Useful ReactJS Libraries Every Developer Should Know
When it comes to building faster responsive front-end interfaces, React is a huge time-saver and a very useful library for individuals and teams worldwide.
I discussed the best React user-interface libraries in my blog. This post is all about those React packages which will help you in saving time and energy so that you can focus on building beautiful & interactive applications.
React Testing Library
As a smart developer, your goal should always be to write maintainable tests for your React components. But how will you achieve that?
By making sure that your test base is maintainable in the long run so any refactors of your components or in simple words — any changes to the code should not break the functionality.
End to end type of test allows us to test components in a way that mimics real user interactions.
This can be solved by the react testing library which is a very lightweight solution for testing React components. It provides light utility functions on top of react-dom and react-dom/test-utils, in a way that encourages better testing practices.
This module is distributed by the npm packages and can be installed by writing this command:
npm install — save-dev @testing-library/react
OR
yarn add — dev @testing-library/react
React Query
If you are already using React then you know that fetching data with React is generally a process that involves a lot of code.
We often need to use the useEffect hook along with useState to manage the fetched data. Isn’t it?
This is where React Query can be extremely helpful — it can cut down on the code you write when making network requests. The codes that we had to write before, can be replaced with the hook useQuery.
Not just that, it also saves(caches) the requests that we make. So, in most cases, if we have requested data before — then we don’t have to make another request — we just have to read it from the cache. Simple!
You can install React Query with NPM or Yarn:
npm i react-query
OR
yarn add react-query
Formik
Formik is an open-source, lightweight library for ReactJS or React Native.
Creating forms in ReactJS sometimes may require a significant amount of code which depends on what is your need and how you want to manage each form field.
And that is the reason, developers are always on the lookout for smart tools that make their lives easier — and undoubtedly one of them is Formik in React.
Formik is extremely useful to handle:
- Form data with a state management very easily
- Implements field level validations
- Handles error at field and form level & also
- Manages form submissions
- Has lower latency than Redux Form
Install Formik with NPM or Yarn:
npm install formik — save
OR
yarn add formik
React Responsive
The digital age is changing so rapidly with technological advancements — react applications should be created for users keeping in mind the variety of devices in the market.
Which makes it necessary for these applications to be responsive i.e., These applications need to adjust their appearance and styling according to the user’s screen size.
If you are a react developer — here’s an extremely powerful tool that will allow you to create truly responsive designs in your React projects.
It uses the combined power of breakpoints and media queries to define DOM elements that the developer wants to show, hide or reposition.
You can use the useMediaQuery to pass precise conditions — determining whether users are using a certain type of device like a cell phone, desktop, tab, or tv monitor.
Here’s how you can install it:
npm install react-responsive — save
Redux — Thunk
Handling states in react application is always a complicated task, especially when it comes to global state management. Redux is a library that is extensively used to handle this.
But there’s a problem — with Redux you can only do simple synchronous updates.
You have to use middleware like Redux Thunk if you need to handle asynchronous processes like API calls inside Redux.
Thunk is just a function returned from another function.
It allows us to write action creators that return a function instead of an action. It can be used to delay the dispatch of actions or to dispatch only if a certain condition is met.
This is how you install thunk-
npm i redux-thunk
The alternative to Redux Thunk is Redux-Saga.
It uses an ES6 feature called ‘Generators’ which helps us to write asynchronous code.
So how does Redux-Saga work?
It just simply attends to the dispatched actions and triggers an API call or any other side effect which you write.
This is how you install Redux-Saga-
npm install redux-saga
There are numerous ReactJS packages to choose from, but which ones do you use the most for your React projects? Let me know in the comments section.
About me:
Founder and CEO of an IT company in India, I have more than 25 years experience of in dealing with people, processes, and codes. I started online training for my students when it was not in fashion and have trained more than 1000 students/working professionals personally which has helped them to secure awesome jobs or even start their own business.
I am also been an active corporate trainer for several years now and have been consulting with top Fortune 500/1000 companies to streamline their development projects efficiently. My goal is to share knowledge with a primary focus on advanced tools & techniques, projects, and standard programming practices to help my students understand the basics and fundamentals and make awesome technological implementations.
