Hacking with React

Get started with React, React Router, Jest, Webpack, ES6 and more with this hands-on guide.

It's impossible to work on the web without having heard about React. Facebook developed it, but Airbnb are using it, as are Netflix, Uber and many more. And with good reason: React is a whole new way of developing complex web applications in a way that allows you to spend more time writing great code and less time fighting with the DOM.

I wrote Hacking with React with one goal in mind: to teach React coding in the fastest, most efficient way possible. After setting up your computer so that it's ready for development, you start coding with React immediately – there's no boring "History of web" chapter that rants on about how the internet was created. Instead, it's all code, all the time.

"What code is it?" I hear you ask. Well, let me tell you: it's React 0.14, the incredible new user interface toolkit. It's React Router, the smartest way to load and unload components as users change URL. It's JSX, the incredible new JavaScript syntax extension that lets you write inline XML. It's ES6, Webpack and Babel so you get to use powerful new features like string interpolation and classes along with hot reloading for faster development. It's Jest and ESLint, so you can write tests that prove your code works and has consistent syntax.