React useEffect strange behaviour with custom layout component - reactjs

Question

I'm trying to use scroll position for my animations in my web portfolio. Since this portfolio use nextJS I can't rely on the window object, plus I'm using navigation wide slider so I'm not actually scrolling in the window but in a layout component called Page.
import React, { useEffect } from 'react';
import './page.css';
const Page = ({ children }) => {
useEffect(() => {
const scrollX = document.getElementsByClassName('page')
const scrollElement = scrollX[0];
console.log(scrollX.length)
console.log(scrollX)
scrollElement.addEventListener("scroll", function () {
console.log(scrollX[0].scrollTop)
});
return () => {
scrollElement.removeEventListener("scroll", () => { console.log('listener removed') })
}
}, [])
return <div className="page">{children}</div>;
};
export default Page;
Here is a production build : https://next-portfolio-kwn0390ih.vercel.app/
At loading, there is only one Page component in DOM.
The behaviour is as follow :
first listener is added at first Page mount, when navigating, listener is also added along with a new Page component in DOM.
as long as you navigate between the two pages, no new listener/page is added
if navigating to a third page, listener is then removed when the old Page is dismounted and a new listener for the third page is added when third page is mounted (etc...)
Problem is : when you navigate from first to second, everything looks fine, but if you go back to the first page you'll notice the console is logging the scrollX value of the second listener instead of the first. Each time you go on the second page it seems to add another listener to the same scrollElement even though it's not the same Page component.
How can I do this ? I'm guessing the two component are trying to access the same scrollElement somewhat :/
Thanks for your time.

Answer 1

Cool site. We don't have complete info, but I suspect there's an issue with trying to use document.getElementsByClassName('page')[0]. When you go to page 2, the log for scrollX gives an HTMLCollection with 2 elements. So there's an issue with which one is being targeted. I would consider using a refs instead. Like this:
import React, { useEffect, useRef } from 'react';
import './page.css';
const Page = ({ children }) => {
const pageRef = useRef(null)
const scrollListener = () => {
console.log(pageRef.current.scrollTop)
}
useEffect(() => {
pageRef.addEventListener("scroll", scrollListener );
return () => {
pageRef.removeEventListener("scroll", scrollListener )
}
}, [])
return <div ref={pageRef}>{children}</div>;
};
export default Page;
This is a lot cleaner and I think will reduce confusion between components about what dom element is being referenced for each scroll listener. As far as the third page goes, your scrollX is still logging the same HTMLElement collection, with 2 elements. According to your pattern, there should be 3. (Though there should really only be 1!) So something is not rendering properly on page 3.
If we see more code, it might uncover the error as being something else. If refs dont solve it, can you post how Page is implemented in the larger scope of things?
also, remove "junior" from the "junior developer" title - you won't regret it