Posting changed form field values in React - reactjs

Question

I have a form which is passed a value through props, and submits to an endpoint to update a users information. However, I'm unable to send an edited value of the text input field, as its state needs to be managed and updated when a user changes its value, but having trouble setting/updating the state of the input when the user changes the value, allowing a different value to be posted.
class DisplayNameModal extends React.Component {
constructor (props){
super(props)
this.state = {
displayName: this.props.displayName,
email: this.props.email.split('#')[0]
}
this.updateDisplayName = this.updateDisplayName.bind(this)
}
updateDisplayName () {
const email = this.props.email
const displayName = this.state.displayName
const user = {
email,
displayName
}
superagent
.put('/api/user')
.send({user})
.then(this.closeModal)
}
handleDisplayNameChange = e => this.setState({ displayName: e.target.value })
render (props) {
const {contentStrings} = this.props.config
return (
<div>
{ !this.props.displayNameModalActive &&
<div className='display-name-container' style={{ backgroundImage: `url(${this.props.bgImgUrl})` }}>
<div className='display-name-content'>
<h2 className='heading'>{contentStrings.displayNameModal.heading}</h2>
<p>{contentStrings.displayNameModal.subHeading}</p>
<input type="text"
defaultValue={this.state.displayName}
onChange={this.handleDisplayNameChange}
minLength="3"
maxLength="15"/>
<button
type='submit'
onClick={this.updateDisplayName}
className='btn btn--primary btn--md'>
<span>{contentStrings.displayNameModal.button}</span>
</button>
<p className='cancel'>{contentStrings.displayNameModal.cancel}</p>
</div>
</div>
}
</div>
)
}
}
export default DisplayNameModal

Answer 1

I think you need an onChange on your <input /> to update displayName on component state.
handleDisplayNameChange = e => this.setState({ displayName: e.target.value });
<input type="text"
value={this.state.displayName}
minLength="3"
maxLength="15"
onChange={this.handleDisplayNameChange}
/>
and instead of defaultValue, use value to make it a controlled input
So then in your updateDisplayName, you would use this.state.displayName instead of this.props.displayName. The prop is just being used to set the initial component state value, allowing it to be edited.

Answer 2

onChange event, call a method, and inside it use this.setState to set the changed text to state as you type in Input box.
On submit, use the updated State value to pass it to the API.
In this way, you can maintain updated value in local state.

Answer 3

You are using uncontrolled input element, ie React doesnt know, wats going on with ur input element.
In order, for React to know about it, it hould be made controlled component.
This can be done by connecting it value to the the state of the component,
Check example below.
This means, that at any time, react will know, wat is the value of the input element
Controlled Components
In HTML, form elements such as , , and typically maintain their own state and update it based on user input. In React, mutable state is typically kept in the state property of components, and only updated with setState().
We can combine the two by making the React state be the “single source of truth”. Then the React component that renders a form also controls what happens in that form on subsequent user input. An input form element whose value is controlled by React in this way is called a “controlled component”.
For example, if we want to make the previous example log the name when it is submitted, we can write the form as a controlled component:
class NameForm extends React.Component {
constructor(props) {
super(props);
this.state = {value: ''};
this.handleChange = this.handleChange.bind(this);
this.handleSubmit = this.handleSubmit.bind(this);
}
handleChange(event) {
this.setState({value: event.target.value});
}
handleSubmit(event) {
alert('A name was submitted: ' + this.state.value);
event.preventDefault();
}
render() {
return (
<form onSubmit={this.handleSubmit}>
<label>
Name:
<input type="text" value={this.state.value} onChange={this.handleChange} />
</label>
<input type="submit" value="Submit" />
</form>
);
}
}
Since the value attribute is set on our form element, the displayed value will always be this.state.value, making the React state the source of truth. Since handleChange runs on every keystroke to update the React state, the displayed value will update as the user types.
With a controlled component, every state mutation will have an associated handler function. This makes it straightforward to modify or validate user input. For example, if we wanted to enforce that names are written with all uppercase letters, we could write handleChange as:
handleChange(event) {
this.setState({value: event.target.value.toUpperCase()});
}