What And Why of ReactJS And How is it Justified For Business

What is Reactjs framework?

Introduced and maintained by Facebook and also individual communities contributing towards it ,Reactjs is an open-source library of modules and components that are used to build dynamic frontends for web applications and websites. The original creator Jordan Walke, software engineer at facebook implemented this in Facebook's newsfeed in 2011 and later it was picked up by instagram in 2012. With 2020 setting in, it saw a rise in the trend of developing single page applications. The library of reactjs comes in handy for developing such interactive and dynamic UI's. ReactJS development lets you handle the view layer of any web application or website. It quickly renders the objects and provides you with a preview of how the elements will look and react, which lets you fine tune it further. All these changes and data updation happens without the need of reloading the entire page.

Why to choose ReactJS ?

The main purpose of the ReactJS is to develop scalable, fast and simple User interfaces. It also supports MVC template as it easily handles the view part of it and be paired with other Javascript libraries or frameworks for taking care of the backend for example AngularJS.

Here a few reasons why you can choose ReactJS over other frameworks.

1. Virtual DOM : ReactJS creates a copy of DOM where all the changes can be made and later on commits the changes to actual DOM. This grants developers the flexibility to make changes without worrying about updating the entire DOM. This also aids in quicker rendering of the page and updating the data in the browser.
2. Component Creation and reusability : React breaks down the view into code modules or individual components. These components of the ReactJS are reusable, thereby reducing the efforts of coding the new components from scratch.
3. Easy to grasp : Lastly ReactJS is more of a library rather than a framework. This library can be paired or used with other frameworks hence the learning curve is small. For businesses this means it doesn't need them to invest heavily into the redevelopment of the existing system.

Why should businesses opt for ReactJS development?

Whenever a business looks into opting for a framework, there are certain questions that come up. Not always a framework that's popular can be a good fit for the businesses. And hence certain justifications need to be given to support the choice.

Let's try to address common questions that arise

1. Speed of development : The concern here that arises is whether the given choice of framework, how quickly or how much time it would take to complete and lastly will it fit the budget? . Well ReactJS was created keeping in mind to offer a framework that offers a quick and efficient way of developing interactive UI or frontend while being compatible with other javascript frameworks. Also the library and code reusability helps in speeding up the development process. This component based framework makes it easy to translate the design into pieces of code.
2. Long term point of view : Another concern is whether the investment made in it is justifiable ? Is the framework worth investing ? . No business wants to willingly invest in a framework that requires a team of different developers to work with. How viable is the developed piece of application in the longer run. Lastly what if the developer working on this platform quits what happens then ? .

ReactJS in such cases firstly allows developers to reuse bits of code in the development cycle thereby saving time in rewriting from scratch. Even if it means it is left in the middle, a well experienced developer can pick it up from where it was left off. Also since ReactJS is a library of components it is easy to make changes in the future and as it uses javascript you need no different teams of developers working on it.

3. Reliability : Next question that arises is whether the framework that's popular now will fade out with time ? . Answer is no ! React was introduced by facebook and is maintained by them and also a community of active developers contributing to it. As a matter of fact , in the meantime it became a popular choice for developing the front end of web applications and websites over other javascript frameworks. Facebook themselves use reactjs for their front end and instagram adopted in 2012. Twitter began with ReactJS, later on giants like Netflix, Airbnb, Paypal have adopted it. So Reactjs is not one of those fly-by frameworks, and big names adopting it ensure there's a strong pool of react developers to take any project forward.

4. Associated Risk : Risks like cost of licensing the framework, is it purely open-source or is it GPL-licensed code that could make company code to become open source by default ? what about developers quitting in the middle of the development process ? Ease in maintaining the codebase ? .

Firstly ReactJS has been relicensed under the MIT License, which (a) means there is no longer a patent-related threat from Facebook and (b) it's not GPL, so there's no risk of the company's code becoming open source and available to others.

In the end this is how ReactJS can be justified for businesses that are looking to opt for ReactJs development services. These are the dew pointers you as a business can consider while opting for ReactJS development. Although reactjs sounds interesting to work with, you can further consult software development companies for further clarification on how apt the framework can be for your project.

Author of this article is an experienced developer and solutions architect at a custom software development and blockchain company. He has worked and implemented various software solutions at small to large scale enterprise level.