This post summarizes the third installment of our video series on getting started with React, GitHub, and VS Code for beginners. In this video, we dive into the practical setup and initial exploration of a React project.

We begin by guiding you through the installation process of Visual Studio Code (VS Code), an essential tool for modern web development. Once installed, we open the React project directory that was set up in our first video, ready to explore its structure.

A significant portion of this session is dedicated to understanding the file hierarchy of a React project. We take a closer look at the project’s organization, specifically focusing on a ‘Welcome’ component’s source file to illustrate how React components function and contribute to the application. While we initially looked for App.js or App.tsx as the root, we’ll explore root.tsx in more detail in the upcoming video.

Next, we demonstrate how to start the React development server. By running the command npm run dev, we launch the application, which then becomes accessible in your browser, typically at localhost:5173. A key highlight of this video is showcasing React’s powerful hot-reloading feature. We illustrate how any changes made to the source code in VS Code are automatically and instantly reflected in the browser, streamlining the development process.

Looking ahead, our next video installment promises to be even more insightful! We plan to cover:
* Creating a new branch in Git
* Developing a brand-new React component
* Delving into how state is managed within React applications
* Merging the working branch into the main branch (we ran out of time in the last stream, but it’s definitely on the agenda for next time!)

Stay tuned for more practical tips and in-depth explanations to boost your React development journey!