This page gives an introduction to the most common concepts that you will use to build Reflex apps.

Install reflex using pip.

Import the reflex library to get started.

Components are the building blocks for your app's user interface (UI). They are the visual elements that make up your app, like buttons, text, and images. Reflex has a wide selection of built-in components to get you started quickly.

Components are created using functions that return a component object.

Components can be nested inside each other to create complex UIs.

To nest components as children, pass them as positional arguments to the parent component. In the example below, the rx.text and my_button components are children of the rx.box component.

You can also use any base HTML element through the rx.el namespace. This allows you to use standard HTML elements directly in your Reflex app when you need more control or when a specific component isn't available in the Reflex component library.

If you need a component not provided by Reflex, you can check the 3rd party ecosystem or wrap your own React component.

Components can be customized using props, which are passed in as keyword arguments to the component function.

Each component has props that are specific to that component. Check the docs for the component you are using to see what props are available.

In addition to component-specific props, components can also be styled using CSS properties passed as props.

See the styling guide for more information on how to style components

In summary, components are made up of children and props.

Apps need to store and display data that changes over time. Reflex handles this through State, which is a Python class that stores variables that can change when the app is running, as well as the functions that can change those variables.

To define a state class, subclass rx.State and define fields that store the state of your app. The state variables (vars) should have a type annotation, and can be initialized with a default value.

To reference a state var in a component, you can pass it as a child or prop. The component will automatically update when the state changes.

Vars are referenced through class attributes on your state class. For example, to reference the count var in a component, use MyState.count.

Vars can be referenced in multiple components, and will automatically update when the state changes.

So far, we've defined state vars but we haven't shown how to change them. All state changes are handled through functions in the state class, called event handlers.

Components have special props, such as on_click, called event triggers that can be used to make components interactive. Event triggers connect components to event handlers, which update the state.

When an event trigger is activated, the event handler is called, which updates the state. The UI is automatically re-rendered to reflect the new state.

Event handlers can also take in arguments. For example, the increment event handler can take an argument to increment the count by a specific amount.

The on_click event trigger doesn't pass any arguments here, but some event triggers do. For example, the on_blur event trigger passes the text of an input as an argument to the event handler.

Before we dive deeper into state, it's important to understand the difference between compile-time and runtime in Reflex.

When you run your app, the frontend gets compiled to Javascript code that runs in the browser (compile-time). The backend stays in Python and runs on the server during the lifetime of the app (runtime).

We cannot compile arbitrary Python code, only the components that you define. What this means importantly is that you cannot use arbitrary Python operations and functions on state vars in components.

However, since any event handlers in your state are on the backend, you can use any Python code or library within your state.

Within an event handler, use any Python code or library.

Use any Python function within components, as long as it is defined at compile time (i.e. does not reference any state var)

You cannot do an if statement on vars in components, since the value is not known at compile time.

You cannot do a for loop over a list of vars.

You cannot do arbitrary Python operations on state vars in components.

In the next sections, we will show how to handle these cases.

As mentioned above, you cannot use Python if/else statements with state vars in components. Instead, use the rx.cond function to conditionally render components.

To iterate over a var that is a list, use the rx.foreach function to render a list of components.

Pass the list var and a function that returns a component as arguments to rx.foreach.

The function that renders each item takes in a Var, since this will get compiled up front.

You can't use arbitrary Python operations on state vars in components, but Reflex has var operations that you can use to manipulate state vars.

For example, to check if a var is even, you can use the % and == var operations.

Reflex apps are created by instantiating the rx.App class. Pages are linked to specific URL routes, and are created by defining a function that returns a component.

Now that you have a basic understanding of how Reflex works, the next step is to start coding your own apps. Try one of the following tutorials:

• Dashboard Tutorial
• Chatapp Tutorial