NB: I've asked this on wordpress.stackexchange, but it's not getting any response there, so trying here.
I'm not sure if this is WordPress specific, WordPress's overloaded React specific, or just React, but I'm creating a new block plugin for WordPress, and if I use useState in its edit function, the page is re-rendered, even if I never call the setter function.
import { useState } from '#wordpress/element';
export default function MyEdit( props ) {
const {
attributes: {
anAttribute
},
setAttributes,
} = props;
const [ isValidating, setIsValidating ] = useState( false );
const post_id = wp.data.select("core/editor").getCurrentPostId();
console.log('Post ID is ', post_id);
const MyPlaceholder = () => {
return(
<div>this is a test</div>
);
};
const Component = MyPlaceholder;
return <Component />;
}
If I comment out const [ isValidating, setIsValidating ] = useState( false ); then that console.log happens once. If I leave it in, it happens twice; even if I never check the value of isValidating, never mind calling setIsValidating. I don't want to over-optimize things, but, equally, if I use this block n times on a page, the page is getting rendered 2n times. It's only on the admin side of things, because it's in the edit, so maybe not a big deal, but ... it doesn't seem right. Is this expected behavior for useState? Am I doing something wrong? Do I have to worry about it (from a speed perspective, from a potential race conditions as everything is re-rendered multiple times)?
In your example code, the console.log statement is being immediately evaluated each time and triggering the redraw/re-rendering of your block. Once console.log is removed, only the state changes will trigger re-rendering.
As the Gutenberg Editor is based on Redux, if the state changes, any components that rely on that state are re-rendered. When a block is selected in the Editor, the selected block is rendered synchronously while all other blocks in the Editor are rendered asynchronously. The WordPress Gutenberg developers are aware of re-rendering being a performance concern and have taken steps to reduce re-rendering.
When requesting data from wp.data, useEffect() should be used to safely await asynchronous data:
import { useState, useEffect } from '#wordpress/element';
export default function MyEdit(props) {
...
const [curPostId, setCurPostId] = useState(false);
useEffect(() => {
async function getMyPostId() {
const post_id = await wp.data.select("core/editor").getCurrentPostId();
setCurPostId(post_id);
}
getMyPostId();
}, []); // Run once
const MyPlaceholder = () => {
return (
<div>Current Post Id: {curPostId}</div>
);
};
const Component = MyPlaceholder;
return <Component />;
}
As mentioned in the question, useState() is used in core blocks for setting and updating state. The state hook was introducted in React 16.8, its a fairly recent change and you may come across older Gutenberg code example that set state via the class constructor and don't use hooks.
Yes, you have to worry about always put an array of dependencies, so that, it won't re-render, As per your query, let's say are planning to edit a field here is the sample code
const [edit, setEdit]= useState(props);
useEffect(() => {
// logic here
},[edit])
that [edit] will check if there is any changes , and according to that it will update the DOM, if you don't put any [](array of dependencies) it will always go an infinite loop,
I guess this is expected behavior. If I add a similar console.log to native core blocks that use useState, I get the same effect. It seems that WordPress operates with use strict, and according to this answer, React double-invokes a number of things when in strict mode.
Related
I have a counter and a console.log() in an useEffect to log every change in my state, but the useEffect is getting called two times on mount. I am using React 18. Here is a CodeSandbox of my project and the code below:
import { useState, useEffect } from "react";
const Counter = () => {
const [count, setCount] = useState(5);
useEffect(() => {
console.log("rendered", count);
}, [count]);
return (
<div>
<h1> Counter </h1>
<div> {count} </div>
<button onClick={() => setCount(count + 1)}> click to increase </button>
</div>
);
};
export default Counter;
useEffect being called twice on mount is normal since React 18 when you are in development with StrictMode. Here is an overview of what they say in the documentation:
In the future, we’d like to add a feature that allows React to add and remove sections of the UI while preserving state. For example, when a user tabs away from a screen and back, React should be able to immediately show the previous screen. To do this, React will support remounting trees using the same component state used before unmounting.
This feature will give React better performance out-of-the-box, but requires components to be resilient to effects being mounted and destroyed multiple times. Most effects will work without any changes, but some effects do not properly clean up subscriptions in the destroy callback, or implicitly assume they are only mounted or destroyed once.
To help surface these issues, React 18 introduces a new development-only check to Strict Mode. This new check will automatically unmount and remount every component, whenever a component mounts for the first time, restoring the previous state on the second mount.
This only applies to development mode, production behavior is unchanged.
It seems weird, but in the end, it's so we write better React code, bug-free, aligned with current guidelines, and compatible with future versions, by caching HTTP requests, and using the cleanup function whenever having two calls is an issue. Here is an example:
/* Having a setInterval inside an useEffect: */
import { useEffect, useState } from "react";
const Counter = () => {
const [count, setCount] = useState(0);
useEffect(() => {
const id = setInterval(() => setCount((count) => count + 1), 1000);
/*
Make sure I clear the interval when the component is unmounted,
otherwise, I get weird behavior with StrictMode,
helps prevent memory leak issues.
*/
return () => clearInterval(id);
}, []);
return <div>{count}</div>;
};
export default Counter;
In this very detailed article called Synchronizing with Effects, React team explains useEffect as never before and says about an example:
This illustrates that if remounting breaks the logic of your application, this usually uncovers existing bugs. From the user’s perspective, visiting a page shouldn’t be different from visiting it, clicking a link, and then pressing Back. React verifies that your components don’t break this principle by remounting them once in development.
For your specific use case, you can leave it as it's without any concern. And you shouldn't try to use those technics with useRef and if statements in useEffect to make it fire once, or remove StrictMode, because as you can read on the documentation:
React intentionally remounts your components in development to help you find bugs. The right question isn’t “how to run an Effect once”, but “how to fix my Effect so that it works after remounting”.
Usually, the answer is to implement the cleanup function. The cleanup function should stop or undo whatever the Effect was doing. The rule of thumb is that the user shouldn’t be able to distinguish between the Effect running once (as in production) and a setup → cleanup → setup sequence (as you’d see in development).
/* As a second example, an API call inside an useEffect with fetch: */
useEffect(() => {
const abortController = new AbortController();
const fetchUser = async () => {
try {
const res = await fetch("/api/user/", {
signal: abortController.signal,
});
const data = await res.json();
} catch (error) {
if (error.name !== "AbortError") {
/* Logic for non-aborted error handling goes here. */
}
}
};
fetchUser();
/*
Abort the request as it isn't needed anymore, the component being
unmounted. It helps avoid, among other things, the well-known "can't
perform a React state update on an unmounted component" warning.
*/
return () => abortController.abort();
}, []);
You can’t “undo” a network request that already happened, but your cleanup function should ensure that the fetch that’s not relevant anymore does not keep affecting your application.
In development, you will see two fetches in the Network tab. There is nothing wrong with that. With the approach above, the first Effect will immediately get cleaned... So even though there is an extra request, it won’t affect the state thanks to the abort.
In production, there will only be one request. If the second request in development is bothering you, the best approach is to use a solution that deduplicates requests and caches their responses between components:
function TodoList() {
const todos = useSomeDataFetchingLibraryWithCache(`/api/user/${userId}/todos`);
// ...
Update: Looking back at this post, slightly wiser, please do not do this.
Use a ref or make a custom hook without one.
import type { DependencyList, EffectCallback } from 'react';
import { useEffect } from 'react';
const useClassicEffect = import.meta.env.PROD
? useEffect
: (effect: EffectCallback, deps?: DependencyList) => {
useEffect(() => {
let subscribed = true;
let unsub: void | (() => void);
queueMicrotask(() => {
if (subscribed) {
unsub = effect();
}
});
return () => {
subscribed = false;
unsub?.();
};
}, deps);
};
export default useClassicEffect;
I want to check if this is good practice, and if there's a better approach to it. I have a function that is called when the component loads and when clicking on a couple of buttons, so I need to use it inside useEffect, and pass it to other components. I could use useCallback, but I don't see how this approach is not enough, since the components that can call getWeatherHere also need isCelsius, thus being able to use it as argument (the argument and the state are the same).
export default function weatherInfo() {
const [weatherInfo, setWeatherInfo]: [IWeather, React.Dispatch<IWeather>] = useState();
const [isCelsius, setIsCelsius] = useState(true);
function getWeatherHere(isCelsius: boolean) {
navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition(async ({coords: {latitude, longitude}}) => {
const data = await Weather.getWeather(latitude, longitude, !isCelsius ? 'imperial' : undefined);
setWeatherInfo(data);
});
}
useEffect(() => {
getWeatherHere(isCelsius);
}, [isCelsius]);
return (
<OtherComponent isCelsius={isCelsius} getWeatherHere={getWeatherHere}/>
);
}
This is how you do it, but there are tools available to make this easier.
Consider using a construction like useAsync from react-use. It allows you to express a Promise as a state. This avoids all sort of pitfalls and issues of using Promises in functional Components.
So you get something like:
const state = useAsync(async () => {
const { coords: { latitude, longitude } } = await navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition();
return {
isCelsius: isCelsius,
data: await Weather.getWeather(latitude, longitude, !isCelsius ? 'imperial' : undefined),
};
}, [ isCelsius ]);
return <>
{state.loading === false && <OtherComponent
isCelsius={state.value.isCelsius}
weatherHere={state.value.data}
/>
</>;
Some remarks:
I added isCelsius to the value of the async state. If you don't do that, and pass isCelsius directly, you're going to have a desynch between the value of isCelsius and the weather data. I would actually expect that the temperature unit is part of the result of the getWeather request, but if it's not, this works.
There is one problem when using promises with setState in React, and that has to do with cleanups. If your Component is unmounted before the promise is completed, it doesn't magically cancel the code. It will finish the request and call setWeatherInfo. That will trigger a re-render on an unmounted component, which React will give you a warning about. It's not a huge problem in this case, but it can become a problem in more complex situations. useAsync takes care of this by checking if the component is still mounted at the end of the fetcher function. You can also do that yourself by using usePromise, but I would try to avoid using Promises in this way all together.
Your code can suffer from race conditions. If you change isCelsius quickly a couple of times, it's going to be a coinflip which result is going to end up being used. useAsync also takes care of this.
If, instead of passing the weather, you want to pass a function that fetches the weather, use useAsyncFn instead. The state is the same, but it also returns a function that allows you to call the fetcher function. This is in addition to the value of isCelsius changing.
As your post is about best practices, I'll let you my 2 cents.
Some things that I would change using only pure react to refactor it.
export default function weatherInfo() {
// You don't need to type both returns, only the hook.
const [weatherInfo, setWeatherInfo] = useState<IWeather | undefined>(undefined);
// Why do you need this state if it's not changing?
// May you can put this in a const and save one state.
const isCelsius = true;
// I may change this "Here" in the function, because it don't look wrong, by it's subjective
// Use "ByUserLocation" it's a better description
// With the hook useCallback you can rerender the function only based on the right values
const getWeatherByUserLocation = useCallback(() => {
// Extracting the function improves the maintenance by splitting each step of the process and each callback function.
const callbackFn = async ({coords: {latitude, longitude}}) => {
// Turn your validations into variables with a well-descriptive name.
// Avoid making validation starting by negating the value;
const temperatureUnit = isCelsius ? 'celsius' : 'imperial';
// Avoid using "data" as the name of a variable even when it looks clear what the data is. In the future, you will not remember if this logic should change.
const weatherInfoData = await Weather.getWeather(
latitude,
longitude,
temperatureUnit
);
setWeatherInfo(weatherInfoData);
};
navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition(callbackFn);
}, [isCelsius]);
useEffect(() => {
getWeatherByUserLocation();
// removing the prop from the function, you avoid calling it many times based on the state change
// A useEffect without dependencies on the dependency array, it will only be called on the component mount and unmount
}, []);
return (
<OtherComponent isCelsius={isCelsius} getWeatherByUserLocation={getWeatherByUserLocation}/>
);
}
I have a counter and a console.log() in an useEffect to log every change in my state, but the useEffect is getting called two times on mount. I am using React 18. Here is a CodeSandbox of my project and the code below:
import { useState, useEffect } from "react";
const Counter = () => {
const [count, setCount] = useState(5);
useEffect(() => {
console.log("rendered", count);
}, [count]);
return (
<div>
<h1> Counter </h1>
<div> {count} </div>
<button onClick={() => setCount(count + 1)}> click to increase </button>
</div>
);
};
export default Counter;
useEffect being called twice on mount is normal since React 18 when you are in development with StrictMode. Here is an overview of what they say in the documentation:
In the future, we’d like to add a feature that allows React to add and remove sections of the UI while preserving state. For example, when a user tabs away from a screen and back, React should be able to immediately show the previous screen. To do this, React will support remounting trees using the same component state used before unmounting.
This feature will give React better performance out-of-the-box, but requires components to be resilient to effects being mounted and destroyed multiple times. Most effects will work without any changes, but some effects do not properly clean up subscriptions in the destroy callback, or implicitly assume they are only mounted or destroyed once.
To help surface these issues, React 18 introduces a new development-only check to Strict Mode. This new check will automatically unmount and remount every component, whenever a component mounts for the first time, restoring the previous state on the second mount.
This only applies to development mode, production behavior is unchanged.
It seems weird, but in the end, it's so we write better React code, bug-free, aligned with current guidelines, and compatible with future versions, by caching HTTP requests, and using the cleanup function whenever having two calls is an issue. Here is an example:
/* Having a setInterval inside an useEffect: */
import { useEffect, useState } from "react";
const Counter = () => {
const [count, setCount] = useState(0);
useEffect(() => {
const id = setInterval(() => setCount((count) => count + 1), 1000);
/*
Make sure I clear the interval when the component is unmounted,
otherwise, I get weird behavior with StrictMode,
helps prevent memory leak issues.
*/
return () => clearInterval(id);
}, []);
return <div>{count}</div>;
};
export default Counter;
In this very detailed article called Synchronizing with Effects, React team explains useEffect as never before and says about an example:
This illustrates that if remounting breaks the logic of your application, this usually uncovers existing bugs. From the user’s perspective, visiting a page shouldn’t be different from visiting it, clicking a link, and then pressing Back. React verifies that your components don’t break this principle by remounting them once in development.
For your specific use case, you can leave it as it's without any concern. And you shouldn't try to use those technics with useRef and if statements in useEffect to make it fire once, or remove StrictMode, because as you can read on the documentation:
React intentionally remounts your components in development to help you find bugs. The right question isn’t “how to run an Effect once”, but “how to fix my Effect so that it works after remounting”.
Usually, the answer is to implement the cleanup function. The cleanup function should stop or undo whatever the Effect was doing. The rule of thumb is that the user shouldn’t be able to distinguish between the Effect running once (as in production) and a setup → cleanup → setup sequence (as you’d see in development).
/* As a second example, an API call inside an useEffect with fetch: */
useEffect(() => {
const abortController = new AbortController();
const fetchUser = async () => {
try {
const res = await fetch("/api/user/", {
signal: abortController.signal,
});
const data = await res.json();
} catch (error) {
if (error.name !== "AbortError") {
/* Logic for non-aborted error handling goes here. */
}
}
};
fetchUser();
/*
Abort the request as it isn't needed anymore, the component being
unmounted. It helps avoid, among other things, the well-known "can't
perform a React state update on an unmounted component" warning.
*/
return () => abortController.abort();
}, []);
You can’t “undo” a network request that already happened, but your cleanup function should ensure that the fetch that’s not relevant anymore does not keep affecting your application.
In development, you will see two fetches in the Network tab. There is nothing wrong with that. With the approach above, the first Effect will immediately get cleaned... So even though there is an extra request, it won’t affect the state thanks to the abort.
In production, there will only be one request. If the second request in development is bothering you, the best approach is to use a solution that deduplicates requests and caches their responses between components:
function TodoList() {
const todos = useSomeDataFetchingLibraryWithCache(`/api/user/${userId}/todos`);
// ...
Update: Looking back at this post, slightly wiser, please do not do this.
Use a ref or make a custom hook without one.
import type { DependencyList, EffectCallback } from 'react';
import { useEffect } from 'react';
const useClassicEffect = import.meta.env.PROD
? useEffect
: (effect: EffectCallback, deps?: DependencyList) => {
useEffect(() => {
let subscribed = true;
let unsub: void | (() => void);
queueMicrotask(() => {
if (subscribed) {
unsub = effect();
}
});
return () => {
subscribed = false;
unsub?.();
};
}, deps);
};
export default useClassicEffect;
Is there any special condition, that causes a react component to reset completely (not just re-render)?
What do I mean by reset?
Reverting back ALL STATES to their default values (that given in useState()) and re-running all my useEffect() callbacks (even with empty dependency-list ([])) … LIKE ANOTHER OR A NEW COMPONENT!
This wonderful event happens for one of my components during its lifetime (after a lot of correct re-rendering for this component and other components). I don't know why! And I thought this is an impossible event in React:
export default function Project (props) {
const [temp, setTemp] = useState(false)
const tempRef = useRef(false)
console.debug({ temp }, tempRef)
useEffect(() => {
console.debug('INITIALIZATION:', { temp }, tempRef)
setTemp(true)
tempRef.current = true
}, [])
// ...
}
I'm suspicious of react-router-dom#6.0.0-beta.8 that I used in my project. But I can't change it, because of the scale of the project and a lot of usage of it.
UPDATE: All parents of this component are working as expected. Even after this event (for this component).
I have a React component which has 2000 elements and based on some filter conditions I update my state, which internally causes re-rendering. Everything seems to be working fine. But when I togglefilter from 2000 elements to say 1000 elements and back&forth, the rendering takes a lot of time and sometimes the browser freezes. I did chrome timeline profiling, the major time consuming piece is rendering. Any help would be appreciated.
As suggested by #enjoylife is a great step but what if you have many components structures in your view, that would be very difficult to debug even memoising the component won't be able to subside the continuous or loop rendering.
I learnt this after I ran into strange freezing and weird error that wouldn't stop any time a user logged in on the homepage. Imagine of all screens. Sometimes, you would hardly notice your component re-rending.
Detect your screen/page (loop) re-rendering with console log
const Home = () => {
conso.log('home re-rending')
// some hooks
return <BigComponent />
}
As written above. The logs must not show more than a limited time deemed after a component has mounted. In my case, it's once. But if it is too much(logs) and would certainly freeze your pc. Therefore, follow the below steps carefully and retrace your steps.
Tips and prerequisite before trying out this proposed solution. Please make sure you have style guide setup e.g. Eslint, it's great. In my case, I reproduced the source code with cra, then sorted out the first and last listed problem which I encountered.
Be careful with the use of React hooks such as useEffect especially. Avoid causing a side effect in a component.
In my case, I created a reusable useUpdateEffect hook and what I intend it to solve as par the name was to detect an update of React props or window props, but it backfires, I won't share the code.
Also, do extra check if you passed correct and expected dependencies, on this Eslint deserve an accolade.
Avoid random keys in React list. Use unique and constant keys in a component list as react depend on it to identify each item. According to react library
Keys help React identify which items have changed, are added, or are removed. Keys should be given to the elements inside the array to give the elements a stable identity. You may use the item index as a key as a last resort:
Avoid variable name conflict in your reducer and React component. Please consider the use of style guides as your friend to avoid this fall.
I made the stupid mistake to create a Foo class and use in its render function, which also leads to the freezing scene. Write here for anyone who could meet this problem again.follow this thread.
Avoid infinite loops, Imagine rendering a lot of data at a go. this happen
just in case you share my fate, I urge you to check your loops and make sure you do not have a += instead of -= (or vice versa). Those infinite loops can be quite a big pain in the neck.
Keep your reducer as a reducer, Avoid Action creator, an API call in your reducer or using another reducer in your reducer so, for instance, reducerA in reducerB. When you call to update reducerA in reducerB, the update in reducerA would trigger an update in reducerB whereby cause page/screen to re-render multiple times. for example
// this react reducer in my case
// reducer js file - reducerB
const useBusinesses = () => {
// reducerB as discussed above - the loading context
const { loading } = useLoadingContext(); // the culprit
const [data, setData] = useState(initialState); // initial state,
const [state, dispatch] = useReducer(reducer, data);
useEffect(() => setData(state), [state, setData]);
const { businesses, errorMessage } = state;
const setBusinesses = (payload) => dispatch({ type: `${FETCH_BUSINESSES}_SUCCESS`, data: payload });
const setBusinessesError = (payload) => dispatch({ type: `${FETCH_BUSINESSES}_ERROR`, data: payload });
const fetchBusinesses = async (lglt, type = 'food', limit = 12) => {
try {
// update reducerB: triggers multiple update in reducerA while requesting is pending
loading(FETCH_BUSINESSES, true);
const request = await API.businesses.getWithquery(
`long=${lglt[0]}&latt=${lglt[1]}&limit=${limit}&type=${type}`
);
loading(FETCH_BUSINESSES, false);
setBusinesses(request.data);
} catch (err) {
loading(FETCH_BUSINESSES, false);
// if (!err.response) dispatch(alertMessage(FETCH_BUKKAS, true, 'Please check your network'));
setBusinessesError(err.response.data);
}
});
return { businesses, errorMessage, fetchBusinesses };
};
export const [BusinessesProvider, useBusinessesContext] = constate(useBusinesses);
//home js file
Home = () => {
const { fetchBusinesses } = useBusinessContext();
conso.log('home re-rending')
// some hooks
useEffect(() => {
console.log('am i in trouble, yes!, how many troubles')
fetchBusinesses(coordinates)
}, [fetchBusinesses, coordinates])
return <BigComponent />
}
A quick fix is to implement shouldComponentUpdate See the docs, for whichever child component is being rendered ~2000 times.
shouldComponentUpdate: function(nextProps, nextState) {
return this.props.value !== nextProps.value;
}
Another quick check is to ask yourself if your following the convention of using small, stateless children, passing only props. If not, it might be time to refactor.