Create React App: It’s Not As Difficult As You Think

React is a widely used JavaScript library known for its component-based architecture, reusable components, and virtual DOM. While React helps developers build interactive UIs faster, creating a React app involves a vast array of build tools and a ton of configuration files and dependencies. Moreover, React doesn’t provide pre-built UI components. Developers either create these components from scratch or rely on the community. Thus, many developers find creating React apps challenging and time-consuming. Fortunately, React provides an easy way for developers to create single-page apps (SPAs) with a modern build setup and zero configuration through Create React App. 

You can also speed up your React app development by using React frameworks and tools like ReExt. Read on to find out more about create React app and ReExt.

How to Create a React App?

Creating a React application requires setting up build tools and configure tools like Babel and Webpack. That’s because React uses JSX syntax, which is a JavaScript equivalent of HTML. However, browsers don’t understand this syntax. So we use bundlers like Webpack to make our code readable for browsers. 

However, using these bundlers involves lots of files and configurations, which makes things a bit complex. That’s where Create React App comes in. It is an officially supported way to build React apps with a modern build setup requiring zero configuration.

In other words, when you run a command like ‘npx create-react-app’, it installs all the basic files and configurations you need to get started and generates the initial project structure.

This way, you can focus all of your energy on building apps rather than spending time on configurations. This results in increased productivity and saves developers from needless hassle.

What is ReExt and How Does it Help With React Development?

ReExt combines React and Ext JS. Ext JS is a comprehensive JavaScript framework that offers 140+ pre-built UI components and advanced data handling features. Moreover, it’s cross-browser and cross-platform compatible. It also comes with additional helpful tools like Sencha Architect, Stencils, and Themer. These tools help you create, prototype, and style your Ext JS applications.

With ReExt, developers can utilize Ext JS high-performance components and tools within a React codebase.

Key features of ReExt include:

• Integrates easily with React apps
• Developers can reuse Ext JS pre-built components or other custom components in their React apps
• Allows developers to customize Ext JS components and use them in their React projects
• Offers optimized performance with Ext JS components
• Supports all the Ext JS UI components, such as buttons, icons, carousels, sliders, menus, and many more. These components are specially optimized for React apps.
• Provides the fastest JavaScript grid. The grid offers advanced features like filtering, pagination, infinite scrolling, multidimensional data pivoting, live data rendering, and more.

Getting Started With ReExt

Installing ReExt

Install the ReExt package from npm:

$ npm install @sencha/reext

Using the ReExt Designer Extension

It’s recommended to use the ReExt Designer Extension in Visual Studio Code to easily get started with ReExt. You can download the preview version here  and then install the extension:

Setting Up ReExt Without VS Code Extension

You can also set up ReExt without VS code extension. Here are examples for quick Windows setup:

Next.js with JavaScript

npx create-next-app@latest reextnext --js --eslint --no-tailwind --no-src-dir --app --import-alias "@/*"

   cd reextnext

   npm install @sencha/reext@latest

   copy node_modules\@sencha\reext\dist\example\next.config.mjs next.config.mjs

   copy node_modules\@sencha\reext\dist\example\layout.js app/layout.js

   copy node_modules\@sencha\reext\dist\example\page.js app/page.js

   npm run dev

Create React App

npx create-react-app reextcra

   cd reextcra

   npm install @sencha/reext@latest

   copy node_modules\@sencha\reext\dist\example\vite.config.js vite.config.js

   copy node_modules\@sencha\reext\dist\example\App.jsx src\App.js

   copy node_modules\@sencha\reext\dist\example\main.jsx src\index.js

   npm start

How to Get Started with ReExt | Quick Demo for Building React Apps

Conclusion

Create React App is an official way provided by React to create React apps with a modern build setup without any configuration. This speeds up and simplifies the development process as developers don’t have to spend time installing tons of files and setting up configurations.

To make your React development process even easier, you can use tools and React frameworks like ReExt by Sencha. ReEXt allows developers to utilize Ext JS’s 140+ UI components and other tools within a React environment. It enables them to create single-page React applications easily and quickly.

So what are you waiting for? Head over to Sencha to get your hands on the best tools on the market!

FAQs

How do I create my own React app?

First, install the React framework. Then, run the command ‘npx create-react-app’.

What is npx Create React App?

It is essentially a command that installs all the basic files and configurations you need to get started with your React project.

Is the Create React App still good?

While developers still use Create React App, many developers have shifted to Vite.

How to create a production-ready version of your React app?

You can use ‘npm run build’ to create a production-ready version of the app. This command correctly bundles React app and helps with performance optimization. You’ll need to install Node on your local development machine to run this command.