Drupal with and without React, a head to headless comparison

By Theo Ballew

If you've been a part of the Drupal world over the past few years you've no doubt heard of, pondered, or taken part yourself in the headless debate. JavaScript frameworks like React and Vue are the new hotness, and they're taking the world by storm; at the same time Drupal 8 has gone in a similar direction, with the REST module being pulled into core, and helpful new contrib modules like JSON API and GraphQL popping up.

JavaScript frameworks are the new hotness for a reason, they do some really cool stuff, and they do it well! But, Drupal 8 does some really cool stuff too, and often with little or no custom code, saving dev time and dollars for other clients or features.

In this session we'll explore two small example sites, one built entirely with Drupal 8, and one built with both Drupal 8 and React. We'll focus on identifying the strengths and weaknesses of each approach, and hopefully leave with a better understanding of when to go headless, and when to leave good enough alone.

Learning Objectives & Outcomes:
By exploring two small example sites, one headless and one standard Drupal 8, we hope to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of each approach, and come away with a better understanding of when to reach for one approach over the other.

https://2018.tcdrupal.org/session/drupal-and-without-react-head-headless-comparison

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