React form validation still adds values - reactjs

Question

So I have a little bit of form validation going on and I am running into an issue. When I first load the web app up and try adding a value and submitting with my button it doesn't allow me and gives me the error I want to see. However, when I add a value setState occurs and then my value is pushed to UI and I try to add another blank value it works and my conditional logic of checking for an empty string before doesn't not go through what am I doing wrong?
addItem() {
let todo = this.state.input;
let todos = this.state.todos;
let id = this.state.id;
if (this.state.input == '') {
alert("enter a value");
document.getElementById('error').style.color = 'red';
document.getElementById('error').innerHTML = 'Please enter something first';
}
else {
this.setState({
todos: todos.concat(todo),
id: id + 1,
}, () => {
document.getElementById('test').value = '';
})
console.log(this.state.id);
}
}

Answer 1

You are checking this.state.input but no where in that code are you setting the input value on the state.
Try adding this where it makes sense in your application:
this.setState({ input: 'some value' });
Also, I recommend you use the state to define the application UI. So instead of using document.getElementById('error') or document.getElementById('test').value, have the UI reflect what you have in your state.
See here for more info: https://reactjs.org/docs/forms.html

Answer 2

Instead of manipulating the DOM directly:
document.getElementById('test').value = '';
you'll want to use React:
this.setState({ input: '' });
A good ground rule for React is to not manipulate the DOM directly through calls like element.value = value or element.style.color = 'red'. This is what React (& setState) is for. Read more about this on reactjs.org.

Answer 3

Before you look for the solution of your issue, I noticed that you are directly updating the DOM
Examples
document.getElementById('error').style.color = 'red';
document.getElementById('error').innerHTML = 'Please enter something first';
document.getElementById('test').value = '';
Unless you have special use case or dealing with external plugins this isn't recommended, when dealing with React you should update using the virtual DOM. https://www.codecademy.com/articles/react-virtual-dom
Pseudo code sample
constructor(props) {
this.state = {
// retain previous states in here removed for example simplicity
errorString: ''
}
}
addItem() {
let todo = this.state.input;
let todos = this.state.todos;
let id = this.state.id;
if (this.state.input == '') {
alert("enter a value");
this.setState({
errorString: 'Please enter something first'
});
}
else {
this.setState({
todos: todos.concat(todo),
id: id + 1,
input: '',
});
}
}
// notice the "error" and "test" id this could be omitted I just added this for your reference since you mentioned those in your example.
render() {
return (
<div>
{(this.state.errorString !== '') ? <div id="error" style={{color: 'red'}}>{this.state.errorString}</div> : null}
<input id="test" value={this.state.input} />
</div>
}
Every time you invoke setState React will call render with the updated state this is the summary of what is happening but there are lot of things going behind setState including the involvement of Virtual DOM.