React and React Native: A complete hands-on guide to modern web and mobile development with React.js, 3rd Edition

by Adam Boduch, Roy Derks

Get up to speed with React, React Native, GraphQL and Apollo for building cross-platform native apps with the help of practical examples React and React Native, Facebook's innovative User Interface (UI) libraries, are designed to help you build robust cross-platform web and mobile applications. This updated third edition is improved and updated to cover the latest version of React. The book particularly focuses on the latest developments in the React ecosystem, such as modern Hook implementations, code splitting using lazy components and Suspense, user interface framework components using Material-UI, and Apollo. In terms of React Native, the book has been updated to version 0.62 and demonstrates how to apply native UI components for your existing mobile apps using NativeBase. You will begin by learning about the essential building blocks of React components. Next, you'll progress to working with higher-level functionalities in application development, before putting this knowledge to use by developing user interface components for the web and for native platforms. In the concluding chapters, you'll learn how to bring your application together with a robust data architecture. By the end of this book, you'll be able to build React applications for the web and React Native applications for multiple mobile platforms. This book is for any JavaScript developer who wants to start learning how to use Facebook's UI libraries, React and React Native, for mobile and web application development. Although no prior knowledge of React is needed, working knowledge of JavaScript programming will help you understand the concepts covered in the book more effectively.

490 pages, ebook

Published April 30, 2020

Reviews

[Scott Pearson · Rating 4 out of 5]

To enhance its social media software, Facebook commissioned a JavaScript framework that makes clicking around on a website much more pleasureful for users. Instead of waiting for web servers to respond, the content requests are handled in the background and rendered by JavaScript on the client’s computer. This framework, called React, has become one of the leading UI frameworks available for web development today, along with Vue.js. This book introduces React.js and gets developers up-to-speed to write code to meet user needs.

This book covers both React and React Native. React Native is oriented around developing mobile apps through JavaScript and JSX. I did not read this section as I’m primarily interested in using React for modern web development. Both use JSX – an extended and more powerful and expressive version of JavaScript.

Boduch and Derks introduce the framework and coach readers on how to get started writing programs in the language. Code examples abound and are available for download on their GitHub site. In short time, I was able to code up a new web app in less time than it normally takes me with pure JavaScript. Because React is state driven and separates its data inputs from its rendering, the web app was able to be efficiently written without tons of tedious, detailed jQuery calls. I became aware of how pleasureful writing UI code could be for the programmer!

Later chapters delve into specifics on how to build off of React into more interesting uses. For example, code for a simple client-side router is shown. Also, advanced UI design packages are presented along with examples of how to set up server-side React using Node.js and Express. React has a lot of potential applications, and the authors make it clear how different solutions can be implemented.

This book’s main audience is software developers. Although the first chapter provides a high-level overview appropriate for IT business folk, the rest of the book uses many coding examples. Coding examples are great for software developers, but others will probably feel lost amidst all the detail. Readers should already be familiar with the basics of web development; this book merely builds on those foundations. Again, I cannot comment on the mobile development aspects either since those were not relevant for my needs. At around 500 pages and impressively in its third edition, this book provides a thorough overview for an emerging, hot technology. My biggest surprise is how fun React is to code in – always a good reaction when learning a language.

[Karthik · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you are that really impatient learner that loves hacking to build stuff more than loving to see how things are stitched together and why they are the way they are, then this book is for you. When you are wanting to get your hands dirty with React and React Native quickly, and are looking for a recipe of sorts to get started with in choosing a library for a problem, this book serves the purpose. When you want to quickly rush through a specific topic perhaps for job interview, this book will serve that goal possibly.

This is typical of a book from Packt publishers, if you know what I mean, just that it is not Cookbook or Recipe this time :P

Even in all this, this book is already dated in some sections, for instance the book uses example of react-navigation version 4, when version 5 is out and its API is different from v4.x. Blame it on the pace with which tech is evolving ;)

[SIGFRED · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not for React beginners

I am now on chapter 2 of the book. No instruction on what tools are needed before writing your code. The authors just presents you with code and your left to figure out how to run it .

[Denis Romanovsky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good overview with detailed examples on React and React Native.

[Enes Hašimbegović · Rating 1 out of 5]

A disaster to say the least.
The book is very confusing, nor is it for beginners nor senior developers.
I highly recommend not buying this garbage!