React, Webpack, TypeScript presentation at Templafy

Yesterday at Templafy in collaboration with Copenhagen .NET User Group I presented my talk: "ASP.NET without Razor: React, Webpack and TypeScript".

Demos and slides can be found here.

Abstract

React has been gaining popularity for single page apps but how does it fit into ASP.NET web apps? How can we use it in combination with Visual Studio without turning our regular workflow upside down?

At Templafy we recently migrated our existing Knockout.js frontend to React. As part of this journey, we had to decode all the node.js guides on using React and convert them into a working solution. In the end we settled on the combination of React, Webpack and TypeScript. This talk is a condensed version of our experiences.

In the session we explore what React and Webpack are, how they work and how they differ from the tools we usually use in ASP.NET. We will also have a brief introduction to TypeScript and what benefits it adds. After looking at these technologies individually we will look at how they can work together in an ASP.NET web app. This will also include a closer look at the development workflow with hot reloading and the advantages and disadvantages of the entire setup.