The best part about this Flatiron Software Engineer Bootcamp React project (IMHO) was that after they specify the project requirements, they state: “you’re free to explore and add on as much stuff as you’d like”. That opened the door to give a React/Redux experiment I had tried before (unsuccessfully) another try.

With the help of the course examples and an extremely thorough React/Redux tutorial from Pluralsight.com, I was able to put together a local React/Redux, Crud example using json-server, using a separate project I’ve had in mind for a while (5-5s), which I hope to complete and post live before the course is completed.

One of the biggest challenges in this project was trying to complete the assignment using the latest version of Create React App as listed in the project requirements. Since CRA is technically no longer supported, I was a bit concerned about using it for a potential portfolio piece. Thankfully, the instructors were flexible about using something other than CRA.

Although the project started out using a blank create-react-app instance (React v 18.2.0) and react-router-dom (v6.13.0), I later had to change that. Unfortunately, the CRA Webpack config conflicted with several packages in the Redux tutorial I was following. I attempted several fixes including the react-app-rewired package, but was unsuccessful. These attempts cost me a day trying to find a fix. With the deadline fast approaching, I opted out of the CRA config and used an older custom Webpack config that worked with React 17 and react-redux v7.2.4. Some of the other packages that needed to be reverted due to conflicts included React-Bootstrap (v1) and React Router v5.

Although I was able to submit a repo link on time that (I believe) meets all the project requirements, there is much left to do in this 5-5s app. The initial version of this app probably does not justify a need for Redux, so I may end up using Context instead. It was well worth going through the process of setting up React with Redux. I feel much more confident now about using them together in the future.

To see a description of the project requirements and the project submission, check out this brief video review of the project.