Conventions.md

Conventions

This document was created to help DIT front-end developers use the same approach when writing JavaScript code.

1. Avoid using lodash functions if native alternative is available

Reference: https://github.com/you-dont-need/You-Dont-Need-Lodash-Underscore

2. Avoid using classes for React components

Use function with hooks instead.

3. Avoid usage of the this keyword

There are not many good reasons to use the this keyword in a React project (especially if we agree not to use classes). The this keyword indicates usage OO paradigm and imperative style, which is unnecessary with React. Moreover, we use this in a completely wrong way in the front-end unit tests. There are some valid reasons to use it though:

If this is a part of the library's API e.g. D3.js exposes the selected DOM element as this in the accessor callbacks. Similarly in jQuery. If inheritance is the best approach for a given problem

In those cases it’s fine to use eslint-disable flags. A code reviewer could then easily spot this in a PR and raise issues if needed.

4. Don't control outer layout from inside of a component

❌ Example of removing margin of the last badge within the badge:

const Badge = styled('span')`
  border: 2px solid gray;
  &:last-child {
    margin-right: 0;
  }
`

const Badges = styled('div')

✅ Example of doing the same on the outer layer

const Badge = styled('span')`
  border: 2px solid gray;
`

const Badges = styled('div')`
  & > &:last-child {
    margin-right: 0;
  }
`