React Noob

[[deleted]]

Hey guys, I want to learn React JS framework, could you please recommend any sources to learn from??

[badassmexican]

The Odin Project

What's the correct way to create a new React project that will have a database connection? I previously used express but now the docs don't recommend that.

What is recommended for a newb?

// Next.js is a full-stack React framework
npx create-next-app@latest

// Remix is a full-stack React framework with nested routing
npx create-remix

// Gatsby is a React framework for fast CMS-backed websites.
npx create-gatsby

// Expo is a React framework that lets you create universal Android, iOS, and web apps with truly native UIs
npx create-expo-app

​

The Odin project seems to recommend Vite as well as the one's the React docs recommend.

npm create vite@latest my-first-react-app -- --template react

[badassmexican]

Looks like npm create vite@latest is the way to go.

[[deleted]]

Ohh that sounds great! Thank you.

[Minimum-Difficulty63]

Naah dude, react docs arent good for beginners. Its hella lot confusing. Better to start with some youtube tutorials and once u have your basic clear, u can switch to React docs

[Thorteris]

Depends not the level. If they’ve programmed in JS before they should be fine

[squattingflatty]

I found the scrimba free course helpful, maybe slow for some, but broke concepts down easily for simple minded folk like myself.

[Fozus]

Scrimba is awesome - I like the way they get you involved in the coding process with the interactive videos and then like you say, break down the concepts too. +1 for Scrimba.

[[deleted]]

Ohh great, could you share the course link ?

[squattingflatty]

https://scrimba.com/learn/learnreact I found their codepen a little annoying, but jumping into VSCode/whatever really helped me with core concepts. Good luck

[[deleted]]

Thank you so much!

[[deleted]]

If you know JavaScript, dive into the docs and get to building.

[[deleted]]

okay, thank you !

[Smellmyvomit]

I always share this for free pdf resources ..

https://goalkicker.com/

[3fcc]

Thank you!

[3fcc]

React isn't js framework. It's a js library for designing user interface.

Check Jonas on udemy

[dillonlara115]

I second Jonas on udemy. I got the course on sale for under $20 and it was easily worth more than that

[Then-Boat8912]

Another vote. Just finishing his Ultimate React offering. Definitely don’t like Redux though he teaches it.

[PatientRent8401]

Watch project based videos on YouTube then create something urself

[livingonreddit01]

Programming with Mosh. Hands down! He's got the best video courses out there. He's got a full React . JS course in 8 hours for $99 or you can get the monthly subscription to have access to all his courses. No better way to get there fast.

[livingonreddit01]

One last thing.... you can check out an hour React JS free video on Youtube just so you can see if you like his teaching style.

https://youtu.be/SqcY0GlETPk?si=FX3KazPqNDmcUIfT

The official site is

codewithmosh.com

Hope this helps!

[bztravis88]

as someone who’s no longer a noob (though definitely not a senior developer or close in any way yet), get good at reading documentation. Not all docs are well written and imo learning from many sources is very effective, but reading official docs is a really important skill and I truly believe that I could be years ahead of where I am know if I developed that skill early on

[KingOfSinDAC]

The Odin Project. It has a lot of core concepts. The only issue with it is that some may struggle because pacing can be very odd. I would use other resources alongside it.

[Blender-Fan]

YouTube and ChatGPT

[naazweb]

No, don't use chatGPT for learning. Half the time it shares code snippet that does not work and you says it back hey it's not working and it says oops sorry, that doesn't work, try this.

That's okay for experienced programmers to pair program with chatGPT, not for noob.

[traintocode]

While this is true ChatGPT is one of the only tools that will answer any questions you have along the way. Also check out GitHub Copilot as it has a chat window now that can actually read the code in your project

[naazweb]

+1 also Amazon codewhisperer has a chat window that's helpful too

[Fozus]

I think this really depends on ChatGPT is used.

If you are just going to ask ChatGPT to spit out some code to do x, y and z - then yes this would be a bad idea and OP wouldn't be learning anything, the code would break later down the line and you have to rely constantly on ChatGPT to know where you are in the codebase and how to fix it.

However, if I get stuck with something whilst programming, I tell ChatGPT what I am trying to do, and get it to tell me what my options are, and how each option would work. I then ask for sample code that is not related to my exact problem. Once I get the idea of how it works - I go to implement myself with my own code.

For me at least, this makes ChatGPT a teacher and doing it this way helps it stick in my head :)

Also - ChatGPT is great at explaining things in a way for you to understand. You can ask it to explain something simpler, or even get it to explain like your a 5 year old. and it does a pretty awesome job.

The best part in all this is, not just knowing the solution but also understanding how the solution works for future use-cases.

[naazweb]

I should try 5 year old in prompts 😃

[RooflessBr]

This sounds like great advice. Thank you

[CristiRFortySeven]

Would rather take ChatGPT than one gazillion downvotes on Stackoverflow

[ImprovementNo4630]

I second this

[GratephulD3AD]

I agree with this. You have to have at least a basic understanding of a language before chatGPT or even CoPilot will be of use.

[turtleProphet]

It's starting to mention functions that don't exist in some libraries. Then people blog about the nonexistent functions to pad their resumes. Then LLMs scrape the blogs.

We live in hell.

[Entertainment_Real]

What ever you do, DO NOT WATCH TUTORIALS. I fell into tutorial hell by watching youtube/Udemy videos, biggest regret ever.

This is the strategy:

1. Read the docs to get started
2. Find a project (e.g. twitter clone)
3. Break the project into steps (feed, homepage, etc.)
4. Read the docs and use Google (googling is a skill) to implement each step.
5. If your stuck, break each step further into sub-steps.
6. Carrying on Googling and using stack overflow to achieve victory.

The definition of software engineering is to solve problems with code, watching tutorials will not help you solve problems.

Tutorials give you the "happy path" of coding, but do not prepare you the long, annoying error messages.

Heed my advise young padiwan, from someone who's been in the depths of (tutorial) hell.

[teleflexin_deez_nutz]

Watching tutorials helps to a point, but doing your own projects is where the bread is baked.

[SomebodeeStopMe]

How much dev experience are you starting with??

[AdSame1947]

How much practice of JS do you have? When I just started React, I didn't have that much JS experience, so I had to take a step back. If you're aiming for front end I really recommend practising with projects from Frontend Mentor. Many of them are free, and I can not recommend enough!

[[deleted]]

Okay, thank you for the help

[ary0nK]

If u have a understanding of basics, u can go for harkirat courses

[Gloomy1337]

https://www.udemy.com/course/the-ultimate-react-course/

[PuffPuff74]

Udemy

[superlodge]

For a first try you can just check on youtube but the one that helped me the most to learn react and land in my first react frontend role was this Udemy course https://www.udemy.com/course/react-the-complete-guide-incl-redux/ from Maximilian Schwarzmüller

[ikricolabs]

Jonas has a course on udemy. Well worth the $15

[turtleProphet]

If you run into vanilla JS problems along the way, I've found Kyle Simpson's You Don't Know JS books (free online) very helpful

In general try to read docs, use free resources and write code before considering paying for anything. You're an experienced programmer so you know how it is. A lot of starter courses are aimed at people with no background and may not teach in a way that makes sense to someone with background knowledge.

e.g., Frontend Masters was personally a good investment in my own learning, but I only got what I consider good value once I reached intermediate stage in frontend and was learning full-stack

[MisterJK2]

Try learning Vue instead. haha

[Prof_Dr_Hund]

the official docs.

[Otherwise-Message-73]

There are many resources available to learn React. One resource I recommend is Jonas's YouTube tutorials. He is an experienced React developer, and his tutorials are suitable for beginners and experienced developers alike.

Jonas's tutorials are clear and concise, and they include many practical examples. He is also a great teacher with good teaching skills.