React context state not being updated - reactjs

I have a basic react context, similar to below:
function IdProvider({ children }: any) {
const [id, setId] = useState("DEFAULT_ID")
return (
<IdContext.Provider value={{ id, setId }}>
{children}
</IdContext.Provider>
)
}
I'm wrapping all of my routes with this provider, and have one component as below which I want to use to update the Id:
function UpdateForm() {
const { id, setId } = useId() // wrapper for the IdContext
const moveToDisplay = (newId: string) => {
setId(newId)
window.location.href = "/display/" + id
}
return (
<>
<span onClick={() => moveToDisplay("NEW_ID")}>
Update and redirect
</span>
</>
)
}
Upon redirecting, this component is used:
function DisplayId(): JSX.Element {
const { id } = useId()
useEffect(() => {
document.title = id
}, [id])
return (
<>
{id}
</>
)
}
The issue is, the initial setId(newId) doesn't update the state, so when window.location.href = "/display/" + id is called it redirects to /display/DEFAULT_ID, and the DisplayId component still uses the DEFAULT_ID value when rendering. From my understanding the useState is asynchronous, so I'm not entirely sure how I should approach this problem. I've tried adding a 5 second timeout after setId is called, but the value of id is still the default value.
EDIT - SOLVED
Figured out the issue and it was fairly unrelated. I was using a single constant (e.g. DEFAULT_ID) to initialise state in various places, without realising that React checks for referential equality when updating / re-rendering.

useContext provides the ability to pass properties through the react chain of components. So change your provider to this & make sure it's exporting
<IdContext.Provider value={id}>
then in your child you can update that by importing the Context:
import IdContext from './IdProvider'
and useContext:
const [context, setContext] = useContext(IdContext)
then set it with the new value:
const moveToDisplay = (newId: string) => {
setContext(newId)
window.location.href = "/display/" + newId
}
After that you import it in the same fashion through your DisplayId and just use the value

Related

React Context value gets updated, but component doesn't re-render

This Codesandbox only has mobile styles as of now
I currently have a list of items being rendered based on their status.
Goal: When the user clicks on a nav button inside the modal, it updates the status type in context. Another component called SuggestionList consumes the context via useContext and renders out the items that are set to the new status.
Problem: The value in context is definitely being updated, but the SuggestionList component consuming the context is not re-rendering with a new list of items based on the status from context.
This seems to be a common problem:
Does new React Context API trigger re-renders?
React Context api - Consumer Does Not re-render after context changed
Component not re rendering when value from useContext is updated
I've tried a lot of suggestions from different posts, but I just cannot figure out why my SuggestionList component is not re-rendering upon value change in context. I'm hoping someone can give me some insight.
Context.js
// CONTEXT.JS
import { useState, createContext } from 'react';
export const RenderTypeContext = createContext();
export const RenderTypeProvider = ({ children }) => {
const [type, setType] = useState('suggestion');
const renderControls = {
type,
setType,
};
console.log(type); // logs out the new value, but does not cause a re-render in the SuggestionList component
return (
<RenderTypeContext.Provider value={renderControls}>
{children}
</RenderTypeContext.Provider>
);
};
SuggestionPage.jsx
// SuggestionPage.jsx
export const SuggestionsPage = () => {
return (
<>
<Header />
<FeedbackBar />
<RenderTypeProvider>
<SuggestionList />
</RenderTypeProvider>
</>
);
};
SuggestionList.jsx
// SuggestionList.jsx
import { RenderTypeContext } from '../../../../components/MobileModal/context';
export const SuggestionList = () => {
const retrievedRequests = useContext(RequestsContext);
const renderType = useContext(RenderTypeContext);
const { type } = renderType;
const renderedRequests = retrievedRequests.filter((req) => req.status === type);
return (
<main className={styles.container}>
{!renderedRequests.length && <EmptySuggestion />}
{renderedRequests.length &&
renderedRequests.map((request) => (
<Suggestion request={request} key={request.title} />
))}
</main>
);
};
Button.jsx
// Button.jsx
import { RenderTypeContext } from './context';
export const Button = ({ handleClick, activeButton, index, title }) => {
const tabRef = useRef();
const renderType = useContext(RenderTypeContext);
const { setType } = renderType;
useEffect(() => {
if (index === 0) {
tabRef.current.focus();
}
}, [index]);
return (
<button
className={`${styles.buttons} ${
activeButton === index && styles.activeButton
}`}
onClick={() => {
setType('planned');
handleClick(index);
}}
ref={index === 0 ? tabRef : null}
tabIndex="0"
>
{title}
</button>
);
};
Thanks
After a good night's rest, I finally solved it. It's amazing what you can miss when you're tired.
I didn't realize that I was placing the same provider as a child of itself. Once I removed the child provider, which was nested within itself, and raised the "parent" provider up the tree a little bit, everything started working.
So the issue wasn't that the component consuming the context wasn't updating, it was that my placement of providers was conflicting with each other. I lost track of my component tree. Dumb mistake.
The moral of the story, being tired can make you not see solutions. Get rest.

Using React Context in a custom hook always returns undefined

I'm trying to create a custom hook which will eventually be packaged up on NPM and used internally on projects in the company I work for. The basic idea is that we want the package to expose a provider, which when mounted will make a request to the server that returns an array of permission strings that are then provided to the children components through context. We also want a function can which can be called within the provider which will take a string argument and return a boolean based on whether or not that string is present in the permissions array provided by context.
I was following along with this article but any time I call can from inside the provider, the context always comes back as undefined. Below is an extremely simplified version without functionality that I've been playing with to try to figure out what's going on:
useCan/src/index.js:
import React, { createContext, useContext, useEffect } from 'react';
type CanProviderProps = {children: React.ReactNode}
type Permissions = string[]
// Dummy data for fake API call
const mockPermissions: string[] = ["create", "click", "delete"]
const CanContext = createContext<Permissions | undefined>(undefined)
export const CanProvider = ({children}: CanProviderProps) => {
let permissions: Permissions | undefined
useEffect(() => {
permissions = mockPermissions
// This log displays the expected values
console.log("Mounted. Permissions: ", permissions)
}, [])
return <CanContext.Provider value={permissions}>{children}</CanContext.Provider>
}
export const can = (slug: string): boolean => {
const context = useContext(CanContext)
// This log always shows context as undefined
console.log(context)
// No functionality built to this yet. Just logging to see what's going on.
return true
}
And then the simple React app where I'm testing it out:
useCan/example/src/App.tsx:
import React from 'react'
import { CanProvider, can } from 'use-can'
const App = () => {
return (
<CanProvider>
<div>
<h1>useCan Test</h1>
{/* Again, this log always shows undefined */}
{can("post")}
</div>
</CanProvider>
)
}
export default App
Where am I going wrong here? This is my first time really using React context so I'm not sure where to pinpoint where the problem is. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
There are two problems with your implementation:
In your CanProvider you're reassigning the value in permissions with =. This will not trigger an update in the Provider component. I suggest using useState instead of let and =.
const [permissions, setPermissions] = React.useState<Permissions | undefined>();
useEffect(() => {
setPermissions(mockPermissions)
}, []);
This will make the Provider properly update when permissions change.
You are calling a hook from a regular function (the can function calls useContext). This violates one of the main rules of Hooks. You can learn more about it here: https://reactjs.org/docs/hooks-rules.html#only-call-hooks-from-react-functions
I suggest creating a custom hook function that gives you the can function you need.
Something like this, for example
const useCan = () => {
const context = useContext(CanContext)
return () => {
console.log(context)
return true
}
}
Then you should use your brand new hook in the root level (as per the rules of hooks) of some component that's inside your provider. For example, extracting a component for the content like so:
const Content = (): React.ReactElement => {
const can = useCan();
if(can("post")) {
return <>Yes, you can</>
}
return null;
}
export default function App() {
return (
<CanProvider>
<div>
<h1>useCan Test</h1>
<Content />
</div>
</CanProvider>
)
}
You should use state to manage permissions.
Look at the example below:
export const Provider: FC = ({ children }) => {
const [permissions, setPermissions] = useState<string[]>([]);
useEffect(() => {
// You can fetch remotely
// or do your async stuff here
retrivePermissions()
.then(setPermissions)
.catch(console.error);
}, []);
return (
<CanContext.Provider value={permissions}>{children}</CanContext.Provider>
);
};
export const useCan = () => {
const permissions = useContext(CanContext);
const can = useCallback(
(slug: string) => {
return permissions.some((p) => p === slug);
},
[permissions]
);
return { can };
};
Using useState you force the component to update the values.
You may want to read more here

React native: useState not updating correctly

I'm new to react native and currently struggling with an infinite scroll listview. It's a calendar list that need to change depending on the selected company (given as prop). The thing is: the prop (and also the myCompany state are changed, but in the _loadMoreAsync method both prop.company as well as myCompany do hold their initial value.
import * as React from 'react';
import { FlatList } from 'react-native';
import * as Api from '../api/api';
import InfiniteScrollView from 'react-native-infinite-scroll-view';
function CalenderFlatList(props: { company: any }) {
const [myCompany, setMyCompany] = React.useState(null);
const [data, setData] = React.useState([]);
const [canLoadMore, setCanLoadMore] = React.useState(true);
const [startDate, setStartDate] = React.useState(undefined);
let loading = false;
React.useEffect(() => {
setMyCompany(props.company);
}, [props.company]);
React.useEffect(() => {
console.log('set myCompany to ' + (myCompany ? myCompany.name : 'undefined'));
_loadMoreAsync();
}, [myCompany]);
async function _loadMoreAsync() {
if ( loading )
return;
loading = true;
if ( myCompany == null ) {
console.log('no company selected!');
return;
} else {
console.log('use company: ' + myCompany.name);
}
Api.fetchCalendar(myCompany, startDate).then((result: any) => {
// code is a little more complex here to keep the already fetched entries in the list...
setData(result);
// to above code also calculates the last day +1 for the next call
setStartDate(lastDayPlusOne);
loading = false;
});
}
const renderItem = ({ item }) => {
// code to render the item
}
return (
<FlatList
data={data}
renderScrollComponent={props => <InfiniteScrollView {...props} />}
renderItem={renderItem}
keyExtractor={(item: any) => '' + item.uid }
canLoadMore={canLoadMore}
onLoadMoreAsync={() => _loadMoreAsync() }
/>
);
}
What I don't understand here is why myCompany is not updating at all in _loadMoreAsync while startDate updates correctly and loads exactly the next entries for the calendar.
After the prop company changes, I'd expect the following output:
set myCompany to companyName
use company companyName
But instead i get:
set myCompany to companyName
no company selected!
I tried to reduce the code a bit to strip it down to the most important parts. Any suggestions on this?
Google for useEffect stale closure.
When the function is called from useEffect, it is called from a stale context - this is apparently a javascript feature :) So basically the behavior you are experiencing is expected and you need to find a way to work around it.
One way to go may be to add a (optional) parameter to _loadMoreAsync that you pass from useEffect. If this parameter is undefined (which it will be when called from other places), then use the value from state.
Try
<FlatList
data={data}
renderScrollComponent={props => <InfiniteScrollView {...props} />}
renderItem={renderItem}
keyExtractor={(item: any) => '' + item.uid }
canLoadMore={canLoadMore}
onLoadMoreAsync={() => _loadMoreAsync() }
extraData={myCompany}
/>
If your FlatList depends on a state variable, you need to pass that variable in to the extraData prop to trigger a re-rendering of your list. More info here
After sleeping two nights over the problem I solved it by myself. The cause was an influence of another piece of code that used React.useCallback(). And since "useCallback will return a memoized version of the callback that only changes if one of the dependencies has changed" (https://reactjs.org/docs/hooks-reference.html#usecallback) the code worked with the old (or initial) state of the variables.
After creating the whole page new from scratch I found this is the reason for that behavior.

Prevent context.consumer from re-rendering component

I have created the following context provider. In sort it's a toast generator. It can have multiple toasts visible at the same time.
It all worked great and such until I realized that the <Component/> further down the tree that called the const context = useContext(ToastContext) aka the consumer of this context and the creator of the toast notifications, was also re-rendering when the providerValue was changing.
I tried to prevent that, changing the useMemo to a useState hook for the providerValue, which did stop my re-rendering problem , but now I could only have 1 toast active at a time (because toasts was never updated inside the add function).
Is there a way to have both my scenarios?
export const withToastProvider = (Component) => {
const WithToastProvider = (props) => {
const [toasts, setToasts] = useState([])
const add = (toastSettings) => {
const id = generateUEID()
setToasts([...toasts, { id, toastSettings }])
}
const remove = (id) => setToasts(toasts.filter((t) => t.id !== id))
// const [providerValue] = useState({ add, remove })
const providerValue = React.useMemo(() => {
return { add, remove }
}, [toasts])
const renderToasts = toasts.map((t, index) => (
<ToastNote key={t.id} remove={() => remove(t.id)} {...t.toastSettings} />
))
return (
<ToastContext.Provider value={providerValue}>
<Component {...props} />
<ToastWrapper>{renderToasts}</ToastWrapper>
</ToastContext.Provider>
)
}
return WithToastProvider
}
Thank you #cbdeveloper, I figured it out.
The problem was not on my Context but on the caller. I needed to use a useMemo() there to have memoized the part of the component that didnt need to update.

Cant use values from (fetched) context(provider) as input to my useState

Short version:
I have a useEffect in a ContextProvider where I fetch some data from server. In my component I
use this Context and want to init another useState()-hook with the "incoming" data. The value in
[value, setValue] = useState(dataFromContext) does not get set/inited with dataFromContext. Why, oh why?
The very long version:
Im trying to follow (and expand on) this example of how to use context/useContext-hook in react
So, I have an AppContext and a ContextProvider, I wrap my in in index.js, everything in the example works nice.
Now I want to load data in useEffect inside my ContextProvider, so my context provider now looks like this
const AppContextProvider = ({ children }) => {
const profileInfoUrl = BASE_URL + `users/GetCurrentUsersProfileInfo/`
const {loading, getTokenSilently} = useAuth0();
const [profileInfo, setProfileInfo] = useState( {})
useEffect(() => {
if (!loading && profileInfo.user.username === '' ) {
Communication.get(profileInfoUrl, getTokenSilently, setProfileInfo);
}
},[loading, getTokenSilently])
const context = {
profileInfo,
setProfileInfo
};
return (
<AppContext.Provider value={ context }>
{children}
</AppContext.Provider>
);
}
Now, in my component, I want to display this data. One of them is users selected categories, a list of an id and isSelected, which should feed a checkboxlist.
const TsProfileSettingsPage = ( ) => {
//..
const { profileInfo, setProfileInfo } = useContext(AppContext);
const userCategories = Object.assign({}, ...profileInfo.userDetails.categories.map((c) => ({[c.id]: c})));
const [checkedCategories, setCheckedCategories] = useState(userCategories);
console.log("profileInfo.userDetails.categories : " + JSON.stringify(profileInfo.userDetails.categories));
console.log("userCategories : " + JSON.stringify(userCategories));//correct dictionary
console.log("checkedCategories : " + JSON.stringify(checkedCategories)); //empty object!
//...rest of code
So I load users selection and converts is to a dictionary that ends up in "userCategories". I use that "userCategories" to init checkedCategories. BUT, from the console.logs below, userCategories is set correctly, but checkedCategories is not, its becomes an empty object!
So my question is. Am I thinking wrong here? (obviously I am), I just want to have an external state.
Everything loads ok, but when I use it to init a useState() in my component it does not get set. I have tested to have another useEffect() in my component, but I just get the feeling that Im doing something more basic error.
Thanks for any help

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