Kendo UI for React—the Road Ahead

You've seen the preview of Kendo UI for React, and now we want to hear from you. Learn about the future of Kendo UI for React and help us make it great.

Since we released the preview of Kendo UI for React, we have been somewhat quiet on the React front. It's been a very busy summer in the web development landscape, especially in our neighborhood. Google kept the entire Angular user base anxious for a couple of months before Angular 2.0 reached its first stable release. Before that, Microsoft published ASP.NET Core 1.0—a bold statement about the new multi-platform goals of the .NET framework. Both technologies excited the majority of our customers. We delivered accordingly.

 

The allure of the other technologies did not change our stance towards React. We consider the library and its design as one of the most significant things happening in modern web development. Our engineers love its vision, simplicity and execution. We've heard from many of you that you feel the same way.

A Different Culture

Historically, the core offer of Kendo UI (and our UI component offerings in general) has always been a productivity boost. Building good UI is complex and time consuming. Building lots of screens under tight deadlines and pressure from the business is hard. Buying a toolkit that has solved the cases you need to address in a single preassembled package is the smart thing to do.

React follows the Unix philosophy—the parts of the stack are decoupled from the "core." Several alternatives exist for the application state management (Redux, Reflux, RxReact). It is up to the app developer to choose, assemble, and maintain the ingredients of the project. This sets the ground for a vibrant ecosystem with a lot of friendly competition and innovation. Some developers thrive in these conditions. Others deem that as an unnecessary chore that hinders their progress towards meeting the business goals of their project.

Can the two principles work together? Does the above makes React and Kendo UI incompatible? How much of a value would a tightly integrated React component toolkit be to developers who feel very comfortable assembling a similar set from the existing high quality open source solutions, rolling out their homemade grid components, or alternatively, just wrapping some of our battle-tested jQuery widgets?

Finding the Right Answer

Before we move forward, we need to figure out what the community really needs from us in terms of React—in other words, we need your help.

In the coming months, expect to hear (and see) more of our thoughts on Kendo UI and React—we are looking into more surveys, scheduling more conference booths, writing more blog posts and more. Please help us by taking a moment to take the surveys, stop by the booths and leave your comments on our blogs.

In the meantime, we want to hear from you today. Are you using React? Would you like to see React components for Kendo UI? Are you OK with wrapping the jQuery components as React ones? Please leave your comments below, or better yet, send me (Kendo UI Product Manager) an email directly at kendo-react-ui@progress.com.