How to get Django and ReactJS to work together?

If you’re a tech professional working with JavaScript, you may have encountered the challenge of integrating Django, a popular Python web framework, with ReactJS, a powerful JavaScript library for building user interfaces. In this blog post, we’ll explore different approaches to get Django and ReactJS to work together seamlessly.

Approach 1: Separate Django and ReactJS Applications

One common approach is to keep the Django backend and ReactJS frontend as separate applications, communicating with each other through APIs. This allows for a clear separation of concerns and makes it easier to maintain and scale the applications independently.

To implement this approach, follow these steps:

Create a new Django project using the django-admin startproject command.
Set up your Django models, views, and URLs as usual.
Set up a RESTful API using Django’s built-in django-rest-framework or any other API framework of your choice.
Create a new ReactJS application using create-react-app or any other method you prefer.
Build your ReactJS components and use libraries like axios or fetch to make API calls to your Django backend.

Here’s an example of how you can make an API call from ReactJS to Django:

import React, { useEffect, useState } from 'react';
import axios from 'axios';

const MyComponent = () => {
  const [data, setData] = useState([]);

  useEffect(() => {
    axios.get('/api/my-endpoint/')
      .then(response => {
        setData(response.data);
      })
      .catch(error => {
        console.error(error);
      });
  }, []);

  return (
    
      {data.map(item => (
        {item.name}
      ))}
    
  );
};

export default MyComponent;

Approach 2: Use Django as a Backend for ReactJS

If you prefer to have Django serve as the backend for your ReactJS application, you can still achieve a seamless integration. In this approach, Django will handle both the backend logic and serve the ReactJS frontend.

To implement this approach, follow these steps:

Create a new Django project using the django-admin startproject command.
Set up your Django models, views, and URLs as usual.
Install the django-webpack-loader package to integrate Webpack with Django.
Create a new ReactJS application inside your Django project or use an existing one.
Configure Webpack to build your ReactJS application and output the bundled files to a static directory in your Django project.
Update your Django templates to load the ReactJS bundle and render the root React component.

Here’s an example of how you can configure Django to serve the ReactJS frontend:

{% load render_bundle from webpack_loader %}



  My Django React App
  {% render_bundle 'main' %}

With this setup, Django will serve the ReactJS bundle and the root React component will be rendered inside the

element.

These are two common approaches to get Django and ReactJS to work together. Choose the one that best suits your project requirements and development workflow. Happy coding!

How to get Django and ReactJS to work together?