200 pages of React Recipes
This book is my personal map of the tips, power-ups and not-so-obvious solutions to common questions and problems that I've come across during 4 years of React development. I have been finding some of the cheat codes and share them with you.
Step-by-step code examples
Every recipe comes with companion code examples that walk you through common React cross-roads. All the examples are hosted on CodeSandbox so that you can edit and play around with them.
Automatic updates of new versions included
Modern frontend web development amirite? As the React ecosystem keeps evolving, so will this book. You will receive the new version every time a new level of the React game is added and new helpful add-ons are built for them.
Chapters
There are 11 chapters and many smaller subchapters in this book. Let's talk about them
Folder/ File Structuring
An app has a LOT of files so let's talk about knowing where stuff is
State Management: Oh, all the options
You don't always need a library, how can react help?
Project Starters
No more need to mess with webpack, let's look at some project starters
Packages
Many packages, much confusion
The Hooks
Hooks are cool but do they make sense? I hope they do after this
Performance
Let's make the web fast
Deployments
Put your marvelous creation on the interwebs
The Lingo Glossary
Sometimes people say things and I don't know what they mean
Conclusion
Mostly me telling you to be a decent human
Who is this book for?
Is that person you? That is the ultimate question.
I want to start by saying that this book will not teach you how to use React from scratch, and it also won't teach you some advanced diffing algorithm.
The target audience isn't really about experience in this book, I wrote this for anyone who sometimes feels like they need a map to navigate the React world.
I will share my knowledge and things that I have used through all my years of React, my opinions on several packages, and ways of making things, I will share what helped me so that it can hopefully, help you.
There will be opinions you don't agree with, and that's okay. We are all different, and we all build things differently. What I want you to get out of this book is a way to find possible paths, make sense of the tools, concepts, and packages you come across while building things with React, and to help making you feel confident enough to do a project from start to end or to speak up in a company meeting with your idea.
I hope you learn as much from this book as I learned writing it.
Testimonials
Some people read the book and did not mind being on the website as marketing!
Sara's book is amazing in its head-first approach to the React ecosystem. If you're suffering from analysis paralysis between many options, I think it's a great starting point. In the end, even if you might end up disagreeing with some of Sara's opinionated picks and replace them with something else, that's the point — the goal of this book is to help you break through the mental block of starting a project.
"Every React app consists of answers for tens of questions: "what do we use for state management? Styles? Fetching data? Animation? Cache? Testing? What are we even doing?".
Navigating the React ecosystem is anything but simple and having a guide who'll help you avoid getting lost is absolutely priceless.
That's where Sara and her books come in - "The Opinionated Guide To React" is years of trial & error of trying different solutions for common problems in React apps and finding out which solved her problems and are more than likely to solve yours. She went through it all so you don't have to.
I've been writing React for a living since 2016 and Sara's book taught me a lot. Every page is filled with her wit and sense of humour which makes the whole book a joy to read.
My only criticism is that it wasn't written sooner as I'd absolutely love to read it years ago. It's definitely worth your time and I cannot recommend it enough."
"The React ecosystem is an actual jungle! There are so many opinions, libraries, "thought leaders" and conflicting best practices
Sara is one of the people who's opinion I want to actively listen to. (and I really do, at work, not because i'm forced to but because i want to :P)
In the book, Sara walks through folder structure, deployments, package recommendations for state management, animations, etc. and her hot takes on typescript.
If you want something to refer back to again and again, this is the book to get!
There's a lot of hype and noise in the JavaScript and React ecosystems. Sara is one of the few people I turn to for her experience and recommendations when it comes to libraries and tooling. For anyone who wants to cut through the hype and select a coherent tech stack based on real-world experience, picking up Opinionated React is a no-brainer.
Pricing
Rent is expensive in a major city and the berlin winters are pretty harsh.
The book pack
Book in Light & Dark Versions
All Code Examples
PDF + EPUB + Kindle version downloads and online book version
About the author
Sara Vieira is a developer at Remote. GraphQL and Open Source enthusiast by day, football aficionado at night. Her experience and cat-like curiosity have taken her to build stuff with all sorts of frontend technologies that range from PHP and NodeJS to Vue and Reason, but since 2016, she has focused the majority of her projects in React.
As a self-taught programmer, Sara advocates for the importance of learning by building dumb (or not so dumb) shit that can make people smile, as well as to give back to the community by sharing what you learn with others.
Actively involved in the frontend community as a conference speaker, Sara is also the founder of QueerJS, a series of small community meetups where everybody is welcomed, but it's queer speakers that take the stage.
Her talents include banging sticks into a drum kit and saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. You may find her having coffee in the streets of Berlin while talking about terrible horror movies, airports and TypeScript.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Who designed the cover?
The cover was designed by the amazingly talented Natalia Balska .
- What is the code font in the book?
The font is MonoLisa
- Can I get a discount if I am student?
Sure! Please fill in this form and I will get back to you.
- Can I get VAT discounted?
YES! Paddle will do that for you if you input a valid VAT ID. It's amazing!
- What if I hate it?
Oh no, I will definitely give you a refund, email me at sara@opinionatedreact.com .
- I have another question!
Sure! Email me at sara@opinionatedreact.com and let's talk about it.
- I bought the book on leanpub, do I have to buy it again?
Nope, before releasing I will always upload the latest version to Leanpub as well so please login to your account to get it. It will say it has not been updated but that's because they don't count uploads of a retired book updates. Thank you for being an early supporter.