node.js, and it requires a different mindset compared to traditional linear programming approaches. Developers new to asynchronous programming may find it difficult to understand and implement effectively, which can lead to errors and inefficient code.
5. NPM Ecosystem Quality: While npm provides a vast number of packages, the quality of these packages can vary significantly. Some packages may be poorly maintained, lack proper documentation, or have security vulnerabilities. The open nature of the npm repository requires developers to be meticulous in choosing reliable and secure packages.
6. Heavy Reliance on Outside Libraries: Due to JavaScript’s historically limited functionality on the server-side, Node.js applications often rely heavily on middleware and external libraries to handle basic functionalities like routing, security, and interacting with databases. This can sometimes increase complexity and the risk of dependency issues.
7. Divergence from Conventional Server-Side Programming: Developers familiar with more traditional, multi-threaded server environments (such as Java EE or .NET) might find Node.js’s single-threaded, event-driven architecture challenging. This can require a significant shift in design paradigm and adjustment in development practices.
8. Developer Expertise and Resources: While JavaScript is widely known among developers, Node.js’s particular style of server-side development may require additional learning or expertise. Companies might face challenges finding developers who are proficient in the nuances of full-stack JavaScript development.

What is React JS

React.js, unlike Node.js, is a client-side JavaScript library developed by Facebook, designed for building user interfaces, particularly for single-page applications where a dynamic interaction model is necessary.

It is used primarily for handling the view layer of web applications, enabling developers to describe their interfaces in terms of a state that changes over time.

React uses a declarative paradigm that makes it easier to reason about your application and aims to be both efficient and flexible. It designs simple views for each state in your application, and when your data changes, React efficiently updates and renders just the right components.

Comparing Node JS vs React JS

Execution Environment

• Node.js: Runs scripts on the server-side, enabling JavaScript to execute outside the browser. It is used mainly for back-end services like APIs, server logic, database operations, and handling asynchronous operations across a network.
• React.js: Operates on the client-side, within the user’s browser, to enhance the interface interaction. It can also be rendered server-side using Node.js to improve performance and SEO.

Architecture

• Node.js: Utilizes an event-driven, non-blocking I/O model that makes it lightweight and efficient, suitable for data-intensive environments that require real-time operations across distributed devices.
• React.js: Employs a virtual DOM (Document Object Model) that optimizes interactions and updates by re-rendering only parts of the page that have changed, rather than reloading entire views.

Use Case

• Node.js: Ideal for developing server-side applications where scalability and high concurrency are necessary, such as web servers and RESTful APIs that interact with client applications.
• React.js: Best suited for developing highly interactive user interfaces and web applications where state management and responsive, real-time updates are crucial.

Development Model

• Node.js: Encourages modular, asynchronous programming and is heavily reliant on its vast ecosystem, including npm for managing packages.
• React.js: Promotes component-based architecture, allowing developers to build reusable UI components that manage their state, then compose them to make complex user interfaces.

Integrating Node JS and React JS

While Node.js and React.js can function independently, they are often used together in full-stack JavaScript applications. Node.js can serve as the back-end, handling API requests, interacting with databases, and serving files and React applications, while React runs in the browser, presenting the user interface and making asynchronous calls to the server.

This synergy allows developers to use JavaScript consistently across both client side and server side, streamlining the web development process and reducing the complexity of using different languages for different environments.

In summary, React.js is focused on building user interfaces and improving the interaction experience on the client-side, complementing Node.js’s capabilities on the server-side. Together, they offer a comprehensive approach to developing modern web applications.

Build a React app UI with UXPin Merge

UXPin Merge allows you to use real, production-ready React components to build responsive and highly interactive interfaces. What you design is precisely what gets built, the tool ensures full consistency between UI design and the final product and faster deployments of high-quality products. Try UXPin Merge for free.

The post Node JS vs React JS – A Quick Comparison of Two JavaScript Frameworks appeared first on Studio by UXPin.

Most front-end developers are aware that a front-end framework can make or break your project. In this article, we’ll compare two of the most popular styling and UI component libraries – Tailwind CSS and Material UI. Both offer unique strengths and cater to different developer needs, but how do you decide which one is right for you? Let’s dive into a side-by-side comparison that will help you make an informed decision.

Do you want to quickly test which is better for you – Tailwind vs Material UI? UXPin Merge’s trial comes with imported Tailwind UI and MUI libraries that you can prototype with. Start your trial, pick one of the libraries in UXPin’s editor, build your design, and copy the ready code to see which one fits you better.

UXPin Merge is a prototyping tool that renders components as code, not pixels, so you can quickly move from design to development with no hurdles. Try UXPin Merge for free.

Design UI with code-backed components.

Use the same components in design as in development. Keep UI consistency at scale.

Try UXPin Merge

Tailwind CSS

Tailwind CSS has taken the web development world by storm with its utility-first approach. Rather than providing predefined components, Tailwind offers a set of low-level utility classes that let you build custom designs without leaving your HTML. This methodology promotes rapid development and exceptional flexibility, allowing developers to create highly bespoke interfaces.

• Customization at its Core: Tailwind allows you to style your components directly within your HTML, offering unparalleled control and customization.
• Speedy Development: By using utility classes, you can prototype and build faster, eliminating the need to write custom CSS from scratch.
• Responsive Design Made Easy: Tailwind’s responsive utility classes enable you to design for multiple screen sizes effortlessly.
• Community and Ecosystem: With a growing community and a rich ecosystem of plugins, Tailwind ensures you have the tools and support you need.

Who uses Tailwind?

Tailwind CSS is used by a diverse range of companies and developers across various industries. Some notable organizations and platforms that use Tailwind CSS include:

1. GitHub: GitHub uses Tailwind CSS for several of its interfaces, leveraging its utility-first approach for rapid and flexible development.
2. Laravel: The Laravel framework has integrated Tailwind CSS into its ecosystem, making it a popular choice among developers within the Laravel community.
3. Dev.to: The popular developer community and blogging platform Dev.to utilizes Tailwind CSS for its frontend design, benefiting from its customizable utility classes.
4. Statamic: Statamic, a CMS for static site generation, uses Tailwind CSS to provide a sleek and efficient user interface.
5. Algolia: Algolia, a powerful search-as-a-service platform, incorporates Tailwind CSS in its documentation and various web interfaces.
6. Vercel: Vercel, a platform for frontend frameworks and static sites, uses Tailwind CSS for its documentation and marketing pages.
7. Superhuman: The email client Superhuman uses Tailwind CSS for its sleek and fast user interface, highlighting its efficiency and customizability.

These examples illustrate the versatility and popularity of Tailwind CSS across various sectors, from large tech companies to individual developers and small startups.

Material UI

Material UI (called MUI by front-end devs) is a React component library that implements Google’s Material Design philosophy. It provides a comprehensive set of pre-styled components that follow best practices in user experience design, making it a go-to choice for developers seeking consistency and modern aesthetics.

• Ready-to-Use Components: Material UI comes with a vast array of pre-built components that adhere to Material Design guidelines, ensuring a cohesive look and feel across your application.
• Theming and Customization: While the components are pre-styled, Material UI offers robust theming capabilities, allowing you to tweak and customize the look to match your brand.
• Accessibility and Performance: Built with accessibility in mind, Material UI components are optimized for performance, providing a seamless user experience.
• React library: Material UI leverages the power of React’s component-based architecture, making it a natural fit for React projects.

Who uses MUI?

MUI is widely used by various companies and organizations, ranging from startups to large enterprises, due to its comprehensive set of pre-styled components and adherence to Material Design guidelines.

Here are some notable examples of organizations and platforms that use Material UI:

1. Netflix: The streaming giant utilizes Material UI for certain internal tools and applications, benefiting from its component-driven architecture and consistent design.
2. Spotify: The popular music streaming service leverages Material UI for some of its web applications, ensuring a cohesive and modern user experience.
3. Nasa: NASA uses Material UI in some of their data visualization and internal tools, taking advantage of its robust and accessible components.
4. Amazon: Parts of Amazon’s internal dashboards and tools are built using Material UI, providing a streamlined and efficient development process.
5. Shutterstock: The stock photography company incorporates Material UI in their web applications, ensuring a clean and professional look across their platform.
6. Blue Origin: Jeff Bezos’s aerospace manufacturer and sub-orbital spaceflight services company uses Material UI for some of their internal tools and applications.
7. Hootsuite: The social media management platform uses Material UI to provide a consistent and user-friendly interface for its customers.

The framework’s versatility and adherence to Material Design principles make it a popular choice for companies looking to build modern, responsive, and accessible web applications.

How to Choose Between Tailwind CSS and Material UI

Choosing between Tailwind CSS and Material UI ultimately boils down to your project requirements and personal preference.

If you thrive on granular control and customization, Tailwind’s utility-first approach will be your best friend. On the other hand, if you prefer a structured, component-driven framework with a focus on consistency and rapid development, Material UI might be the way to go.

Design Approach and Philosophy

• Tailwind CSS:
  • Utility-First: Tailwind CSS is a utility-first CSS framework, providing low-level utility classes that enable developers to build custom designs directly in their HTML. This approach promotes rapid prototyping and high flexibility.
  • Customization: Tailwind offers extensive customization options, allowing developers to configure their styles and create a unique design system.
• Material UI:
  • Component-First: Material UI is a React component library based on Google’s Material Design guidelines. It provides pre-built, styled components that ensure a consistent and cohesive user experience.
  • Design Consistency: Material UI focuses on maintaining consistency across applications by adhering to Material Design principles.

Development Speed and Workflow

• Tailwind CSS:
  • Rapid Prototyping: The utility-first approach allows for quick styling changes directly in the markup, making it easier to iterate on designs.
  • Learning Curve: Developers might need to adjust to using utility classes instead of traditional CSS methods.
• Material UI:
  • Out-of-the-Box Components: Material UI provides ready-to-use components, which can speed up the development process by reducing the need to build and style components from scratch.
  • React Integration: Seamlessly integrates with React, leveraging React’s component-based architecture for building complex UIs.

Customization and Flexibility

• Tailwind CSS:
  • Highly Customizable: Tailwind’s configuration file allows developers to define their styles, color schemes, and spacing scales, offering extensive customization.
  • Component Libraries: While Tailwind is primarily utility-based, developers can create or use component libraries that fit within the Tailwind ecosystem.
• Material UI:
  • Theming and Styling: Material UI offers theming capabilities, allowing developers to customize the appearance of components to match their brand’s design language.
  • Limited by Design Guidelines: Customization is possible, but components are designed to follow Material Design guidelines, which might limit flexibility for highly unique designs.

Community and Ecosystem

• Tailwind CSS:
  • Growing Ecosystem: Tailwind CSS has a rapidly growing ecosystem with plugins, themes, and tools that enhance its functionality.
  • Community Support: A vibrant community and extensive documentation provide support and resources for developers.
• Material UI:
  • Mature Library: Material UI is a well-established library with a strong community, extensive documentation, and numerous examples and tutorials.
  • Comprehensive Component Set: Provides a wide range of components, from basic UI elements to more complex features like data tables and charts.

Performance Considerations

• Tailwind CSS:
  • Smaller CSS Bundle: By using PurgeCSS, Tailwind can significantly reduce the size of the final CSS bundle by removing unused styles, leading to better performance.
  • Custom Builds: Tailwind’s configuration allows for creating custom builds tailored to the specific needs of a project.
• Material UI:
  • Optimized Components: Material UI components are optimized for performance, but the library’s size can be a consideration for highly performance-sensitive applications.
  • Tree Shaking: Supports tree shaking to remove unused components and reduce bundle size.

Use Cases

• Tailwind CSS:
  • Custom Designs: Ideal for projects that require highly custom, bespoke designs and where developers want full control over the styling.
  • Rapid Prototyping: Useful for quickly prototyping and iterating on UI designs.
• Material UI:
  • Consistent UI: Perfect for applications that benefit from a consistent, polished look and adhere to Material Design principles.
  • React Projects: Best suited for React-based projects where ready-to-use, styled components can significantly speed up development.

Can you use Tailwind and MUI together?

Yes, you can use Material UI (MUI) with Tailwind CSS in a project. Integrating these two can allow you to leverage the utility-first approach of Tailwind CSS for rapid styling while also using MUI’s pre-built, highly customizable React components.

While specific examples of companies or high-profile projects that publicly acknowledge using both Tailwind CSS and Material UI together might not be as readily available, the combination is certainly popular among individual developers and smaller projects. It gives developers flexibility, rapid development capabilities, and ability to maintain a consistent and polished UI.

Better option: Tailwind CSS with Tailwind UI

Tailwind UI is a premium component library created by the makers of Tailwind CSS. It provides a collection of professionally designed, fully responsive UI components built using Tailwind CSS. These components help developers quickly build beautiful and consistent user interfaces without having to start from scratch.

How Tailwind UI Fits into Tailwind CSS

1. Complementary Tool: Tailwind UI is a natural extension of Tailwind CSS. While Tailwind CSS provides the utility-first framework for creating custom designs, Tailwind UI offers a collection of pre-built components that can be directly used in projects.
2. Efficiency and Speed: Tailwind UI enhances the efficiency of Tailwind CSS by allowing developers to quickly assemble UIs from a library of components. This is especially useful for prototyping and MVP development.
3. Consistent Design Language: Using Tailwind UI ensures a consistent design language across the application since all components follow the same design principles and are built using Tailwind CSS.
4. Educational Resource: Tailwind UI also serves as an educational resource, demonstrating how to use Tailwind CSS effectively. Developers can learn best practices and advanced techniques by examining how Tailwind UI components are constructed.
5. Integration: Integrating Tailwind UI components into a Tailwind CSS project is straightforward. Developers can copy the HTML structure and corresponding utility classes from Tailwind UI and paste them into their Tailwind CSS-based project. From there, they can further customize the components as needed.

Using Tailwind UI in UXPin

UXPin Merge has a built-in Tailwind UI library. You can take the CSS components and build fully functional prototypes with them.

Nest components together to create complex elements or use “Custom Component” tile to paste in pre-built sections that are posted at Tailwind UI website.

Can’t find a section you like? Use AI Component Creator to generate one based on your prompt. See a full tutorial of using component creator here.

Using MUI in UXPin

If you want to build a React app, use the MUI library in UXPin. We integrated UI components that allow you to build fully functional and responsive React interfaces.

You can style them anyway you like and even bring more components if you like to. Follow this tutorial to see how to build your prototype: Dashboard Example.

What Do We Recommend – Tailwind vs Material UI?

Both Tailwind CSS and Material UI are powerful tools in a developer’s arsenal. Your choice will depend on your need for customization versus convenience, and how closely you want your project to adhere to Material Design standards. Whatever you choose, both frameworks promise to enhance your development workflow and help you build beautiful, responsive web applications.

UXPin Merge is a powerful tool that transforms the way design and development teams collaborate, offering a unified platform where designs are directly linked to the production code. This innovation not only speeds up the workflow but also ensures a high level of accuracy and consistency, making it an indispensable tool for modern design teams aiming to create high-quality digital products efficiently. Try UXPin Merge for free.

The post Tailwind vs Material UI – Full Comparison appeared first on Studio by UXPin.

When it comes to building responsive, aesthetically pleasing web applications, two frameworks often come into the spotlight: Material UI and Bootstrap. Both are powerful tools in a developer’s arsenal, each with unique strengths and philosophies. Let’s dive into a comparative analysis of these two front-end giants to help you decide which one aligns best with your project needs.

Build your React app’s interface with code-backed MUI or React-Bootstrap components. Drag and drop coded components on the canvas and design an interface that’s interactive and production-ready by default. Save your time on translating design to code. Try UXPin Merge.

Design UI with code-backed components.

Use the same components in design as in development. Keep UI consistency at scale.

Try UXPin Merge

Material UI

Material UI (known as MUI) is a React component library that implements Google’s Material Design rules. It is renowned for its clean, modern aesthetics and comprehensive component set, making it a favorite among developers who value design consistency and user experience.

Key Features of MUI

• Design Philosophy: Material UI adheres strictly to Material Design principles, offering a cohesive and visually appealing design language that promotes user familiarity and intuitiveness.
• Component Library: MUI boasts a rich library of pre-built, customizable components designed to work seamlessly out of the box, reducing the need for extensive custom styling.
• Customization: MUI provides robust theming capabilities, allowing developers to tweak and personalize the appearance to align with their brand’s identity.
• React Integration: As a React-specific library, MUI leverages the power of React’s component-based architecture, making it ideal for developers working within the React ecosystem.
• Accessibility: Material UI components are built with accessibility in mind, ensuring that web applications are usable by everyone, including those with disabilities.

Ideal Projects for Material UI

1. React-Based Applications: Material UI is specifically designed for React, providing seamless integration and development experience.
2. Projects Requiring Consistent Design Language: Ensures a consistent and cohesive user interface across different parts of the application.
3. Applications with Complex UI Components: Offers a comprehensive set of pre-built components such as tables, forms, buttons, modals, and navigation elements.
4. Projects Prioritizing Accessibility: Follows best practices to ensure usability by people with disabilities.
5. Applications Needing Custom Theming: Provides robust theming capabilities for easily modifying and extending default themes.
6. Projects with Agile Development Processes: Suitable for agile development, where requirements may change frequently, and iterative improvements are common.

Bootstrap

Bootstrap is one of the most popular CSS frameworks, widely adopted for its simplicity and flexibility. It provides a solid foundation for building responsive web designs and is known for its extensive grid system and pre-designed components.

Key Features of Bootstrap

• Design Philosophy: Focuses on utility and ease of use, providing a straightforward, grid-based approach that simplifies responsive web design.
• Component Library: Offers a comprehensive set of components ranging from navigation bars and forms to modals and carousels.
• Customization: Highly customizable with CSS overrides or built-in SASS variables to tailor the design.
• Flexibility: Utility classes make it easy to apply consistent styling and responsive behaviors across different elements.
• Community and Documentation: Extensive documentation and a large community provide abundant resources for troubleshooting, learning, and enhancing development processes.

Ideal Projects for Bootstrap

1. Responsive Web Design: Bootstrap’s grid system and responsive utilities make it easy to create layouts that adapt to different screen sizes and devices.
2. MVP or PoC Projects: Enables developers to quickly build and iterate on designs with a wide range of pre-designed components and utility classes.
3. Admin UI Panels: Ideal for building feature-rich admin interfaces with its comprehensive set of components.
4. Landing Pages: Popular choice for creating attractive and responsive landing pages with easy-to-use components and extensive customization options.
5. Educational and Non-Profit Websites: Allows educational institutions and non-profits to create functional and appealing websites without extensive development resources.
6. Documentation and Resource Sites: Components such as alerts, badges, and panels make it easy to create well-structured and readable documentation sites.

Comparative Analysis: Material UI vs Bootstrap

Responsive Design

Bootstrap:

• Renowned for its 12-column grid system, which is highly flexible and easy to use.
• Offers numerous utility classes to control visibility and layout on different devices.

Material UI:

• Supports responsive design through its Grid component, based on CSS Flexbox, for dynamic and flexible layouts.
• Provides customizable breakpoints for different screen sizes.

Verdict: Both frameworks excel in responsive design, but Bootstrap’s grid system is often considered more straightforward for beginners due to its extensive documentation.

Performance

Bootstrap:

• Can be heavier due to extensive use of CSS and JavaScript, but optimization (like using PurgeCSS) can significantly improve performance.
• Load times can be affected by unused components if not optimized properly.

Material UI:

• Designed with performance in mind, leveraging React’s efficient rendering.
• Supports tree shaking to remove unused code, improving load times and performance.

Verdict: Material UI tends to have an edge in performance due to its React-based architecture and tree shaking capabilities, although Bootstrap can perform well with proper optimization.

Rapid Development

Bootstrap:

• Comes with a vast library of pre-designed components, speeding up the development process.
• Simple to integrate with any web project, ideal for quick prototyping and development.

Material UI:

• Provides a rich set of pre-built components following Material Design guidelines for rapid development of modern interfaces.
• Seamlessly integrates with React, leveraging React’s powerful features for faster development.

Verdict: Both frameworks support rapid development, but Material UI’s React integration can make it faster for React-based projects, while Bootstrap’s simplicity and wide usage make it great for quick setups.

Flexibility

Bootstrap:

• Highly customizable with SASS variables, allowing extensive tweaking of styles and components.
• Offers numerous utility classes for flexible styling and layout adjustments.

Material UI:

• Offers robust theming capabilities for creating custom themes across the application.
• Provides flexibility in customizing components through props, themes, and custom styling.

Verdict: Material UI offers more advanced theming and customization options, especially beneficial for React projects, while Bootstrap provides straightforward customization through utility classes and SASS variables.

Ease of Use

Bootstrap:

• Known for its gentle learning curve and extensive documentation, making it accessible for beginners and experienced developers alike.
• Wide adoption means numerous resources, tutorials, and community support are available.

Material UI:

• Requires knowledge of React, which can be a barrier for developers not familiar with React.
• Offers detailed documentation and a strong community, but the initial learning curve can be steeper for those new to React or Material Design.

Verdict: Bootstrap is generally easier to pick up for beginners due to its simplicity and extensive documentation, while Material UI might have a steeper learning curve but offers greater rewards for those familiar with React.

Conclusion: Which One to Choose?

Bootstrap is an excellent choice for projects that need quick, responsive design solutions with a low learning curve. It’s particularly useful for rapid prototyping and projects that need to be framework-agnostic.

Material UI, on the other hand, shines in React-based projects where a consistent design language and performance optimization are crucial. Its advanced theming and component customization capabilities make it ideal for projects requiring a modern, cohesive UI.

Choosing between Material UI and Bootstrap depends on your project’s specific needs, your familiarity with React, and your preference for customization versus simplicity. Both frameworks offer robust solutions for building responsive, high-quality web applications.

Build your app with code-backed MUI or React-Bootstrap components using UXPin Merge. Drag and drop these coded components directly onto the canvas to design an interface that’s interactive and production-ready from the start. No more time wasted translating design into code—UXPin Merge ensures your designs are ready for development right away. Try UXPin Merge for free.

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ReactJS is the most popular front-end library in the world. The library’s component-based methodology allows the development team to build and reuse components throughout a project, resulting in less programming from scratch and faster development.

We’ve put together 15 ReactJS websites and web apps to demonstrate what’s possible with this versatile framework. We also showcase tools product developers use to achieve specific outcomes or optimize ReactJS website performance.

Use ReactJS throughout the product development process–from early-stage prototyping to final front-end development. UXPin Merge is a revolutionary design technology that allows you to bring React-based components to a design tool. Learn more about Merge.

Design UI with code-backed components.

Use the same components in design as in development. Keep UI consistency at scale.

Try UXPin Merge

What Can You Build With ReactJS?

React developers use the framework for everything from simple landing pages and websites to complex games, social networking platforms, and enterprise applications. React’s flexibility and versatility make it the preferred choice for many projects, including responsive websites and cross-platform apps.

The component-based web development approach makes it easy for developers to build user interfaces and move elements around to make changes and iterate faster than using a standard HTML, CSS, and Javascript workflow.

React is written in Javascript, the most widely used programming language, so it’s relatively easy to learn and boasts one of the biggest developer communities in the world.

When you should and shouldn’t use React

React works best for single-page applications and complex web-based projects–for example, social media platforms, news publications, and SaaS products. Those sites handle a lot of data and interactions.

Don’t use React for native apps and small websites that don’t handle much data. Native applications and small websites are instances where you might want to choose a different front-end technology. For example, React Native and Flutter are better for native iOS and Android apps. 

15 Examples of ReactJS Websites

We’ve included a mix of enterprises, startups, SaaS companies, small businesses, and others that use React in their tech stack. This list demonstrates React’s versatility for websites and web applications built using the powerful Javascript library.

Facebook

Facebook is the most famous React website example because parent company Meta developed the front-end library in 2012 and still maintains it as an open-source project.

Meta initially used React for the Facebook newsfeed but now uses the library across its product ecosystem. React was a game changer for Facebook because when someone liked a post, only the component changed rather than a full page reload, resulting in significantly better performance and fewer resources.

Meta uses React Native–the mobile version of React–for Facebook, Facebook Ads Manager, and Oculus’ iOS and Android apps.

Repeat

SaaS platform Repeat uses NextJS for its website and web application. NextJS allows you to create fullstack web applications, extending what’s possible with “vanilla React.”

Repeat’s homepage is full of motion and immersive animations made possible by NextJS’s powerful features, like rending, routing, and asset optimization.

PayPal

PayPal uses a React version of Microsoft’s Fluent Design for its 60+ internal products. These products include a lot of dashboards and data visualizations necessary for daily operations.

PayPal also uses UXPin Merge, allowing the company’s design teams to prototype and test using React components. This code-to-design workflow bridges the gap between design and development, so designers and software engineers work with the same component library.

Netflix

Netflix uses React and React Redux for state management. According to the official Netflix Technology Blog, “React enabled us to build JavaScript UI code that can be executed in both server (e.g., Node.js) and client contexts.”

Performance is crucial for Netflix as users expect HD videos to load fast. Developers use the virtual DOM to reduce latency from live DOM manipulation. 

Netflix also uses React’s Component and Mixin APIs to “create reusable views, share common functionality, and patterns to facilitate feature extension.” This functionality enables Netflix to A/B test components to determine the best solutions during user testing.

Product Hunt

Product Hunt is another React/NextJS user. Like Facebook, Product Hunt must handle microinteractions for each post, including upvotes and comments.

Puma Campaigns

Gatsby is a front-end technology built on React which makes it possible to develop high-performing websites and landing pages. Puma uses Gatsby for its campaign landing pages, including this one for the Velocity running shoes.

Gatsby allows devs to build React websites and applications using popular CMS platforms like WordPress, Netlify, Drupal, and Contentful, to name a few, for content management. This framework gives developers the versatility of React with the convenience of their content team’s preferred CMS.

SEO is a big problem for single-page application frameworks like React and Angular. Gatsby helps to solve this problem with its SEO Component, which enables search engines to index the website’s content and individual pages.

Puma also uses React Native for its iOS and Android applications.

TeamPassword

Password-management startup TeamPassword uses a customized version of the MUI design system–an open-source React component library developed using Material Design used by many B2B enterprise and SaaS providers.

TeamPassword’s developers chose React as it was easier to maintain than their old framework. The 2-person engineering team also uses UXPin Merge, which allows them to import their React library from its private repository into UXPin’s design editor for prototyping and testing.

BBC

The British Broadcasting Association (BBC) was an early adopter of React and even hosted a workshop in 2015 introducing people to the front-end library and its capabilities.

In 2022, with the help of Vercel, the BBC rebuilt its website using NextJS and Vercel. The rebuild resulted in significant performance benefits, with HMR (Hot Module Replacement) reduced from 1.3s to 131ms–a staggering achievement for a website as large and complex as the BBC.

Airbnb

Airbnb uses React for some of its product ecosystems, including Airbnb.io, its open-source project famous for developing Lottie–an open-source animation tool for Android, iOS, and React Native mobile applications.

Airbnb.io is a website developed using Gatsby featuring the company’s blog posts and details about its open-source projects with links to the GitHub repos.

Cloudflare

Cloudflare migrated from Backbone and Marionette to React and Redux in 2015 to develop its cf-ui design system. The multi-brand design system serves Cloudflare’s internal and external websites and products.

Since Cloudflare had to rebuild its component library, the team focused on accessibility, creating three open-source projects in the process: 

• react-modal2,
• a11y-focus-store,
• a11y-focus-scope.

UberEATS

Uber uses React Native for its UberEATS web-based restaurant dashboard. The team needed to develop a web application restaurants could access via a tablet and decided to use React Native. The single-page web application communicates with three parties in the UberEATS marketplace and connects to restaurant receipt printers.

Uber also developed Base Web, an open-source design system for building ReactJS websites and web apps. The highly customizable design system boasts an extensive UI component library with theming capabilities.

Related content: Learn about design operations at Uber.

Shopify

Shopify uses React for its website and web application and React Native for its mobile applications. Developers can build React apps for Shopify using its famous Polaris Design System.

Skyscanner

Skyscanner is one of the most widely used travel websites, with over 40 million monthly visits. The website connects to hundreds of airlines and thousands of hotels to show users trip data in seconds.

Skyscanner uses React and React Native for its website and product ecosystem. The company’s Backpack design system features an extensive UI library with web and native components.

Pinterest

Pinterest is another social media platform using React. The company’s Gestalt design system features components for its React web app and React Native mobile applications (iOS and Android).

Pinterest is another example where React provides massive performance benefits for single-page applications. The website’s famous infinite scroll uses lazy loading to display six columns of images and video with impressive speed.

Cuckoo

Cuckoo is a UK-based broadband supplier that uses React and NextJS for its website. The website has a fair amount of animations, including a large revolving sequence in the hero. These animations do not impact the website’s performance, a product of using NextJS.

Create React Website UI Fast

Build UI design 8.6x faster with UXPin Merge – a drag-and-drop UI builder that makes you use coded React components to create beautiful and fully interactive layouts fast. Then, copy the code off your design directly to Stackblitz or export it to any other dev environment. Start your free trial to test AI Component Assistant, pre-built layouts, and open-source libraries. Discover UXPin Merge.

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Bootstrap has long been a go-to framework for many front-end developers. It offers a solid foundation for building responsive, mobile-first projects with ease. However, as your skills evolve, you might find yourself seeking alternatives that provide more flexibility, performance, or simply a different approach to building web interfaces. In this article, we’ll explore some of the best alternatives to Bootstrap that cater to the needs of senior front-end developers.

Build responsive user interfaces without the need of learning another framework. Use our visual UI builder and assemble ready-to-develop UIs in a flash. With a drag-and-drop editor, design system tool, and code export, you’re all set to create UI for your apps. Try UXPin Merge for free.

Design UI with code-backed components.

Use the same components in design as in development. Keep UI consistency at scale.

Try UXPin Merge

Tailwind CSS

Tailwind CSS has gained significant traction in the development community due to its utility-first approach. Unlike Bootstrap, which provides predefined components with specific styles, Tailwind offers low-level utility classes that you can combine to build custom designs directly in your markup.

• Pros:
  • Highly customizable without the need to override default styles.
  • Encourages reusability and consistency across your codebase.
  • Reduces CSS bloat by purging unused styles in production builds.
• Cons:
  • Steeper learning curve if you’re accustomed to component-based frameworks like Bootstrap.
  • Potential for messy HTML if not carefully managed.

Tailwind is ideal for developers who want full control over their design system and prefer a more granular approach to styling.

For those of you who build React apps, we’re recommending the official React library for Tailwind – Tailwind UI. It’s fully synced with UXPin and you can test it on trial. You can use ready-made components, generate full sections with AI Component Creator or paste the code off the Tailwind UI website to have it in UXPin. Try UXPin Merge for free.

Bulma

Bulma is a modern CSS framework based on Flexbox, making it a powerful alternative to Bootstrap for building responsive layouts. It emphasizes simplicity and ease of use, with a focus on clean, readable code.

• Pros:
  • Built on Flexbox, providing a modern approach to layout design.
  • Simple syntax and easy to learn.
  • No JavaScript dependencies, making it lightweight and easy to integrate with any JS framework.
• Cons:
  • Fewer components compared to Bootstrap.
  • Limited customization options out of the box.

Bulma is an excellent choice for developers who prefer a lightweight, modern framework with a focus on simplicity and Flexbox-based layouts.

Kendo UI

Kendo UI is a comprehensive UI toolkit designed for building sophisticated and feature-rich web applications, making it a powerful alternative to Bootstrap, especially for enterprise-level projects. It offers an extensive collection of UI components, with a focus on functionality, customization, and seamless integration with popular JavaScript frameworks.

Pros:

• Provides a vast library of advanced components, including grids, charts, and schedulers.
• Highly customizable with built-in features like data binding, templates, and localization.
• Cross-platform support ensures responsive and consistent performance across devices.
• Dedicated libraries for Angular, React, Vue.js, and jQuery for tight framework integration.
• Enterprise-level support with professional documentation and regular updates.

Cons:

• Steeper learning curve compared to Bootstrap, especially for more advanced features.
• Commercial product with licensing costs, which may not suit all project budgets.
• Smaller community compared to Bootstrap, though offset by professional support.

Kendo UI is an excellent choice for developers working on complex, enterprise-level applications that require a wide range of advanced components and robust support, particularly when integrating with popular JavaScript frameworks.

If you want to connect UXPin Merge with Kendo UI, reach out to us.

Material UI

Material UI is a popular React component library that implements Google’s Material Design principles, making it a powerful alternative to Bootstrap for building modern, visually consistent web applications. It offers a wide range of ready-to-use components that adhere to Material Design, with a focus on usability and a polished, cohesive look.

Pros:

• Comprehensive implementation of Material Design, providing a sleek and modern user interface.
• Extensive library of components designed specifically for React, making development faster and easier.
• Strong theming capabilities, allowing for customization while maintaining Material Design consistency.
• Active community and strong ecosystem with numerous third-party extensions and tools.
• Excellent documentation and resources to support developers at all levels.

Cons:

• Heavily dependent on React, which limits its use to React-based projects.
• The design can feel restrictive if you need a custom look outside of Material Design.
• Some components can be complex to configure, requiring a deeper understanding of React.

Material UI is an excellent choice for developers working within the React ecosystem who want to build modern, responsive applications with a cohesive and polished design, especially when adhering to Material Design principles.

Test Material UI components in UXPin and build fully responsive interfaces without any coding. Try UXPin Merge for free.

Ant Design

Ant Design is a comprehensive design system and React UI library, originally developed by Alibaba, that offers a powerful alternative to Bootstrap for building enterprise-level web applications. It emphasizes a consistent and elegant design language, with a focus on providing a wide range of components and tools to streamline the development process.

Pros:

• Extensive library of high-quality components designed for enterprise applications.
• Provides a consistent design system that promotes a unified user experience across applications.
• Strong support for complex data-driven applications, with components like tables, forms, and charts.
• Built-in internationalization support for multi-language applications.
• Robust documentation and active community, especially popular in Asia.

Cons:

• Primarily designed for React, which may limit its applicability to non-React projects.
• The design system can be prescriptive, making it harder to implement highly custom interfaces.
• Larger bundle size compared to lighter frameworks, which might affect performance in some cases.

Ant Design is an excellent choice for developers working on enterprise-level projects, particularly those using React, who need a comprehensive and consistent design system with a wide array of components to support complex, data-rich applications.

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Semantic UI

Semantic UI is a unique front-end framework that uses natural language principles to create a human-friendly syntax. It’s designed to make the code more readable and intuitive, which can be a significant advantage for collaboration and maintenance.

• Pros:
  • Human-readable class names, making the code easier to understand.
  • Extensive theming options for complete control over the design.
  • Rich set of components and UI elements.
• Cons:
  • Heavier framework with a steeper learning curve.
  • Potential for conflicts with other libraries due to the use of common class names.

Semantic UI is perfect for teams that value readability and maintainability, especially in large projects where collaboration is key.

Foundation

Foundation is a responsive front-end framework developed by Zurb, known for its flexibility, modularity, and emphasis on creating accessible, mobile-first web projects. It offers a robust set of tools and components that are highly customizable, making it a strong alternative to Bootstrap for developers who need more control over their design and functionality.

Pros:

• Modularity: Foundation is highly modular, allowing developers to include only the components they need, which can help reduce bloat and improve performance.
• Advanced Customization: Offers extensive customization options, enabling developers to tailor components and styles to their exact needs.
• Accessibility Focus: Designed with accessibility in mind, ensuring that web projects are usable by a wider audience, including those with disabilities.
• Flexibility: Provides a flexible grid system and a variety of responsive utilities, making it easy to create layouts that adapt to different screen sizes.
• Professional Support: As a product of Zurb, Foundation comes with the option of professional support and training, which can be valuable for larger or enterprise projects.

Cons:

• Steeper Learning Curve: Foundation’s advanced features and customization options can result in a steeper learning curve, especially for developers new to the framework.
• Smaller Community: While Foundation has a loyal user base, its community is smaller than Bootstrap’s, which means fewer third-party resources and plugins.
• Complexity: The framework’s flexibility and modularity can introduce complexity, making it more challenging to manage in large projects without proper planning.

Foundation is an excellent choice for developers and teams that need a highly customizable and modular front-end framework. It is well-suited for complex, large-scale projects where control over design and functionality is crucial.

UIkit

UIkit is a lightweight and modular front-end framework that offers a clean, modern design and extensive customization options. It’s a strong alternative to Bootstrap for developers seeking more control over their web projects, with a focus on performance and flexibility.

Pros:

• Modular Structure: Allows inclusion of only necessary components, reducing file size and improving performance.
• Clean Design: Provides a polished, modern aesthetic out-of-the-box.
• High Customizability: Offers extensive customization through LESS and Sass variables.
• Advanced Features: Includes components like animations and parallax scrolling for dynamic user experiences.
• Responsive Grid System: A flexible grid system for creating responsive layouts.

Cons:

• Smaller Community: Less widespread use means fewer third-party resources and community support.
• Learning Curve: More complex to learn compared to Bootstrap’s straightforward approach.
• Less Popularity: Not as commonly recognized in the job market or industry standards.

UIkit is an excellent choice for developers who want a customizable, modern framework with a focus on performance and advanced UI features.

Which Bootstrap Alternative Is Right For You?

Choosing the right Bootstrap alternative depends on your specific project needs, desired flexibility, and the development approach you prefer. Here’s a quick guide to help you decide which framework might be best for you:

1. Tailwind CSS

• When to Use: If you want full control over your design system and prefer a utility-first approach to styling.
• Pros: Highly customizable, reduces CSS bloat, encourages code consistency.
• Cons: Steeper learning curve, potential for messy HTML.

2. Bulma

• When to Use: If you need a lightweight, modern framework with a focus on simplicity and Flexbox-based layouts.
• Pros: Simple syntax, easy to learn, no JavaScript dependencies.
• Cons: Fewer components, limited customization out-of-the-box.

3. Kendo UI

• When to Use: For enterprise-level applications that require advanced components and robust support, particularly with Angular, React, or Vue.js.
• Pros: Extensive component library, highly customizable, enterprise-level support.
• Cons: Steeper learning curve, licensing costs, smaller community.

4. Material UI

• When to Use: For React projects where you want to implement Material Design with a polished, cohesive UI.
• Pros: Comprehensive Material Design implementation, strong theming, active community.
• Cons: Limited to React, restrictive design system, complex configuration for some components.

5. Ant Design

• When to Use: For enterprise-level React applications requiring a consistent design system with a wide array of components.
• Pros: High-quality components, consistent design, internationalization support.
• Cons: React-specific, prescriptive design, larger bundle size.

6. Semantic UI

• When to Use: If you value readability and maintainability, particularly in large projects where collaboration is key.
• Pros: Human-readable syntax, extensive theming, rich component set.
• Cons: Heavier framework, steeper learning curve, potential for conflicts with other libraries.

7. Foundation

• When to Use: For large-scale projects that require high customizability, modularity, and accessibility.
• Pros: Highly modular, advanced customization, strong accessibility focus.
• Cons: Steeper learning curve, smaller community, can be complex to manage.

8. UIkit

• When to Use: If you want a customizable, modern framework with a focus on performance and advanced UI features.
• Pros: Modular structure, clean design, high customizability.
• Cons: Smaller community, more complex to learn, less industry recognition.

The choice of framework should align with your project’s technical requirements, your preferred development approach, and the overall goals for the user experience. Whether you’re seeking unique designs, better performance, or greater flexibility, there’s a Bootstrap alternative that can help you achieve your objectives.

Conclusion

While Bootstrap remains a powerful and widely-used framework, developers choose to abandon it in favor of alternatives for a variety of reasons, including the desire for unique designs, better performance, more flexibility and control, alignment with modern development practices, and specific project needs. The choice of framework often reflects a balance between the project’s technical requirements, the developer’s preferred workflow, and the overall goals for the user experience.

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When it comes to choosing a CSS framework for your web development project, two popular options often stand out: Tailwind CSS and Bootstrap. Both have unique strengths and cater to different developer needs. Here’s a detailed comparison to help you decide which one is the best fit for your project.

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Tailwind CSS

Tailwind CSS is a utility-first CSS framework that allows developers to design custom interfaces directly within their HTML. Instead of providing pre-designed components, Tailwind offers low-level utility classes that enable granular control over the design.

Key Features

• Utility-First: Provides utility classes like flex, pt-4, text-center, and mt-2 that can be composed to build any design, directly in your markup.
• Customization: Highly customizable through a configuration file, allowing you to tailor the framework to your project’s specific needs.
• Responsive Design: Offers responsive utilities to manage how your application looks on different devices easily.
• Performance: Uses PurgeCSS to remove unused CSS, keeping your file sizes small and improving load times.

Companies Using Tailwind CSS

• GitHub: Utilizes Tailwind for certain interface elements, particularly in its documentation and internal tools.
• Laravel: The PHP framework’s ecosystem integrates Tailwind in several official and community projects.
• Dev.to: The developer community platform uses Tailwind for its clean and responsive UI.

Bootstrap

Bootstrap is a comprehensive CSS framework developed by Twitter. It provides a collection of pre-styled components and a powerful grid system, making it easier to create responsive, mobile-first web applications quickly.

Key Features

• Pre-Designed Components: Comes with a wide range of components like navbars, buttons, forms, modals, and more.
• Utility Classes: Includes utility classes for spacing, alignment, and other styling needs.
• Customization: Can be customized via SASS variables to modify its default styles.

Companies Using Bootstrap

• Twitter: Bootstrap was initially developed by Twitter for internal use and continues to be used in various projects.
• LinkedIn: Uses Bootstrap for certain UI elements and internal tools.
• Spotify: Utilizes Bootstrap for parts of its marketing website.
• NASA: Uses Bootstrap for several public-facing websites and internal projects.
• Coursera: The online education platform incorporates Bootstrap in its design for consistency and responsiveness.

Tailwind vs Bootstrap Comparison

Performance

Performance in web development refers to how efficiently a website or web application loads and runs, which directly impacts the user experience. When comparing Tailwind CSS and Bootstrap, several performance-related factors need to be considered: CSS file size, loading speed, rendering efficiency, and the ability to optimize and manage unused styles.

Tailwind CSS

• Smaller CSS Bundle: With PurgeCSS, unused styles are removed, resulting in a smaller CSS bundle.
• Customizable: Highly customizable, allowing for the inclusion of only the styles needed.

Bootstrap

• Comprehensive but Heavy: Includes a wide range of components and utilities, which can lead to larger file sizes if not optimized.
• Custom Builds: Allows for custom builds using SASS to exclude unused components.

Verdict: Tailwind generally results in smaller, more optimized CSS bundles out of the box, while Bootstrap requires careful management to avoid bloat.

Rapid Development

Rapid development refers to the ability to quickly build and iterate on web applications, enabling faster time-to-market and more efficient project workflows. In comparing Tailwind CSS and Bootstrap, several factors contribute to rapid development, including pre-designed components, ease of use, integration capabilities, and customization options.

Tailwind CSS

• Utility-First Approach: Enables rapid prototyping by composing utility classes directly in the markup.
• Learning Curve: May have a steeper learning curve initially but allows for fast, flexible design once mastered.

Bootstrap

• Pre-Designed Components: Offers a vast library of ready-to-use components, speeding up the development process.
• Ease of Use: Easy to get started with, making it ideal for quick prototyping and development.

Verdict: Bootstrap is excellent for rapid development due to its pre-designed components, while Tailwind allows for more flexible and detailed custom designs.

Flexibility

Flexibility in web development frameworks refers to the ability to adapt, customize, and extend the framework to meet specific project needs. When comparing Tailwind CSS and Bootstrap, flexibility encompasses how easily developers can modify styles, create unique designs, and integrate the framework with other tools or technologies.

Tailwind CSS

• Highly Customizable: Tailwind’s utility classes provide unparalleled flexibility, allowing for intricate and unique designs.
• Configurable: The configuration file allows extensive customization to fit project-specific needs.

Bootstrap

• Structured Components: Offers flexibility through SASS variables and custom builds, but components are more structured and opinionated.
• Utility Classes: Includes utility classes for quick adjustments, but not as extensive as Tailwind.

Verdict: Tailwind offers more flexibility for creating unique designs, while Bootstrap provides a balance of flexibility and structure.

Ease of Use

Ease of use refers to how quickly and efficiently a developer can learn, implement, and work with a CSS framework. It encompasses factors like the learning curve, documentation, community support, and the intuitiveness of the framework’s design and structure.

Tailwind CSS

• Utility Classes: Requires familiarity with utility classes and the utility-first approach.
• Documentation: Comprehensive documentation, but the approach might be different for those used to traditional CSS frameworks.

Bootstrap

• Component-Based: Easy to use with well-documented components and examples.
• Wide Adoption: Extensive community support and resources available.

Verdict: Bootstrap is generally easier for beginners due to its component-based approach and extensive documentation, while Tailwind’s utility-first approach offers a unique but rewarding learning curve.

Conclusion: When to Use Tailwind CSS or Bootstrap

Use Tailwind CSS if:

• You need a highly customizable and flexible design system.
• You prefer a utility-first approach for granular control over styles.
• You want to ensure minimal CSS file size with tools like PurgeCSS.
• Your project requires unique and intricate designs that go beyond standard components.

Use Bootstrap if:

• You need a quick, out-of-the-box solution for responsive design.
• You prefer a component-based framework with pre-designed elements.
• You are working on projects with a tight deadline and need to speed up the development process.
• Your team values consistency and prefers a well-documented, widely-adopted framework.

Both Tailwind CSS and Bootstrap have their strengths and are suited for different types of projects. By understanding your project’s specific needs and the advantages each framework offers, you can make an informed decision that best supports your development goals.

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Bootstrap is a popular open-source front-end framework for developing responsive and mobile-first websites. It was developed by Mark Otto and Jacob Thornton at Twitter and released in 2011. Bootstrap itself does not use React, but there are integrations like React-Bootstrap that provide Bootstrap components as React components. This library eliminates jQuery dependency and are more suitable for React projects. Let’s discuss the differences between the two.

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What is Bootstrap?

Bootstrap is a popular open-source front-end framework used for developing responsive websites. Developed by Mark Otto and Jacob Thornton at Twitter, it was initially released in 2011.

Bootstrap was created to address the challenges of developing consistent, responsive, and user-friendly web applications across different browsers and devices. Before Bootstrap, web developers often faced issues with cross-browser compatibility and had to create custom styles and UI components from scratch, which was time-consuming and often led to inconsistencies.

Before launching Bootstrap, developers mostly wrote their own custom CSS to style their web applications (which involved a steep learning curve) or used boilerplates like HTML5 Boilerplate. They also used JavaScript and jQuery plugins to add interactivity and dynamic elements to their websites. This included custom scripts for modals, carousels, and other interactive components.

Bootstrap’s introduction provided a comprehensive, all-in-one solution that simplified the development process, leading to its rapid adoption and popularity among web developers.

The newest version of Bootstrap is Bootstrap 5 which was released to bring modern updates, improved features, and better performance (such as the removal of jQuery, enhanced grid and form systems, a new utilities API, etc.)

When to Use Bootstrap

• Quick Setup: Bootstrap allows for rapid development of prototypes and MVPs. Its pre-styled components and responsive grid system make it easy to get a project up and running quickly.
• Reusable Components: Use ready-made Bootstrap CSS’s components like buttons, forms, modals, and navigation bars without having to design them from scratch.
• Built-In Responsiveness: Bootstrap’s grid system and responsive utilities make it easier to create layouts that work well on various devices and screen sizes without extensive custom CSS.
• Mobile-First Approach: Designed with a mobile-first philosophy, ensuring good performance on mobile devices, and making front-end development easier.
• Community Support: Extensive community resources, themes, and plugins are available, making it easier to find solutions and enhancements.

Consider other frameworks or custom solutions when:

• Your project demands highly customized user interface.
• Performance is a top priority and you need a lighter framework.
• You’re building a single-page application and need a full-featured JavaScript framework with integrated UI components.

Examples of Projects Ideal for Bootstrap

Bootstrap is heavily involved in the View Layer of MVC model. It provides a wide range of CSS styles and components to create responsive, visually appealing, and consistent user interfaces. It’s a versatile and powerful development framework for responsive design, and consistent UI.

Here are some examples of Bootstrap use cases:

• Corporate Websites: For company websites where a professional and consistent design is important, Bootstrap provides the necessary tools to create a polished user interface.
• Landing Pages: Quick and responsive landing pages for marketing campaigns can be efficiently built using Bootstrap’s grid system and pre-styled components.
• Personal Blogs and Portfolios: For personal projects like blogs or portfolios, Bootstrap’s ease of use and customization options make it a great choice to get started quickly.
• Admin Dashboards: Many admin dashboard templates are built with Bootstrap due to its comprehensive component library, which makes it easy to create complex user interfaces.
• Educational Projects: If you’re working on a school project or learning web development, Bootstrap can help you implement web designs quickly and understand fundamental web development concepts.

Several well-known companies use Bootstrap for their web development needs due to its flexibility, ease of use, and responsive design capabilities. Most notable examples are Twitter (the birthplace of Bootstrap), Spotify, and LinkedIn.

Does Bootstrap uses React?

Bootstrap itself does not use React; it is primarily a CSS framework with optional JavaScript components that are built using vanilla JavaScript and jQuery. However, there are integrations and libraries that combine Bootstrap with React.js to leverage the strengths of both.

The most popular Bootstrap and React integration is React Bootstrap, which comes in handy when you are creating single-page applications.

What is React Bootstrap?

React Bootstrap is a Javascript library that integrates the popular Bootstrap framework with React, providing Bootstrap components as React components. This integration allows developers to use Bootstrap’s styles and components in a way that is idiomatic to React, avoiding the need for jQuery and ensuring compatibility with React’s component-based architecture.

Key Features of React Bootstrap

1. Bootstrap Components as React Components: React Bootstrap provides a comprehensive set of Bootstrap components that have been converted to React components. This includes buttons, forms, modals, tooltips, carousels, and more.
2. Reusability: Components can be reused across different parts of the application or even in different projects.
3. Scalability: Each component encapsulates its own structure, style, and behavior, making it easier to manage and scale individual parts of the application.
4. No jQuery Dependency: React Bootstrap eliminates the need for jQuery, which is required by the original Bootstrap’s JavaScript components. This makes it more suitable for modern React applications.
5. Customizable and Extensible: Just like Bootstrap, React Bootstrap components are highly customizable. You can override default styles and behaviors to fit your application’s needs.
6. Declarative Syntax: React’s declarative syntax improves code readability and maintainability. Developers can easily understand the structure and flow of the UI by looking at the component tree.
7. Virtual DOM: React uses a virtual DOM to efficiently update and render only the parts of the UI that have changed. This results in better performance, especially for large and dynamic applications.
8. Consistent API: React Bootstrap components are designed to have a consistent API, making them easy to use and integrate into your React application.
9. Responsive Design: The library retains Bootstrap’s responsive design capabilities, allowing you to create layouts that work well on various devices and screen sizes.
10. Built with React Principles: Components are built following React best practices, ensuring compatibility with React’s lifecycle methods, hooks, and state management.

Can Bootstrap Replace React?

No, Bootstrap cannot replace React. Bootstrap and React serve different purposes in web development, and they are often used together rather than one replacing the other.

Bootstrap is a front-end CSS framework. It is primarily used for styling and layout. React, on the other hand, is a JavaScript library for building user interfaces. It is primarily used for managing UI logic and state. Bootstrap and React have two different roles and use cases.

They are often used together to leverage the strengths of both. For example, you can use React to manage the dynamic and interactive aspects of your web app, while Bootstrap provides the styling and responsive design. Libraries like React-Bootstrap make it easier to use Bootstrap components within React applications, providing pre-styled Bootstrap components as React components.

There are other JavaScript frameworks and libraries that can serve as alternatives or replacements for React, such as Vue, Angular or Svelte.

For native mobile applications using JavaScript and React, use React Native. It’s a framework developed and maintained by Facebook, React Native uses the same design principles and component-based architecture as React but is tailored for mobile app development.

What is better — Bootstrap or React Bootstrap?

• Choose Bootstrap if:
  • You are not using React or are using a different front-end framework or library.
  • You need a quick and easy way to style a static or server-rendered site.
  • You are comfortable managing JavaScript behavior separately or with jQuery.
• Choose React-Bootstrap if:
  • You are building or planning to build a React application.
  • You want to follow React best practices and patterns.
  • You prefer managing your UI components as React components, taking advantage of React’s state management and lifecycle methods.

Ultimately, the choice depends on your project’s requirements and your web development environment. For React projects, React-Bootstrap offers a more seamless and integrated user experience, while for non-React projects, Bootstrap provides a robust and versatile styling solution.

What is React Bootstrap used for?

React-Bootstrap is a great choice for beginners. The ability to quickly prototype and build applications helps beginners grasp core concepts without being overwhelmed by the intricacies of CSS, web page design and JSX, which is a syntax extension for JavaScript that allows you to write HTML-like code within your JavaScript files.

Corporate Websites

Build professional websites for businesses with responsive layouts and consistent design that fit the ecosystem of digital products.

Blogs

Develop a blog or CMS with features like post creation, editing, and displaying content.

E-commerce Platforms

Build online stores with product listings, shopping carts, and checkout processes.

Admin Dashboards

Create powerful and interactive admin dashboards for managing data and analytics.

Social Media Platforms

Develop social networking sites with user profiles, posts, and messaging features.

Educational Platforms

Create online learning platforms with course listings, user profiles, and interactive content.

Landing Pages

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Use React Bootstrap to Build your App’s UI

Boostrap and React Bootstrap are both frontend toolkits — they simplify front-end development workflow. If you are building a React-based web app, React-Bootstrap is the better choice. Bootstrap relies on jQuery for its JavaScript components, which can be unnecessary overhead in a React project. React-Bootstrap eliminates the need for jQuery, aligning with modern JavaScript practices and ensuring a lighter, more efficient application.

If your project does not use React or if you need a quick, static site, standard Bootstrap might be more straightforward and quicker to implement. However, for dynamic, interactive applications, React-Bootstrap’s component-based approach offers greater flexibility and scalability.

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Material UI, developed and maintained by MUI, is a popular React component library that implements Google’s Material Design guidelines. It offers a comprehensive set of reusable and customizable components, such as buttons, cards, menus, form elements, predefined styles, and themes.

The library promotes a modular and structured approach to building user interfaces, enabling developers to create visually consistent and responsive designs. With Material UI, developers can streamline their front-end development process and deliver intuitive and visually appealing web apps.

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Ant Design

Best for: web applications, cross-platform applications, native apps

The Ant Design library is a comprehensive UI component library developed by Ant Design that offers a wide range of reusable and well-documented components for building high-quality applications. It follows the principles of the Ant Design system, emphasizing a clean and minimalist design aesthetic with a focus on usability and accessibility.

The library also provides powerful features like internationalization support, theming capabilities, and responsive design, making it a popular choice among developers for creating professional and user-friendly interfaces.

Developers can quickly create consistent and visually appealing interfaces by leveraging its extensive collection of components, including forms, tables, navigation menus, and more. 

The Ant Design system also offers libraries for mobile and charts, giving product teams a comprehensive set of components and patterns for a wide variety of cross-platform applications.

React-Bootstrap

Best for: web applications

React-Bootstrap is a widely used React UI library for building responsive web applications with React. It combines the power of React’s component-based architecture with Bootstrap’s flexibility and styling capabilities, offering a comprehensive set of pre-designed and customizable components.

React-Bootstrap provides a range of UI elements such as buttons, forms, modals, navigation menus, and more, allowing developers to rapidly create visually appealing and functional interfaces.

React-Bootstrap’s detailed docs and active community support simplify web development by providing reusable and well-tested components, enabling developers to focus on building robust and user-friendly applications.

Fluent UI

Best for: web applications, iOS & Android applications, native apps, cross-platform applications

Fluent UI is a robust and comprehensive design system developed by Microsoft that provides reusable components and styling options for building cross-platform and mobile apps. The library follows the principles of Fluent Design, focusing on clarity, content prioritization, and smooth animations. 

It offers a consistent and cohesive experience across different platforms and devices, making it suitable for many cross-platform and mobile projects.

With its extensive documentation and active community, Fluent UI empowers teams to build intuitive and accessible user interfaces that align with Microsoft’s design language. From buttons and forms to complex data grids and charts, Fluent UI provides the necessary tools to deliver delightful and user-centered experiences.

Read about the differences between Material UI and Fluent UI.

Carbon Design System

Best for: web applications, iOS & Android applications, native apps, cross-platform applications

Built on the principles of IBM’s design philosophy, Carbon focuses on simplicity, clarity, and purposeful interactions. It provides a range of components, from buttons and forms to data visualizations and icons, enabling designers and developers to create intuitive and visually appealing interfaces.

With its modular and flexible architecture, the Carbon Design System promotes reusability and scalability, making it suitable for large-scale enterprise applications and smaller projects. The system’s documentation and resources empower teams to maintain design consistency and streamline collaboration.

Tailwind CSS

Best for: web applications

The Tailwind CSS library enables developers to rapidly build custom user interfaces using a utility-first CSS framework. It provides a comprehensive set of pre-defined utility classes, eliminating the need for writing custom CSS styles.

The library supports React, Vue, and HTML. Developers can easily apply these utility classes to HTML elements, giving them granular control over the appearance and behavior of their UI components. 

Tailwind CSS promotes a modular approach to styling, where devs can combine classes to create unique and responsive designs. It offers utilities for layout, typography, colors, spacing, and more, allowing developers to create consistent and visually appealing interfaces with minimal effort.

Semantic UI

Best for: web applications

Semantic UI is a versatile front-end framework that offers a wide range of semantic and intuitive components for creating user interfaces. It provides a comprehensive collection of pre-designed UI elements for web applications, including buttons, forms, menus, cards, and modals.

The framework follows a natural language naming convention, making it user-friendly and easy to understand. Developers can leverage Semantic UI’s extensive set of CSS classes to build visually appealing and responsive designs quickly. The library supports React, Meteor, Ember, and Angular front-end frameworks.

Semantic UI supports theming and customization, allowing developers to customize the appearance of their UI components to align with their project’s branding. With its intuitive syntax and detailed documentation, Semantic UI is a valuable tool for designing and developing modern web interfaces.

Foundation

Best for: web applications, email templates, landing pages

Foundation is a responsive front-end framework with CSS and JavaScript components for building modern, mobile-friendly websites. It offers a comprehensive toolkit with a modular approach, allowing developers to customize and tailor their designs to meet specific project requirements.

Devs can easily create responsive grids, navigation menus, forms, buttons, and other UI elements that adapt seamlessly across different screen sizes. The framework also includes a powerful JavaScript library that enables interactive features and smooth animations.

With its extensive documentation and active community support, Foundation empowers developers to create visually appealing and highly functional web interfaces.

Chakra UI

Best for: web applications

Chakra UI is a modern and accessible React component library for streamlining user interface development. The library supports several frameworks, including React, Next.js, Meteor, and Gatsby, to name a few.

The project was founded by Segun Adebayo of Nigeria, making it one of the most prominent open-source component libraries to come out of Africa.

Chakra UI provides pre-designed components and utility functions, allowing developers to create visually appealing and responsive websites. Developers can leverage Chakra UI’s customizable and reusable components, such as buttons, forms, cards, and navigation elements, to design intuitive and accessible user interfaces.

The library also focuses on accessibility by adhering to WCAG standards, ensuring that the created interfaces are usable by individuals with disabilities. Chakra UI’s simplicity, flexibility, and robust documentation make it a popular choice among developers looking to build efficient and visually stunning React applications.

Bulma

Best for: web applications, landing pages

Bulma is a lightweight and modern CSS framework based on Flexbox, providing a flexible and responsive grid system and a set of ready-to-use UI components. The framework’s intuitive class naming convention supports quick and efficient styling, while its modular architecture ensures scalability and customization.

Bulma’s simplicity, extensive documentation, and community support make it a popular choice for projects of all sizes. Whether you’re building a landing page, a dashboard, or an eCommerce site, Bulma provides a solid foundation for building aesthetically pleasing and functional interfaces.

Styled Components

Best for: web applications, landing pages

Styled Components is a popular JavaScript library that allows developers to write CSS directly in their JavaScript code using tagged template literals. It provides a way to encapsulate styles within components, making them more maintainable and reusable. 

Styled Components is widely used in the React ecosystem and offers seamless integration with popular UI frameworks and libraries. Developers can create dynamic and responsive styles by leveraging the power of JavaScript, including the ability to access component props and states. The library offers many features, including support for CSS-in-JS, automatic vendor prefixing, and theme management.

PrimeReact

Best for: web applications, landing pages

PrimeReact is a comprehensive UI component library for React applications, offering ready-to-use components and advanced features. It provides a wide range of UI elements, including buttons, inputs, tables, modals, and charts, for various digital products.

PrimeReact follows a responsive design approach, ensuring components adapt well to different screen sizes and devices. The library also offers powerful features, such as data binding, filtering, sorting, and pagination, making it suitable for building data-intensive applications. 

By leveraging PrimeReact’s pre-built components and features, developers can save time and effort, resulting in faster development cycles and improved user experiences. The library is regularly updated, ensuring compatibility with the latest React versions and providing ongoing support and bug fixes.

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There is no denying the immense popularity and practicality of React. For a long time, most web design was built with CSS, HTML, and JavaScript. React brought a much-needed sigh of relief for developers with its ease of use. The reusable components, great developer tools, and extensive ecosystem are some of the most loved features of React.

Instead of the traditional approach of directly manipulating the DOM, React introduced a useful level of abstraction in the form of the virtual DOM concept. 

The library is being actively developed and maintained by React developers at the tech giant Facebook. This provides it with a much-needed edge over other frameworks and libraries.  Countless contributors in the JavaScript community also regularly contribute to refining and improving React. 

All these factors allow React to maintain its popularity among developers even though newer frameworks are constantly emerging and competing for recognition amongst frontend developers.

There are numerous design patterns that are available in React.js. Here, we shortlist a few recommended React patterns that you should definitely know about when building web apps. 

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Why You Should Follow React Design Patterns?

Let us first briefly recap the role that design patterns play. Simply put, design patterns are repeatable solutions to commonly occurring problems in software development.

They serve as a basic template upon which you can build up the program’s functionality according to the given requirements. 

The term ‘design pattern’ is not to be confused with a ‘design system’. We have discussed more design systems in a separate article.

Design patterns not only speed up the development process but also make the code easier to read and to maintain. 

Some common examples of design patterns include the Singleton pattern and the Gang-of-Four pattern.

In software development, design patterns are associated with two common roles.

1. Design patterns offer a common platform to developers.
2. Design patterns ensure that React best practices are applied.

Let’s look at them closer.

Role #1: Offer a common platform to developers

Design patterns provide standard terminology and solutions to known problems. Let us take the example of the Singleton pattern that we mentioned above. 

This pattern postulates the use of a single object. Developers implementing this pattern can easily communicate to other developers that a particular program follows the singleton pattern and they will understand what this means. 

Role #2: Ensure that React best practices are applied

Design patterns have been created as a result of extensive research and testing. They not only allow developers to become easily accustomed to the development environment but also ensure that the best practices are being followed.

This results in fewer errors and saves time during debugging and figuring out problems that could have been easily avoided if an appropriate design pattern had been implemented.

Like every other good programming library, React makes extensive use of design patterns to provide developers a powerful tool. By properly following the React philosophy, developers can produce some extraordinary applications.  

Now that you have an understanding of design patterns. Let us move on to some of the most widely used design patterns available in React.js. 

Functional vs Class Components

Components can be of two types, namely, functional and class components. The difference between the two is explained in a separate blog article: Functional vs Class Components – What Do You Need to Know?

Class Components

Class components are built upon JavaScript classes, extending the React.Component class. They are the traditional approach to building React components and offer a robust structure for managing state and lifecycle events. Class components are particularly advantageous for complex scenarios where precise control over state and lifecycle behavior is essential.

In a class component, you define a class that inherits from React.Component. This class can contain a constructor for initializing state, lifecycle methods for handling various stages of a component’s existence, and a render method to define the component’s UI. This structured approach is beneficial when dealing with intricate components that require meticulous management of internal state and lifecycle events.

Here’s an example of a React class component:

import React, { Component } from 'react';

class MyClassComponent extends Component {
  constructor(props) {
    super(props);
    this.state = {
      count: 0,
    };

    // Binding 'this' context to the method
    this.incrementCount = this.incrementCount.bind(this);
  }

  incrementCount() {
    this.setState((prevState) => ({
      count: prevState.count + 1,
    }));
  }

  render() {
    return (
      <div>
        <h1>Count: {this.state.count}</h1>
        <button onClick={this.incrementCount}>Increment</button>
      </div>
    );
  }
}

export default MyClassComponent;

Functional Components

On the other hand, functional components resemble typical JavaScript functions. They receive properties (props) as arguments and return React elements for rendering. While initially lacking some features present in class components, functional components have gained prominence with the introduction of React Hooks.

Functional components are well-suited for simpler scenarios, promoting a more functional programming approach. With the advent of Hooks, functional components can now handle state and lifecycle events, eliminating the need for class components in many cases. The concise syntax and ease of understanding make functional components an excellent choice for straightforward UI elements.

Here’s an example of a React functional component using hooks:

import React, { useState } from 'react';

const MyFunctionalComponent = () => {
  const [count, setCount] = useState(0);

  const incrementCount = () => {
    setCount(prevCount => prevCount + 1);
  };

  return (
    <div>
      <h1>Count: {count}</h1>
      <button onClick={incrementCount}>Increment</button>
    </div>
  );
};

export default MyFunctionalComponent;

Compound Pattern

When React developers have two or more components that work together, more likely one is the parent while the rest are children. But did you know that you can make them share states and handle logic together?

That’s what the compound component React pattern is all about. The compound components API shows relationships between components and allows them to communicate in a flexible way.

If you want to know more about it, read this article by LogRocket about understanding React compound components.

Here’s an

example of the compound component pattern with a simplified Accordion component:

import React, { useState, createContext, useContext } from 'react';

// Create a context to share state between compound components
const AccordionContext = createContext();

const Accordion = ({ children }) => {
  const [openIndex, setOpenIndex] = useState(null);

  const toggleIndex = (index) => {
    setOpenIndex(openIndex === index ? null : index);
  };

  return (
    <AccordionContext.Provider value={{ openIndex, toggleIndex }}>
      <div className="accordion">{children}</div>
    </AccordionContext.Provider>
  );
};

const AccordionItem = ({ children, index }) => {
  const { openIndex, toggleIndex } = useContext(AccordionContext);
  const isOpen = openIndex === index;

  return (
    <div className={`accordion-item ${isOpen ? 'open' : ''}`}>
      <div className="accordion-header" onClick={() => toggleIndex(index)}>
        {children[0]}
      </div>
      {isOpen && <div className="accordion-body">{children[1]}</div>}
    </div>
  );
};

// Usage
const App = () => {
  return (
    <Accordion>
      <AccordionItem index={0}>
        <div>Header 1</div>
        <div>Content 1</div>
      </AccordionItem>
      <AccordionItem index={1}>
        <div>Header 2</div>
        <div>Content 2</div>
      </AccordionItem>
      <AccordionItem index={2}>
        <div>Header 3</div>
        <div>Content 3</div>
      </AccordionItem>
    </Accordion>
  );
};

export default App;

Conditional Rendering

Conditions are the foremost tool in the arsenal of any software developer. 

In the process of writing React components, the need often arises to render a certain JSX code based on the state. This is achieved through conditional rendering.

Conditional rendering is very useful as it allows you to create distinct components based on your needs and then render only the ones that are required by the application.

For instance, conditional rendering can be used to display different messages to the user based on the login status of the user. The message will be subject to the value of the prop isLoggedIn.

Render Props

We discussed how design patterns are there to solve common problems. Render props are available in React to help us solve the problem of logic repetition. 

According to official React documentation, render props are defined as a ‘technique for sharing code between React components using a prop whose value is a function’.

Render props prove really handy as they allow us to share the same state across different components. Instead of hardcoding the logic inside each component, you can use a function prop to determine what to render.

Some popular libraries that make use of render props include Formik, React Router, and Downshift.

Here’s an example demonstrating the Render Props pattern:

import React, { Component } from 'react';

// Component using the Render Props pattern
class Mouse extends Component {
  constructor(props) {
    super(props);
    this.state = { x: 0, y: 0 };

    this.handleMouseMove = this.handleMouseMove.bind(this);
  }

  handleMouseMove(event) {
    this.setState({
      x: event.clientX,
      y: event.clientY
    });
  }

  render() {
    return (
      <div style={{ height: '100vh' }} onMouseMove={this.handleMouseMove}>
        {this.props.render(this.state)}
      </div>
    );
  }
}

// Usage of the Mouse component with render props
const App = () => {
  return (
    <div>
      <h1>Move the mouse around!</h1>
      <Mouse render={({ x, y }) => (
        <h2>The mouse position is ({x}, {y})</h2>
      )}/>
    </div>
  );
};

export default App;

Controlled Components

Web forms are a common requirement in a large number of applications and controlled components are React’s answer to handling form state.

The controlled component takes the state through props. It can notify any changes by means of callbacks like onChange. 

Parent components can control it by handling the callback and managing its own state meanwhile, the new values are passed to the controlled component as props.

By default React forms have support for both controlled and uncontrolled components. It is highly recommended that you use controlled components. 

The following code snippet shows a controlled component.

<input type = "text" value = {value} onChange = {handleChange} />

React Hooks Pattern

Hooks are a relatively new addition to React and were introduced in React 16.8. 

These functions allow developers to use React without classes. There are a number of different pre-built hooks available like the Effect Hook ( useEffect ) and the State Hook. 

For a complete list of available hooks, you can visit the Hooks API Reference.

Apart from the pre-built hooks in React, you can also create your own hooks. This allows you to extract the component logic and create reusable functions.

Hooks are a welcome addition to React and the developer community really appreciated this new addition with great enthusiasm.

However, it must be kept in mind that sometimes hooks can become a little tricky to work with when the arguments are objects, arrays, or functions. This can become somewhat confusing.

On the other hand, custom hooks are easy and simple to use and they also provide immense benefits to the developer.

Here’s an example of a functional component in React that uses hooks:

import React, { useState, useEffect } from 'react';

const Counter = () => {
  // useState hook to manage the counter state
  const [count, setCount] = useState(0);

  // useEffect hook to perform a side effect: updating the document title
  useEffect(() => {
    document.title = `Count: ${count}`;
  }, [count]); // Only re-run the effect if count changes

  // Function to handle incrementing the count
  const increment = () => {
    setCount(prevCount => prevCount + 1);
  };

  // Function to handle decrementing the count
  const decrement = () => {
    setCount(prevCount => prevCount - 1);
  };

  return (
    <div>
      <h1>Counter: {count}</h1>
      <button onClick={increment}>Increment</button>
      <button onClick={decrement}>Decrement</button>
    </div>
  );
};

export default Counter;

Higher-Order Component Pattern

When it comes to more advanced React patterns, there’s higher-order component pattern, referred to as HOC. It’s applied whenever React developer wants to reuse logic within application.

HOC takes a component as an argument and when it returns it, it adds data and functionality to the component.

For instance, when using React with Redux, you can pass the component through connect function and it will get injected with data from the Redux store. The values that you get will be passed as Props.

HOC is not a part of the core React API. It’s a JavaScript function. Nonetheless, it is in line with the nature of React functional components, that’s composition over inheritance.

Here’s an example of the HOC pattern in React:

import React from 'react';

// Higher-Order Component
const withLogging = (WrappedComponent) => {
  class WithLogging extends React.Component {
    componentDidMount() {
      console.log(`Component ${WrappedComponent.name} is mounted.`);
    }

    componentWillUnmount() {
      console.log(`Component ${WrappedComponent.name} is unmounted.`);
    }

    render() {
      return <WrappedComponent {...this.props} />;
    }
  }

  return WithLogging;
};

// Example component
const MyComponent = (props) => {
  return <div>{props.text}</div>;
};

// Wrap MyComponent with withLogging HOC
const MyComponentWithLogging = withLogging(MyComponent);

// Usage
const App = () => {
  return <MyComponentWithLogging text="Hello, world!" />;
};

export default App;

Use Most Common React Design Patterns

React has proven to be a highly popular library. The community is among the fastest-growing developer communities online.

You will also find lots of useful web development resources available online that make it easy to learn react.js and adapt to it.

The power of React is due to its amazing features and the robust architecture that it offers. One of the most prominent and widely loved features of React is its design patterns.

Design patterns are in fact what gives this library its extraordinary practicality and usefulness. They make code optimization and maintenance easier.

They allow developers to create apps that are flexible in nature, deliver better performance, and produce a codebase that is easier to maintain.

We have discussed a few popular React design patterns like stateless functions, render props, controlled components, conditional rendering, and react hooks. 

However, it must be noted that react design patterns are not just limited to these patterns and there are several different design patterns that you can implement. Once you get familiar with the usage of the common design patterns, it will become easier to graduate to others. 

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