The Road to React: Your journey to master plain yet pragmatic React.js

LAST UPDATE: 13. February 2023

The Road to React: The React.js with Hooks in JavaScript Book (2023 Edition) - is a comprehensive and pragmatic yet concise React with Hooks (+ opt-in TypeScript) book. Purchase of this book includes free online access to the always up-to-date digital book.

What you will learn.

In "The Road to React" you will learn about all the fundamentals of React.js with Hooks while building a full-blown React application step by step. While you create the React application, every chapter will introduce you to a new React key feature. However, there is more than only the fundamentals: The book dives into related topics (e.g. React with TypeScript, Testing, Performance Optimizations) and advanced feature implementations like client- and server-side searching. At the end of the book, you will have a fully working deployed React application.

Is it up to date?

Programming books are usually outdated soon after their release, but since this book is self- published, I can update it as needed whenever a new version of something related to this book gets released.

I am a beginner. Is this book for me?

Yes. The book starts from zero and takes you through the learning experience step by step. Every chapter builds up on the learnings from the previous chapter. In addition, at the end of every chapter, exercises fortify your lessons learned. If you got stuck in a chapter, you will always find a reference URL to the status quo of the actual code.

Core Concepts

• Pragmatic: Master React while building a complete application step by step.
• Problems Solving: You need to experience a problem first before solving it.
• The Why: Readers like how the book answers the Why, not only the How.

Table of Contents

Fundamentals of React

• Hello React
• Requirements
• Setting up a React Project
• Meet the React Component
• React JSS
• Lists in React
• Meet another React Component
• React Component Instantiation
• ReactDOM
• React Component Definition (Advanced)
• Handler Function in JSX
• React Props
• React State
• Callback Handlers in JSX
• Lifting State in React
• React Controlled Components
• Props Handling (Advanced)
• React Side-Effects
• React Custom Hooks (Advanced)
• React Fragments
• Reusable React Component
• React Component Composition
• Imperative React
• Inline Handler in JSX
• React Asynchronous Data
• React Conditional Rendering
• React Advanced State
• React Impossible States
• Data Fetching with React
• Data Re-Fetching in React
• Memoized Handler in React (Advanced)
• Explicit Data Fetching with React
• Third-Party Libraries in React
• Async/Await in React (Advanced)
• Forms in React

React's Legacy

• React Class Components
• React Class Components: State
• Imperative React

Styling in React

• CSS in React
• CSS Modules in React
• Styled Components in React
• SVGs in React

React Maintenance

• Performance in React (Advanced)
• TypeScript in React
• Unit Testing to Integration Testing
• React Project Structure

Real World React (Advanced)

• Sorting
• Reverse Sort
• Remember Last Searches
• Paginated Fetch

Deploying a React Application

• Build Process
• Deploy to Firebase