Codux is a visual IDE for React that enables us to visually create and modify components alongside the codebase for our project. It’s a visual IDE or Graphical editor that allows you to make and edit react components. This includes you’re drawing on canvas. For a quicker process, changes can be made through code or editing panels and are immediately reflected. an emerging utility created by Wix engineers.
You can download the desktop application Codux to your local computer. Codux is cost-free to use while it is in private testing. It’s a two-way visual editor, meaning that if developers edit the code, it’s reflected in the visual IDE, and vice versa. In it, we can see and have access to the code right inside of codux but it shouldn’t replace our existing IDE. In fact, the goal of the codux isn’t to replace the existing IDE, but to turbocharge react workflow by giving the capability to visually edit as well as you make changes in codux, In it, we can see the updates happen in real-time in your existing IDE. Codux supports any React project built using TypeScript with styling in CSS, Sass, or CSS Modules, and has full Git integration.
Codux examines your project to find the UI components and their general structure. It does so regardless of your code-writing style. When it makes changes when you’ve changed a property. For example, it’ll write code the way you would write it. Codux is intended to be used in conjunction with your preferred IDE. It functions on React projects using TypeScript and when seeing the resulting code, you would never know whether Codux was used or not.
The visual rendering stage is the first thing you’ll notice when you start a project in Codux. It displays how your components appear in all of their different forms.
Every modification you make will be reflected in real-time, whether it was done in Codux or elsewhere.
The stage also lets you quickly access the code related to any given element. You can rapidly edit a component’s content by clicking on it to go straight to its source.
The visual controls, the property, and the styling panels are the second item you’ll observe. The panels will show the properties of any element you click on while it is on stage. All of a sudden, changing styles, adding class names, and establishing properties are simple and quick.No need to spend time looking for the relevant code. WYSIWYG galore!
A render tree’s visual representation makes up the third item. It includes conditionals and data-bound repeaters. Keeping a mental model of your project – or anyone else’s project that you inherited – becomes much easier when you have a visual illustration for reference. A map of the component.
Another great point is the capability to develop components in isolation. That’s generally how we build in React. We build components. But we generally can’t see each component rendered in isolation. With Codux, you can work on each component individually, see each component in various states, and then bring them all together where needed. Because this is a graphical user interface, even someone with little to no React experience can easily update and edit components visually and be confident that the updates reflected in the code will be accurate. You can modify each element’s CSS styles just like you can in the developer tools in your browser. This makes memorizing every CSS property name and values a thing of the past. Every property is visually available to edit. And these changes take place immediately in your code base.
Codux will develop into a one-stop store for all project stakeholders, handling everything from fundamental design to complete deployment. It’ll support all frameworks – React, Vue, Svelte, Web Components, you name it – and all styling solutions. What we aim to make here’s no less than the easiest, most comfortable, visual, and time-saving solution for writing web applications.
Visual IDE Integration
When creating or managing a project in Codux, all of our components are sucked into the Visual IDE based on the project configuration, or by default if you’re starting your app from Codux. Once they’re all there, we can manage our tree of elements by dragging and dropping them anywhere, adding new components, managing props, and styling the different elements, all with a Canvas, which shows the state of your work as if you’re working on it in the browser.
Pros
1. Develop components in isolation.
Modify the structure of the components and incorporate components from your own work or outside libraries.
2. Expedite your CSS
Visually edit component styling and layouts, and see your changes in standard code and that too in real-time.
3. Visually navigate your code
Render and inspect any visible element to find it in the code, and make changes in its UI quickly with visual controllers.
4. Validate behavior and design
Create and simulate different component states and props visually with boards.
5. Collaborate with Git
Enable your team to view and edit works in progress and review their changes, even in the early stages of development.
Cons
1. Not a low-code or no-code tool. (like the Wix editor). It also isn’t a substitute for your IDE.
