About this book
React in Action is about React, the library for building user interfaces on the web. It covers the core concepts and APIs involved in building React applications. You’ll build a sample social networking application with React over the course of the book. This app will cover a variety of topics, ranging from adding dynamic data to rendering on the server.
This book is written for people who want to learn React. It doesn’t matter if you’re a software engineer, a VP of engineering, a CTO, a designer, an engineering manager, a university or coding boot camp student, or someone who’s just curious about React. Depending on what your needs are, you can focus on different parts of the book, too. I cover React from a high level during the first part of the book and get more specific and advanced as we go.
You’ll have a better experience reading the book if you have some basic familiarity with JavaScript. This book uses a lot of JavaScript, but it isn’t about JavaScript. I don’t cover fundamental concepts in JavaScript, although I do lightly touch on them if they’re relevant to a discussion about React. You should be able to work through the examples if you have a basic proficiency with JavaScript and understand how asynchronous programming in JavaScript works.