TOP Java Script Libraries

Many people are now wondering which libraries to use to work with React JS. We all know that React is very good at initializing out of the box. But often what the React installation package offers is not enough for experienced developers, and they have to look for the best libraries to simplify the development process. Today we will look at the TOP libraries for React JS.

I propose to consider libraries for:

- Global state management.

- Working with forms.

- Processing HTTP requests.

- Working with CSS.

- Using a ready-made user interface.

- Localization.

- Rendering a large list of data.

- Linter.

- Code formatting.

Well, we have identified the main aspects where, in my opinion, additional libraries would be useful. Let's take a closer look at each item.

Global state management.

At this point, you need to consider state management in any React application. Often, if you have a small project, then props and React-context will be enough for you. But if you have a large application, then you need to transfer data from child components to parent components. This is where global state management comes in handy. Many large projects use Redux (Sagas, Thunks) as state management. Indeed: the library is very popular at the moment and is used in almost any large application.

Alternatives:

context is a built-in React library that is successful in small projects because it is suitable for simple tasks.

mobx - follows the observer pattern and is good for reactive programming.

Working with forms.

Most of the projects contain forms and the processing of information obtained from them. This can be a complex and lengthy process. But there are several libraries to help you with this:

React hook form is a library for working with forms, very powerful and flexible. This library also has good support for some external design libraries such as material-ui and ant-design.

Alternatives: Formik comes with time-tested functionality for input validation, formatting, and error handling.

HTTP requests.

Any React application with a developed backend part communicates with the server. In this case, we can process requests using fetch. Of course, this method of processing requests has limitations, but also great possibilities. For a large project, consider an improved version of fetch, axios. This library has a number of attractive features such as built-in XSRF security, automatic JSON conversion, and the ability to intercept HTTP calls. If you are interested in a high-quality implementation of such functionality, then be sure to pay attention to Axios.

Working with CSS.

If you have a small project, then you can do with the usual CSS. There are many libraries for working with CSS. Styled Component - this library is designed to create styles inside your components and individual constants, which you can later use in jsx markup. I would also like to pay attention to sass. Provides great CSS style management capabilities. It is well suited for medium-sized, and maybe even large projects.

Using a ready-made user interface.

In many projects, developing custom components can be time consuming. For this, a huge number of libraries with ready-made components have been developed, which you can use in your application. But let's not go into details about each. At the moment, the most popular library in this segment is material ui. It contains a large number of ready-made components that can be successfully used in your applications. It is also very well customizable for user requests. Ant-design and bootstrap - less customization; limited but enjoyable ingredients.

Localization.

If you are building a product globally, you probably want to add support for multiple languages ​​to your React application. The best library for creating localization today is React i18next. This can be called the de facto option for implementing multilingual support in React applications.

Rendering a large list of data.

If you have a large amount of data in your application that needs to be displayed, then infinity scroll and paginate can come in handy. If you are developing an application with infinite scrolling, then React Window is worth looking into. If you do not need endless scrolling of the list, then arrange the data page by page. You can use react-paginate for this.

Linter and code formatting.

In order to prevent errors in the code, if you are not the only one working on our project, then linter and code formatting may be useful. These helper libraries will help you and your team keep your code clean and tidy. The best libraries for this purpose are eslint and prettier.