About React.js
Do you know how React went in 10 years, from looking dead on arrival, to becoming the dominant frontend Javascript framework?
It all started back in the summer of 2011, when a small group of Facebook developers decided to build a game-changing technology that would revolutionize the world of frontend web development.
"JQuery and Backbone are dominating frontend JavaScript at that moment, and more opinionated frameworks like Angular and Knockout are already in use. In the outside world, Gangnam Style has just been uploaded to YouTube, and Call Me Maybe is topping the charts. In the Internet years, it’s basically been an eternity."
How did it all begin?
It was like five people at the start, and they were working out of a conference room in the Facebook New York office. And they were really committed to creating something special. So they worked tirelessly to make React - a reality.
The React was really born out of necessity. Developers had two main problems:
So they were looking for ways to solve that problem.
The idea behind React.js was to create a fast and efficient way to build user interfaces that are easy to maintain and update. They had just built this chat feature for Facebook's internal chat, and one of the things they wanted to do was create a way to display a new message notification, without having to refresh the page. And what they realized is that, with the existing web technology it will be really, really hard.
It was a lot of manual DOM (Document Object Model) manipulation and keeping track of all the different states of the UI. So they started thinking about it and came up with the crucial question:
"Hey, what if we could just write our UI in JavaScript, and then we could just render it to the page?"
First prototype of React
With that in mind, they started building this thing called FaxJS - it was kind of like React, but it wasn't quite there yet. Today it's called the early prototype of React that shipped a search element on Facebook.
Even though they weren't quite there, they realized that they had something really powerful. Something that could simplify a lot of the complexity they were dealing with, in terms of keeping the UI in sync with the application state.
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The things were rolling and they started building more and more components, and eventually they realized that they had built something that was pretty substantial, and that could be useful to other people as well.
Even though they started building React for Facebook at first, they knew that other people could benefit from using it as well. So they decided to open-source it, put it out there for the community, and see what people thought.
"We decided to open-source it, which was really important because that allowed us to have a wider audience of people looking at the code, using it, and giving us feedback. And that, in turn, helped us to make the code better." - Tom Occhino
Looking back on it today, they believe that move played an important role in both scaling and improving React. There was a lot of iteration, a lot of trying things out, and a lot of breaking things. But despite the challenges, the team believed in the potential of React, and they were determined to make it a success.
Going Big: Announcing and releasing at the same time
It was a big deal to take this written code that was very much Facebook-specific, and then put it out there for the world to see. The team has announced the framework as open-source at the JSConf US event in May 2013.
Although the initial release of React as an open-source project actually came a few days earlier, the announcement at JSConf US was significant because it was the first time the team presented React publicly and shared it with a larger audience of developers. It generated a lot of interest in the framework and helped to kickstart its growth as an open-source project.
In the early days of React, the library faced significant skepticism and resistance from some in the web development community, who saw it as just another unnecessary abstraction layer. There were a lot of people who were like, "Why do we need this? This is just adding complexity.”,
Others were criticizing it publicly, saying, "This is a terrible idea. It's never going to work. Facebook is crazy for doing this."
And even though the team was a bit discouraged, they kept pushing and continued to work on the library, refining its design and adding new features and capabilities.
Conclusion
React is a truly remarkable success story. A story of how a small group of dedicated individuals developed a tool that changed the world of web once and forever. From its humble beginnings as an in-house tool for Facebook, to being one of the most widely used and respected web development frameworks in the world. It has transformed the way developers approach building complex web applications, making it easier and more efficient than ever before.
Today, React is one of the most popular frontend JavaScript frameworks and is widely used by developers and companies around the world. According to the 2021 Stack Overflow Developer Survey, React is the second most popular web framework (after Vue), with 38.8% of respondents using it. In addition, the State of JavaScript 2021 survey found that React is used by 69.5% of frontend developers, making it the most popular frontend framework. It's estimated that millions of websites and web applications are built with React today.
This journey is a testament to the power of collaboration, innovation, and perseverance. Despite the initial criticism and skepticism it faced, the team behind React remained committed to their vision and their mission, working tirelessly to create a tool that could help developers build better, more sophisticated web applications. And today, their hard work has paid off.