Persist dom state on route change - reactjs

I have two components each on separate routes. I would like to know how I can keep the DOM elements in the same state on route change. For example I would like for all the DOM elements to have the same css classes applied as before the route change when navigating back to the same component.
I have tried redux persist and using nested routes with switch but none of these seem to work. From the research I have done it appears that React always mounts and unmount the component on route change and I haven't' been able to find a way to prevent this happening.
I would like for the red background color to remain when going back to test1.
class test1 extends React.Component {
constructor(props) {
super(props);
}
addClassFucn = event => {
$(event.target).parent().css("background-color", "red")
}
renderButton() {
return (
<div>
<div>
<button onClick={this.addClassFucn}>Click me</button>
<Link to="/test2" className="ui button primary back" >
test2
</Link>
</div>
</div>
)
}
render() {
return (
<div>
<div>This is test 1{this.renderButton()}</div>
</div>
);
}
}
export default test1;
class test2 extends React.Component {
constructor(props) {
super(props);
}
renderButton() {
return (
<div>
<Link to="/test1" className="ui button primary back" >
back
</Link>
</div>
)
}
render() {
return (
<div>
<div>This is test 2{this.renderButton()}</div>
</div>
);
}
}
export default test2;

It really depends on the logic of how you maintain the state of your component.
Redux persist should work. Just persist all the state that affects how the DOM currently displayed. Afterwards, inside the component, you should do a check whether there is a persisted state or not. If it is then you shouldn't do any change and just render.

You can use react's shouldComponentUpdate() which by default returns true allowing the component to re render. If useful than you can add the logic to return false which won't all the component to re-render. This is not recognized as best practice though you can refer this link for more details.

Related

Gatsby - Updating context data on page load

I am using the Gatsby layout plugin, and want to update the state in the context provider with the page that is currently displayed. I can get it to update on a button click, as shown in this code:
import ContextConsumer from "../components/Context.js"
class Portfolio extends React.Component {
constructor (props){
super(props)
this.state = {
page: "portfolio"
}
}
render(){
return (
<React.Fragment>
<ContextConsumer>
{({ data, set }) => (
<button onClick={() => set({curPage:this.state.page})}>Click</button>
)}
</ContextConsumer>
<h1>This is the portfolio page</h1>
</React.Fragment>
)
}
}
However, I want the context to be updated on page load. I have tried using an immediately invoked arrow function, but this causes an error, "Maximum update depth exceeded".
Update 10.2: This is still confusing me. I can update and read context successfully from a button click, but still can't get it to work on page load, or from a lifecycle method. If you look at this sandbox, you will see what i mean: codesandbox.io/s/thirsty-frog-ocnzl. Clicking to the about page works fine; if you then click on "changer", it updates and successfully reads the new state from the context. However, if you click to the portfolio page, where i try to update on first render, it throws a bunch of errors. Thanks again for any help.
For the benefit of anyone else struggling with this I have found one solution, which is to wrap your component in a higher order component and pass in the context data as props. Here is an example:
//This is the original component
class Portfolio extends React.Component {
constructor(props) {
super(props)
}
componentDidMount() {
this.props.set({ curPage: "portfolio" })
}
render(){
return(
<h1>This is the {this.props.data.curPage} page</h1>
);
}
}
//...and this is the component that wraps it to pass in context data as a prop.
const PortfolioWrap = () => (
<ContextConsumer>
{({ data, set }) => (
<Portfolio data={data} set={set}/>
)}
</ContextConsumer>
)

react scroll to component

I have 3 components which is my site. Each component js-file is loaded and all 3 shows on one page like this:
Topmenu
SectionOne
SectionTwo
In the Topmenu component I have a menu only. I’ve tried to setup the scrollToComponent onClick at a menu field (SectionOne). But I cannot figure out how to get it to scroll to SectionOne when clicked?
I know this.sectionOne is a ref to an internal ref, right? But how to direct it to a ref inside the “sectionOne.js” file?
I have the following inside my TopMenu.js file
onClick={() => scrollToComponent(this.sectionOne , { offset: 0, align: 'top', duration: 1500})}
To forward the ref to somewhere inside the component, you can use the logic of forwardRef.
This means that we create the ref in the parent component and pass the same to the component which passes it down to DOM element inside it.
class App extends React.Component {
constructor(props) {
super(props);
this.section1 = React.createRef();
this.section2 = React.createRef();
this.scrollToContent = this.scrollToContent.bind(this);
}
scrollToContent(content) {
switch(content) {
case 1:
this.section1.current.scrollIntoView({behavior: 'smooth'});
break;
case 2:
this.section2.current.scrollIntoView({behavior: 'smooth'});
}
}
render() {
return (
<main>
<Menu goTo={this.scrollToContent} />
<div className='main'>
<Section1 ref={this.section1} />
<Section2 ref={this.section2} />
</div>
</main>
);
}
}
and then, inside Section1,
const Section1 = React.forwardRef((props, ref)=>{
return (
<section ref={ref} className='section'>
<p>Section 1</p>
</section>
);
});
You can see a working sample here
I'm not using scroll-to-component package, but the same thing applies.
Forward Refs are supported only in React 16.3 now, you can use this alternative approach if you need the feature in lower versions.

React rerenders whole component when its properties change

Let's consider the following sample:
import React, {Component} from 'react';
class B extends Component {
render() {
console.log(`Render runs with ${this.props.paramA}`);
return (<div>{this.props.paramA}</div> );
}
}
class App extends Component {
constructor() {
super();
this.state = {paramA: 'asd'};
}
handleChange(event) {
this.setState({paramA: event.target.value});
}
render() {
return (<div>
<input value={this.state.paramA} onChange={e => this.handleChange(e)}/>
<label>
<B paramA={this.state.paramA}></B>
</label>
</div>);
}
}
Here's the gif of how it works.
If you noted, in order to update the changes from properties, react needs to evaluate "render" method. That causes the whole component to update instead of its small part that really changed (check the gif, the div element blinks in chrome developer tools):
TL;DR According to react philosophy,apps should be written in a way to have as many dummy components as possible. That means we have to pass properties a few level down sometimes (other time we can use e.g. redux), which leads to a lot of render methods that evaluate every time the property of top level component changes. With all that being said I often see in the real life react application that a whole root div blinks when e.g. users types something into input. Well even if it's a browser "lag" I don't really like the idea that react reevaluates all components (meaning running their render method) when a component needs to update only its small part.
The question:
Am I doing something wrong? Is there a way to implement react component so they update only things that changed?
It sounds like you're looking for the shouldComponentUpdate lifecycle hook.
Pretty self explanatory; if the component should only re-render under specific prop/state changes, you can specify those in this hook, and return false otherwise.
In this case, React is not rerendering the entire component but the first parent of the dynamic part of them. In this case, the <div> is the parent (and the entire component so you're right), but in this fiddle wrapping {this.props.paramA} inside a paragraph tag, the <div> is not the direct parent, so just rerenders <p> tag and <div> does not need to update.
class B extends React.Component {
render() {
console.log(`Render runs with ${this.props.paramA}`);
return (<div><p>{this.props.paramA}</p></div> );
}
}
class App extends React.Component {
constructor() {
super();
this.state = {paramA: 'asd'};
}
handleChange(event) {
this.setState({paramA: event.target.value});
}
render() {
return (<div>
<input value={this.state.paramA} onChange={e => this.handleChange.bind(this)(e)}/>
<label>
<B paramA={this.state.paramA} />
</label>
</div>);
}
};
ReactDOM.render(
<App />,
document.getElementById('container')
);
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/react/15.1.0/react.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/react/15.1.0/react-dom.min.js"></script>
<div id="container"></div>

Render a component when another component is clicked

I want to render BlackSpark when RedSpark is clicked, but I'm not sure how to change the state of a component in another component. I know how to set state in the component itself, but how do I affect another component when I click a different component?
class BlackSpark extends React.Component {
render() {
return (
<div className="black"></div>
);
}
}
class RedSpark extends React.Component {
render() {
return (
<div className="red"></div>
);
}
}
class App extends React.Component {
render() {
return (
<div>
<BlackSpark />
<RedSpark />
</div>
);
}
}
In React, there's a concept of component composition as you've already embraced -- it allows you to accomplish what you want by rendering children based on the parent's state, another key concept known as lifting state up. What this means, is if you have mutually dependent components, create a single parent which composes them, and have state in the parent control the presentation and logic of the children. With the parent App, you can keep your state inside App, and based on App's state, conditionally render whatever you want -- either BlackSpark or both. For example, using the logical && operator:
{condition && <Component />}
This will only render <Component> when condition is truthy, or else it will not render anything at all (except for when condition is 0). Applying it to this situation, try adding state to your App component to utilize conditional rendering.
There's another key concept you need to understand: component props. They are essentially inputs to a component, certain properties passed to the component to tell how it should behave -- like attributes on regular HTML elements such as input placeholders, URLs, and event handlers. For example:
<Component foo="bar" bar={3} />
This will pass the props foo and bar down to Component with the values "bar" and 3 respectively and are accessible through this.props. If you were to access this.props.foo inside the Component component it would give you "bar". If you pair this up with composition, you can accomplish what you want:
class Example extends React.Component {
constructor() {
super();
this.state = {
showHello: true
}
this.handleChange = this.handleChange.bind(this);
}
handleChange() {
this.setState(prevState => ({
showHello: !prevState.showHello
}));
}
render() {
return (
<div>
{this.state.showHello && <Child2 />}
This is a test.
<Child1 onClick={this.handleChange} />
</div>
);
}
}
class Child1 extends React.Component {
render() {
return <div onClick={this.props.onClick}>Click me!</div>
}
}
class Child2 extends React.Component {
render() {
return <div>Hello!</div>
}
}
ReactDOM.render(<Example />, document.getElementById('root'));
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/react/15.1.0/react.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/react/15.1.0/react-dom.min.js"></script>
<div id="root"></div>
The above example lifts state up by having a parent compose the children and maintain the state. It then uses props to pass down an onClick handler to Child1, so that whenever Child1 is clicked, the state of the parent changes. Once the state of the parent changes, it will use conditional rendering to render <Child2> if the condition is truthy. Further reading at the React documentation and on the logical && operator.
I know how to set state in the component itself, but how do I affect another component when I click a different component?
The recommended way to do it would be to create a parent component that has the state. You'd then use that state to determine when to render the other child component.
I want to render BlackSpark when RedSpark is clicked, but I'm not sure how to change the state of a component in another component. Also, what if I want to hide BlackSpark when GreenSpark is clicked and GreenSpark is inside BlackSpark?
In this case, here's how you'd do it.
const GreenSpark = ({ onClick }) => (
<button className="green" onClick={onClick}>X</button>
)
const BlackSpark = ({ onClick }) => (
<div className="black">
<GreenSpark onClick={onClick} />
</div>
)
const RedSpark = ({ onClick }) => (
<div className="red" onClick={onClick}></div>
)
class Spark extends React.Component {
constructor(props) {
super(props)
this.state = {
showBlack: false
}
this.boundShowBlack = this.showBlack.bind(this)
this.boundHideBlack = this.hideBlack.bind(this)
}
showBlack() {
this.setState({ showBlack: true })
}
hideBlack() {
this.setState({ showBlack: false })
}
render() {
return (
<div>
<RedSpark onClick={this.boundShowBlack} />
{this.state.showBlack && <BlackSpark onClick={this.boundHideBlack} />}
</div>
)
}
}

How to access elements rendered in another React component?

I have an app that looks roughly like this:
class App extends React.Component {
render(){
var ComponentTwo = this.props.getComponentTwo();
return (
<div>
<ComponentOne />
{ComponentTwo ? <ComponentTwo /> : []}
</div>
);
}
}
The ComponentTwo is not always the same component class and sometimes it needs to interact with ComponentOne - namely - select certain elements from it and attach some listeners to them.
I want this functionality to come with ComponentTwo because it's only needed when ComponentTwo is loaded and it comes with a lot of code.
What are the best practice to allow one component to dynamically extend another sibling component?
I believe that the correct way to implement such a scenario in React is to change state of the App component after some action in ComponentTwo and then pass state changes to ComponentOne:
onComponentTwoAction: function(someValueFromAction) {
this.setState({
componentOneProp: someValueFromAction
});
},
render: function(){
var ComponentTwo = this.props.getComponentTwo();
return (
<div>
<ComponentOne componentOneProp={this.state.componentOneProp}/>
{ComponentTwo ? <ComponentTwo onAction={this.onComponentTwoAction}/> : []}
</div>
);
}

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