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React

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Also called React.js

What is React?

A widely used, open-source JavaScript library developed by Meta (Facebook) for building interactive user interfaces using reusable, encapsulated components.

React shifted web development from manipulating the DOM directly to a declarative approach. Developers build discrete UI components (like a button or a navbar) that manage their own state. React automatically and efficiently updates the browser only when the underlying data changes, making complex, highly interactive web applications performant and maintainable.

How it relates to Orbit

Orbit can register a React repository as a project and detect its package.json development scripts. See Project Window for details.

When you would use it

You use React when building highly interactive, complex user interfaces where managing state manually across a large application would become unmaintainable.

Common operations

  • Building complex, single-page web applications (SPAs).
  • Serving as the foundational UI layer for frameworks like Next.js and Remix.

Related terms

Where this is taught