Part 2. React architecture

Welcome to part 2. Now that you know the most important concepts, features, and patterns of React, you’re ready to embark on your own React journey. Part 1 prepared you to build simple UI elements; and the bottom line is, if you’re building web UIs, core React is sufficient. But to build full-blown, front-end apps, React developers rely on open source modules written by the React community. Most of these modules are hosted on GitHub and npm, so they’re within easy reach—you can grab them and go.

These chapters cover the most-popular, most-used, mature libraries that, together with core React, form the React stack (or React and friends, as some developers jokingly call this ensemble). To get started, in chapters 12–17, you’ll learn about using Webpack for asset pipelines, React Router for URL routing, Redux and GraphQL for data flow, Jest for testing, and Express and Node for Universal React. Then, as in part 1, chapters 18–20 present real-world projects.

This may seem like a lot, but my experience with reading and writing books has shown me that baby steps and textbook examples don’t provide good value for readers and don’t show how things work in real life. So, in this part of the book, you’ll both learn about and work with the React stack. Interesting, complex projects await you. When you’ve finished, you’ll be knowledgeable about data flow, skilled in setting up the monstrosity called Webpack, and able to talk like a know-it-all at local meetups.

Read on.