All IT companies prefer doing projects from the very beginning taking clear and consecutive steps to realize the big picture. Nevertheless, businesses rarely start with clear vision and major investments. What is more, entrepreneurs start to see subtle peculiarities of their business and areas that need improvement only after working in their niche for a while. This way, the need for further development or optimization of existing solutions is far too common.
In this article, Agiliway is eager to share with you the case where we employed ReactJS to transform a standard HTML website into a potent, appealing and well performing platform. Find out more about the challenges ReactJS allowed to meet and the benefits brought about by the project.
Background
The HTML website presented a catalogue of workout classes and venues for people to choose the most suitable way to keep fit considering multiple types of classes, locations and instructors. The owner wanted to upgrade the project turning the website into the platform with an appealing design and a powerful search tool that would automate and facilitate this choice. Such solution was expected to attract multiple venues and instructors to market their services on the platform.
Project Challenges
The project required the creation of a powerful interactive tool with multiple filter options drawing the necessary information from the API. To reach such goal, Agiliway experts had to
- Choose a technology suitable for the development of the search tool with a correct and high-speed performance;
- Create a search tool that would have multiple filtering options for users to quickly find the most suitable results. There were superior performance demands to the tool, as speed issues could ruin the very idea of quick and easy search through multiple options;
- Integrate the search tool with an API, so that it always displays correct and relevant information about venues, classes and instructors;
- Eliminate any possible issues with the mobile version of the website that might have arisen due to the implemented changes;
- Effectively manage the project coordinating efforts of the distributed teams attracted by the website owner for the creation of API and design.
Provided Solution
Agiliway has managed to meet the project challenges developing a powerful web application based on ReactJS, a popular JavaScript library for building interactive user interfaces.
Agiliway has strong experience in ReactJS, and we have already reported on the case using this technology and shared valuable details about how ReactJS compares to other JavaScript frameworks. For this particular case, ReactJS has been chosen for the following reasons:
- ReactJS significantly speeded up the development due to its component-based architecture;
- The technology allowed making the web application isomorphic that is use the same code for both the browser and the server sides. Isomorphic applications load much faster, which has been one of the major requirements. What is more, they offer better user experience and are better indexed by the search engine bots
- ReactJS uses downwards data binding that prevents child structures’ modifications from affecting their parents. This ensures the stability of the code, which was also important for us, as long as we could not fully control the input from other providers engaged in the project;
- ReactJS provides good development and debugging experience due to a wide developer toolset available for the technology;
- The technology is free and supported by a reliable community, which facilitates further maintenance and development. Since ReactJS is the basis for giants such as Facebook and Instagram, there are no risks the technology will be abandoned over time.
Value Delivered
The choice of and successful implementation of ReactJS has substantially reduced time for development, improved stability of the code and facilitated debugging. Making the web application isomorphic, Agiliway increased the speed and promoted indexation of the platform, while ease of use and flawless performance of the search tool further contributed to positive user experience. In addition, Agiliway successfully managed the work of the partnering teams making sure the final solution effectively integrates their contributions.
Today, the website enjoys thousands of visits daily and generates considerable profits to its owners. Thus, building a competitive business is not about starting with a perfect IT solution, it’s about attracting the right people at the right time to make it so.
