Getting Started with Redux | React Tutorial

A beginner guide for using redux, a state management library

Jul 04, 2023

What is Redux?

Redux is a predictable state container for JavaScript applications, not limited to React, you see? It provides a centralized and predictable way to manage the state of an application, making it easier to track and update data as it flows through different components. Redux follows the principles of a Flux architecture, emphasizing a single source of truth and immutability. By maintaining a global store and using reducers to handle state changes, Redux helps simplify complex data flows, improve debugging capabilities, and facilitate efficient application development.

Learning by building

What are we going to build?

A simple counter app that displays the count value & a functionality to update the value of the count.

We are going to learn how to access the state value stored by redux (where we will see how selector work in action) in the first section & then move on to some state updating section (where we will increase or decrease the value of count using a button where we will see dispatch in action).

Requirements:

JavaScript: A solid understanding of JavaScript fundamentals, including variables, functions, objects, arrays, and ES6 features.
React: Familiarity with React basics, such as components, state, props, and lifecycle methods.
State Management: Understanding the basics of managing application state, including the concept of unidirectional data flow.
Flux Architecture: A high-level understanding of the Flux architecture pattern, which Redux is based on. (Not really required for this tutorial, but nice to have)
Asynchronous JavaScript: Knowledge of asynchronous JavaScript concepts, such as Promises and async/await. (Not really required for this tutorial)

Installation

Open command prompt & navigate to a directory where you want to create the project
Starting a react app with create react app
1. npx create-react-app counterapp
2. cd counterapp
Now let’s install the redux packages required
1. npm install @reduxjs/toolkit
2. npm install react-redux
That’s it. Now you are ready to use redux in your react app.
Just type npm start in command prompt

Section I: Store, Slice, Accessing the state value

Let’s start right away.

I don’t know about you, but I like to clear the src folder altogether since most of them are not required.

Creating the index.js & app.js file

Create a file called index.js inside src folder & paste the following

import React from 'react';
import ReactDOM from 'react-dom/client';
import App from './App';
import { Provider } from 'react-redux';
import store from './app/store';

ReactDOM.createRoot(document.getElementById('root')).render(
  <Provider store={store} >
    <App />
  </Provider>
);

Explanation: The Provider component wraps the App component, enabling access to the Redux store throughout the application. It takes a store prop, which should be the Redux store instance.

Create another file called App.js inside src folder & insert

import Counter from "./components/Counter";

export default function App() {
  return (
      <Counter />
  );
}

Here onward, things get a little bit tricky, if you are new to redux. Concepts like store, slice, selector & dispatch might confuse you. It takes time, you should really see how everything is working at each and every step.

Creating the store

In Redux, the store is a core concept that serves as a centralized container for holding the application state. It is the single source of truth for the entire application's data. The store manages the state and provides methods to interact with and update it.

Create a folder called app inside the src directory & inside the app directory, create a file called store.js & insert

import { configureStore } from '@reduxjs/toolkit'
import counterReducer from '../components/counterSlice'

export default configureStore({
    reducer: {
        counter : counterReducer
    }
})

Explanation: We are creating and exporting a Redux store using the configureStore function from the @reduxjs/toolkit library. The reducer ‘counterReducer’ is not exported yet from the slice, but we will get to that soon.

Creating a slice

In Redux, a slice is a concept introduced by Redux Toolkit (a set of utilities for Redux) that helps organize and encapsulate related parts of the state, along with the corresponding reducers and actions.

Create a folder called components inside the src directory & inside that, create a file called counterSlice.js & insert

import { createSlice } from '@reduxjs/toolkit'

export const counterSlice =  createSlice({
    name: 'counter',
    initialState: {
        value: 0
    }
})

export default counterSlice.reducer

Explanation: A slice requires a unique name in string in order to identify them. We can set the initial state value and reducers inside the slice, but here, we haven’t set any reducers which we will set soon while updating the count.

Creating our component to see the result

Create another file called Counter.js inside the component folder & insert

import React from 'react'
import { useSelector } from 'react-redux'

const Counter = () => {
    const count = useSelector(state => state.counter.value)
  return (
    <div>
        <p>Count:  {count}</p>
    </div>
  )
}

export default Counter

Explanation: The useSelector hook is used to select and extract the value property from the counter slice of the Redux store state. It subscribes the component to updates of that specific state slice.

Output

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published

Count: 0

Section II: Reducers & useDispatch

Now that we have understood how to access the state value stored in the redux store, let’s move onto how to update the state with the use of reducers & useDispatch hook.

Defining the reducers

Modify counterSlice.js to look like this

import { createSlice } from '@reduxjs/toolkit'

export const counterSlice =  createSlice({
    name: 'counter',
    initialState: {
        value: 0
    },
    reducers: {
        increment: state => {state.value += 1},
        decrement: state => {state.value -= 1},
    }
})

export const {increment, decrement} = counterSlice.actions

export default counterSlice.reducer

Explanation: Here, we declared two reducers ‘increment’ & ‘decrement’ that simply returns the updated state value by increasing or decreasing the past state. Also, see that the reducers are exported as actions, because they are the actions that the useDispatch hook requires in order to update the state.

Using useDispatch() hook

Also, modify the Counter.js file

import React from 'react'
import { useSelector, useDispatch } from 'react-redux'
import { decrement, increment } from './counterSlice'
import './counter.css'
const Counter = () => {
    const count = useSelector(state => state.counter.value)
    const dispatch = useDispatch()
    return (
        <div className='box' >
            <p className='count'><span>Count: </span>{count}</p>
            <div className=' btn ' >
                <button onClick={() => dispatch(increment())} >Add</button>
                <button onClick={() => dispatch(decrement())} >Subtract</button>
            </div>
        </div>
    )
}

export default Counter

Explanation: Here, we used useDispatch hook to handle the event. And also, I have put on some basic styles. All the code till now along with the style file can be found in my GitHub repo here.

The result should look like this.

Conclusion

By following this step-by-step guide, you should have gained a solid understanding of Redux concepts, including the store, slices, actions, reducers, and connecting Redux with React components. You should be able to apply this knowledge to build more complex Redux-powered applications and efficiently manage state across their projects.

Remember, Redux is a powerful tool for state management, providing predictability, centralized state, and powerful developer tools. It may introduce some additional complexity initially, but once mastered, it can greatly enhance the maintainability and scalability of JavaScript applications.

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