There are many components of a programming language and its libraries that give it the capability to make powerful apps. ReactJS is one such library that developers widely use to make amazing front-ends of applications.
One such important component of ReactJS is React Virtual DOM. As an app owner, it is important for you to understand what it is and how it benefits ReactJS. Even when you hire ReactJS developers, make sure that they have knowledge of the virtual DOM.
In this article, we will discuss Virtual DOM and its importance.
What is DOM?
DOM (Document Object Model) is a structured representation of the HTML components seen on a webpage or online application. DOM defines the complete UI of the program. A tree data structure represents the DOM. A node represents each UI element in the web content.
It is highly valuable because it allows web developers to edit material using JavaScript. It's also very useful since it is in a structured manner. That allows developers to choose certain targets and make the entire code much easier to deal with.
Problem With DOM
When the state of the application changes, the DOM updates to reflect that change in the user interface. Though doing things like this isn't an issue and works perfectly, there is one hitch. Each web element has its own style and properties. Also, the DOM is represented as a tree. If there is a DOM with a huge number of nodes, updating the tree is not a time-consuming activity. In fact, there are many tree-related algorithms.
The problem here is that the ReactJS development company developers have to render the element and its dependents again to update the UI of the page. Every time they modify a component, they also have to update the DOM. Therefore, UI components also get re-rendered.
How Virtual DOM Helps?
Virtual DOM is a lightweight duplicate of the actual DOM. This is what ReactJS uses. Every object that exists in the actual DOM has an object in React Virtual DOM. It's identical, except it doesn't have the ability to edit the document's layout directly. DOM manipulation is sluggish, but manipulation of the Virtual DOM is quick. This is because no graphics get rendered on the screen. Therefore, if the state of the application changes, the React virtual DOM gets updated first, rather than the real DOM.
Benefits of Virtual DOM
1. High Speed
The developers construct a virtual DOM and display it as a tree whenever they introduce something new to the app. This tree has nodes for each element in the application. As a result, every change in the state of any element produces a new Virtual DOM tree. The changes between the new Virtual DOM tree and the old Virtual DOM tree are then highlighted. After that, it seeks out the most efficient means of implementing these modifications in the real DOM. It then renders only the newly changed items on the page.
To update the real DOM, React employs a technique known as batch updates. That means that it doesn't deliver a single update for a single change in the state of a component. In fact, it delivers updates to the real DOM in batches. This increases the speed of ReactJS apps in Nodejs development.
2. Optimum Memory Usage
Since Virtual DOM does not store observables in memory, it makes better use of memory than other systems. Every change in the data model might cause the virtual user interface to completely refresh. This is in stark contrast to other libraries' methods. They update documents as needed based on their current state. Opt for custom reactjs development services so that you can make the most of virtual DOM for your project.
3. CPU-Intensive
To make DOM operations visible to developers, the React Virtual DOM adds a layer of scripting to the browser's optimizations. The integration of an extra layer of abstraction makes React more CPU-intensive than any other method of updating the DOM.
4. Simple to Use
React and its Virtual DOM are more straightforward than other ways to make JavaScript reactive. While React changes the DOM, pure JavaScript code updates React components. The data binding is not linked to the application in any way.
5. Greater Performance
In ReactJS, updating the Virtual DOM always improves speed. ReactJS generates the whole virtual DOM from scratch with the setStare() function. Since creating a full tree takes such little time, it significantly improves performance.
One may argue that re-rendering the whole Virtual DOM every time something changes is a waste of effort. However, it is worth noting that React keeps two Virtual DOM trees in memory.
In Conclusion
You must have understood after reading this article how important Virtual DOM is for making robust applications. More important is to understand how it works. If you decide to use ReactJS development services, the developers should be able to make full use of Virtual DOM.
Our ReactJS development company has years of experience in making apps using ReactJS. Our developers are well acquainted with the library and understand its every small aspect. If you want to use ReactJS for your project, feel free to contact us at any time.
