Context of React
React is a Open Source JavaScript library for building user interfaces. Created and supported by Facebook.
You can find the documentation here: https://reactjs.org/tutorial/tutorial.html#overview
If you're a web developer that can handle HTML, CSS and JavaScript you can try React without Node.js or any other complex tool to manage this.
Easy as a cake!
1. Create a index.html with react, react-dom and babel references.
You can use this on your text editor.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="ie=edge">
<title>React Local</title>
<!-- Import the React, React-Dom and Babel libraries from unpkg -->
<script type="application/javascript" src="https://unpkg.com/react@16.0.0/umd/react.production.min.js"></script>
<script type="application/javascript" src="https://unpkg.com/react-dom@16.0.0/umd/react-dom.production.min.js"></script>
<script type="application/javascript" src="https://unpkg.com/babel-standalone@6.26.0/babel.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
<div id="root"></div>
<script type="text/javascript">
</script>
</body>
</html>
2. Add text/babel script tag
Replace the script tag:
html
<script type="text/javascript">
</script>
for
html
<script type="text/babel">
</script>
- Write any react example on the web in your new text/babel script tag
You have the most basic environment to try react, let's give it a try!
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="ie=edge">
<title>React Local</title>
<script type="application/javascript" src="https://unpkg.com/react@16.0.0/umd/react.production.min.js"></script>
<script type="application/javascript" src="https://unpkg.com/react-dom@16.0.0/umd/react-dom.production.min.js"></script>
<script type="application/javascript" src="https://unpkg.com/babel-standalone@6.26.0/babel.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
<div id="root"></div>
<script type="text/babel">
// Obtain the root
const rootElement = document.getElementById('root')
// Create a ES6 class component
class ShoppingList extends React.Component {
// Use the render function to return JSX component
render() {
return (
<div className="shopping-list">
<h1>Shopping List for {this.props.name}</h1>
<ul>
<li>Instagram</li>
<li>WhatsApp</li>
<li>Oculus</li>
</ul>
</div>
);
}
}
// Create a function to wrap up your component
function App(){
return(
<div>
<ShoppingList name="@luispagarcia on Dev.to!"/>
</div>
)
}
// Use the ReactDOM.render to show your component on the browser
ReactDOM.render(
<App />,
rootElement
)
</script>
</body>
</html>
And that's it!
You can drag this index.html file to the browser and you will get your first try of react interface.
It's important to be clear that this way is the most weak and simple way to build a react application, if you want to explore more you can learn about react basics on this free course: https://egghead.io/courses/the-beginner-s-guide-to-reactjs
I hope you can give it a try, there's always a easy and simple way to do anything.
Really like this. I think the preprocessors/packers/etc. really are the hardest part about React, as opposed to the tool itself. And it's easy to lose your mind overcoming the tooling steps. Would definitely recommend this approach to anyone not already super comfortable with the JS ecosystem.