Introduction

React itself is a powerful tool to develop the front end of an application. However, we can enhance the workflow of React development with tools and strategies to maximize productivity. We can improve the React workflow to avoid any future bugs and errors. Also, over time technical debt gets accumulated with implementing a better workflow, so we can minimize it as much as possible.

Today, I am going to list down some of the techniques and strategies that you implement in your workflow to enhance your React application development.

So, let’s get started

1. Using CRA alternative

The create-react-app(CRA) has been the beginning point of learning React but it hasn’t got any major updates since 2021. Also, build time is slower compared to alternatives with major features like server-side rendering missing from CRA. Developing a project using another framework option that uses the React library is way better.

Here are some of the alternatives that you can use:

• Next.js: Provides built-in server-side rendering (SSR) and static site generation (SSG) for optimized performance and SEO.
• ViteJS: Lightning-fast development with instant server startup and HMR (Hot Module Replacement).
• Remix: Full-stack framework focused on optimizing user experience with progressive enhancement and built-in data fetching.

You can read the Comparing The Top React Frameworks article for more insight on this.

2. State Management

In a smaller application, you can manage the state in the same component file. However, with bigger projects, it became harder to manage the state. We need to use a state management library. While tool like Redux are popular but sometimes they introduce unnecessary complexity in the codebase and boilerplate code. That’s why I prefer using Zustand which is a simple yet powerful state management tool.

I have features such as:

• Minimal Boilerplate: It requires minimal setup and it focuses on simplicity.
• Efficient Re-renders: It only re-renders components that are affected by state changes, improving performance in complex apps.
• Easy Local and Session Storage: It allows you to save the state to local storage or session storage easily.

3. Optimize Component Rendering

One of the beginner mistakes is they don’t consider when the component should render and re-render. So, many a time a component is re-rendering unnecessarily and causing performance issues. Thus, optimizing the rendering process is crucial for improving performance in React applications.

You can optimize component rendering using:

• Lazy Loading: React's React.lazy() and Suspense provide out-of-the-box support for lazy loading components. This allows you to load components on demand, reducing the initial bundle size.
• useMemo(): Use this hook to prevent re-rending of components that don’t need any update.

      // Memoize a computed value
      const expensiveCalculation = useMemo(() => {
        console.log('Running expensive calculation...');
        return count * 2;
      }, []);

You can learn more about optimization through the article, Optimizing React Applications for Maximum Performance.

4. React with Typescript

Using React with Typescript can help you find an unexpected error that sometimes happens with React with Javascript. It helps you catch type-related errors easily and early in the development. You can use Typescript with CRA alternatives to enhance the error-finding capability.

Here are some benefits:

• Strong Typing: It provides type safety to the props, components, and any data that are going to be used. Thus reducing runtime errors and improving overall code quality.
• Auto-Completion: With TypeScript, you'll get better editor support, including auto-completion and error detection, making the development process smoother.
• Easily out of Typesafety: Sometimes libraries don’t have strong typesafety and typescripts start giving you errors. In such cases, you can stop type-checking for the next line with @ts-ignore.

5. Using a Component Library

A component library will ease your work of building the UI of the web page. You can component library’s component directly in your code. With a little customization, you can create the component as you like. Apart from providing components they also sometimes provide form handling, theming, and much more.

Here are some of the popular corporate Library:

• Shadcn: With tools for theming and a simple setup process, Shadcn UI is perfect for building responsive, professional web applications.
• Chakra UI: It has a lot of options for customizing the component. It has a focus on flexibility and accessibility.
• Material UI: MUI focuses on ease of use, enabling developers to customize components with its intuitive API and extensive theming system.

My last article, Top UI Component Libraries for React, goes through some of the best component libraries for React.

6. Code Refactoring

Refactoring code is an essential part of writing code. When you start writing code, you are excited and in that flow, you might miss some optimization. Eventually, with writing code, technical debt gets accumulated. So, it is important to reflect on your code from time to time to reduce the technical debt.

Here are some of the React refactoring you can implement:

• Repeatable JSX into Component: You can convert some repeatable JSX such as form elements into separate components.
• Use Destructuring for Cleaner Code: Destructuring props and states in React components can help make the code more concise and readable, reducing repetition.

    // Before
    const MyComponent = (props) => {
      return <div>{props.title}</div>;
    };

    // After
    const MyComponent = ({ title }) => {
      return <div>{title}</div>;
    };

7. Developer Tooling

You can enhance the developing process with the use of some of the extensions for your code editor. With the extension, you can easily format, catch bugs debug state changes, and much more.

Here are some of the extensions that you can use:

• ESLint: For consistent code formatting and catching potential bugs.
• Prettier: Auto-format code to ensure uniform style.
• React Developer Tools: This enables you to inspect the React component hierarchy and debug state changes and performance issues.
• React Code Snippets: Easily generate some basic code with few commands.

Conclusion

Enhancing your React workflow is crucial for developing high-quality applications efficiently. By implementing tools like CRA alternatives, simplifying state management with libraries like Zustand, optimizing component rendering, using TypeScript for type safety, leveraging component libraries, refactoring code, and utilizing helpful developer tooling, you can significantly boost productivity and reduce technical debt. These strategies not only improve performance but also enhance the overall developer experience, making your React projects scalable and easier to maintain in the long run.

I hope this article has helped you learn some of the enhancing techniques for your React project. Thanks for reading the article.