Building Scalable Data-Driven Apps in React

GRID (Global Repository of Income Dynamics - https://www.grid-database.org/ is an application that serves 300+ economic statistics through a fully dynamic React interface powered by Shadcn and Highcharts, featuring a new visualization tool built by the Evolving Web team.

This talk breaks down the architecture behind it: how a config-driven system combined with a small hierarchy of variable classes lets the app generate its UI, controls, chart logic, and constraints automatically, without hardcoding a single dropdown or visualization rule.

I’ll show how we structured the app so new datasets, view modes, and visual behaviors can be added by editing configuration instead of touching components. You’ll see how polymorphism handles different data types, how the factory pattern keeps everything consistent, and how this approach eliminates repetitive code while making future data growth trivial.

This talk is best suited for experienced developers, but will also be accessible to a broader technical audience. Familiarity with modern web development is helpful.

While React is used as a concrete example, the discussed ideas focus on configuration-driven design and scalable application architecture rather than framework-specific details.