Best ways to Structure React Components
Last Updated :
14 Mar, 2024
Structuring your React applications is critical for ensuring maintainability, scalability, and code readability as a software developer. In this tutorial, we'll delve into the best practices for organizing a React app, offering examples and code snippets along the way.
Make sure you have the latest version of NodeJS installed. Then, use the following command to create a new React app:
npx create-react-app my-app
We will discuss the following ways to structure react components
Let us first understand the types of components in React :
Functional Components:
Functional Components are lightweight and focused solely on rendering UI based on props. They are ideal for presentational components or components that don't require state or lifecycle methods.
Class Components:
Class Components are traditional React components that extend the React.Component class. They are used when you need to manage a state or use lifecycle methods.
Container/Presentational Components:
Container/Presentational Components pattern separates components into two categories: containers (smart components) responsible for fetching data and managing state, and presentational (dumb) components focused on rendering UI based on props.
1. Feature-based Structure:
In this approach, components are organized based on features or functionality rather than their type (e.g., pages, modals, forms). Each feature folder contains all related components, styles, and logic.
2. File and Folder Structure:
Start by creating a src folder as the root directory to house all your components, containers, and other files, ensuring a clean project structure. Inside src, establish the following folders:
- components: for reusable presentational components
- containers: for components linked to the Redux store or managing business logic
- pages: for components representing individual pages or views
- services: for API calls and other external services
- utils: for utility functions and helper files
- styles: for global styles and CSS files
3. Component-Based Architecture:
Organize your components based on their functionality or features. Place related components in separate folders, and each folder should contain the component's JavaScript file and any associated styles or assets.
import React from 'react';
const GeeksComponent = () => {
return (
<div>
<h1>Hello, GeeksforGeeks</h1>
</div>
);
};
export default GeeksComponent;
4. Container Components and Presentational Components:
Distinguish between container components, responsible for managing business logic and connected to the Redux store, and presentational components, which focus on rendering UI elements.
// MainContainer.js
import React from 'react';
import { Routes, Route } from 'react-router-dom';
import Header from '../components/Header/Header';
import Home from '../components/Home/Home';
import About from '../components/About/About';
const MainContainer = () => {
return (
<div>
<Header />
<Routes>
<Route exact path="/" component={Home} />
<Route path="/about" component={About} />
</Routes>
</div>
);
};
export default MainContainer;
5. Using React Router for Navigation:
Use React Router to navigate between pages within your application. First, install React Router using the following command:
npm install react-router-dom
Then use the component in src/App.js
import React from 'react';
import { BrowserRouter as Router, Route } from 'react-router-dom';
import HomePage from './pages/HomePage';
import AboutPage from './pages/AboutPage';
const App = () => {
return (
<Router>
<Route exact path="/" component={HomePage} />
<Route path="/about" component={AboutPage} />
</Router>
);
};
export default App;
Conclusion:
Efficient development, maintainability, and scalability are crucial considerations for React app structure. This tutorial highlights best practices for building applications that are easy to understand and manage.
Similar Reads
8 Ways to Style React Components
React is a JavaScript library for building user interfaces. React makes it painless to create interactive UIs. Design simple views for each state in your application, and React will efficiently update and render just the right components when your data changes.Prerequisites:React ComponentsCSSCSS Fr
10 min read
ReactJS Blueprint Tabs Component
BlueprintJS is a React-based UI toolkit for the web. This library is very optimized and popular for building interfaces that are complex data-dense for desktop applications. Tabs Component allows the user to switch between components present in given different tabs. We can use the following approach
3 min read
ReactJS | Components - Set 2
In our previous article on ReactJS | Components we had to discuss components, types of components, and how to render components. In this article, we will see some more properties of components. Composing Components: Remember in our previous article, our first example of GeeksforGeeks's homepage whi
3 min read
ReactJS Blueprint Tag Component
BlueprintJS is a React-based UI toolkit for the web. This library is very optimized and popular for building interfaces that are complex data-dense for desktop applications. Tag Component is used for categorizing or markup. Tags are great for lists of strings. We can use the following approach in Re
3 min read
ReactJS Blueprint Tree Component
BlueprintJS is a React-based UI toolkit for the web. This library is very optimized and popular for building interfaces that are complex data-dense for desktop applications. Tree Component provides a way for users to display tree-structured data. It is used to show hierarchical data. We can use the
5 min read
React.js Blueprint Component Tab
React.js Blueprint is a front-end UI toolkit. It is very optimized and popular for building interfaces that are complex data-dense for desktop applications. The React.js Blueprint Tab Component acts as a wrapper that takes the properties of and is managed by its parent component Tabs. React.js Bluep
3 min read
What is Stateful/Class Based Component in ReactJS?
A stateful/class-based component in React is a component that manages its internal state and re-renders when the state changes. These components are implemented using ES6 classes and extend the React.Component class. Stateful components hold and update data that affects their rendering.It has a stat
3 min read
React MUI Surface Components
React Material-UI (MUI) is a popular library that provides a set of reusable components for building user interfaces in React applications. These components are based on Material Design, a design system developed by Google that provides guidelines for creating visually appealing, user-friendly inter
2 min read
Tree View Component in React JS
Tree Views are commonly used to show organized lists, like folders in a computer or categories with sub-options. An icon indicates if an option is open or closed, and the related items are shown below, slightly indented. You often see this in website sidebars, like Gmail, to neatly display different
5 min read
React Rebass MDX Component
React Rebass is a front-end framework that was designed keeping react in mind. In this article, we will know how to use MDX Component in React rebass. MDX Component is an important component that is required in each development.MDX is a markdown-based format that allows you to import and use React c
2 min read