Introduction :

The MERN Stack is a popular technology stack for building full stack web applications. It includes React.js,Express.js and Node.js. React.js handles the FrontEnd, Node.js manages the backend, and MongoDB stores the data. While MERN provides a strong foundation, creating attractive and user-friendly interfaces requires UI Components. This is where MUI (Material -UI) comes in. MUI is a React Component Library that follows Google’s Material Design guideliness, offering prebuilt, customizable, and responsive UI components.

Why We Use MUI in MERN Stack Applications?

  1. PreBuilt Components : Save Development time by using ready- made buttons, forms, tables and dialogs.
  2. Responsive Design : Components adjust automatically across devices.
  3. Customizable Themes : Easily change colors, typography, and spacing.
  4. Better User Experience : MUI ensures a polished and modern UI without designing from scratch.

Setting Up a MERN + MUI Applications

Initialize MERN Project:

BackEnd SetUp:

mkdir mern-mui-app
cd mern-mui-app
mkdir server client
cd server
npm init -y
npm install express mongoose cors dotenv

Server/Index.js:

import express from 'express';
import mongoose from 'mongoose';
import cors from 'cors';
import dotenv from 'dotenv';

dotenv.config();
const app = express();
app.use(cors());
app.use(express.json());

mongoose.connect(process.env.MONGO_URI, {
    useNewUrlParser: true,
    useUnifiedTopology: true
})
.then(() => console.log("MongoDB connected"))
.catch((err) => console.log(err));

app.get('/', (req, res) => {
    res.send("Server is running");
});

app.listen(5000, () => console.log("Server started on port 5000"));

SetUp React FrontEnd with MUI:

FrontEnd SetUp:

npx create-react-app client 
cd client 
npm install @mui/material @mui/icons-material @emotion/react @emotion/styled axios

Creating a Simple MUI Form:

We’ll create a User Registration Form Using TextField, Button and Stack componentsfrom MUI.

import React, { useState } from 'react';
import { TextField, Button, Stack } from '@mui/material';
import axios from 'axios';

const RegisterForm = () => {
  const [formData, setFormData] = useState({ name: '', email: '' });

  const handleChange = (e) => {
    setFormData({ ...formData, [e.target.name]: e.target.value });
  };

  const handleSubmit = async (e) => {
    e.preventDefault();
    try {
      const res = await axios.post('http://localhost:5000/register', formData);
      console.log('User Registered:', res.data);
    } catch (err) {
      console.error(err);
    }
  };

  return (
    <form onSubmit={handleSubmit}>
      <Stack spacing={2} width={400} margin="auto" mt={5}>
        <TextField
          label="Name"
          name="name"
          value={formData.name}
          onChange={handleChange}
          variant="outlined"
          required
        />
        <TextField
          label="Email"
          name="email"
          value={formData.email}
          onChange={handleChange}
          variant="outlined"
          required
        />
        <Button type="submit" variant="contained" color="primary">
          Register
        </Button>
      </Stack>
    </form>
  );
};

export default RegisterForm;

Using MUI Table to Display Data:

We can fetch users from the Backend and display them in a DataGrid.

import React, { useEffect, useState } from 'react';
import { DataGrid } from '@mui/x-data-grid';
import axios from 'axios';

const UserTable = () => {
  const [users, setUsers] = useState([]);

  useEffect(() => {
    const fetchUsers = async () => {
      const res = await axios.get('http://localhost:5000/users');
      setUsers(res.data);
    };
    fetchUsers();
  }, []);

  const columns = [
    { field: '_id', headerName: 'ID', width: 220 },
    { field: 'name', headerName: 'Name', width: 150 },
    { field: 'email', headerName: 'Email', width: 200 }
  ];

  return (
    <div style={{ height: 400, width: '100%', marginTop: 20 }}>
      <DataGrid rows={users} columns={columns} getRowId={(row) => row._id} />
    </div>
  );
};

export default UserTable;

Integrating Form and Table in App.js:

import React from 'react';
import RegisterForm from './components/RegisterForm';
import UserTable from './components/UserTable';

function App() {
  return (
    <div>
      <h1 style={{ textAlign: 'center', marginTop: '20px' }}>MERN + MUI Example</h1>
      <RegisterForm />
      <UserTable />
    </div>
  );
}

export default App;

Key Takeaways:

  1. MUI Simplifies UI Development : PreBuilt component save development time.
  2. Responsive and mordern design : MUI Components looks professional and they were out of the box.
  3. Full MERN Stack Integration : MUI works seamlessly with React for FrontEnd interactions and BackEnd APIs.
  4. Scalability : Easily extend the UI with advanced components like dialogs, tables and modals.

By combining MERN and MUI, we can quickly build scalable Full-Stack Applications with Professional looking interfaces without spending weels on FrontEnd Design.

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