The Road to React: Your journey to master plain yet pragmatic React.js

I've read many programming books, and this one is one of the most dynamic in the way it is written. You can move very fast from basic concepts, to more complex ones, gradually learning through coding yourself. The footnotes are invaluable, because the author has many, many contents online available to dive deeper into important features of the language. Simply great, thanks to the author for an awesome work.

I recently purchased this React learning book and I couldn’t be happier with it. The content is clear, well-structured, and very easy to follow, even for someone who’s just starting out. It covers the fundamentals in a practical way with plenty of examples, and it also dives into more advanced topics at just the right pace. I feel much more confident working with React after going through it. The seller was also fantastic—fast shipping, great communication, and the book arrived in perfect condition. Overall, an excellent learning resource and a smooth buying experience. Highly recommend both the book and the seller!

I had already taken a course on React and built a couple of projects, but felt I needed additional resources to further explain what the documentation and the course could not. What Robin does exceptionally well is: clearly and plainly explain what things do, how they work/ how they do it, and when they would be used. I cannot stress enough the the importance of the "when"; providing easy to follow scenarios is crucial for tying together concepts, and Robin hits a home run. His illustrated diagrams, which detail control flow are a God-send! The flow to each chapter is smooth. At the end of each section, readers are provided with additional resources in the form of external links that dive deeper into the main concepts covered in the book, which was intentionally done to avoid ending up with a 600 page book. If you have experience with React, this will be a very efficient read (no fluff). Additional concepts are provided as bonus chapters which readers can branch off into and build upon the very small core project. Just like anything else, one resource will not provide everything you need, so do not expect this book to be the end-all, be-all for your React learning, so couple it with one or two resources: React - The Complete Guide on Udemy and the official React documentation. This book helped clear up many concepts that were fuzzy to me, improved my confidence developing in React and made it more fun. I highly recommend purchasing this book. You will not be disappointed. Thank you, Robin!

I purchased this book based on the other reviews I read and I was not disappointed. I was familiar with creating React apps on a basic level but I have already received so much valuable information from this text. Not only will this book allow you understand how to create your first React app from scratch, but it dives deep into everything behind the scenes. The author, Robin Wieruch, generously unlocks the books content on his website when you email him a receipt of your purchase. This is stated in the book at the start and it proves to be very useful. It offers the most up to date content in the event anything in the book is outdated and he is quick to respond to your request. Aside from the quality content in the book, when viewing the text online, there are astonishing amounts of supplemental articles and information following each section provided by Robin to dive even deeper into the subjects you are learning in each of the many sections. The sections are also broken up into easily digestible sizes, never making you feel overwhelmed. The book is larger in size than one might expect but this is by design. Robin designed it in this way as a means for readers to add notes in the open space. In my opinion, I love this feature. I don't have to try and reference a notebook and match it up to the section I was referring to. Maybe not for everyone but I appreciate the thoughtful attention to detail. If you are seeking to learn React from scratch, or just looking to enhance your skills, I can't recommend this book enough. You do need to have a basic understanding of JavaScript, CSS, and HTML to get started but if you have that, you are in great shape starting this book. Looking forward to picking up his other books in the future.

"Road to React" stands out as an exceptional resource for anyone delving into React development. The book's brilliance lies in its comprehensive approach, making it the best companion for React enthusiasts at any experience level. Beginners will appreciate its clear explanations and structured progression, while seasoned developers can benefit from its in-depth insights into advanced concepts. What sets this book apart is its author's commitment to keeping the content current – regularly updated to align with the latest developments in the React ecosystem, ensuring readers stay ahead in their learning journey. One of the book's remarkable strengths is its suitability for a diverse audience. Whether you're just starting with React or looking to enhance your proficiency, "Road to React" offers a learning path tailored to your needs. The author's adept teaching style fosters a deep understanding of React concepts, allowing readers to grasp the intricacies of the library (or do they prefer to call it "a framework" now?) with ease. Beyond the comprehensive content, every chapter provides ton of links with the additional materials, enriching the learning experience. This inclusion of supplementary resources enhances the reader's understanding and allows for practical application, solidifying the concepts covered in the book. And don't skip those assignments, you will thank Robin for them later!

The Road to React is pretty unique. It manages to be immediately useful (detailed tutorial style) while also explaining deeper concepts along the way. Each chapter is focused on an individual concept while also building on familiar examples. There is code to make sure the reader is able to follow along - both in JavaScript and TypeScript. For me - having a little React experience - the book helps me systemize my knowledge and understand the bigger picture. For someone without prior React knowledge, the book might be more useful to get started with the basics and a subsequent reading might allow more focus on understanding of the framework and its interactions. It is very obvious the book author is experienced teacher as well, since the material is presented in both a dense and approachable way.

I'm an experienced backend software engineer/machine learning engineer (Google, Microsoft, startups, etc) but less familiar with web development. I purchased a pile of React books to learn everything, and The Road to React (2022 edition) stood out as the best of the bunch. I spent part of my holiday break working through the bulk of the book. It includes practical coding exercises and bonus questions, with code solutions in the form of github commits that are linked in footnotes. All in all, a very straightforward way to learn this material rapidly in a self-study way. One other great thing about the book is the large format: the pages are big, easy to sit next to you and read through as you code the exercises. Really nice layout. The only minor improvement I'd make is the size of the footnotes: the bit.ly links are a little small to read with my aging eyesight, and I think they could be make larger easily as the book format is nice and large. But this is a very minor quibble. Finally, the author also has a great collection of blog posts going into more depth on every topic, many of these are linked in the footnotes as well. Highly recommended!

When you purchase the Kindle version of the book, the author will unlock the online version of the book for you if you send him an email containing a copy of the Amazon invoice. This confers a couple of important advantages: 1) the code samples are MUCH more readable in the online version (they don't typeset well on the Kindle version) and 2) the author's hand-drawn diagrams online are larger and much more visible (they shrink down to the point of being tiny on the Kindle.) Basically the Kindle version is the author's way of monetizing all of the work he has done online for the community. It is absolutely worth the US$29.99 to obtain a frequently updated resource on 'modern' ReactJS, including the use of purely functional components with a React Hooks-first approach to coding. There is enough handholding in the early chapters of the book to get the reader up to speed on the more modern version of JavaScript, but not so much as to be bothersome for the experienced JavaScript dev. The explanation of the data flow is first rate. If I have one complaint that's keeping me from giving this five stars, it's the typesetting of the Kindle version. I'm not sure if it is possible given the constraints of a Kindle to make code samples look good and diagrams sized appropriately. They do work a little better if you're using the online Kindle reader, but still are nowhere nearly as good as the web version of the book. Buy the Kindle version to support the author; use the Web version.

Kurz zu mir selbst: Ich lerne seit 3 Jahren sporadisch HTML, CSS, JavaScript, wenn ich Zeit habe und konnte schon einige Anwendungen und Spiele selbst programmieren. Meine JavaScript-Kenntnisse sind zwar gut, aber nicht profimäßig. :) Für das Buch sollte man auf jeden Fall die Grundlagen von html, css und JavaScript kennen! Ich selber habe mich seit 2 Jahren mit Online-Kursen von einer bekannten code-Akademie *zwinker sowie zahlreichen Tutorials auf Youtube herumgeschlagen und versucht React zu verstehen. Das ist mir auch irgendwie gelungen, heißt, ich konnte schon einfache Websites erstellen, aber so richtig verstanden hatte ich das dann doch nicht. Warum brauche ich Hooks? Wie funktioniert das mit den Props? Welche Variablen muss ich innerhalb einer funktionalen Komponenten angeben und welche außerhalb? Deshalb hatte ich mir ursprünglich "React Cookbook" von Oreilly besorgt. Leider war es für mich und meinen Kenntnisstand nicht das richtige Buch, da ich den Code nicht richtig verstehen konnte. Irgendwie schon, aber nicht genau. Durch Zufall bin ich dann aufgrund von mehreren Empfehlungen online auf Robin Wieruchs "The Road To React" gestoßen und habe es mir dann auch gleich bestellt. Das Buch ist in einem großen Format gehalten und mit Hardcover. Das hat mich gleich begeistert. The Road To React ist aufgebaut, wie ein großes Tutorial mit einem einzigen Projekt. Schritt für Schritt und in leicht verständlichen kleinen Häppchen wird erklärt, was zu tun ist, und beschrieben, wie React funktioniert. Dabei wird der Leser immer motiviert, selbst auszuprobieren mit Tipps und Links zu weiterführenden Erklärungen und anschaulichen Beispielen zu den einzelnen Themen. Die Lernschritte sind klein gehalten und zu jedem einzelnen Lernschritt gibt es zur Überprüfung den gesamten Quellcode. So bastelt man in dem Buch langsam an einer Suchmaschine durch einzelne Komponenten mit Props, Hooks wie useEffect, useState, useReducer, useCallback, etc. Sowohl Props als auch Hooks sind besonders wichtig, um das Potenzial von React voll auszuschöpfen und dank dem Autor habe ich endlich den useReducer richtig verstehen können. Die erste Hälfte des Buches erklärt einem das Grundgerüst, das auch völlig ausreicht, um eine ordentliche App oder Website zu programmieren. In der zweiten Hälfte geht es dann um weiterführende Themen wie -ältere Versionen von React -wie man CSS effizient einsetzt -Performance verbessern -GraphQL -TypeScript -Daten aus Datenbanken abrufen und managen -Firebase -Testing -Produktion (Building) Sehr hilfreich sind die Quellcodes für jeden Lernschritt auch deshalb, weil man jederzeit Schritte überspringen kann oder weitermachen kann, wenn man den vorherigen Lernschritt nicht richtig verstanden hat oder sich im Code ein böser Bug versteckt und man keine Stunden damit verbringen will, ihn ausfindig zu machen. Die Herangehensweise und die Schritte im Buch sind so gestaltet, wie man sie tatsächlich beim Entwickeln einer App oder Website durchlaufen würde und von daher auch für Berufseinsteiger oder Freiberufler u. Selbstständige ein guter Leitfaden für eine Arbeitsweise. Ich habe noch nie so schnell ein Buch durchgearbeitet. Sage und schreibe 6 Tage hat es gedauert, bis ich durch war, und das trotz Arbeit und obwohl ich fast jeden einzelnen Zusatzlink im Buch angeklickt und durchgelesen habe, um meine Kenntnisse zu vertiefen oder zu überprüfen! Nach Beendigung dieses Tutorials in Druckform ist man sehr gut gewappnet, um seine eigenen Projekte zu starten. Dabei kann man immer wieder etwas nachschlagen, was man vielleicht vergessen hat oder was man einfach wiederholen möchte. Eine absolute Kaufempfehlung und ich möchte hier nochmal dem Autor Robin Wieruch danken für die viele Arbeit, die er in dieses wichtige Buch gesteckt hat! Hier nochmal kompakt die Vor- und Nachteile + großes Format mit Hardcover, genug Platz für eigene Notizen + viel abgedruckter Quellcode mit allen wichtigen Details, was ist gleich geblieben, was wurde verändert ? + leicht verdauliche Lern-Häppchen + viele Links mit tiefergehenden Erklärungen und Quellcode zur Veranschaulichung + die wichtigsten Hooks Schritt für Schritt erklärt + Refaktorisierung und Optimierung des Projekts + jeder Schritt von der Erstellung der Dateien bis zur abschließenden Produktion, um die Dateien ins Web zu stellen + wichtige Frameworks vorgestellt + aktuell! Ich kann dieses Buch somit jedem empfehlen, der bereits gute Kenntnisse über html, css und JavaScript besitzt. Wenn ihr JavaScript-Anfänger seid, könnt ihr mit dem Buch auch arbeiten, aber dann solltet ihr euch auf jeden Fall mehr Zeit nehmen! Für mich das beste Buch für React so far!

I have read the book and is well written and the author has made it clear and understanding. So far this book has proved to be useful for any frontend develop app.

In 2018 I had been working as a frontend developer for 8 years, and just started to learn React. Then my front-end experience stopped because I was headhunted to work for another company as a backend developer. Fast forward to the beginning of this year our team was asked to pick up front-end development work transferred from another team. Then I got this book, but I have been too busy to read it. Last Friday I really had to start to code on React and finish an assignment in 2 weeks. I panicked, because even a very basic JavaScript notation like object destructuring commonly used in React looked so distant to me. Then I got this book from the shelf and started to read like crazy, nonstop until Sunday evening. Thanks to the way the author has laid out for the knowledge building process and the easy-to-follow tutorials, the more I read the more confident I became. Then on Monday morning when I got to the office, I started to discuss how we should proceed with the assignment. My colleagues were so surprised to see me behave differently in just a matter of days, because last Thursday I was still talking mostly like I knew nothing about React and didn’t know how to comment. But make no mistake, I am not saying anyone without front-end experience before can just pick up this book and know how to code React in a matter of days. Good knowledge of JavaScript is still needed before starting this book. Finally, the most important thing: 5 stars!

I've been working with React for 2 years now but I've learned everything on the go, so there was no extra time to actually dive deep into all the details of how React works under the hood. Finally I got some time and decided to elevate my React knowledge and understand all the nuances I am so lucky I've found this book. IT IS TRULY THE BEST React guide I've ever read. Yes so far it is simple but I'm in love with all the details that author is providing. Also, all the citations to different articles (which are written by Robin) are very helpful as well. I try to at keep them in my reading list Thank you so much for creating such a great resource!

Robin's style is so down to earth and practical I am enjoying using the book. I have already started React course on CodeAcademy which is fine, but it is more "do this and see what happens, try and remember what happened" style of learning. Robin's style covers more "how and why things happen" and at a nice easy pace. Highly recommended.