Code Platoon Week Eleven and Twelve – React

The latest and greatest front-end framework that the industry seems to agree on is ReactJS, created by Facebook. This framework is extremely fast and makes the user experience very rich.

React Components

React is a front-end framework based on the idea of components. Components are reusable pieces of code that programmers can nest together in different ways to create dynamic web pages. We’ve worked with different pieces of front-end frameworks before, but React is the latest way to bring together HTML, CSS and JavaScript a complete in one complete package that is super fast and easy to write and organize.

Project-Based Learning

Students will tackle React by creating one large application over two weeks. We’ll start by coding out some very basic functionality to get a feel for how React works and what some of its major benefits are. As we develop the app, we’ll learn how to make API calls in the background, add a search function that updates the page in real time without having to refresh, and add login and logout functionality. We’ll also take a look at some common React libraries like React Router which helps manage the different pages in our app, and Redux for when managing the state of our components becomes too cumbersome.

A Fast Framework at a Fast Pace

By now our students are not just more confident coders, they’re more confident independent learners. By the end of these two weeks, students are often amazed at how much they’ve learned in such a short amount of time. Stepping into our final project weeks, students will have two state-of-the-art frameworks at their disposal, but more importantly, they’ll have the confidence and knowledge to go out and learn more. This opens up possibilities for their capstone projects they could have only dreamed about on week one.