What Is Redux - A Complete Beginner's Guide

Redux is an open-source JavaScript library that allows you to manage application state. It can be used in any programming language like React or Vue. Redux was created by Dan Abramov and is maintained by Facebook.

Redux is a JavaScript library for managing state. It provides an easy-to-use API for taking over the responsibility for application data management. Redux is built upon the concept of immutability, which means that every time you make an action in your app, it changes something about your data. This makes it easy to reason about how things are going to change over time.

You just need to know what happened last time around, which isn’t always easy when working with large applications full of many different parts interacting together at once.

If you are new to Redux, then this article will give a good insight into how it works and what makes it so special. If you have been using other Flux implementations in your projects before, then this article can still teach you some great things about redux that might help improve your experience with them.

What are the 3 Main Concepts of Redux

The Store

This is only one source of fact for your application’s state. It’s a big object that includes the current state of your web application, and the central area where all state changes are made.

Actions

Actions are objects that reveal an intention to change the state of your application. Actions get dispatched to the store. From there, the store makes use of them to determine how to update its state.

Reducers

Reducers are basic functions. They get in the current state of the store and an action and return a new state. They’re liable for updating the store’s state. They utilize actions as information to do this. The Redux state should never be revised directly.

How to Use Redux for Web Application

Redux can be used on any web application development in a similar way, based on the redux-devtools Addon. If a page loads and everything seems ok, don't rely on Redux's tracking of your application state by itself. Use some JSON data or check to see if your static assets have loaded with DevTools Monitoring.

Let's start by importing the store from "redux" and creating a basic store,

import { createStore } from 'redux';
const store = createStore(reducer);
// set up actions, reducer and container. This could be done in an external file or with console.log() calls.
//actions are called with their payloads as arguments
//reducer returns an object containing all state changes for each action passed in

Advantages of Using Redux

Redux is a predictable state container for JavaScript apps.

It uses a single store and a single immutable state tree, which makes it easy to reason about the application's state since you only have one place to look.

Redux follows the same principles of functional programming, so if you're familiar with FP, you'll feel right at home with Redux.

Disadvantages of Using Redux

While Redux is a great way to go, it’s not a silver bullet. It has its disadvantages and needs some work before you can use it in your project.

The first disadvantage of using Redux is that you need to write quite a bit of boilerplate code. This includes creating actions and reducers, which are functions that define how the state should change over time.

Additionally, you need to take care of other details like managing asynchronous, handling side effects in the reducer function or adding error handling logic if something goes wrong during processing those actions or side effects

Redux FAQ

Is Redux Worth Learning?

Redux is a state management library, which means it helps you keep track of your application's state. For example, if you're building an app with a shopping cart and each item in that cart is stored in its own state object, then for each item being added or removed from the shopping cart. You need to update all these objects' states. This can get messy very quickly.

Why is Redux Good with React?

React can be hard to manage, especially when dealing with large applications. Redux is the solution. Redux takes the best parts of Flux architecture and simplifies it. This means that your React + Redux application will run faster, have fewer bugs, and allow you to use much more sophisticated features like query side effects and data fetching when needed.

Is Redux Part of Frontend or Backend?

In short, Redux is both frontend and backend. The Redux store is your application’s data layer, and the state of that data is stored in a “reducers” function. The reducers transform incoming changes into actions that can be sent to the appropriate app component.

This makes maintaining your application easier because you only must maintain a single codebase instead of multiple (backend, frontend) to keep up with all data handling.

Is Redux Harder than React?

Redux is one of the easier JavaScript frameworks to implement and doesn’t make it hard to get started. However, if you have a full stack application, then react is recommended.

What is Redux Thunk?

Redux Thunk is “redux middleware to run code when publishing and subscribing multiple times on the same action”. It’s an abstraction on top of ReactFlux and Redux, making it possible to run code after publishing/subscribing a state change with minimal boilerplate.

Conclusion

Redux is a library for managing state in JavaScript applications. It helps with the management of your application's state and keeps it consistent across different parts of your app. Redux also has a large community base, so if you use it properly then you won't have any problems finding resources online.