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Topic #4

React First App

Your first React app introduces the mental model that everything is a component rendering to a root element. Build it once and the whole library starts to click.


Now that your development environment is set up, let's try to modify the default app to display "Hello, World!".


Modify the React App

Look in the my-react-app directory, and you will find a src folder. Inside the src folder there is a file called App.jsx, open it and it will look like this:

Example

import { useState } from 'react'
import reactLogo from './assets/react.svg'
import viteLogo from './assets/vite.svg'
import heroImg from './assets/hero.png'
import './App.css'

function App() {
  const [count, setCount] = useState(0)

  return (
    <>
      <section id="center">
        <div className="hero">
          <img src={heroImg} className="base" width="170" height="179" alt="" />
          <img src={reactLogo} className="framework" alt="React logo" />
          <img src={viteLogo} className="vite" alt="Vite logo" />
        </div>
        <div>
          <h1>Get started</h1>
          <p>
            Edit <code>src/App.jsx</code> and save to test <code>HMR</code>
          </p>
        </div>
        <button
          type="button"
          className="counter"
          onClick={() => setCount((count) => count + 1)}
        >
          Count is {count}
        </button>
      </section>

      <div className="ticks"></div>

      <section id="next-steps">
        <div id="docs">
          <svg className="icon" role="presentation" aria-hidden="true">
            <use href="/icons.svg#documentation-icon"></use>
          </svg>
          <h2>Documentation</h2>
          <p>Your questions, answered</p>
          <ul>
            <li>
              <a href="https://vite.dev/" target="_blank">
                <img className="logo" src={viteLogo} alt="" />
                Explore Vite
              </a>
            </li>
            <li>
              <a href="https://react.dev/" target="_blank">
                <img className="button-icon" src={reactLogo} alt="" />
                Learn more
              </a>
            </li>
          </ul>
        </div>
        <div id="social">
          <svg className="icon" role="presentation" aria-hidden="true">
            <use href="/icons.svg#social-icon"></use>
          </svg>
          <h2>Connect with us</h2>
          <p>Join the Vite community</p>
          <ul>
            <li>
              <a href="https://github.com/vitejs/vite" target="_blank">
                <svg
                  className="button-icon"
                  role="presentation"
                  aria-hidden="true"
                >
                  <use href="/icons.svg#github-icon"></use>
                </svg>
                GitHub
              </a>
            </li>
            <li>
              <a href="https://chat.vite.dev/" target="_blank">
                <svg
                  className="button-icon"
                  role="presentation"
                  aria-hidden="true"
                >
                  <use href="/icons.svg#discord-icon"></use>
                </svg>
                Discord
              </a>
            </li>
            <li>
              <a href="https://x.com/vite_js" target="_blank">
                <svg
                  className="button-icon"
                  role="presentation"
                  aria-hidden="true"
                >
                  <use href="/icons.svg#x-icon"></use>
                </svg>
                X.com
              </a>
            </li>
            <li>
              <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/vite.dev" target="_blank">
                <svg
                  className="button-icon"
                  role="presentation"
                  aria-hidden="true"
                >
                  <use href="/icons.svg#bluesky-icon"></use>
                </svg>
                Bluesky
              </a>
            </li>
          </ul>
        </div>
      </section>

      <div className="ticks"></div>
      <section id="spacer"></section>
    </>
  )
}

export default App

Try replacing the entire file content with the code below and save the file.

Example

function App() {
  return (
    <div className="App">
      <h1>Hello World!</h1>
    </div>
  );
}

export default App;

Note: Notice that the changes are visible immediately after you save the file, you do not have to reload the browser!

The result:

image

Congratulations! You've just modified your first React application.

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React First App – FAQs

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