Sunday 10 December 2017

Difference between ReactJS and React Native




Both ReactJS and React Native are widely used open source JavaScript libraries. Both libraries are developed and maintained by Facebook. But ReactJS is designed as a view library. It accelerates development of web and mobile user interfaces (UI) through virtual DOM, and reusable and customizable components. On the other hand, React Native is developed as the next generation of ReactJS. The cross-platform mobile app development tool enables developers to write native mobile apps for iOS and Android platforms in JavaScript. That is why; developers often find it daunting to differentiate between ReactJS and React Native.
Understanding Important Differences between ReactJS and React Native
Design Rule
Both ReactJS and React Native are developed and maintained by Facebook. But Facebook has developed ReactJS as a robust view library and React Native as a cross platform mobile app development frameworks. The features provided by ReactJS make it easier for developers to handle view layers of web applications and mobile apps efficiently. The programmers can also use the framework to create reusable components for web and mobile applications. On the other hand, React Native comes with features to accelerate native mobile app development for iOS and Android platforms. It enables programmers to write iOS and Android apps in JavaScript and compile native mobile components.
Creating and Implementing UI Components
React Native focus extensively on native mobile UI development. It enables developers to enhance the native user experience of iOS and Android apps using native code. The developers can improve the user experience delivered by an iOS app using code written in Objective-C or Swift. Likewise, they can use Java code to improve the native user experience of Android apps. But React Native requires developers to build UI components for mobile apps by combining JavaScript and ReactJS. It still used ReactJS as the default JavaScript library for development of custom UI components. Hence, mobile app developers use ReactJS as a part of React Native.
Virtual DOM
Most web developers use ReactJS as the view in the model-view-controller (MVC) architecture. The view library makes it easier for programmers to build web and mobile UI components by rendering views. It further renders browser code through virtual DOM. ReactJS improves the performance of web applications significantly by updating the virtual DOM instead of the real DOM. But React Native does not support virtual DOM. It uses the native APIs provided by targeted mobile platforms to render various components of the mobile app. For instance, it renders iOS app components through using Swift or Objective-C APIs.
HTML
While using ReactJS, programmers have to write code using JSX syntax. The JSX syntax is the combination of HTML and JavaScript. The framework even allows developers to embed HTML into the render function. The developers even have option to convert HTML code into JSX using a JSX Transformer provided by ReactJS. But React Native does not use HTML. While working with React Native, programmers have to learn and use React Native syntax. The React Native syntax is completely different from HTML syntax.
CSS
ReactJS recommends programmers to use inline styles. It allows developers to specify a CSS class through the classname attribute. Hence, the programmers have option to write normal CSS code, and use the code to style various React components. But React Native does not use CSS natively. While working with React Native, programmers have to use special APIs to run standard features of CSS like animations. The framework even allows developers to animate various components using JavaScript.
Libraries
ReactJS is a front-end framework, whereas React Native is a mobile framework. ReactJS renders views through HTML. The developers can use ReactJS to create UI components. But they have to compile the UI components through React Native to build native iOS and Android apps. Hence, the JavaScript libraries do not support the same libraries. The programmers have to select the libraries and development tools according to their choice of framework. However, the programmers have option to choose from an array of development tools compatible with both ReactJS and React Native.
On the whole, ReactJS and React Native complement each other. React Native is developed as the next generation of ReactJS. It even uses ReactJS as the default JavaScript library for building UI components for mobile apps. But the JavaScript developers can use ReactJS to create web and mobile UI, whereas React Native simplifies native iOS and Android development.