Have you ever worked on a complex web application and found that, managing the application State can be challenging. That is where the concept of Redux comes in.
Redux is defined as an open source JavaScript library which helps in managing state of an application. It has become more popular in past few years, especially when used with front-end frameworks like as React. A clear understanding of redux will back you in designing more robust applications which will be easy to maintain too. Whether you are a beginner or experienced web developer, it will going to boost your understanding and should be added to your skill set.
Let us try to get into it.
What is Redux?
Redux is an open-source state-management JavaScript library which helps in managing the application state. It mainly works with react but can also be used with any other JavaScript Library or framework as well. Redux provides a centralized store for application data and products a predictable way to manage changes to that data over time.
The central idea behind Redux is that the entire ‘state’ of an application is represented by a single JavaScript object called the store.
This store is immutable, which means that it cannot be directly modified, instead changes to the store are made by dispatching actions which are considered as plain JavaScript objects that describe what happened in the application.
Why use Redux?
So, there are several reasons why someone might choose to use Redux.
- Centralized State Management: Redux stores the app’s data in one central place, which makes it easier to understand how data flows and fix issues when arise.
- Predictable State Changes: Redux has strict set of rules about how data can change. This ensures that changes are consistent and easy to understand throughout the app.
- Debugging: Redux keeps a track of every action and the resulting state changes, which makes it simpler to find and fix bugs.
- Developer Experience: Redux encourages writing clean and organized code, which makes it easier to maintain and work on. The single central store also allows multiple developers to collaborate without creating conflicts.
- Scalability: Redux is good in managing complex applications, as it keeps data organized and handles large-scale projects efficiently.
With this understanding we can say, redux is a practical and a useful tool for managing application state in a structured, predictable, and scalable way. However, it may not be necessary for all applications and can add complexity to smaller projects. It is important to evaluate whether Redux is the right choice for a specific Project based on its needs and requirements.
When to use Redux?
Redux allows you to manage your app state in a single place and keeps changes in your app more predictable and traceable. It makes it easier to reason about changes occurring in your app. But all of these benefits come with tradeoffs and constraints. One might feel, it adds a boilerplate code making simple things a little overwhelming but that depends on the architecture decisions.
Let’s understand the redux architecture using this simple analogy.
Imagine a pizza shop as your app and inside that, kitchen will be having all the ingredients like pizza base, sauce and cheese and you are a customer and you want to order pizza.
In this case, directly you will not go to the kitchen and start preparing Pizza. Instead, you place an order at the counter and the chef gets the order look at what ingredients are available in the kitchen. Then, you have to make a special request and the chef will update the pizza based on your request. Every customer gets their pizza from the same kitchen and the chef makes sure ingredients stay organized and ready for the next order.
Now let’s split this analogy.
Here, kitchen represents our redux store. It has all the ingredients which represent our state. Which means redux store will be storing entire state of the application.
The order placed by the customer is our action. In redux, customer is not the action but whatever request is made by the customer that is called as action.
The Chef is represented as the ‘reducer’ which gets all the orders and going to update our state.
In simple, we can understand that reducer will take the action >> reducer will go to the store >> check the things available inside the state >> based on the actions, state will be updated >> updated value will be returned.
| Pizza Shop | Redux Concept | Aim |
| Kitchen | Store | Holds the state of your application |
| Intend to (PLACE_ORDER) | Action | Describes the events/ Describes what happened |
| Chef | Reducer | Connects the store with the action |
In more simplified manner we can describe these terminologies as follows
- A store: keeps your app’s data.
- An action: Explains how the data changes.
- A reducer: Makes the changes to the data based on the actions.
Why is redux good with react?
React is a standalone library that can be used with different JavaScript Frameworks like Angular, Inferno, View, Preact, React and many others.
However, Redux is most frequently used with react. This is because react was designed with the concept of states and life cycles and in react State can also not be modified directly, it can only be done via the function set State. This makes it easier for Redux Concepts to be applied because they share the same understanding and behavior of a state object.
If we start combining react with redux, then it will be very confusing. So, first in isolation, we will understand the entire redux concept and then we will jump on the use Redux and react together.
How to set up Redux in react?
Firstly make sure node and npm is installed on your system.
To check, if it is installed or not:
Open command prompt and type ‘node – V’. If you get the version number that means successfully you have installed node.
If not, go to official documentation and install node in your system.
Once we install node js, npm will be automatically installed.
We will write command ‘npm – V’ and for that also you will be having the version number.
To initialize package.json file, we have to follow the steps below.
Create a new folder, right click and open the folder with code. We have created ‘Redux’ folder.
Press ‘control J’ and it will take you to Terminal.
Write ‘npm init – yes’ and hit enter button.
As soon as you hit enter, package.json file will be initialized. This will be having some default settings.
To add Redux inside it as its dependency we have to go through the following steps:
Write ‘npm i Redux’ inside terminal and hit enter button. Here, for install ‘i’ is written in short.
After doing all this, node modules folder is created and inside that you will have the redux package.
This redux dependency is added successfully which will have some version which may vary.
Inside the root folder, creating one file named script.js.
We will write console.log and type some text inside it. We have written ‘welcome to Redux’ and save it.
Open terminal and type node.script.js and hit enter. Here ‘script.js’ is your file name is. Then, whatever data we are having, we will get result successfully.
By doing all these steps, we have completed this basic setup of redux.
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