index.md

layout	title	id
page	A JavaScript library for building user interfaces	home

Declarative

React uses a declarative paradigm that makes it easier to reason about your application.

Efficient

React computes the minimal set of changes necessary to keep your DOM up-to-date.

Flexible

React works with the libraries and frameworks that you already know.

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A Simple Component

React components implement a `render()` method that takes input data and returns what to display. This example uses an XML-like syntax called JSX. Input data that is passed into the component can be accessed by `render()` via `this.props`.
JSX is optional and not required to use React.

A Stateful Component

In addition to taking input data (accessed via `this.props`), a component can maintain internal state data (accessed via `this.state`). When a component's state data changes, the rendered markup will be updated by re-invoking `render()`.
This example demonstrates use of React without JSX.

An Application

Using properties and state, we can put together a small Todo application. React provides an interface to the DOM via `refs`. Although event handlers appear to be rendered inline, they will be collected and implemented using event delegation.

A Component Using External Plugins

React is flexible and provides hooks that allow you to interface with other libraries and frameworks. This example uses Showdown, an external Markdown library, to convert the textarea's value in real-time.

<script type="text/javascript" src="js/examples/hello.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="js/examples/timer.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="js/examples/todo.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="js/examples/markdown.js"></script>

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