I'm currently learning React and have managed to get a good understanding of the front end. For ease of learning I started using the create-react-app boiler plate which uses Webpack & Babel.
I'm at the stage now where I want to have some interactivity with users uploading files and other account related activity like "liking" certain items in a list. I've gone with Firebase as my database for authentication and have a couple of questions regarding file storage and also processing user interactions with the web app:
Traditionally I have been using PHP to process user requests. IE a user would make an AJAX request with the target file being a php file that would take the posted data and then go on to make database updates or post uploaded files to a server. Should I use the same approach with my React app? I guess if I use this approach it would mean I would be hosting the visual part of my application on a node server and any php documents to process ajax requests on a php server?
An alternative that seems to be popular is using Node.js to handle user interactions with my database. Could I post similar Ajax requests to node files instead of php files in order to make database updates or file uploads? Is it generally safe to do so?
Apologies if these questions sound a bit rookie, it's a lot of new stuff to learn and i'm trying my best to get my head wrapped around it!
Thanks