Handlebars vs. React Custom Components

When and why you would want to use Handlebars or React in your custom components.

When building custom components in Aurora Communities, developers can use either Handlebars or React. Each technology has its strengths and weaknesses, making it essential to choose the right one based on the specific requirements of the component.

This guide outlines the differences between Handlebars and React and their respective use cases to help inform your decision.

What are Handlebars and React used for?

Handlebars: Templating Language

Handlebars is a templating language that focuses on the logic-less rendering of HTML. It uses a system of placeholders, often called "expressions," to insert content into a predefined structure dynamically.

These placeholders can represent variables, data objects, or even the results of simple logical operations.

By separating the structure (HTML) from the data, Handlebars promotes a cleaner and more maintainable approach to front-end development. However, it's worth noting that while Handlebars can handle basic logic, it's not designed for complex application logic, which is often better suited to a full-fledged JavaScript framework like React.

Usage in our SDK

We leverage Handlebars for rendering static or semi-dynamic components where logic is minimal and focuses on presenting data passed from our platform.

NOTE
In the backend, we use Handlebars for our email templates.

Features like PostCSS and custom helpers (example: gql helper) allow us to inject simple logic (example: conditionally rendering data or looping through lists).

Example Scenario

Consider a scenario where we have a table displaying product information. The data for this table is fetched from a GraphQL API. Using the conditional rendering feature, we could add a filter showing only products with a price above a certain threshold. This would let users view the high-priced products quickly without sifting through the entire list.

React: UI Library for Component Development

React, a widely used JavaScript library for crafting user interfaces, excels in developing highly dynamic and interactive components. Its core strength lies in its ability to efficiently manage and update component state, leading to a seamless and responsive user experience.

This is achieved through React's virtual DOM, which optimizes updates by only re-rendering the parts of the UI that have changed.

React's component-based architecture also promotes reusability and maintainability, making it easier to build and scale complex user interfaces.

Usage in our SDK

React provides much greater flexibility and is ideal for components that require more advanced logic, interaction, and dynamic behavior.

React hooks (example: useState, useEffect) allow developers to efficiently manage component state and lifecycle.

Example Scenarios

Consider a form component with the following features integrated seamlessly using React's unique capabilities.

• Form Components with Real-Time Validation: React's ability to efficiently manage component state and handle user input makes it ideal for building forms with real-time validation. By leveraging state and hooks, developers can provide immediate feedback to users as they interact with the form, improving the overall user experience.
• API Interactions and Data Fetching: React's lifecycle methods and hooks provide convenient hooks for fetching data from APIs and updating the UI accordingly.
• Complex User Input Handling: React's event handling system and state management capabilities enable developers to handle complex user input scenarios with ease. Whether it's handling drag-and-drop interactions, keyboard shortcuts, or multi-step input processes, React provides the tools and flexibility to create intuitive and responsive user experiences.

When to Use Handlebars vs. React

Here’s a general guide for choosing the proper framework for building custom components:

Handlebars Components

What Handlebars components are best suited for

• Static or semi-dynamic content: Components that primarily display data passed into them.
• Lightweight data logic: Useful when minimal conditional rendering or looping is required.
• Performance-optimized rendering: Great for components where simplicity is key, and React’s additional overhead isn’t necessary.

Examples

• Table components: A table that displays static or API-driven data without much interactivity.
• List components: Rendering a list of items (example: a product catalog) where each item is displayed based on simple logic.
• Static banners/headers: Headers or banners with conditional display logic for particular states or user types.

React Components

What React is best at

• Dynamic and interactive components: Useful when the component requires advanced logic, user interaction, or state management.
• Reusable and scalable logic: When building components that need to scale in complexity and functionality.
• API interaction: Directly calling endpoints and managing the results dynamically.
• Integration with Hooks: For components that need lifecycle events or asynchronous data handling.

Examples

• Forms with validation: Real-time error messages, custom validation, and submission handling.
• Interactive dashboards: Components that update dynamically as users interact with different elements.
• Complex widgets: Such as a calendar, drag-and-drop elements, or live search functionality.
• Data visualization: Charts or graphs that pull live data from APIs and update in real time.

Additional Considerations

• If the team working on the component is more familiar with one approach (Handlebars or React), that could influence the choice.
• Handlebars components can sometimes be more lightweight since they don’t include React's runtime overhead.
• React is often a better choice for components that may grow in complexity or require future enhancements.
• Handlebars may be faster to implement for simple requirements, while React might be overkill.