Why do I need to define the event handler `handleStatusChange` in `useEffect`? - reactjs

Can I use handleStatusChange event handler outside of the useEffect block, and directly in the FriendStatus component?
import React, { useState, useEffect } from 'react';
function FriendStatus(props) {
const [isOnline, setIsOnline] = useState(null);
useEffect(() => {
function handleStatusChange(status) {
setIsOnline(status.isOnline);
}
ChatAPI.subscribeToFriendStatus(props.friend.id, handleStatusChange);
return () => {
ChatAPI.unsubscribeFromFriendStatus(props.friend.id, handleStatusChange);
};
});
if (isOnline === null) {
return 'Loading...';
}
return isOnline ? 'Online' : 'Offline';
}

The handleStatusChange is used with the ChatAPI, an external service that is not managed by react (unlike onClick for example).
You need to subscribe/unsubscribe a handler to the ChatAPI service whenever a friend.id changes.
Using the ChatAPI directly in the component's body would cause subscribe and unsubscribe to be called on each render. However, the event handler would never unsubscribe because you won't have a reference to the registered function.
The useEffect hook solves this problems:
We can configure the hook's dependency to only call the hook when the friend.id changes (see updated code).
The unsubscribe function always has a reference to the subscribed function, because it's defined in the same closure.
Updated code:
import React, { useState, useEffect } from 'react';
function FriendStatus({ friend }) {
const { id } = friend;
const [isOnline, setIsOnline] = useState(null);
useEffect(() => {
function handleStatusChange(status) {
setIsOnline(status.isOnline);
}
ChatAPI.subscribeToFriendStatus(id, handleStatusChange);
return () => {
ChatAPI.unsubscribeFromFriendStatus(id, handleStatusChange);
};
}, [id]); // id is now used as a dependency
if (isOnline === null) {
return 'Loading...';
}
return isOnline ? 'Online' : 'Offline';
}

Related

Custom hook fires every render

I want to run a callback when a component mounts, but not on each render. Using useEffect and an empty dependency array created warnings. I read on a different thread which I now can't find that this can be achieved by creating a custom hook:
import {useRef} from "react";
const useInitialise = (callback) => {
//TODO this is running every render!
const runOnce = useRef(false);
if (!runOnce.current) {
callback();
runOnce.current = true;
}
}
export default useInitialise;
Usage:
useInitialise(() => {
//callback
});
This is instead of using:
useEffect(() => {
//callback
}, []);
As this generates warnings. I understand that the hook will be called on each render, but why is the runOnce.current not preventing the callback being run twice?
Found the thread!
I should use a state to track mounted/unmounted, then useEffect to call the callback only if either mounted or callback change:
import {useEffect, useState} from "react";
const useInitialise = (callback) => {
const [mounted, setMounted] = useState(false)
useEffect(() => {
if (!mounted) {
setMounted(true);
callback();
}
}, [mounted, callback]);
}
export default useInitialise;

React use-effect [duplicate]

I'm checking if a component is unmounted, in order to avoid calling state update functions.
This is the first option, and it works
const ref = useRef(false)
useEffect(() => {
ref.current = true
return () => {
ref.current = false
}
}, [])
....
if (ref.current) {
setAnswers(answers)
setIsLoading(false)
}
....
Second option is using useState, which isMounted is always false, though I changed it to true in component did mount
const [isMounted, setIsMounted] = useState(false)
useEffect(() => {
setIsMounted(true)
return () => {
setIsMounted(false)
}
}, [])
....
if (isMounted) {
setAnswers(answers)
setIsLoading(false)
}
....
Why is the second option not working compared with the first option?
I wrote this custom hook that can check if the component is mounted or not at the current time, useful if you have a long running operation and the component may be unmounted before it finishes and updates the UI state.
import { useCallback, useEffect, useRef } from "react";
export function useIsMounted() {
const isMountedRef = useRef(true);
const isMounted = useCallback(() => isMountedRef.current, []);
useEffect(() => {
return () => void (isMountedRef.current = false);
}, []);
return isMounted;
}
Usage
function MyComponent() {
const [data, setData] = React.useState()
const isMounted = useIsMounted()
React.useEffect(() => {
fetch().then((data) => {
// at this point the component may already have been removed from the tree
// so we need to check first before updating the component state
if (isMounted()) {
setData(data)
}
})
}, [...])
return (...)
}
Live Demo
Please read this answer very carefully until the end.
It seems your component is rendering more than one time and thus the isMounted state will always become false because it doesn't run on every update. It just run once and on unmounted. So, you'll do pass the state in the second option array:
}, [isMounted])
Now, it watches the state and run the effect on every update. But why the first option works?
It's because you're using useRef and it's a synchronous unlike asynchronous useState. Read the docs about useRef again if you're unclear:
This works because useRef() creates a plain JavaScript object. The only difference between useRef() and creating a {current: ...} object yourself is that useRef will give you the same ref object on every render.
BTW, you do not need to clean up anything. Cleaning up the process is required for DOM changes, third-party api reflections, etc. But you don't need to habit on cleaning up the states. So, you can just use:
useEffect(() => {
setIsMounted(true)
}, []) // you may watch isMounted state
// if you're changing it's value from somewhere else
While you use the useRef hook, you are good to go with cleaning up process because it's related to dom changes.
This is a typescript version of #Nearhuscarl's answer.
import { useCallback, useEffect, useRef } from "react";
/**
* This hook provides a function that returns whether the component is still mounted.
* This is useful as a check before calling set state operations which will generates
* a warning when it is called when the component is unmounted.
* #returns a function
*/
export function useMounted(): () => boolean {
const mountedRef = useRef(false);
useEffect(function useMountedEffect() {
mountedRef.current = true;
return function useMountedEffectCleanup() {
mountedRef.current = false;
};
}, []);
return useCallback(function isMounted() {
return mountedRef.current;
}, [mountedRef]);
}
This is the jest test
import { render, waitFor } from '#testing-library/react';
import React, { useEffect } from 'react';
import { delay } from '../delay';
import { useMounted } from "./useMounted";
describe("useMounted", () => {
it("should work and not rerender", async () => {
const callback = jest.fn();
function MyComponent() {
const isMounted = useMounted();
useEffect(() => {
callback(isMounted())
}, [])
return (<div data-testid="test">Hello world</div>);
}
const { unmount } = render(<MyComponent />)
expect(callback.mock.calls).toEqual([[true]])
unmount();
expect(callback.mock.calls).toEqual([[true]])
})
it("should work and not rerender and unmount later", async () => {
jest.useFakeTimers('modern');
const callback = jest.fn();
function MyComponent() {
const isMounted = useMounted();
useEffect(() => {
(async () => {
await delay(10000);
callback(isMounted());
})();
}, [])
return (<div data-testid="test">Hello world</div>);
}
const { unmount } = render(<MyComponent />)
await waitFor(() => expect(callback).toBeCalledTimes(0));
jest.advanceTimersByTime(5000);
unmount();
jest.advanceTimersByTime(5000);
await waitFor(() => expect(callback).toBeCalledTimes(1));
expect(callback.mock.calls).toEqual([[false]])
})
})
Sources available in https://github.com/trajano/react-hooks-tests/tree/master/src/useMounted
This cleared up my error message, setting a return in my useEffect cancels out the subscriptions and async tasks.
import React from 'react'
const MyComponent = () => {
const [fooState, setFooState] = React.useState(null)
React.useEffect(()=> {
//Mounted
getFetch()
// Unmounted
return () => {
setFooState(false)
}
})
return (
<div>Stuff</div>
)
}
export {MyComponent as default}
If you want to use a small library for this, then react-tidy has a custom hook just for doing that called useIsMounted:
import React from 'react'
import {useIsMounted} from 'react-tidy'
function MyComponent() {
const [data, setData] = React.useState(null)
const isMounted = useIsMounted()
React.useEffect(() => {
fetchData().then((result) => {
if (isMounted) {
setData(result)
}
})
}, [])
// ...
}
Learn more about this hook
Disclaimer I am the writer of this library.
Near Huscarl solution is good, but there is problem with using these hook with react router, because if you go from example news/1 to news/2 useRef value is set to false because of unmount, but value keep false. So you need init ref value to true on each mount.
import {useRef, useCallback, useEffect} from "react";
export function useIsMounted(): () => boolean {
const isMountedRef = useRef(true);
const isMounted = useCallback(() => isMountedRef.current, []);
useEffect(() => {
isMountedRef.current = true;
return () => void (isMountedRef.current = false);
}, []);
return isMounted;
}
It's hard to know without the larger context, but I don't think you even need to know whether something has been mounted. useEffect(() => {...}, []) is executed automatically upon mounting, and you can put whatever needs to wait until mounting inside that effect.

How do I bind to an event that is raised in a hook?

Besides prop value updates in a hook, I need to bind to events that get triggered in the hook too. So the consumer of the hook can bind to the event-like addEventListner, removeEventListener. How do I do this?
What I have so far:
import {useState, useEffect} from 'react';
interface MyHookProps {
name: string;
onChange: () => void;
}
const useNameHook = () : MyHookProps => {
const [name, setName] = useState<string>('Anakin');
const onChange = () => {
}
useEffect(() => {
setTimeout(() => {
setName('Vader');
// how to a raise an onChange event here that consumers could bind to?
}, 1000);
}, []);
return {
name,
onChange,
}
}
export default function App() {
const {name, onChange} = useNameHook();
const handleHookChange = () => {
console.info('hook changed', name);
}
return (
<div className="App">
<h1>Hello {name}</h1>
</div>
);
}
I think you can refer to the 'Declarative' pattern here.
Reading this article about 'Making setInterval Declarative with React Hooks' from Dan Abramov really changed my ways of thinking about the React hooks.
https://overreacted.io/making-setinterval-declarative-with-react-hooks/
So, my attempts to make this useName hook declarative is like below:
// hooks/useName.ts
import { useEffect, useRef, useState } from "react";
type Callback = (name: string) => void;
const useName: (callback: Callback, active: boolean) => string = (
callback,
active
) => {
// "Listener"
const savedCallbackRef = useRef<Callback>();
// keep the listener fresh
useEffect(() => {
savedCallbackRef.current = callback;
}, [callback]);
// name state
const [internalState, setInternalState] = useState("anakin");
// change the name after 1 sec
useEffect(() => {
const timeoutID = setTimeout(() => {
setInternalState("vader");
}, 1000);
return () => clearTimeout(timeoutID);
}, []);
// react to the 'name change event'
useEffect(() => {
if (active) {
savedCallbackRef.current?.(internalState);
}
}, [active, internalState]);
return internalState;
};
export default useName;
and you can use this hook like this:
// App.ts
import useName from "./hooks/useName";
function App() {
const name = useName(state => {
console.log(`in name change event, ${state}`);
}, true);
return <p>{name}</p>;
}
export default App;
Note that the 'callback' runs even with the initial value ('anakin' in this case), and if you want to avoid it you may refer to this thread in SO:
Make React useEffect hook not run on initial render

Why is React useEffect clean-up function being run right after the useEffect callback, and then never again?

I have a small React app with a component that has a button that opens a small menu, and I'd like it to close the menu when the user clicks anywhere outside the component.
function setupDocumentClickEffect(onClick = (() => {})) {
console.log('Add doc click');
document.addEventListener('click', onClick);
return () => { // Clean-up
console.log('Remove doc click');
document.removeEventListener('click', onClick);
};
}
function MyComponent() {
const [open, setOpen] = useState(false);
// Set up an effect that will close the component if clicking on the document outside the component
if (open) {
const close = () => { setOpen(false); };
useEffect(setupDocumentClickEffect(close), [open]);
}
const stopProp = (event) => { event.stopPropagation(); };
const toggleOpen = () => { setOpen(!open); };
// ...
// returns an html interface that calls stopProp if clicked on the component itself,
// or toggleOpen if clicked on a specific button.
}
When the component is first opened, it will run both the callback and the cleanup immediately. Console will show: Add doc click and Remove doc click. If the component is closed and then re-opened, it acts as expected with just Add doc click, not running clean-up... but then clean-up is never run again.
I suspect I'll have to re-structure this so it doesn't use if (open), and instead runs useEffect each time? But I'm not sure why the clean-up runs the way it does.
A few things are wrong here. The first argument to a useEffect should be a callback function, which you're returning from setupDocumentClickEffect, this means that the return value of setupDocumentClickEffect(close) will just be run immediately on mount, and never again.
It should look more like this:
useEffect(() => {
if (!open) {
return;
}
console.log('Add doc click');
document.addEventListener('click', close);
return () => { // Clean-up
console.log('Remove doc click');
document.removeEventListener('click', close);
};
}, [open]);
The other thing that is wrong here is that you are breaking the rules of hooks: https://reactjs.org/docs/hooks-rules.html#only-call-hooks-at-the-top-level
You should not define a hook in a conditional.
EDIT
To elaborate on what is happening in your current useEffect, it basically boils down to if you wrote something like this:
if (open) {
const close = () => { setOpen(false); };
console.log('Add doc click');
document.addEventListener('click', close);
useEffect(() => {
console.log('Remove doc click');
document.removeEventListener('click', close);
}, [open]);
}
So you would want to throw that function inside of the useEffect() hook and avail yourself of useRef like so:
import React, { useEffect, useState, useRef } from 'react';
const MyComponent = ({ options, selected }) => {
const [open, setOpen] = useState(false);
const ref = useRef();
useEffect(() => {
const setupDocumentClickEffect = (event) => {
// this if conditional logic assumes React v17
if (ref.current && ref.current.contains(event.target)) {
return;
}
setOpen(false);
};
document.body.addEventListener('click', setupDocumentClickEffect);
return () => {
document.body.removeEventListener('click', setupDocumentClickEffect);
};
}, []);
}
So since it's a menu, I imagine you build your list via a map() function somewhere that in this example, I am calling options which is why you see it passed as props in your MyComponent and you want to render that list of options from the menu:
import React, { useEffect, useState, useRef } from 'react';
const MyComponent = ({ label, options, selected, onSelectedChange }) => {
const [open, setOpen] = useState(false);
const ref = useRef();
useEffect(() => {
const setupDocumentClickEffect = (event) => {
// this if conditional logic assumes React v17
if (ref.current && ref.current.contains(event.target)) {
return;
}
setOpen(false);
};
document.body.addEventListener('click', setupDocumentClickEffect);
return () => {
document.body.removeEventListener('click', setupDocumentClickEffect);
};
}, []);
const renderedOptions = options.map((option) => {
if (option.value === selected.value) {
return null;
}
return (
<div
key={option.value}
className="item"
onClick={() => {
onSelectedChange(option);
}}
>
{option.label}
</div>
);
});
return (
<div ref={ref} className="ui form">
// the rest of your JSX code here including
// renderedOptions below
{renderedOptions}
</div>
);
};
export default MyComponent;
So I added some props to your MyComponent and also showed you how to implement that useRef which will be important in pulling this off as well.
I suspect it's because you're calling setupDocumentClickEffect(close) immediately inside of useEffect(). Using a deferred call like useEffect(() => setupDocumentClickEffect(close), []) is what you want.
It might not break the useEffect hook, but it would be better practice to incorporate your if(open) within setupDocumentClickEffect() instead of wrapping your hook in it.

React Hook "useState" is called conditionally

React is complaining about code below, saying it useState and useEffect are being called conditionally. The code work's fine without typescript:
import React, { useState, useEffect } from "react";
const useScrollPosition = () => {
if (typeof window === "undefined") return 500;
// Store the state
const [scrollPos, setScrollPos] = useState(window.pageYOffset);
// On Scroll
const onScroll = () => {
setScrollPos(window.pageYOffset);
};
// Add and remove the window listener
useEffect(() => {
window.addEventListener("scroll", onScroll);
return () => {
window.removeEventListener("scroll", onScroll);
};
});
};
export default useScrollPosition;
You have an early return so it is being called conditionally if (typeof window === "undefined") return 500;
You need to move the hooks before the early return. For a detail explanation read this https://reactjs.org/docs/hooks-rules.html
move the return to bottom of function and pass empty array to second parameter of useEffect for exists code in the useEffect run only once time.
import React, {useState, useEffect} from "react";
const useScrollPosition = () => {
// Store the state
const [scrollPos, setScrollPos] = useState(window.pageYOffset);
// On Scroll
const onScroll = () => {
setScrollPos(window.pageYOffset);
};
// Add and remove the window listener
useEffect(() => {
window.addEventListener("scroll", onScroll);
return () => {
window.removeEventListener("scroll", onScroll);
};
}, []); // set an empty array for run once existing code in the useEffect
return typeof window === "undefined" ? return 500 : <></>; // a value must be returned
};
export default useScrollPosition;

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