Category: React

Vue vs React: When and How to Make the Right Choice

Posted on by galaxy-admin

Vue.js and React.js are two popular frontend JavaScript frameworks, with React tipping the scales for the last three years. Both tools provide developers with a productive approach to developing various Web applications, but each has its own best use cases and addresses different business needs. In this article, we’ll look at some of those use cases, as well as the benefits that distinguish Vue.js and React.

The Cream of the Crop

There are numerous reasons for Vue and React’s prominence on the developer landscape. Before we delve deeper into their distinguishing features, let’s take a quick look at what the two have in common that makes them so popular.

Virtual DOM  – With a regular DOM, the entire page is rendered after making changes. With both these frameworks, only the changed object is updated, thereby saving time and resources that heavy DOM manipulations would consume.

Component-based UI development – The extensive component libraries provided by Vue and React facilitate code reuse, increase developer productivity, and accelerate the development process.

Concentrate on the view library — Separate concerns for routing, state management, and so on.

Official component library for building mobile apps — Long-awaited in Vue, but now available in both tools.

React and Vue are among the two of the most popular JavaScript frameworks. According to the State of Frontend 2020, the most popular JS languages are React and Vue. 4500 professional front-end developers took part in this survey.

While both the platforms have some common advantages, let us compare how they measure up in terms of performance, scalability, security, flexibility, and other important parameters.  

Vue vs React: Performance

JavaScript utilizes two types of object models, virtual DOM and real DOM. The organization of working with the DOM is a major factor in the performance of JavaScript tools for developing interfaces.

React makes use of the virtual DOM, which is a lightweight, browser-independent system. One of the main reasons for React’s popularity is that it works very well with the DOM.

Vue also makes use of the virtual DOM, but it outperforms React in terms of performance and stability.

The performance difference between Vue and React is minor, measuring only a few milliseconds. This demonstrates that Vue and React have very similar performance.

There are some cases in which one framework outperforms the other. When you change the state of a React component, all of the components in its subtree re-render. You can prevent child component re-renders in React by using immutable data structures, ComponentUpdate, or PureComponent. However, this can add complexity and result in DOM state inconsistencies.

With Vue, the dependencies are tracked to avoid any unnecessary re-rendering. 

Vue vs React: Flexibility

React’s core provides only basic functionality. With the practical application of this library, its capabilities must be expanded. This provides the developer with a great deal of freedom when it comes to selecting additional tools.

They usually solve the following problems with the assistance of additional libraries:

  • routing, 
  • application state management, 
  • server rendering, and 
  • mobile app development

Vue, as opposed to React, provides a more comprehensive set of standard tools to developers. This enables you to use third-party libraries to solve the same problems that the React ecosystem typically solves.

Vue vs React: Security

Vue apps are slightly easier to secure than React-based apps. While automatic protections against XSS vulnerabilities are not possible, Vue developers can sanitize HTML code before implementation or use external libraries to help protect against attacks. You can explicitly render a safe HTML and protect the application. 

To protect against XSS vulnerabilities, server-side rendering attacks, SQL injections, and other threats, React security relies on the developer following security best practices.

Vue vs React: Scalability

React is at an advantage due to its ease of scalability. React apps are written entirely in JavaScript, and the developers can use traditional code organization methods for easy scaling. Reusability of components improves React’s scalability.

While Vue is also scalable, it is more commonly used in smaller applications due to its diverse set of flexible tools (although the size of the app of course depends on the architecture). Because of the dynamic architecture, you will need to use Vue’s libraries and Mixin elements to overcome scaling limitations. We believe that React is a better choice for building enterprise applications.

Vue vs React: Popularity

We can track developer interest in these two frameworks over the last two years using Google Trends statistics. It is quite obvious that React and Vue are in a race to best each other. 

Let’s look at the stack overflow 2020 stats. The survey is about popular web frameworks and shows the percentage of developers who are developing with the language or technology and are interested in continuing to develop with it. In this ranking, React is ranked second. And Vue is only a little behind. Vue has grown in popularity in a relatively short period since its initial release in 2014.

Vue vs React: Community Support

The React library is maintained and developed by Facebook. Anyone who chooses React as the foundation for their application’s frontend can be confident that it will not become an abandoned project anytime soon. Many additional tools have been created and maintained by the React developer community.

Vue, on the other hand, has grown in popularity, with many programmers contributing to its development. 

Vue vs React: Mobile Development

You can use React Native to create native iOS and Android apps. 

Vue is not as fortunate in this regard. It has announced its official support for the Weex project, a cross-platform UI framework developed by the Alibaba Group. With Weex, you can use the same Vue syntax to create browser components as well as iOS and Android apps.

Weex is still in the early stages of development and is not yet as mature or well-tested as React Native. A NativeScript plugin for creating truly native apps with Vue.js is another variant of NativeScript-Vue.

How to Make the Right Choice

Vue.js

Vue, as a progressive framework, can be incrementally integrated into an existing project based on project requirements. As an example, it could be used as a lightweight library to add interactivity to a Web application. 76 percent of developers polled for the 2019 edition of the State of Vue.js Report cite ease of integration as Vue’s most valuable asset. Whereas, 90 percent of developers in the 2021 report of State of Vue.js, claimed there is a very high probability of them using Vue.js for their next project.

Vue is ideal for delivering MVPs and startup ideas quickly, thanks to its simple learning curve and tools like Vue CLI 3 and Vue UI. Vue is also a cost-effective solution for small to medium-sized apps as a result of these factors. 

Don’t let that fool you into thinking Vue isn’t suitable for large Web apps. It has a large ecosystem of tools and companion libraries, allowing the framework to address the complex requirements of enterprise-grade applications.

React

React was designed for large-scale Web projects, therefore using it for small and simple apps may be excessive. Although it takes a lot of boilerplate code to get a working project up and running, React’s architecture pays off in the long run.

JSX gives developers access to the full power of JavaScript — flow controls and advanced IDE features like autocompletion and listing are included in component view templates.

React, unlike Vue, lacks official packages for routing and state management. To create complex apps, you must rely on third-party solutions for almost everything. However, the options are numerous. Experienced developers tasked with delivering advanced projects will understand which of the numerous libraries will be the best fit to meet the business requirements of a specific Web application.

Conclusion

Vue.js and React are both excellent frameworks for creating interactive user interfaces. You must consider several factors when deciding which one is best for your next project, including your specific use case, business needs, environment, developer availability, budget, and timeframe.

We hope this guide has helped you decide between React.js and Vue.js for your next project. If you still have questions about the technologies, or if you need a team of experienced developers to help you create your project, please contact us using the form here!

About Galaxy Weblinks

We specialize in delivering end-to-end software design & development services and have hands-on experience with popular front-end and back-end frameworks. Our back-end and front-end engineers also help in improving security, reliability, and features to make sure your business application scales and remains secure.

7 Best Practices For React Security

Posted on by galaxy-admin

React is undoubtedly one of the most popular JS libraries to build applications. It is also one of the most actively developed libraries which means instant bug fixes and security patches. React has many advantages, but may fall susceptible to security threats. Here are a few recommendations that we share based on our vast experience of working with this technology.

(Know more about our proficiency in Front-end Technologies)

Cross-site scripts and URL injections are some of the most common and serious attacks that affect applications in general. These vulnerabilities are targeted to steal sensitive user data and capture user input to steal credentials and card information.

We have made a list of some best practices that will help you enhance the security of React applications. Do have a look!

Protection against XSS

Your application may have some vulnerabilities that hackers can exploit and insert data in your code that your app treats as part of the code. This in turn gives the attacker the access to make requests to the server and even captures user inputs to steal sensitive credentials.

The injection might look like this:

Code!<script>alert(“malicious code”)</script>

Here’s what the same thing looks like with some protection against XSS:

Code!&lt;script&gt;alert(“malicious code”)&lt;/script&gt;

&lt; and &lt; being interpreted as < and >, the browser won’t confuse the data for code.

You can also use:

  • Using the createElement() API.
  • Using JSX auto escape feature.
  • Using dangerouslySetInnerHTML to set HTML directly from React instead of using the error-prone innerHTML.

Adding End-to-End Encryption

Almost every real-time communication application that you’re using comes with End-to-End encryption as standard.

End-to-end encryption means that nobody else other than the parties involved can read the messages. It’s made possible by encryption technology that ensures that the message is encrypted just as it leaves the sender and can only be read once it reaches the intended receiver.

To get E2E in your React application you have to rely on a vendor that provides the tools and kits to ensure secure encryption. Virgil for example is a vendor that provides a platform and JavaScript SDK to create, store, and offer robust E2E secure encryption via public/private key technology.

HTTP Authentication

There are several ways to make authentication secure in your application. Pay special attention to the client-side authentication and authorization because typically they’re ones subject to security flaws.

You can use one of these to ensure your application safety

JSON Web Token (JWT)

  • Move your tokens from localstorage to an HTTP cookie since it’s fairly easy to extract from local storage.
  • Keep, sign, and verify the secret keys in the backend
  • Avoid decoding the token on the client-side and ensure that the payload is small.
  • HTTPS over HTTP under any circumstances

Other methods:

  • OAuth
  • AuthO
  • React Router
  • PassportJs

Rendering HTML

You should always sanitize dynamic values that you assign to dangerouslySetInnerHTML. The recommended sanitizer to use is DOMPurify.

Import purify from “dompurify”;

<div dangerouslySetInnerHTML={{ __html:purify.sanitize(data) }} />

DDoS prevention

Denial of service happens when the app is not secure or it’s unsuccessful in masking the IPs of services. As a result, some services stop because they can’t interact with the server.

One way to deal with these issues is to just limit the number of requests to a given IP from a specific source.

Or you can always- 

  • Add app-level restrictions to the API.
  • Make calls on the server and NOT on the client-side.
  • Add some tests to secure the app layer.

Keep Your Dependencies Updated

There are a lot of third-party dependencies that you use that are patched regularly for security reasons. They can prove to be risky if not updated.

Update your dependencies regularly via security patches and ensure that you leave no backdoor vulnerable for attacks. Try using npm-check-updates to discover dependencies that are out of date. And update if needed to ensure that you’re covered.

Keep An Eye On Library Code

Third-party libraries. Useful? Yes. Risky? A little.

These libraries, modules, or APIs in most cases will help you fast track your development but sometimes they might take your application down with their flaws.

That shouldn’t stop you from using some great third-party offerings. Just a word of caution though, ensure that you are aware of the vulnerabilities, their scale, and workarounds.

And lastly, keep them updated and patch the old ones, just to make your application airtight.

We hope that you find these practices useful and employ some or all to keep your React applications secure and in shape. Do let us know if you’re struggling with some enterprise-wide dependable implementation, we are here to lend a hand. Get in touch with us here.

A brief overview of the React 17

Posted on by galaxy-admin
First things first, yes there are no new features in this update! There are several upgrades and a few eliminations which we believe are worth discussing. So here’s our take on the all-new React 17. This new version comes after a long wait of nearly two years. We believe that there are a lot of improvements vis-a-vis the previous version. The focus is largely on the gradual updates to this version and the future ones. So, let’s see what all they are!

Changes in event delegation 

The React 17 update eases the nesting of applications that are built using different React versions. A lot of conflicts were seen when many versions of React are being used together. With this update, event handlers will not be attached at document levels. In its place, it will go to the root DOM container where your React tree is rendered. Also, with React 17 going in for gradual changes, developers will have more freedom when it comes to migration of apps in one go or smaller chunks.

Native component stacks 

Finding errors with javascript function; its name and location stack trace can lead to a needle in a haystack hunt while sifting through hundreds of coding lines (if not a thousand). To pinpoint errors in React 17, there is an unorthodox approach taken by the React team. Here is what they are thinking, in their own words:
Currently, the browsers don’t provide a way to get a function’s stack frame (source file and location). So when React catches an error, it will now reconstruct its component stack by throwing (and catching) a temporary error from inside each of the components above, when it is possible.
This improvement will come in handy during the production environment.

No More Private Exports 

The new update of React has withdrawn private exports. This was a much-awaited update for React Native for Web. The dependency of React Native for Web was on certain internals of the event system. This dependency was fragile and now will be addressed with this update.

No Event Pooling 

Event pooling optimizations are no longer a part of React 17. It failed abysmally to enhance the performance in older browsers. Its initial purpose was to reuse the event objects between events along with setting all fields to ‘null’ between processes. However, it ended up causing more confusion for developers. Following this change, the need to use e.persist() is also eliminated.

Properties of React Components 

React 17 is now compliant with ES6. There are talks of using key or codes and in case you are working with it, you are required to code property to keyboard event objects. On similar lines, capture phase events use real browser capture, there are no bubbles in onScroll events, etc. In addition to the above-mentioned updates, two new functions are being introduced in this update, namely ‘getDerivedStateFromProps’ and ‘getSnapshotBeforeUpdate’. All this said, React 17 is surely working towards making React more prominent within the developer community and making it easier for all to understand, deploy, and migrate to React in the future. Feel free to get in touch with us here if you need help with your React development. About us  We, at Galaxy Weblinks, are all for new ideas and experiments. We believe that being up-to-date in this fast-paced world gives us adequate time to explore and implement new changes. Our developers are constantly striving for improvement and a better user experience. Contact us for a free consultation!

Vue or React | Which Javascript framework should you choose?

Posted on by galaxy-admin

The pursuit for finding the perfect “javascript framework” can seem like a wild goose chase. But it never is. There are one too many frameworks and each one has traits that makes choosing more difficult.

Whether you’re trying to get into frontend or shifting from PHP or C++ to Javascript, these comparison points between Vue and React are just the thing to get your started.

Popularity

Javascript is quick in releasing frameworks and libraries. The only constant thing is the continuous change in the top positions of the frameworks and libraries.

According to the trends Vue might not seem like a go-to choice of people.

Screenshot of Vue Github stars

But GitHub stars tell a different story altogether. In June this year VueJS surpassed React. And Vue is still in the lead with 152k stars in comparison to React’s 140k stars.

A point to be noted is that Vue has lesser number of commits and contributors. A possible explanation is that Vue is driven by the open source community where as React has Facebook’s employees as its contributors.

Community support

Facebook’s backing to React signifies strong community support. Till date, React has 171k questions on StackOverflow in comparison to Vue’s 44k questions. But React’s community is more fragmented than Vue’s. This makes it difficult to find answers to even common issues and roadblocks. But Vue gained immense popularity and support from the developers. Vue has successfully created its own name without any major brand’s backing.

Learning curve

Developing your website via React will require you to have a huge knowledge of third party libraries as React is a library and not a framework. Whereas Vue has tools like Vue CLI 3 and Vue UI which will help you in building MVPs real quick. Vue is considered to be more developer friendly due to it’s short learning curve. Also Vue has taken inspiration from Angular and React which makes the transition easier for developers.

Performance

Performance can be measured on various aspects. Measuring it on the basis of framework’s size, Vue has a smaller framework size in comparison with React. Vue’s framework size is of 80KB whereas React is of 100KB. This will have an impact on the initial load time as well.

Virtual DOM is used by both React and Vue. But Vue has better performance and memory allocation due to its well built structure. A word of caution, the final performance will also depend on your application size and how well your code is optimized.

Documentation

Vue’s development team has put in a lot of effort in the tool’s documentation. The API reference is said to be the best in the industry. There is a detailed overview of Vue’s ecosystem, which is absent in React’s documentation. All the information required for creating Vue’s applications is well-written and accessible with ease. All this goes in Vue’s favour. React’s documentation includes basics and some advanced concepts, however it fails to present it in an easily accessible manner.

Use cases

Vue and React are both used by known global names for their websites and applications. Behance, Louis Vuitton and LiveStorm have used Vue. And Airbnb, Netflix and PayPal have selected React. The list is long for both. Vue is scalable and gets integrated easily, so it can be used for bigger development projects as well. However, using React for smaller projects is not a smart decision according to industry experts.

So, When to select one over the other?

If you are a fan of:

  • Flexibility
  • Experimenting with lots of libraries and tools
  • Large community support
  • Javascript more than HTML

React will be your go to option.

If you are someone who:

  • Is looking for short learning curve
  • Likes clean code
  • Wants a lightweight framework
  • Need an MVP on short notice

Vue should be your go to option.

The battle for choosing the ‘best suited’ framework depends upon your specific requirements. And your requirements will change over the course of time. Be prepared for that change as well.