React JS Installation and Setup with Visual Studio Code

In this video today, I will be showing you how to setup a Development environment for React. (Where you can run and debug your code before you deploy it to a production server) ; so let’s get started

Software Selection

To build your development environment, there are two pieces of software that I recommend that you download and install.

The first begin Node.js which is an open-source, cross-platform JavaScript runtime environment that executes java- script- Codes outside a web browser, is designed to build scalable network applications

The second is Visual Studio Code which is a FREE source-code editor developed by Microsoft for Windows, Linux and macOS. Features include support for debugging, syntax highlighting, intelligent code completion, code refactoring, and embedded Git

Installing NodeJS

Let’s go ahead and point our browser to node.js/en/download 

From this page let click on either Windows installer if you are using a Windows computer or MacOS installer if you are using Mac OS, alternately you may select the source code if you are using a Linux base computer.

Make sure to choose LTS (long term release) as it provide long term support for your install; that way your software receive updates and security patches for a longer period time.

Once Node JS has been downloaded. Then follow the setup wizard by going next , accept the License Agreement and continue with the default options the click install, Note at this point you must be and administrator or your account has to have administrative or root privilege to continue with the install. Once the installation is completed click Finish

Installing Visual Studio Code

Point your browser to code.visualstudio.com and click on Download

Once the download is completed click on the installer (downloaded file) and follow the installer wizard to have Vs Code installed on your computer.

Verifying successful setup

Open up your terminal or if you are using windows type cmd in the search and open the command prompt then type node – v    you should see v16.13.1 (or the version at the time of your download) That’s it your environment has been successfully setup.