We are experiencing some frustrating issues with React.
We have a form, consisting from a search form and a search result list.
As seen below in the code. filter and content.
Whenever the user types in the search field, there is a debounce and a call to a rest service.
The result then populates the search result (content)
Even with as little as 15 items in the list, this is insanely slow.
it takes about 300 ms per update.
In production mode, there is no issue. only in dev mode.
Also, removing propTypes makes it much faster but still slow.
We can see that the ContactSearchResultLayout is being rendered 3 times per keystroke, while it really just should care about the result of the rest call.
What are our best bets here?
is the container component kind of pattern here wrong for our usecase, does it mean that if something in the SearchPageLayout props changes, the entire list will also be re-rendered?
We have a version that pretty much bypass React and just render item by item as they come in from the service call.
Which is super fast, but on the other hand, much less maintainable.
Is there some idiomatic way to make this work with React?
<SearchPageLayout
filter={
<ContactSearchForm
allTeams={allTeams}
allAreasOfExp={allAreasOfExp}
allResponsiblePeople={allResponsiblePeople}
allTags={allTags}
detailed={props.searchFormExpanded}
onSearchFieldBlur={() => props.setSearchFormExpanded(false)}
onSearchFieldFocus={() => props.setSearchFormExpanded(true)}
/>
}
content={
<ContactSearchResultLayout //<-- this rerenders too often
items={items.map(item => (
<ContactCard
key={item.PersonId}
areasOfExpertise={item.AreasOfExperise}
cellPhone={item.CellPhone}
city={item.City}
One reason for this as I see it, is that items is the result of a map operation and thus, causes a new array of components to be generated.
But how do we bypass this?
Thoughts?
Anonymous function will get rendered each time.
I'll create another method for creating the items:
getItems() {
return (
items.map(item => (
<ContactCard
key={item.PersonId}
areasOfExpertise={item.AreasOfExperise}
cellPhone={item.CellPhone}
city={item.City}
/>
)
)
}
<ContactSearchResultLayout
items={this.getItems()}
/>
How to check if props change and if you should re-render the code:
you can use react "shouldComponentUpdate"
https://reactjs.org/docs/react-component.html#shouldcomponentupdate
componentWillUpdate(nextProps, nextState) {
//here you can compare your current state and props
// with the next state and props
// be sure to return boolean to decide to render or not
}
Related
I have a long list of items that includes an input field on each item. The value of each input field is set as follows (in simplified form):
const [state, setState] = React.useState({
value: ''
});
function handleChange (value) {
setState({value: value});
}
<input value={state.value} onChange={(e) => {handleChange(e.target.value)}} />
This works fine for one input, but starts to slow down significantly when there are lots of items in my list. That is, there is a noticeable delay when the user types in the input field. Is there a better way to handle state changes like this to make it more performant?
This is normal, rendering a large set of components will not go in a flash: React will need time to loop through all your components to render them. Please note that dev mode is much slower because react does a lot of checks that are not done in dev mode.
To solve your problem, I recommend one of the following methods:
Paginate your items, render only a few items in an infinite scroll list.
The state change of inputs should be in the inputs and the whole tree should not be rendered each time.
Defer the render of your components. There is a package called react-defer-renderer that orchestrates the deferring of trees and could potentially help in your case.
I'm trying to create a stepper form
I store my steps in an array of json with a proprety component ({typeOfComponent, component, key})
It works wells, but:
Everytime i slice my array, like when i move up/down a step or add a new step between two steps.
I lose the states inside my component.
I tried to use memo, i don't understand why it's only when an item position my composent is recreate. Is it possible like a pointer in C to store only his "adress"
the code sandbox exemple =>
https://codesandbox.io/s/infallible-maxwell-zkwbm?file=/src/App.js
In my real projet, the button ADD is a button for chosing the new step type
Is there any solution for manipulates my steps without losing the user data inside ?
Thanks for your help
React is re-mounting the components inside of this every re-render probably due to a variety of reasons. I couldn't get it to work as is, but by lifting the state up from your components, it will work.
You'd likely need to lift the state up anyway because the data isn't where you need it to be to make any use of your form when the user is done with it.
In order to lift the state up, I added the current value to the steps array:
function addNext(step, index) {
componentKey++;
setSteps(prevState => {
let newState = [...prevState];
step = 1;
newState.splice(index + 1, 0, {
stepNumber: step,
component: getStepContent(step, componentKey),
value: getDefaultValue(step),
key: componentKey
});
return newState;
});
}
I also made sure your getStepContent just returned the component rather than a node so you can render it like this:
<step.component
value={step.value}
onChange={handleChange}
data-index={i}
/>
There are definitely a lot of ways to optimize this if you start running into performance issues, of course.
https://codesandbox.io/s/beautiful-river-2jltr?file=/src/App.js
Before we go any further: Redux or Flux is out of the question, not enough time to learn and properly test/implement/document
Here is my top level component. The problem is that I need a way to store state for the children, but they aren't being rendered here hence the need for restructuring.
-- Both of these are in the render/return functions of my top level component
<SideNav {...tab_props} {...this.props} />
...
{React.cloneElement(this.props.children, { callback: this.callback.bind(this) })}
I am seeking advice on how to best redesign our front-end with the primary goal of minimizing requests, and ultimately cacheing needed data in state somewhere in the app. Thoughts?
So, after much searching and research I stumbled on an awesome blog post that covers exactly what I need and it turns out I don't need to do the major restructuring that I initially thought was necessary.
Link > Blog Post
So, what I am going to do is pretty simple. React.cloneElement is going to be used here. I will be mapping through all of the children, which are being rendered based on the URL (using react-router), and passing to them the state as well as some callback functions (not created yet for this use-case)
Would look something like this, I also tested it and it works!
render() {
let childWithState = React.Children.map(this.props.children, (child) => {
return React.cloneElement(child, {state: this.state, callback: this.setParentState})
})
...
return(
{childWithState}
)
}
So, now from any of these children elements, I only need to call on this.props.state.--insert-something-- and I have access to is. If it doesn't exist, I can run my fetch request, and then in a callback function set the state in the parent, which would immediately re-render my component and give me access to the parent state!
I have the following code in my render method:
render() {
return (
<div>
{this.props.spatulaReady.ready() ? <p>{this.props.spatula.name}</p> : <p>loading spatula</p>}
</div>
)
}
Which according to my understanding, checks if the subscriptionhandle is ready (data is there) and displays it. If no data is available, it should display a simple loading message. However, when I first load the page this snippet is on, it get's stuck on the loading part. On a page reload the data (usually) displays fine.
If I check the spatulaReady.ready() when the page first loads and while the display is stuck on 'loading spatula', and the data that should be there, the handle reports as ready and the data is there like it is supposed to be. If I refresh the page it all displays fine as well. The problem is, this way of checking for data and rendering if it has arrived has worked fine for me in the past. Is it because the render method is not reactive? Because handle.ready() should be reactive.
What makes it even weirder is that it sometimes DOES correctly display the data on page load, seemingly at random.
CreateContainer code:
export default createContainer(props => {
return {
user: Meteor.user(),
spatulaReady: Meteor.subscribe('spatula.byId', props.deviceId),
spatula: SpatulaCollection.findOne()
}
}, SpatulaConfig)
Publication code:
Meteor.publish('spatula.byId', function(deviceId) {
const ERROR_MESSAGE = 'Error while obtaining spatula by id'
if (!this.userId) //Check for login
throw new Meteor.Error('Subscription denied!')
const spatula = SpatulaCollection.findOne({_id: deviceId})
if(!spatula) //No spatula by this id
throw new Meteor.Error(403, ERROR_MESSAGE)
if(spatula.ownedBy != this.userId) //Spatula does not belong to this user
throw new Meteor.Error(403, ERROR_MESSAGE)
return SpatulaCollection.find({_id: deviceId})
})
I know I'm missing a piece of the puzzle here, but I've been unsuccessful at finding it. If you don't know the solution to my specific problem, pointing me in the right direction with another way of waiting for the data to arrive before displaying it is also greatly appreciated.
EDIT: After doing some trial-and-error and reading various other posts somewhat related to my project, I figured out the solution:
export default createContainer(props => {
const sHandle= Meteor.subscribe('spatula.byId', props.deviceId)
return {
user: Meteor.user(),
spatulaReady: sHandle.ready(),
spatula: SpatulaCollection.findOne()
}
}, SpatulaConfig)
It still makes no sense to me that moving the ready() call to create container fixed all my problems though.
As you figured out, moving the .ready() call to createContainer fixes the problem. This is because Meteor reactivity only works when you call a reactive data source (a reactive function), such as collection.find() or subscriptionHandle.ready() within a reactive context, such as Tracker.autorun or createContainer. Functions within the React component, including render, are not reactive contexts from Meteor's perspective.
Note that React and Meteor reactivity are two different things. React's reactivity works simply so that whenever a component's props or state change, it's render function is re-run. It does not understand anything about Meteor's reactive data sources. Since createContainer (that is re-run by Meteor reactivity when reactive data sources in it change) simply passes props to the underlying component, the component is re-rendered by React when the props given from createContainer change.
As I get further into implementing redux + react into a fairly complex app which depends on many API requests to load a single page, I'm having trouble deciding whether it's better to have a single container component at the root of the page which handles all async stuff and passes props down to dumb components, v.s. having multiple container components which concern themselves only with the data they need, as well as fetching the data they need. I've gone back and forth between these two patterns and found that they each have pros/cons:
If I put a single container component at the top:
pro: All isFetching props and fetchSomeDependency() actions can be handled in one place.
con: the downside which is really annoying is that I find myself having to forward props and callbacks through multiple components, and certain components in the middle of the tree end up being tied up to this.
Here's a visual example of the issue that shows the relationships required props-wise:
<MyContainer
data={this.props.data}
isFetchingData={this.props.isFetchingData}
fetchData={this.props.fetchData}
>
{!isFetchingData &&
<MyModal
someData={props.data}
fetchData={props.fetchData}
>
<MyModalContent
someData={props.data}
fetchData={props.fetchData}
>
<SomethingThatDependsOnData someData={props.someData} />
<SomeButtonThatFetchesData onClick={props.fetchData} />
</MyModalContent>
</MyModal>
}
</MyContainer>
As you can see, <MyModal /> and <MyModalContent /> now need to be concerned with props that have nothing to do with it, seeing as a modal should be able to be re-used and only be concerned with stylistic qualities of a modal.
At first the above seemed great but once I got to 100+ components it all felt very tangled, and I found the complexity of these top-level container components to be too high for my liking, seeing as most of them (in the app I'm working on) depend on responses from 3+ API requests.
Then I decided to try multiple containers:
pro: Completely removes the need to forward props. It still makes sense to do it in some cases, but it's a lot more flexible.
pro: Way easier to refactor. I'm surprised at how I can significantly move around and refactor components without anything breaking, whereas in the other pattern things broke a lot.
pro: The complexity of each container component is much less. My mapStateToProps and mapDispatchToProps is more specific to the purpose of the component it's in.
con: Any component that depends on async stuff will always need to handle isFetching state in itself. This adds complexity that is not necessary in the pattern where its handled in a single container component.
So the main dilemma is that if I use one container, I get this un-necessary complexity in components between the root container and the leaf components. If I use multiple containers, I get more complexity in the leaf components, and end up with buttons that need to worry about isFetching even though a button should not be concerned about that.
I'd like to know if anyone has found a way to avoid both cons, and if so, what is the "rule of thumb" you follow to avoid this?
Thanks!
The way I have always seen it is to have your containers at the top most component of a logical components group other than your root/app component.
So if we have a simple search app that display results and lets assume the component heiarchy is such
<Root> <- setup the app
<App>
<Search/> <- search input
<Results/> <- results table
</App>
</Root>
I would make Search and Results redux aware containers. Because react component are suppose to be composable. You might have other components or pages that need display Results or Search. If you delegate the data fetch and store awareness to the root or app component, it make the components become dependent on each other/app. This make it harder down the line when you have to implement changes, now you have to change all the places that use them.
The exception to this is probably if you do have really tightly coupled logic between components. Even then, I would say then you should create a container that wraps your tightly coupled components since they won't be abled to be used realistically without each other.
Redux author Dan Abramov suggests that you use container components when you need them. That is, once you get to have too many props wiring up and down between components it's time to use containers.
He calls it an "ongoing process of refactoring".
See this article: https://medium.com/#dan_abramov/smart-and-dumb-components-7ca2f9a7c7d0
I wouldn't even consider using a single container approach. It pretty much entirely negates all advantages of redux. There is no need whatsoever to have a state management system if all your state is in one place and all your callbacks are in one place (root component).
I think there's a thin line to walk, though. I'm making an app where I've been at it for about 5 weeks (part time) and it's up to 3000 lines right now. It has 3 levels of view nesting, a routing mechanism i implemented myself, and components that are 10+ levels of nesting deep that need to modify state. I basically have one redux container for each big screen and it works marvelously.
However, if I click on my "clients" view, I get a clients listing which is fine, since my clients view is inside a redux container and gets the list of clients passed as props. However, when I click on one client, I'm really hesitant to do another redux container for the individual client's profile since it's only one additional level of passing props. It seems that depending on the scope of the app, you might want to pass props up to 1-2 levels past the redux container and if it's any more than that, then just create another redux container. Then again, if it's an even more complex app, then the mixing of sometimes using redux containers and some other times not using them could be even worse for maintainability. In short, my opinion is trying to minimize redux containers wherever possible but definitely not at the expense of complex prop chains, since that's the main point of using redux to begin with.
So it's been over 2 years since I've posted this question, and this whole time
I have been consistently working with React/Redux. My general rule of thumb now
is the following: Use more containers, but try to write components in such a way where they don't need to know about isFetching.
For example, here is a typical example of how I would have built a to-do list before:
function Todos({ isFetching, items }) {
if (isFetching) return <div>Loading...</div>
return (
<ul>
{items.map(item =>
<li key={item.id}>...</li>
)}
</ul>
)
}
Now I would do something more like:
function Todos({ items }) {
if (!items.length) return <div>No items!</div>
return (
<ul>
{items.map(item =>
<li key={item.id}>...</li>
)}
</ul>
)
}
This way, you only have to connect the data, and the component has no concerns about states of asynchronous API calls.
Most things can be written this way. I rarely need isFetching, but when I do it is typically because:
I need to prevent, for example, a submit button from being clicked a second time, which makes an API call, in which case the prop should probably be called disableSubmit rather than isFetching, or
I want to explicitly show a loader when something is waiting for an asynchronous response.
Now, you might think, "wouldn't you want to show a loader when items are being fetched in the above todos example?" but in practice, actually I wouldn't.
The reason for this is that in the above example, let's say you were polling for new todos, or when you add a todo, you "refetch" the todos. What would happen in the first example is that every time this happened, the todos would disappear and get replaced with "Loading..." frequently.
However, in the second example that is not concerned with isFetching, the new items are simply appended/removed. This is much better UX in my opinion.
In fact, before posting this, I went through all the UI code for an exchange interface I wrote which is quite complex and did not find a single instance of having to connect isFetching to a container component that I wrote.
You don't have to dispatch AND load your state in the same place.
In other words, your button can dispatch the async request, while another component can check if you're loading.
So for example:
// < SomeButtonThatFetchesData.js>
const mapDispatchToProps = (dispatch) => ({
onLoad: (payload) =>
dispatch({ type: DATA_LOADED, payload })
});
You'll need to have some middleware to handle a loading state. It needs to update isFetching when you're passing an async payload.
For example:
const promiseMiddleware = store => next => action => {
if (isPromise(action.payload)) {
store.dispatch({ type: ASYNC_START, subtype: action.type });
Then you can use it wherever you want:
// <MyContainer.js>
const mapStateToProps = (state) => ({
isFetching: state.isFetching
});
And load the data in your inner nested component:
// <SomethingThatDependsOnData.js>
const mapStateToProps = (state) => ({
someData: state.someData
});