Beginner's Guide to Real World React

In this course, you'll learn to build web applications with modern front end techniques using the React JS library

 

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8h 7m

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What You Will Learn

How to build realistic React applications from scratch

How React compares to other front end frameworks

How to use React Hooks

What React is missing and how to fill in the blanks

How to use React with popular libraries like axios

What problems React solves

How to navigate in complex apps with React-Router

How to manage app state with Redux

In this course you'll take a deep dive into core React concepts as you learn more about how React works, how you can use it to build complex web applications, and how to combine it with third-party libraries and frameworks to 'join the dots' and gain a detailed understanding of how you might use React in a real world setting.

Why this course

The Beginner's Guide to Real World React will teach you how to successfully build web applications with modern frontend techniques, using the ReactJS library.

React on its own is only one piece of the puzzle and it doesn't, out of the box, cater for some of the missing pieces of common frontend development. Pieces such as:

  • Connecting to an API or external data source and retrieving data to power your app.
  • Navigating around your app to different pages or areas.
  • Managing the "state" of your application's data at a higher level (i.e. outside of components).

The problem is, these missing pieces are vital parts of any modern web application, as well as any realistic development scenario. It's key to understand both their concepts and how to approach them in React development. Many tutorials only cover one aspect of these and don't bring them together in a realistic setting.

On completion of The Beginner's Guide to Real World React, you'll not only have a knowledge of modern React development, but also the skills required to build real-world apps that talk to real data.

You don't have to be a coding guru or have years of experience as this course is designed for beginners. However, you should be familiar with the basics of frontend development, including HTML, CSS and JavaScript. It would be helpful to have an understanding of basic concepts around RESTful APIs and how to interact with them, but it's not essential.

Course topics

In The Beginners Guide to Real World React you'll join me on a deep dive into core React concepts. As you progress through this course, you will learn more about how React works, how you can use it to build complex web applications, and how to combine it with third-party libraries and frameworks to 'join the dots'. You will gain a detailed understanding of how you might use React in a real world setting.

Part I

In part one of the course, we'll take an end-to-end approach to React. We'll start with taking a look at the library itself and the problems it solves, before moving on to topics such as Hooks and handling data from an API. Finally, we'll talk about how to build and deploy our application to a popular service such as Netlify.

Included in the introductory part one of the course are the following modules:

  • Module 1 - this very introduction.
  • Module 2 - React JS: an introduction to React, a modern UI library.
  • Module 3 - React Hooks: what they are and how to use them.
  • Module 4 - Fetching data: using APIs in your code, and popular helper libraries such as Axios.
  • Module 5 - Deploying your first app: using Netlify to deploy our app to the public.

Part II

In the extended course part two, we'll cover similar topics to the first part but take a deeper dive into them and look at some of the challenges we face as React developers and how to overcome them. We'll also learn about navigating around our application, and managing state across our application using Redux -- a common stumbling block for aspiring React developers.

The outline for part two of the course includes the following modules:

  • Module 6 - Thinking in React: structuring your projects, breaking functionality into components
  • Module 7 - React Hooks deep dive: learn what each Hook does and how to use them
  • Module 8 - Navigation in complex apps: moving users around different areas of your application
  • Module 9 - State management in complex apps: using Redux and useReducer Hooks to manage app state
  • Module 10 - The Dinosaur Search App: putting it altogether by building our very own application

If you've been looking for a way to learn real-world React patterns, then this course is for you.

Course Content

10 modules50 lessons8h 7m total

Introduction

5 lessons 8m total

Course introduction

This is the introduction to the Beginner's Guide to Real World React.

INTRODUCTION

3:45 minutes

About the author

You'll learn a little bit about Rob Kendal, his development background, and the motivations for producing this course on React.

LESSON

2:01 minutes

Conventions used and helpful links

In this lesson we'll take a look at some of the conventions we'll be using throughout the course, including the type of code styles we'll employ, and code editing programs.

LESSON

1:48 minutes

Reporting errors and getting support

This lesson will cover how to seek help if you get stuck, as well as how to report any errors or omissions that you come across.

LESSON

0:37 minutes

Downloading the course code

A brief guide to downloading the

LESSON

0:46 minutes

React - A modern UI library

7 lessons1h 3m total

What is React?

React is a declarative JavaScript library introduced by Facebook in 2013. We'll look at how React came about and determine some of the skills you'll need as a React developer.

INTRODUCTION

4:03 minutes

Comparisons with similar frameworks

This lesson takes a deeper look at React in comparison with other, similar frameworks such as Vue and Angular

LESSON

4:11 minutes

Drawbacks of React

React does have a few drawbacks and caveats to working with it. We'll explore some of those in this lesson.

LESSON

1:36 minutes

First React app - The Greeting App

Before we dive into more deep and challenging topics, we'll have some fun by building an app. Our first React app will present our users with an input and send them a friendly greeting message.

LESSON

0:47 minutes

Building the Greeting App

Now that we've introduced our very first app, the Greeting App, this lesson will cover the actual building of it, step by step.

LESSON

24:16 minutes

Refactoring the Greeting App

With our Greeting App built, we're going to learn how to 'think in React' by breaking down our small App into components and refactoring it to use them.

LESSON

25:30 minutes

React core concepts

So far, we've built and refactored a great React app. Now, it's time to talk about the fundamental principles of React components and its core concepts.

LESSON

3:30 minutes

Introducing React Hooks

4 lessons 50m total

Introducing React Hooks

This module introduces us to React Hooks; what they are, how to use them, and why they're an important part of modern React development.

INTRODUCTION

3:55 minutes

Common Hooks

In this lesson we'll take a look at the most common Hooks you'll come across and learn how to use them in your apps.

LESSON

26:53 minutes

Furry Friend Gallery app

We're going to build on the previous Hooks demo by creating a dog picture gallery. First though, let's take a look at what we're going to build.

LESSON

0:43 minutes

Building the Furry Friend Gallery

This code-along lesson walks through using Create React App to build a fully-functioning picture gallery, the Furry Friend Gallery.

LESSON

18:55 minutes

Fetching data with React

3 lessons 37m total

Introduction to fetching data with React

This lesson introduces the concepts and approaches you can use to deal with fetching data within React, including the JavaScript Fetch API.

INTRODUCTION

5:06 minutes

Furry Friends Gallery Mark II

Our code-along project for this module is to build a new Furry Friends Gallery. This time, we'll be using a new API and common UI patterns such as a sidebar filter. In this lesson, we'll take a look at what we'll be building.

LESSON

1:16 minutes

Building the Furry Friends Gallery Mark II

We've seen the finished app, so now it's time to build it! This lesson will take you, step by step, through creating a brand new app, the Furry Friends Gallery Mark II.

LESSON

30:47 minutes

Deploying an app to the world

3 lessons 27m total

Deploying an app to the world

Deploying your React apps is a vital step and this module will help you learn just how to do that. We cover some hosting history as well as your options for deployment in modern hosting ecosystems.

INTRODUCTION

9:12 minutes

Building an app to deploy

React apps need to be built and packaged up for deployment before we can think about sending them off to a hosting platform. This lessons covers how to build your React apps, ready for deployment.

LESSON

4:04 minutes

Setting up deployment on Netlify

In this final lesson of the module, we'll walkthrough the deployment process to host our Furry Friends Gallery Mark II app on the Netlify hosting platform.

LESSON

13:55 minutes

Thinking in React

5 lessons 45m total

Thinking in React

Successful React development involves being able to 'think in React'. We'll look at breaking down UI's into components and their relationships.

INTRODUCTION

10:10 minutes

Component relationships

React components are modular, isolated slices of functionality that connect together to build user interfaces. This lesson discusses the relationships between components.

LESSON

5:55 minutes

Project structure

There are many different ways to structure your apps' code. This lesson introduces some different approaches, including how I structure my projects and suggestions from the Facebook team themselves.

LESSON

4:14 minutes

Form Builder project

The big project in this module is a Form Builder. Let's take a look at what we'll be building.

LESSON

0:47 minutes

Building the Form Builder

The Form Builder app is the most complex we've built so far. It builds on concepts from earlier modules and reenforces the idea of building modular, component-driven UIs. We'll walk through the app build together to create a dynamic form powered from a set of JSON objects.

LESSON

23:54 minutes

React Hooks Deep Dive

6 lessons 48m total

Hooks Deep Dive

We'll be taking a deep dive walkthrough of the most common Hooks in React, including their use cases and how to work with them.

INTRODUCTION

6:29 minutes

Hooks project setup

Setup the base project for our Hooks deep dive examples.

LESSON

5:28 minutes

useContext Hook

Learn about the useContext Hook, its use cases and implementation.

LESSON

11:24 minutes

useRef Hook

Learn about the useRef Hook, its use cases and implementation.

LESSON

7:55 minutes

useMemo Hook

Learn about the useMemo Hook, its use cases and implementation.

LESSON

8:48 minutes

useCallback Hook

Learn about the useCallback Hook, its use cases and implementation.

LESSON

8:01 minutes

Navigation in complex apps

5 lessons 48m total

Navigation in complex apps

In this module we'll explore the third party React Router library to add a routing and navigation system to our applications.

INTRODUCTION

5:11 minutes

Introducing React Router

React Router is a routing and navigation library that bolts onto to React. We'll explore what it is and how it works.

LESSON

6:19 minutes

Admin Console app

For the demo lesson in this module we'll be building an Admin Console app. Let's take a look at what we'll be building in greater detail.

LESSON

0:35 minutes

Building the Admin Console

We're going to build a demo Admin Console app step by step during this lesson, adding in React Router as we go.

LESSON

26:43 minutes

Extending the Admin Console

With the basics in place, this lesson is all about extending the Admin Console with parameterized routing and query strings.

LESSON

9:38 minutes

State management with Redux

6 lessons1h 12m total

State management in complex apps

Let's take a look at why we often need a centralized state area in our apps and how we can manage updates and changes to it

LESSON

2:39 minutes

Introducing Redux

One of the best ways to manage your apps' centralized state is with the redux pattern. In this lesson we'll deep dive into redux and how you can use it for managing state.

LESSON

9:34 minutes

Event Sign Up App

This lesson introduces the new demo project for this module, the Event Sign-Up App.

LESSON

0:46 minutes

Building the Event Sign Up App

Learn how to build our very own Event Sign-Up App using the React Redux library with a centralized state management store.

LESSON

29:49 minutes

Extending the Event Sign-Up App

This lesson takes things further by extending the Event Sign-Up App to use the Redux Toolkit for even easier state management.

LESSON

14:20 minutes

Using the useReducer Hook

This final lesson eschews all external redux libraries and swaps in the use of React's built-in useReducer Hook and Context tools.

LESSON

15:00 minutes

The Dinosaur Search App

6 lessons1h 26m total

The Dinosaur Search App

In this final module we'll be putting our skills together and building a Dinosaur Search App

LESSON

5:44 minutes

Project setup and scaffolding

We put the foundations of the Dinosaur Search App in place such as creating a new React app and exploring the supporting API

LESSON

18:41 minutes

Building the services

This lesson focusses on building the data-handling services and core Redux management system for the Dinosaur Search App

LESSON

19:47 minutes

Building the components

In the final coding lesson of this module we'll flesh out the UI components that will power the Dinosaur Search App

LESSON

35:01 minutes

Exploring the app

With all the code in place, we'll take a walk through the finished Dinosaur Search App and discuss the finer points

LESSON

4:31 minutes

Closing thoughts and learning paths

With the course at an end we'll take a look at some next steps to continue your React learning and where you can go from here

LESSON

2:28 minutes

Your Instructors

Profile image for bpk68

Rob Kendal

Senior UI Developer, planet Earth 😄

👋 Hey there! I'm Rob. I'm a front end engineer, podcast host and coding mentor. I've been a developer for over 15 years and have built all sorts of websites and applications using modern front end frameworks, including React.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is this course for?

This course is designed for anyone who's gained a solid foundation in modern front end development and is looking to move onto learning React from the ground up.

Is it really suitable for beginners?

Yep, sure is! You don’t have to be a coding guru or have years of experience as this course is designed for those who are new to React. However, you should be familiar with the basics of front end development, including HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

What if I need help?

You can ask us questions anytime through the community Discord channel (#reactbeginners) or by sending us a message.

 
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Beginner's Guide to Real World React

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