React

React is taking the FED world by storm. It may claim to be "just" a UI library, but its JavaScript-centric approach to managing the DOM and the flow of data is changing everything. It may be as revolutionary today as jQuery was in 2006 or Angular in 2009.

This Meetup is all about React. Vitali Perchonok will introduce React, Jiri Tobisek from Wix will walk us through React's type system and its integration with Facebook's Flow and Microsoft's TypeScript, and Ilya Gelman from 500Tech will introduce the Flux and Redux architectures.

Agenda

17:30 - Gathering

18:00 - A Practical Introduction to React

18:45 - React and Type System - An Uneasy Marriage

19:15 - Break

19:30 - Understanding Redux

20:25 - Raffle

A Practical Introduction to React, by Vitali Perchonok

Vitali is a full-stack developer at coolremote.net. He previously worked at learni and at volicon as a front-end developer.

As you probably know, React.js is the new buzzword in front-end development, but it's actually a very simple and small UI library. Together We will take a quick tour around, then we will dive deeper, and take a critical look at some of the design ideas behind React and how they apply to real world applications.

React and Type Systems - An Uneasy Marriage, by Jiri Tobisek

Jiri Tobisek is a software engineer, currently working at Wix.com. His primary professional interests are UI systems, the intersection between software and the visual, and usability in software development.

React is a library with a simple interface and a clear emphasis on pragmatic and fluent functional code, which fits well with the dynamic, weakly-typed nature of JavaScript. However, large and complex projects often greatly benefit from an additional layer of contracts, provided by an appropriate type system. In the context of React, available strategies include runtime type guards, such as React's own property validation system, and static (compile-time) type checkers such as Facebook's Flow and Microsoft's Typescript. We will examine all these approaches (with special attention given to Typescript) and their respective advantages and pitfalls.

Understanding Redux, by Ilya Gelman

Ilya is a consultant at 500Tech – Israel’s top AngularJS & ReactJS consultancy. Over the years he was involved in dozens of projects of different scale, both for startups and enterprise companies. He also organizes AngularJS and ReactJS communities in Israel and speaks and teaches front-end technologies in Israel and abroad.

Redux was created less than a year ago for a talk at React conference. It wasn't meant to be a Flux implementation. Nevertheless, its simple and smart principles quickly made Redux the most popular library for Flux architecture. It's straightforward, leverages functional programming principles and is easy to test.

In this talk, you will learn what Flux is, understand the core ideas behind Redux, and see why so many people are falling in love with it. React knowledge (and usage) is not required!

Location and Parking

Our host this month is SAP in Raanana. There are a number of parking lots within walking distance. Please see the comments for some suggestions for both free and paid parking lots nearby.

Scheduling Conflict

Our sister Meetup ReactJS-IL scheduled another event on React at the same time in Tel Aviv. The scheduling conflict was inadvertent but unavoidable. Note that our event is introductory and the ReactJS-IL event (http://www.meetup.com/ReactJS-IL/events/228319557/) is more advanced.

Prizes

We're raffling prizes from our sponsors to a few resilient and lucky individuals. All you have to do to participate is be there!