nextjs/docs/react/README.md

React

React is a descriptive way to define UI elements and things, which would produce repetive code in plain JS.

React uses JSX is a extension of JavaScript. To render JSX a compiler like babel is required.

React has some core concepts

• Components
• Props
• States

React does manipulate the DOM via JS. Before you can do this, you have to define the app's root. This can be done like this:

const app = document.getElementById("app");
const root = ReactDOM.createRoot(app);

Now you can render HTML in the DOM:

root.render(<h1>Develop. Preview. Ship.</h1>);

Components

Components are reusable building blocks.

React components are defined as a function which returns a DOM element. The name of react components are capitalized. To use a react component it needs to be in angel brackets <> like a HTML tag.

Example component:

function Header(){
    return (<h1>Develop. Preview. Ship.</h1>);
}

Usage of a component:

root.render(<Header />);

The trailing slash / before > is required for the component to be rendered. React components can be nested inside each other. Example:

function HomePage(){
    return (
    <div>
        <Header />
    </div>
    );
}

Props

Props is a short form of properties. Props are inherited to children inside the hierarchy. The ability to accept props is added via the parameter props to the component:

function Component(props){
    // Definition of the component
}

The props are stored as an JS object. The content of the props can be access via object destruction inside the function parameters of a component.

function Component({ title }){
    // Definition of the component
}

To use a property inside a component it has to be written in curly braces. Inside of curly braces normal JavaScript can be written and executed. Since a prop is just a JS variable you can access from inside the curly braces.

function Component({ title }){
    return (<h1>{title}</h1>);
}

But its also possible to access a variable through the props object.

function Component(props){
    return (<h1>{props.title}</h1>);
}

Normal JS like conditions & iterations can also be used inside of a component.

function createTitle(title){
    if(title){
    return title;
    }
    else{
    return "Default createTitle";
    }
}

function Header({ title }){
    return (<h1>{createTitle(title)}</h1>);
}

Its also possible to iterate through lists as following example shows:

function HomePage(){
    const names = ['Max Meier', 'Josef Berchtold', 'Margrit Barmettler'];

    return (
    <div>
        <ul>
        {names.map((name) => (
            <li>{name}</li>
        ))}
        </ul>
    </div>
    );
}

When iterating over an object the items should have a unique key, so they can be manipulated by React.

<ul>
{names.map((name) => (
    <li key={name}>{name}</li>
))}
</ul>

States

Currently the page is very static and information is not saved. To make a element interactive an event like onClick can be added. THe event names are camelCase.

Example:

function Component(){
    function handleClick(){
    console.log("increment like count");
    }

    return (
    <div>
        <button onClick={handleClick}>Like</button>
    </div>
    );
}

Reacts has some functions that are called hooks. A hook adds some logic like a state to a component. A state is an information about an componennt which can change over time. Like the value of a toggle switch or a counter. The hook to save a state is named useState(). It can be access by using React.useState().

States are saved as an JS array containig of the values and a function for updating the current value.

const [likes, setLikes] = React.useState();

Commonly the function is named with the prefix set followed by the name of the state. A default value can be set in the parentheses of useState().

const [likes, setLikes] = React.useState(0);

The value of a state can afterwards be accessed via JS.

<button onClick={handleClick}>Like ({likes})</button>

By calling the set-function the value of the state can be updated.

setLikes(likes + 1);

full example of states

function HomePage(){
    const [likes, setLikes] = React.useState(0);

    function handleClick(){
    setLikes(likes + 1);
    }

    return (
    <div>
        <button onClick={handleClick}>Like ({likes})</button>
    </div>
    );
}

Migrate project from React to Next.js

Install React & Next.js

npm install react@latest react-dom@latest next@latest

Dependencies in package.json:

{
  "dependencies": {
    "next": "^15.3.1",
    "react": "^19.1.0",
    "react-dom": "^19.1.0"
  }
}

Ressources

• React Foundations course from Next.js