SurviveJS - Webpack and React

by Juho Vepsäläinen

Facebook's React powers an increasing amount of sites. There is a good reason for this. It simplifies frontend development greatly. Combined with Webpack, a bundling tool, you have a powerful frontend development environment in your hands. SurviveJS - Webpack and React shows you how to build a simple Kanban application based on these technologies. During the process you will learn In addition the Amazon edition contains exclusive chapters showing you how The book assumes you know basics of JavaScript and understand how to use npm. Most of the book content is available online at survivejs.com. By buying this book you support the development of further content.

Genres: Programming, Technology

285 pages, Paperback

Published February 15, 2016

About the author

Juho Vepsäläinen is behind the SurviveJS effort. In addition to being a core developer of webpack, he has been active in the open source scene since the early 2000s.

Reviews

[Andreea]

This book is now two separate books, one about React, and one about Webpack. They’re available to read for free on the website associated with the author, and as of 2021 it probably makes the most sense to read only the Webpack book, since the React one has aged a bit (React 18 is being released as of writing) and is due for an update.

[Kai · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best and only book on React.js I'd recommend to anyone at this stage. Through this book, I learned more about Flux in one afternoon than I ever did on my own by reading documentation and following tutorials. I also got introduced to Webpack, a fantastic JS module bundler that's light years ahead of anything else on the market. I cannot sing enough praises about this wonderful book!

Watch out Angular.js, here comes the future of frontend development!

[Michael Koltsov · Rating 3 out of 5]

I set a goal to start being productive with React & its ecosystem throughout a week. As the goal was set I had to find out what will be the best approach to achieve it. Trying to comprehend all these Fluxes, Reduxes & Immutable. JS through a course of a couple of days seemed impossible to me. Since I'm usually a book-type of guy, at first I've decided to read a book ... and then BOOM ... i'm a seasoned React pro.

To make a long story short, that didn't happen. This book can definitely help you to comprehend the basics of using a new framework, but these days it's not sufficient due to so called "Javascript fatigue", which can be described in simple terms as a never ending flood of JS-frameworks & libraries you need to learn to comprehend a recently written webapp.

The book is good for beginners, for whom it might be their first introduction to the world of modern apps. Learning the basics didn't give me much since React has a pretty lean learning curve, which doesn't require anything but any knowledge of Javascript.



The thing that gave me a lot of pain was Redux, which is de-facto standard in writing React apps these days. Unfortunately the book doesn't contain much about it apart from its mentioning as well as a link to a Github repo with an app written with Redux in mind.

This manual has helped me more, but to be fair, it's dedicated to Redux(however, it also explains most of the essential React basics you'd need to be productive). I also reckon that it's much more lengthier than the reviewed book.

As a Scala developer I find React + Redux very exciting. It's hard to overestimate how important it is to base front-end apps on robust architecture, which Redux+React helps you to do by obliging you to use some of the best glimpses of Functional programming.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid introduction to React. Uses a stub project to simplify the use of webpack (good move!). Overall the explanation is clear and follows a logical progression. Some of the Flux- and Alt-specific descriptions are unclear, eg motivation and mechanism of connect. A solid 3 stars, this conservative rating does not change the fact this is the best book on React I've come across. As the author is actively developing it I suspect this will be a 4-star book very soon.

[Jorge David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good guide to getting started with webpack, react and babel. I personally don't do too good with step by step guides. Learning through trial and error could probably have been a better way (using the book to shorten the feedback loop). Could be a great resource for those that like tutorials on how to get started.

[Anton Antonov · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book about the React ecosystem. It leaves you with very few questions throughout the book while doing the example projects.

Solid foundation on Webpack and state management libraries.

I highly recommend it as a starting resource about React.