It’s accepted by the majority of developers that React is a well-known name amongst different front-end frameworks. It’s an open-source, flexible JavaScript library used for creating innovative and unique apps. Developers prefer React as it is easy to learn with basic knowledge of JS. Here are popular React Best practices to follow that will help you master your React development skills.
React is a JavaScript library that is open-source and easy to learn. Generally, React is used to develop interactive UIs for Single Page Apps, enterprise apps, etc. However, the complexity of the code increases while developing huge apps. Hence, practising React best practices is necessary to make the code more readable and easy. Let’s discuss them in detail.
React Best Practices to follow while using ReactJS
There are multiple react js best practices, but the ones which we will discuss here are most important to follow. Here’s the list:
- ReactJS project structure best practices
- Avoiding component hell
- ReactJS Code Structure Best Practices
- Use proper name conventions for component names
- Putting CSS in JavaScript
- Using Proptypes
- Handling Props and State
- ReactJS Security best practices
Let’s discuss each of them in detail.
ReactJS project structure best practices
While developing a react project, you should begin with defining the project structure that is editable. The folder structure may be different depending on the complexity and specifications of the project. Here’s the best project structure developers can follow while developing React apps:
Folder Layout
Folder layout helps you to focus on various reusable components so the design and pattern can be shared to different internal projects. Hence the component-centric file structure can be used that means all files related to one component should be kept under one folder.
Children Props
The content of a component may occasionally need to be rendered somewhere inside a different component. Therefore, we are able to provide functions to the component rendering function as children of props.
Avoiding component hell
There’s a practice of making components in React which makes the code reusable. The more components there are, the more reusable code exists. But think before you split codes or even larger components into components.
Sometimes more the components, messier the code will become. It gets hard to handle the code with numerous components. For instance, if you are planning to make a component with just one paragraph of code, you can skip this idea.
Whenever such situations arise while performing React coding, go with your skills and guts. Work accordingly and wait for the results. If you still feel that you can handle small components well, you can however make various components and play smartly with different features of the app.
ReactJS Code Structure Best Practices
Here are a few ReactJS code structure best practices that will help developers for clean and readable coding. Let’s see each of them in detail:
Avoid using the State till possible
When using State in a component, it should be component centralised and should be passed down to component props and trees.
Practice DRY code writing
Avoid repeating or duplicating the code and do not create similar components that perform the same tasks. DRY means Don’t Repeat Yourself in the coding structure
Try avoiding unnecessary DIV tags
More the Div tags, the more complex the code appears. Try avoiding unnecessary div tags to make the code look small and simple.
Remove comments that are not useful
Unnecessary comments should be removed as soon as the final coding is completed. It makes the code look cleaner.
Use proper name conventions and Capitals for component names
While using JSX for React development, a new component’s name should start with a capital letter. It’s necessary because JSX identifies that it’s a component and handles it differently from other HTML tags.
Previous React versions supported inline names. That makes it possible to differentiate them from their usernames. But this feature had a con. The name’s list changed constantly. Hence, it was made compulsory to use capital letters at the first place of every component’s name.
You may use lowercase letters if your app code is not written in JSX. But take into account that this can have an impact on how components are used in other projects.
Putting CSS in JavaScript
At the beginning of any app development, keeping CSS inside a single CSS file is common. By using the global prefix, one can avoid similar name conflicts. Still in situations like scaling the project, this solution may not work.
Creating a theme and style can be challenging while large-scale project development. And, maintaining large SCSS files is also a tough job. That’s the reason why CSS-in-JS is practised by React developers. Libraries like EmotionJS, Glamorous, and Styles components are based on this concept.
One can use the above listed libraries as per their project requirement. For example while dealing with complex projects, developers can use Glamorous and Styles Components.
Using PropTypes
PropTypes is important to use for React JS developers as it provides us more safety and type checking of our components. It can export multiple validators that are used to see whether the data received is correct or not.
While in the development phase, if a component isn’t given a correct prop, or if the wrong type for its props, then React will show an error to let you know your mistake.
For example:
import React from ‘react’;
import PropTypes from ‘prop-types’;
export default function MainButton({ className, title, onClick, isLoading }) {
return (
<button
type=”button”
className={`main-button ${className}`}
onClick={() => onClick()}
>{isLoading ? <><i class=”fas fa-spinner”></i> {title}</> : title}</button>
);
}
MainButton.propTypes = {
className: PropTypes.string,
title: PropTypes.string.isRequired,
onClick: PropTypes.func,
isLoading: PropTypes.bool,
};
Handling Props and State
Handling State
While handling a state, in global or local, it shouldn’t be mutated in a direct manner by reassigning property on that State with a new value:
addOne = () => { //Do not use this!!!!
this.state.counter += 1;
}
Props
While handling Props and passing the state down to another components for using it, there may occur a situation where you have to pass props to the fifth children down. It’s a method called props drilling in which props have to be passed several generations of a child from a parent. Prop drilling must be avoided.
It may create lots of errors if code isn’t written accurately. In this case, when you need to provide children the access to a state that is several generations down, you can create a pattern using Context API or Redux.
ReactJS Security best practices
Here are some Security React best practices to follow for better security of the app:
Adding Security to HTTP
In many apps, authentication is performed when a user logs in or creates an account. This procedure should be safe because client-side authorization and authorization might be vulnerable to numerous security flaws that may cause these procedures to be destroyed in the app.
It is possible to validate the method that is frequently used to add credibility by following ways:
OAuth
JWT / JSON Web Token
AuthO
PassportJs
React Router
Security Against loose / Broken Authentication
Use 2-step authentication with several factors. Or for safe access, you can utilise cloud-based verification (like Cognito).
Use dangerouslySetInnerHTML
It’s hazardous to apply “innerHTML” in React for any element inside the DOM because it leaves a huge door open for XSS attacks. React has therefore introduced a “dangerouslySetInnerHTML” prop to prevent this kind of attack in order to resolve this issue.
Final Words
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