What is ReactJS

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What is ReactJS?

Let us understand What is ReactJS with one example? To find the answer to this question, we have to visit react.dev. Once you visit react.dev, it will open the following page which is the official website of React.

This is the official ReactJS webpage. So, React is a JavaScript library for building web and native user interfaces. Consider an example like Netflix, Netflix has its website and an application.

This website is highly interactive and runs very smoothly when we work with it. It is easy to use and we don’t have to wait for anything to load, it has good and instant transitions.

When we use a service like Netflix, it might almost feel a bit like a mobile app. Because mobile apps give us a highly reactive user experience. Traditionally, in web apps, you click a link and wait for a new page to load. You click a button and wait for some action to complete.

And this response and request cycle, which we can break up with JavaScript. So, at this point we don’t even need React, it’s just JavaScript that can help us here. Because JavaScript is a scripting language that allows a developer to run logic in the browser. And the great thing about that logic in the browser is that it can do things that manipulate what the user sees.

JavaScript in the browser is able to manipulate DOM (Document Object Model), the HTML elements that are rendered onto the screen. So, this can be manipulated with JavaScript. And that allows us to change what the user sees without fetching a new HTML page.

We do not need to request a new HTML page just to present something different to the user. And in these scenarios, JavaScript can help us. And since React is a JS library, it looks like it can also help us with that. It might be an extra building block, and indeed, ReactJS is a Client-Side JavaScript Library.

It helps us with writing that client-side JavaScript code and it is all about building modern reactive user interfaces for websites. And in the upcoming articles on ReactJS, you will learn about all the different features and tools that React.js has and gives you that make building complex user interfaces easy.

What is ReactJS?

React JS is a Free and Open-Source, Component-Based Front-End JavaScript Library that is used for building only the view layer of the application i.e. the User Interfaces (UI) of the Application where the end user will interact.

ReactJS is not a framework, it is just a JavaScript library that is developed and maintained by Facebook (Currently called Meta) and a community of individual developers and companies to solve some problems that we were facing earlier while developing the front end of the application.

But why do we need React? Why do we want React in addition to JavaScript? That we will see this in our next article. Here, in this article, I try to explain what is ReactJS.