Best Ways You can Optimize your React Applications

Optimizing React Applications simply implies that you are trying to make them run faster and smoother

Optimize: To make it as perfect, effective, or functional as possible

This can help increase engagement, and improve performance on search engines, leading to increased visibility and invariably attracting more users to your application.

In this article, with the customers' satisfaction at heart, we will be looking at ways through which we can make our applications run faster, and smoother and attract more traffic. Some of the ways include: using production builds, minimizing the re-rendering of components, using the lazy loading technique, memorization, and, lastly, using Performance Profiler.

Some of these methods might seem strange, and maybe you are hearing them for the first time. There is no need to be afraid. We will handle them in simple terms as much as possible. So please stay with me as we delve into each one in detail. First in line is Production Builds.

Use Production Builds

Production builds are the optimized versions of your app that are meant to be used in the production environment. These builds are characterized by small file sizes, are faster to load, and have improved performance when compared to development builds.
React typically carries out tasks like minifying and uglifying your code when creating a production build. Uglifying in the sense that, it becomes unrecognizable and unreadable to humans.

Uglifying is transforming the code into an "unreadable" form by changing variable names, function names, etc, to hide the original content.

React will also remove any development-only code and comments, and will enable production-only features such as code-splitting, which can help reduce the initial loading time of your application.

To create a production build in React, you typically use a command such as npm run build or yarn build, depending on the package manager you are using. This command will create a production-ready version of your application in a directory such as a build or dist that you can then deploy to a server or hosting provider.

The benefits of this method are:

Smaller file size
improved performance
Improved security by removing development-only code and comments thereby making it difficult for attackers to understand how your code works
Faster time of loading
Caching of data is improved

In the next section, we will be looking at using lazy loading and also the benefits attached.

Use Lazy Loading

Lazy loading is a technique used to delay the loading of certain components or sections of a web page until they are needed by the user. This can help to improve the initial loading time of a web page and also the overall performance of the application. An example can be an image shown only when the user scrolls to that section of a page.

The benefits associated with this particular method are:

Faster initial load times: By only loading the necessary components, the initial load time of the page can be greatly reduced.
Better SEO: Optimized load times can help boost your site's SEO, as search engines like Google take page load time into account when ranking sites.
Reduced memory usage: Lazy loading can help to reduce the memory usage of the application by not loading unnecessary components.

Now, how can we implement lazy loading in our application?

To implement lazy loading in React, you can use a library such as React Loadable or React Suspense. These libraries provide a higher-order component (HOC) or a hook that you can use to wrap the component you want to lazy load.

For example, using React Loadable you can define a component like this:

import Loadable from 'react-loadable';

const LazyComponent = Loadable({
  loader: () => import('./LazyComponent'),
  loading: () => <div>Loading...</div>,
});

And then use it in your application like this:

<LazyComponent />

When the component is rendered, it will display the loading component while the real component is being loaded, and then it will render the real component when it's ready.

React Suspense also works similarly, and you can use it with the lazy function to define a lazy component and the Suspense component to define a fallback component to show while the real component is loading.

It's important to note that lazy loading should be used only for components that are not necessary for the initial render of the page, such as secondary sections, images, or videos that are not visible in the first view, This way, you can ensure the best performance for the initial render of your application. Subsequently, we will have a look at improving our app's performance by minimizing re-renders between components in the next section of our article.

Minimizing Re-renders

Minimizing re-renders in React refers to reducing the number of times a component re-renders, which can help to improve the performance of your application. Re-renders occur when the component's state or props change, causing the component to update.

There are several ways to minimize re-renders in React:

Use the shouldComponentUpdate lifecycle method to control when a component should re-render. This method allows you to compare the current props and state to the next props and state, and return false if you don't want the component to re-render.
Use the memo higher-order component or the useMemo hook to memoize a component and prevent unnecessary re-renders.
Use the useCallback hook to memoize callback functions and prevent unnecessary re-renders.
Use the useEffect hook with the dependencies array to control when the effect should run and prevent unnecessary re-renders.

To identify performance bottlenecks caused by re-renders, you can use the React DevTools or the React Profiler. Both tools can provide detailed information about the component hierarchy, component props, state, and the number of re-renders.

For example, using the React DevTools, you can:

Select a component in the component tree and see the number of times it has re-rendered.
See the component's props and state and when they were last updated.
See the component's children and how they are related to the selected component.

Using the React Profiler, you can:

Record the performance of your application and analyze it later.
See the component hierarchy and the time it takes to render a component.
See the number of re-renders of a component and the reason why it re-rendered.

Once you have identified the bottlenecks, you can use the techniques discussed earlier such as the use shouldComponentUpdate, memoization, useCallback and useEffect with dependencies array to minimize re-renders, and improve the performance of your application.

It's important to keep in mind that re-renders are a normal part of React's lifecycle, and not all re-renders are a problem. It's important to focus on minimizing unnecessary re-renders and not on eliminating all re-renders.

Use Memoization

Memoization is a technique used to cache the results of function calls so that if the same inputs are passed to the function again, the cached results can be returned instead of re-computing the results from scratch. This can improve the performance of a function by reducing the number of times it needs to be executed.

Benefits of memoization:

Improved performance: By caching the results of function calls, memoization can help to improve the performance of a function by reducing the number of times it needs to be executed.
Reduced memory usage: Memoization can help to reduce the memory usage of a function by not recalculating the same results over and over again.
Simplified code: Memoization can help to simplify the code by removing the need for explicit caching mechanisms.

To implement memoization in React, you can use a library such as memoize-one or you can use React's built-in useMemo hook.

For example, using memoize-one you can define a function like this:

import memoize from 'memoize-one';

const memoizedFunction = memoize((a, b) => {
  // function body
});

You can memoize a component by using the useMemo hook, for instance:

const memoizedComponent = React.useMemo(() => {
  return <MyComponent />;
}, [dependencies]);

The function that will return the component you wish to memoize is the first argument of the useMemo hook. The second argument is an array of dependents; if any of these values change, the component will be re-rendered.

Noting that the calculation is expensive and that memoization should only be used for functions or components that are called or rendered more than once with the same inputs. By doing so, you can guarantee optimal performance for your application's most crucial components.

Use Performance Profiler

A performance profiler is a tool that allows you to measure and analyze the performance of your React application.

It provides detailed information about the performance of different parts of your application, such as the time it takes to render a component, the number of re-renders, and the amount of memory being used.

There are several tools available for profiling React applications such as:

React DevTools: It's a browser extension that can be used to profile and debug React applications. It provides detailed information about the component hierarchy, component props, and state.
Chrome DevTools: It's a browser developer tool that allows you to measure the performance of your application by providing detailed information about the browser's performance, such as the time it takes to load resources, the time it takes to paint the screen, and the time it takes to execute JavaScript.
React Profiler: It's a tool included in React DevTools that allows you to record and analyze the performance of your application by providing detailed information about the component hierarchy, component props, and state, and the time it takes to render a component.

To identify and fix performance bottlenecks in your React application, you can use a performance profiler to measure the performance of different parts of your application. Then you can use the information provided by the performance profiler to identify which parts of your application are causing performance issues. Once you have identified the bottlenecks, you can use the techniques discussed in this article such as using production builds, minimizing re-renders, using lazy loading, use memoization, which we have talked about earlier, to improve the performance of your application.

It's important to keep in mind that performance optimization is an ongoing process, it's not a one-time fix, and it's important to monitor your application's performance over time, and make adjustments as necessary.

In conclusion, it is pertinent to know that at the end of the day, the decision on what method to use still falls back on you, the app's requirement, or your team's decision. Thanks for reading and feel free to drop your thoughts in the comments section. In case of the need for a further study on your part, here are some resources you might want to check out

I'll love to connect with you on Twitter and LinkedIn

Etiene's Blog