Exploring The Reasons To Use Ruby On Rails With React

For any application to run successfully, its user interface and user experience play a vital role. Today, we’re going to provide you with a guide on using React with Ruby on Rails.

Here, we introduce a library built upon JavaScript, which is said to be an efficient and dynamic library for building complex user interfaces called React.

It was built and released by Facebook in 2013, and the stable version of the library was released in March 2020. So, A World-Class ReactJS Development Company should be aware of it.

React is used to develop single-page web applications. It uses the libraries like Redux and React Router for managing states and routing purposes.

Another framework built for web applications, Ruby on Rails, includes the advantage of building dynamic web applications that require database integration in the back end.

Ruby on Rails with React can be a perfect combination for effective web app development, rent a programmer India to bring in more expertise and ease in the development process.

Using React With Ruby On Rails

Single Page Apps: A New Market Trend

New trends in the software world have emerged out with a new concept of Single-page applications. Most popular and used applications like Instagram and Facebook have also started working on lesser redirects and interactions with other web pages.

The main focus of the application development is on the smooth and easy navigation for the users when selecting any tab. The React Developer Tools & also contributes to this idea.

If we define Single page applications in simpler words, we can say that it is a web application in which a single HTML page is opened and eases the user interaction by navigating it to the sections which users desire to visit.

Multiple technologies provide the functionality of developing single-page applications, Ruby on Rails being one of them.

Integrating Ruby on Rails with React.js libraries to develop a single page application is something that produces the use with high performance, robustness, and scalability advantages.

The Super Power of React + Ruby on Rails

For discussing the cons of using react with Ruby on rails, let’s take a use case of an employee feedback submission, Cultural Amp.

The platform has been developed using React with Ruby on Rails combination. Its head of the engineering department has shared her experiences regarding the platform’s development using this combination.

Initially, the platform was developed using Ruby on Rails in the backend, and for the front end, they had used jquery along with Bootstrap.

This was built in early 2011, some nine years back when react was not available as an open-source library. We were able to access this open-source library after the year 2013.

When the analysis of complex data, accessibility, security permissions, and other tools came into the picture, the platform started lagging with the front end functionalities.

This is the scenario from where the platform was re-built using the combination of Ruby on Rails with React, and hence all the issues faced by the platform were solved, and the platform resulted in a dynamic application.

The same situation was faced by the developers and owners of FriendsandGuests.com, which is now famous in the name of HawaiiChee, which is a business to customer (B2C) platform.

This application has similar functionalities to the vacation rental platform, Airbnb. The form was a hybrid of Airbnb as well as LinkedIn, the social media platform for the professionals.

Hence, if this combination were used in developing the platform, the issues that might have been faced by the developers would be unable to access the document object model (DOM), more variety of user interfaces, tracking of various attributes at the run time, etc.

Reasons to Use React with Ruby on Rails

We can list several reasons to use this combination. But let us continue by discussing the main ones. These are:

Reliable Technology

The combination of these technologies has been tested by leading platforms like GitHub, Airbnb, Twitter, Shopify, Crunchbase. It is proven that this combination builds the most dynamic and reliable web applications with high-end development paradigms. This is one of the strongest reasons why businesses hire react developers.

Fast Development

There is a provision of built-in modules on Ruby on Rails framework, which reduces the development team’s development efforts.

This will also enable the communication with the React.js libraries on the front end.

This also allows lower cost and lesser time utilized for the development of the application.

Reduced Server Response Time

For any web application to run successfully, loading time is the most critical aspect. If your website keeps on loading, it may result in losing a user for your application.

Experts say that using Ruby on rails has proven to reduce almost 80 to 90 percent of the loading period and gets quick responses from the server.

Less Memory usage

In discussing another use case, Egghead, io had faced a lot of issues regarding the unnecessarily occupied memory space.

They deployed their platform using the combination of React and Ruby on rails and hence have observed a lot of improvements in the performance of their platforms later.

Development Speed

If you are willing to develop an application based on the free plus premium model, you can make the best use of this combination.

It automatically improves the quality of the form as well as speed for the development of applications also increases.

Lower Learning Curve

As discussed above, the Ruby on rails framework and react.js libraries are easy to learn for a fresher in the software field. Hence, no time will be wasted in the learning process.

Stability

The community support for the Ruby on Rails is compelling and efficient. On the other hand, React is a product of Facebook, and hence it does not need much change in their libraries.

Seeing the Stability of these both platforms, you can expect your applications to be built with high performance and efficiency.

Ways to Integrate ReactJS With Ruby on Rails

In the above section, we have discussed the advantages of integrating the Ruby on Rails platform with the React.js libraries.

Still, you might wonder how we can merge these two technologies into one?

In this section, let’s have a look at the possible approaches to merge ReactJS and Ruby on Rails.

Using react-rails gem and webpacker gem

This is the simplest method to integrate Ruby on Rails with reactjs. It transforms JSX using the Ruby on Rails pipeline, into its compatible assets with the use of Ruby Babel Transpiler.

For further details, we can merge one of the Ruby on Rails Gems, react-rails Gem with the webpacker Gem to integrate the webpack with the use of ReactrailsUJS.

Another advantage of utilizing this approach is that this Gem is also compatible with the latest versions of Ruby on Rails.

Let’s have a look at the implementation of this method:

Assuming that we already have Ruby on Rails on our systems, let us start adding the Gem to dependencies:

# Gemfile

.

.

gem 'react-rails.'

Now let’s install the Gem with the following code snippet:

bundle install

Running it,

rails g react: install

This will provide us with the component directory under the path: app->assets->javascripts, which would be a manifest file and add it to the application.js.

To create a component under the components folder, which we can call greet_user.jsx:

// app/assets/javascripts/components/greet_user.jsx`

window.GreetUser = React.createClass({

  render: function() {

    return (

      <h1>Hello {this.props.name}!</h1>

    )

  }

});

If you want to invoke it, then,

<!-- app/views/greet/index.html.erb -->

<%= react_component('GreetUser', name: 'Icicle') %>

And reac

<!-- becomes: -->

<div data-react-class="GreetUser" data-react-props="{"name":"Icicle"}"></div>

The react_component will identify the actual component GreetUser and will accept props as the other argument.

By following the above steps, we can integrate Ruby on Rails and React.js with react-rails Gem.

React_on_rails gem

Another simplified approach to integrating the react.js and Ruby on Rails is using react_on_rails Gem.

If the developer is handy with tools like webpack based on javascript, then it is a better approach.

The difference between this approach and the above-discussed approach is that react_on_rails assures us to build the components like ES6 with the use of a webpack to compile those components and convert them to javascript, which can be efficiently interpreted by Ruby on Rails.

We could configure this Gem using the webpack in the way we want to. The only disadvantage this approach holds is that we need to install some extra external packages like npm to get the knowledge of the working of a webpack.

Let’s discuss how to install react_on_rails Gem:

Initially, we need to install the npm and node packages. Later on, we can fix the react_on_rails by adding it to the Gemfile.

Gemfile

gem "react_on_rails", '8.0.0' # use latest gem version, prefer exact version

to run the command,

bundle install

P.S. we will need git, and also we will have to save our work. If not committed, the react_on_rails won’t work as per the requirement.

git add --all

git commit -am "Adding react_on_rails gem"

Finally, we can implement the generator now to install and set the structure of the relevant folders.

rails generate react_on_rails:install

Again we need to run the bundle so that we can install reactjs and npm. Hence, one can initiate our rails server using the foreman.

P.S. react_on_rails is dependent on foreman internally. It not only starts the Rails server but also does it start the Webpack, and hence we can observe the changes in our javascript.

foreman start -f Procfile.dev

Ruby on Rails API with React JS

The third approach to combine these two technologies is to preserve the usages of both techniques.

Instead of installing the gem files, we can keep Ruby on Rails as an API itself and similarly use React.js as a separate application that can communicate with the API provided by Ruby on rails.

The advantage of this approach will be that the features and functionalities of both the technologies won’t be overlapped; they will remain standalone.

Instead of building only web applications, mobile applications are also possible with this combination.

It does not need to be distributed across various server instances.

Ruby-hyperloop Gem

You can easily create the components of React by using the Ruby on rails.

This might lead to a faster and productive development of applications.

Using Ruby on Rails, there is a building of all the components of the React. This results in the uniform technology stack for both back end and front end.

Also, developers have tested this Gem successfully across all the latest versions of Ruby on rails.

Let’s have a look at its set-up:

# Gemfile

  .

  gem 'hyperloop.'

  .

  .

Let’s install the Gem:

bundle install

Hyperloop structure:

/app/hyperloop/

  /app/hyperloop/components

  /app/hyperloop/models

  /app/hyperloop/operations

  /app/hyperloop/stores

Running the hyperloop for testing it by creating a simple component

rails g hyper:component Helloworld

Hence, there will be creation of a new component on the path: aap/hyperloop/components

Read also: Step-by-Step Guide To Use React With Redux

Famous B2B companies Using React with Ruby on Rails

Several B2B companies have developed their platforms using the Ruby on rails and the react.js combination. Let’s have a quick look:

• Klarx
• Airbnb
• Gusto
• TaskRabbit
• OpenDoor
• Casper

Chintan Gor

CTO, eSparkBiz

Enthusiastic for web app development, Chintan Gor has zeal in experimenting with his knowledge of Node, Angular & React in various aspects of development. He keeps on updating his technical know-how thus pinning his name among the topmost CTO's in India. His contribution is penned down by him through various technical blogs on trending tech. He is associated with eSparkBiz from the past 14+ years where one can get premium services.