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Ask HN: What are some good React tutorials?

144 points| Kaladin | 10 years ago

I am beginner in this whole javascript/node ecosystem. Currently i am going through express.js framework, and would like add a client-side framework/library to my repertoire.Any suggestions would be welcome.

45 comments

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[+] seanemmer|10 years ago|reply
I highly recommend the Full Stack Redux Tutorial:

http://teropa.info/blog/2015/09/10/full-stack-redux-tutorial...

Learning Redux from the get go means you can skip a lot of React's internal state management / lifecycle methods.

The tutorial also covers a bunch of relevant topics like TDD with React, immutable.js, and socket.io.

[+] shriek|10 years ago|reply
I'm doing that right now. One bit that was a bit confusing and I don't know if this is relevant place to be asking is on "Moving to The Next Pair" section. Like how do I know if it's okay to move to the next pair? Because in core.js it seems to pick a winner of the pair as soon as it's called. (It probably talks about this further down but this kind of threw me off)

Other than that you're right. It's one of the complete tutorial that makes TDD actually enjoyable. However, that has mostly to do with how redux and immutability has been used in the tutorial.

[+] mrborgen|10 years ago|reply
Sorry for the self promotion, but I wrote a few React tutorials with someone like you in mind. They're only covering the basics of React, coding directly in an html file, so they don't involve getting up and running with Node+React. But I think that should be tackled after you know the basics of React.

Building Your First React App: https://medium.com/learning-new-stuff/building-your-first-re...

Building Your Second React App: https://medium.com/learning-new-stuff/building-your-second-r...

React.JS in 8 minutes: https://medium.com/learning-new-stuff/learn-react-js-in-7-mi...

Other than that, I always recommend the official tutorial: https://facebook.github.io/react/docs/tutorial.html

... and Egghead.io's videos: https://egghead.io/series/react-fundamentals

[+] hackerboos|10 years ago|reply
I remember doing that Egghead course over 2 years ago. Are they still valid?
[+] avalexandrov|10 years ago|reply
I am using this one and like it very much so far: http://courses.reactjsprogram.com/courses/reactjsfundamental... It's by Tyler McGinnis.
[+] josefdlange|10 years ago|reply
+1 for Tyler and his courses. There's something great about the way he presents the knowledge I can't quite put words to. He manages to "pull back the curtain" just enough to satisfy my curiosity without allowing me to go down a tangent path of little details that contextually don't matter until later. His frank demeanor instilled a lot of trust in me from the get-go, as well, which in turn left me satisfied when he says things like, "that doesn't matter right now -- we'll get back to that when it's important." Usually in tutorials or classes it's either high or low of that mark -- either I don't believe I will end up learning about some hidden principle that ends up being important, or I'll have way too much depth dumped on me and I'll be lost.
[+] peternicky|10 years ago|reply
I am working through Tyler's free tutorial and so far have enjoyed it.
[+] peterhunt|10 years ago|reply
What's wrong with the official tutorial? https://facebook.github.io/react/docs/tutorial.html
[+] livus|10 years ago|reply
React and Angular can get very confusing for a first timer in front end. The official tutorials leave out a lot of magic happening behind the scenes. I tried to complete the official angular tutorial and even after completing it, though I could build an app, I still didn't feel confident that I had a good understanding of Angular.
[+] wesbos|10 years ago|reply
I'm the author of http://ReactForBeginners.com

I've had 4500 people take it so far and have had tons of positive feedback - take a look!

[+] innocentoldguy|10 years ago|reply
I highly recommend this course. I think Pragmatic Studio produces some of the best, highest-quality tutorials online for Ruby, Rails, and Elm. React For Beginners is not a Pragmatic Studio production, but they do endorse it, and it definitely falls into that same category of quality and excellence.
[+] joshschreuder|10 years ago|reply
Great course, worth paying for IMO. There is also a Slack channel where people can answer any questions you have.
[+] owenwil|10 years ago|reply
I can recommend this course!!
[+] mortona|10 years ago|reply
I found it quick to understand the ideas behind React, but it was a lot more difficult to understand how to apply that to practical problems and to 'think' in React.

React.js By Example [http://reactkungfu.com/react-by-example/] was enormously helpful in showing how to structure various different real-world apps. So if you find yourself beyond the basic CommentBox examples, but not sure how to build your own components then this might help.

[+] darklajid|10 years ago|reply
Not affiliated, but I subscribed to Stephen Grider's courses on Udemy and I'm quite happy with those.
[+] rahimnathwani|10 years ago|reply
Also agreed. His courses are awesome, and he takes care to explain things right the first time, rather than relying on repetition.
[+] zpalin|10 years ago|reply
Agreed. I recently took these as an intro into Redux. Really well done courses.
[+] tyingq|10 years ago|reply
I suspect part of the rub is that with react being only the 'V' in MVC, stand-alone tutorials leave you with only part of the picture.

And, of course, people are choosing different paths to fill in the rest of the stack. All of which pull your specific 'style' of using react in slightly different directions.

[+] dcwca|10 years ago|reply
You're halfway there, because React is the V but there's no MVC. That design pattern isn't common in the ecosystem, and instead a functional, unidirectional design pattern called Flux is a better fit.

Searching for MVC trips a lot of developers up.

[+] vinhboy|10 years ago|reply
I tried React about a year ago and this is how I felt. It was hard to understand how to incorporate React into an existing framework (Rails), because JSX was odd and I felt like I had to rewrite/rethink everything "V" related.
[+] prezjordan|10 years ago|reply
Surprised this one hasn't been mentioned yet! http://reactfordesigners.com/labs/reactjs-introduction-for-p...

Full of graphics and nice examples - it covers a lot of the reasons folks find react so fun to work with.

As a pro-tip: there is a lot of tooling, and things move quickly so a lot of examples on the web get outdated FAST. Don't be discouraged - it can be rough.