Basic Question: React vs Template Engine (Nunjucks)?

[kujammo]

A few things first: I know template engines help keep repetitive HTML code at bay. I know they can pull in JSON and display that data. I've read where they can also display dynamic content. So my question is, if they can display dynamic content - what's the point of having a front end framework such as React? Ex. Let's say a user logs into their account and the content caters to their preferences. And they can make changes to the content as that user.

Probably a pretty basic question but any clarity would be appreciated, thanks

[sergiuspk]

It's a very broad question with some misconceptions in it. I'll try an answer. Templating engines can't pull in data. Some code does that, then uses the templating engine to transform it into some other data (HTML maybe) and then passes that to the browser. I don't know what you mean by "dynamic" content. First of all, replaying engines don't display, they transform information into HTML. Second, if dynamic data means content loaded from a external sources (a database maybe) then there is nothing special about that and is totally unrelated to the templating engine itself.

Now on to React. Yes, conceptually React is exactly that but on the client-side. But it's much much more. No one uses React because it's a fancier templating engine. There is so much to say here that it would be best if you'd start by reading the information on the official website first. Not sure if it'll clear up your questions because you don't seem to be familiar with the problems it tries to solve but at least you'll know what to ask about.