Is React ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY to work with DatoCMS? No. But it is the most commonly used JS framework among our users. If you're not into React, but prefer Vue, Rust, or anything else, that's perfectly fine. For now, let's (shallow, like, super shallow) dive into the core React concepts, patterns, and optimizations that can support your projects.
Note: For a comprehensive guide always refer to the React Docs - We'll only be breezing over some concepts that have a lil something to do with concepts you might need when using a Headless CMS, and we’re assuming you’re somewhat familiar with React to get the terminology.
And if you’re looking for the core resources to hook up React with DatoCMS, our react-datocms package of components & utilities, and docs on React UI Components are a great place to start.
WTF are React Hooks?
React Hooks legit is like the heart of what makes React so functional and what makes functional components so damn powerful. Instead of writing classes and lifecycle methods, Hooks let you handle state (useState), effects (useEffect), and context (useContext) in a much cleaner way. More on those later.
When working with CMS content, Hooks streamline the process of fetching data, handling forms, and managing side effects. Imagine pulling data from DatoCMS: instead of managing everything with a class component, you can use useEffect for fetching, useState for the loading and error states, and useMemo to optimize the response—all within a few lines of code.
Personally I’ve always enjoyed this Treehouse analogy on understanding Hooks from this older Reddit thread.
Understanding React Router
Navigating between pages on a single-page application (SPA) needs to be fast and seamless, and that’s exactly what React Router provides.
It lets you switch between different "pages" without triggering a full page reload. If your app has multiple routes—like /blog for listing posts and /blog/slug for individual posts—React Router keeps the experience smooth. Dynamic routing is especially useful when dealing with CMS-driven pages. You can grab URL parameters (like slugs) using the useParams hook and use them to fetch specific data from your CMS.
This way, implementing React Router lets your components stay small and focused, with routes handling the heavy lifting.
What are React Portals
Sometimes your component tree miiiiight feel a touch restrictive. Maybe you’re building a modal, a floating CTA, or a tooltip that needs to live at the very top of the DOM for proper styling and positioning.
That’s where React Portals come in—they let you render components outside of the parent DOM node while keeping everything functionally intact.
For example, let’s say you have a "Subscribe" modal that should appear across all pages, but you don’t want it cluttering up your component tree. By rendering it through a portal, you can keep your DOM structure clean while still managing its behavior through state and props. Portals are perfect for anything that needs to overlay the main content, and they keep your layout organized while avoiding common styling headaches.
React Suspense
React.Suspense is for when you need to handle asynchronous operations and loading states elegantly. Instead of manually managing loaders or fallback components, Suspense can wrap sections of your app and handle what gets displayed while data or components are loading.
In a Headless CMS project, this is great for deferring the loading of non-essential content like related blog posts or carousels. You can show a skeleton loader, a spinner, or even a custom fallback component until the content is ready. This keeps the UI smooth and prevents jarring "content flashes" as data is loaded dynamically.
React Table
When it comes to rendering large tables of CMS data—think reports, directories, or product listings for massive eCommerce apps—react-table is a lifesaver.
It provides out-of-the-box functionality for sorting, filtering, pagination, and virtual scrolling for those massive datasets.
Imagine you’re building an admin dashboard that lists hundreds of articles fetched from your Headless CMS. Instead of reinventing the wheel, react-table makes it simple to create a responsive, feature-rich table that won’t clog up the browser. Its API is flexible, allowing you to customize column headers, cell formatting, and more.
B-Y-O-UI though.
PropTypes
I’d say this is a blessing for all y’all NOT using TypeScript but still want to somehow enforce a level of type safety in your components. By specifying expected prop types for your components, you can catch errors before they hit production.
For instance, if you have a BlogCard component that expects title, description, and author props, defining them with PropTypes.string.isRequired ensures that your component won’t accidentally receive the wrong type of data from your CMS. While it’s not as robust as TypeScript, it’s a simple way to add some guardrails to your React app.
React Dropzone
Running an app that lets users dump images/files or upload anything else? react-dropzone simplifies the process of adding simple drag-and-drop file uploads. It abstracts away the complexity of handling file inputs and lets users upload files by dragging them directly into the designated area.
Imagine you’re building a CMS-powered content creator tool that allows users to upload images for their articles. Instead of dealing with native file input quirks, react-dropzone gives you a customizable drop area where users can easily upload files.
Bonus: it supports drag-and-drop events, file previews, and validation rules out of the box.
What is useState
useState is the bread and butter of React development to manage state locally. It’s what makes your components interactive and dynamic.
At its core, it’s a simple way to manage values that change over time—things like form inputs, toggles, and counters. When working with a Headless CMS, useState can be super useful for things like handling user filters or toggling between different views of your fetched data.
Take the example of the classic "Load More" button, assuming that your blog is loading 10 posts at a time. Each time the button is clicked, the page count increments and fetches more data. useState is what allows you to track that page count and trigger a re-render seamlessly (without having to explicitly introduce page based pagination of 10 posts per /p/x.
That being said, useState is ideal for handling individual pieces of state at the component level. But if your state starts getting more complex—like sharing data across different parts of the app—you might need to bring in a context API or a more advanced state management solution.
What is useEffect
You’re probably familiar with how React is all about keeping things declarative—components should be predictable and purely dependent on their inputs. But every now and then, some operations, like fetching data from your CMS, are side effects that don’t necessarily fit that mold.
This is where useEffect comes in. This hook chases after your component renders and handles the heavy lifting on things like data fetching and subscriptions.
Let’s say you’re building a page that displays rich text from DatoCMS. You can use useEffect to fetch the data as soon as the component mounts, ensuring the content appears as soon as the page loads. Need to update the page title for SEO? useEffect can handle that too. One key thing to remember is that useEffect isn’t just "set and forget." If your effect involves async calls, always clean it up by returning a cleanup function—especially if you're dealing with things like subscriptions or timeouts. This prevents memory leaks and keeps your app performant.
To help illustrate what I mean by that, here’s a simple snippet from GPT once I fed that paragraph in:
import React, { useState, useEffect } from 'react';
function BlogPostPage({ slug }) { const [postData, setPostData] = useState(null); const [loading, setLoading] = useState(true);
useEffect(() => { let isMounted = true; // To avoid setting state after unmount
const fetchData = async () => { try { const response = await fetch(`/api/dato-post?slug=${slug}`); const data = await response.json();
if (isMounted) { setPostData(data); document.title = `${data.title} | My Blog`; // SEO title update setLoading(false); } } catch (error) { console.error('Error fetching post:', error); if (isMounted) setLoading(false); } };
fetchData();
return () => { isMounted = false; // Cleanup: prevent state updates if unmounted }; }, [slug]); // Dependency array ensures this runs when the slug changes
if (loading) { return <p>Loading post...</p>; }
return ( <div> <h1>{postData.title}</h1> <p>{postData.description}</p> <div dangerouslySetInnerHTML={{ __html: postData.content }} /> </div> );}
export default BlogPostPage; What is useRef
Think of useRef as a React sticky note I suppose—it remembers values between renders without triggering re-renders.
This is perfect for storing mutable data, DOM elements, or even functions. If you’ve ever needed to focus an input field or keep track of a scroll position without resetting it, useRef is your friend.
In a CMS-powered app, you might use useRef to create an interactive image gallery where you need to keep track of which slide the user is on, even as they navigate away and back again. Or maybe you’re building a scrolling animation that needs precise measurements of a DOM element—useRef allows you to reference that element directly without rerendering the component. The real magic is how out-of-the-way and unobtrusive useRef is.
Since it doesn’t trigger renders, you can store values like cached API responses and timers without affecting the component’s lifecycle. Just don’t try to use it for state management.
What is useCallback
When you start passing functions down as props to child components, things can get messy—especially if the function changes with every render. This can lead to unnecessary re-renders and sluggish performance. useCallback fixes that by memoizing the function, ensuring that the same instance is reused unless its dependencies change.
In Headless CMS apps, this is dope for things like dynamic lists. Picture a product listing page with filters and sort options. Every time the user changes the filters, the onChange function can be wrapped in useCallback so that the component doesn’t completely re-render the entire list of items and simply “reflects the changes”. This makes the UI feel snappier and prevents React from doing extra work behind the scenes.
What is useMemo
React memo is like bubble wrap around your components—it protects them from re-rendering when they don’t need to. If a component’s props haven’t changed, memo ensures that React reuses the last render result instead of recalculating everything which is pretty nifty in apps with tons of components with varying levels of changes.
For example, if you’re rendering a large list of CMS content and some parts of the UI (like a sidebar) don’t change as often, wrapping the sidebar in React.memo can save you tons of unnecessary work by not having that sidebar constantly re-render only to display the same stuff over and over again.
This drastically improves performance, especially if you’re working with large datasets. useMemo is also helpful for creating complex derived data, like formatting dates or calculating aggregates. Just be careful not to overuse it—sometimes, your optimizations might be solving a problem you don’t actually have. Classic overengineering.