React-ing with Redux

Posted by Lisa Feng on December 3, 2020

Getting accustomed to a React framework took a considerable amount of perspective-shifting brain power for me; primarily, thinking in terms of ‘components’ inside a ‘virtual DOM’. With this new outlook came designing a component tree in all its passing-down-props glory. Then we throw in Redux, a JS library. Getting used to keeping track of state via the Redux store was another shift in thinking. But it was all worth it.

This React project has been my most enjoyable build yet. There’s something about not having to hit refresh on a SPA to render new content that is just so convenient. A convenience that I have taken for granted until my coding journey with Flatiron showed me what could’ve (and has) been. Mapping out all the components, actions, and reducers undoubtedly takes more effort than simply placing elements directly into the DOM, but the resulting UI is exponentially worth it.

I will say, after wrestling with React, I feel more equipped to tackle on other frameworks such as Angular and Vue.