why useRef current value , isn't sharing trough custom hook? - reactjs

Question

I wanted to calculate the user scroll height , so I created a custom hook. and I wanted to share this value to another component. but it doesnt work.
code:
const useScroll = () => {
let scrollHeight = useRef(0);
const scroll = () => {
scrollHeight.current =
window.pageYOffset ||
(document.documentElement || document.body.parentNode || document.body)
.scrollTop;
};
useEffect(() => {
window.addEventListener("scroll", scroll);
return () => {
window.removeEventListener("scroll", () => {});
};
}, []);
return scrollHeight.current;
};
export default useScroll;
the value is not updating here.
but if I use useState here , it works. but that causes tremendous amount of component re-rendering. can you have any idea , how its happening?

Answer 1

Since the hook won't rerender you will only get the return value once. What you can do, is to create a useRef-const in the useScroll hook. The useScroll hook returns the reference of the useRef-const when the hook gets mounted. Because it's a reference you can write the changes in the useScroll hook to the useRef-const and read it's newest value in a component which implemented the hook. To reduce multiple event listeners you should implement the hook once in the parent component and pass the useRef-const reference to the child components. I made an example for you.
The hook:
import { useCallback, useEffect, useRef } from "react";
export const useScroll = () => {
const userScrollHeight = useRef(0);
const scroll = useCallback(() => {
userScrollHeight.current =
window.pageYOffset ||
(document.documentElement || document.body.parentNode || document.body)
.scrollTop;
}, []);
useEffect(() => {
window.addEventListener("scroll", scroll);
return () => {
window.removeEventListener("scroll", scroll);
};
}, []);
return userScrollHeight;
};
The parent component:
import { SomeChild, SomeOtherChild } from "./SomeChildren";
import { useScroll } from "./ScrollHook";
const App = () => {
const userScrollHeight = useScroll();
return (
<div>
<SomeChild userScrollHeight={userScrollHeight} />
<SomeOtherChild userScrollHeight={userScrollHeight} />
</div>
);
};
export default App;
The child components:
export const SomeChild = ({ userScrollHeight }) => {
const someButtonClickHandlerWhichPrintsUserScrollHeight = () => {
console.log("userScrollHeight from SomeChild", userScrollHeight.current);
};
return (
<div style={{
width: "100vw",
height: "100vh",
backgroundColor: "aqua"
}}>
<h1>SomeChild 1</h1>
<button onClick={() => someButtonClickHandlerWhichPrintsUserScrollHeight()}>Console.log userScrollHeight</button>
</div>
);
};
export const SomeOtherChild = ({ userScrollHeight }) => {
const someButtonClickHandlerWhichPrintsUserScrollHeight = () => {
console.log("userScrollHeight from SomeOtherChild", userScrollHeight.current);
};
return (
<div style={{
width: "100vw",
height: "100vh",
backgroundColor: "orange"
}}>
<h1>SomeOtherChild 1</h1>
<button onClick={() => someButtonClickHandlerWhichPrintsUserScrollHeight()}>Console.log userScrollHeight</button>
</div>
);
};

Answer 2

import { useRef } from 'react';
import throttle from 'lodash.throttle';
/**
* Hook to return the throttled function
* #param fn function to throttl
* #param delay throttl delay
*/
const useThrottle = (fn, delay = 500) => {
// https://stackoverflow.com/a/64856090/11667949
const throttledFn = useRef(throttle(fn, delay)).current;
return throttledFn;
};
export default useThrottle;
then, in your custom hook:
const scroll = () => {
scrollHeight.current =
window.pageYOffset ||
(document.documentElement || document.body.parentNode || document.body)
.scrollTop;
};
const throttledScroll = useThrottle(scroll)
Also, I like to point out that you are not clearing your effect. You should be:
useEffect(() => {
window.addEventListener("scroll", throttledScroll);
return () => {
window.removeEventListener("scroll", throttledScroll); // remove Listener
};
}, [throttledScroll]); // this will never change, but it is good to add it here. (We've also cleaned up effect)