React: What Controls Value of this.props.loading? - reactjs

I have several React containers and components running perfectly, but I'm still studying and learning React. When my function componentDidMount runs in a new component I'm working on, it appears that all the data my component needs is available to the component, but this.props.loading is set to true;
componentDidMount() {
const a = 100; //breakpoint here
if (this.props.loading === false){
const {myDataID} = this.props;
this.fromID = Meteor.userId();
this.toID = myDataID;
this.subscribe(fromID, toID);
}
}
What controls the value in this.props.loading? Will componentDidMount run again if this.props.loading is set to false?

The prop, this.props.loading is set by the parent component. If you feel your component has all the necessary data to perform a render you don't need to check if this.props.loading is true or false. It's a good practice to have this check because some times due to network errors you might not get the data you needed. This will break your code.
componentDidMount will only be called once after the render function is done
Invoked once, both on the client and server, immediately before the initial rendering occurs. If you call setState within this method, render() will see the updated state and will be executed only once despite the state change.
But, when you change the loading prop in the parent, componentWillReceiveProps will be called with the nexProp, which is your change.
For more info, check here

What controls the value in this.props.loading?
The component that is rendering that component. I.e. if this componentDidMount method is in a component Bar, and in Foo's render method:
render() {
return <Bar loading={computeLoadingState()} />
}
Every time Foo is rerendered, Bar is potentially passed new value for loading.
Will componentDidMount run again if this.props.loading is set to false?
No. The documentation says:
Invoked once, only on the client (not on the server), immediately after the initial rendering occurs.
Other methods however are invoked whenever props change.

Related

Can't perform a React State update on unMounted child component?

Am getting this warning:
Can't perform a React state update on unmounted component. This is a no-op...
It results from a child component and I can't figure out how to make it go away.
Please note that I have read many other posts about why this happens, and understand the basic issue. However, most solutions suggest cancelling subscriptions in a componentWillUnmount style function (I'm using react hooks)
I don't know if this points to some larger fundamental misunderstanding I have of React,but here is essentially what i have:
import React, { useEffect, useRef } from 'react';
import Picker from 'emoji-picker-react';
const MyTextarea = (props) => {
const onClick = (event, emojiObject) => {
//do stuff...
}
const isMountedRef = useRef(true);
useEffect(() => {
isMountedRef.current = true;
});
useEffect(() => {
return () => {
console.log('will unmount');
isMountedRef.current = false;
}
});
return (
<div>
<textarea></textarea>
{ isMountedRef.current ? (
<Picker onEmojiClick={onClick}/>
):null
}
</div>
);
};
export default MyTextarea;
(tl;dr) Please note:
MyTextarea component has a parent component which is only rendered on a certain route.
Theres also a Menu component that once clicked, changes the route and depending on the situation will either show MyTextarea's parent component or show another component.
This warning happens once I click the Menu to switch off MyTextarea's parent component.
More Context
Other answers on StackOverflow suggest making changes to prevent state updates when a component isn't mounted. In my situation, I cannot do that because I didn't design the Picker component (rendered by MyTextarea). The Warning originates from this <Picker onEmojiClick={onClick}> line but I wouldn't want to modify this off-the-shelf component.
That's explains my attempt to either render the component or not based on the isMountedRef. However this doesn't work either. What happens is the component is either rendered if i set useRef(true), or it's never rendered at all if i set useRef(null) as many have suggested.
I'm not exactly sure what your problem actually is (is it that you can't get rid of the warning or that the <Picker> is either always rendering or never is), but I'll try to address all the problems I see.
Firstly, you shouldn't need to conditionally render the <Picker> depending on whether MyTextArea is mounted or not. Since components only render after mounting, the <Picker> will never render if the component it's in hasn't mounted.
That being said, if you still want to keep track of when the component is mounted, I'd suggest not using hooks, and using componentDidMount and componentWillUnmount with setState() instead. Not only will this make it easier to understand your component's lifecycle, but there are also some problems with the way you're using hooks.
Right now, your useRef(true) will set isMountedRef.current to true when the component is initialized, so it will be true even before its mounted. useRef() is not the same as componentDidMount().
Using 'useEffect()' to switch isMountedRef.current to true when the component is mounted won't work either. While it will fire when the component is mounted, useEffect() is for side effects, not state updates, so it doesn't trigger a re-render, which is why the component never renders when you set useRef(null).
Also, your useEffect() hook will fire every time your component updates, not just when it mounts, and your clean up function (the function being returned) will also fire on every update, not just when it unmounts. So on every update, isMountedRef.current will switch from true to false and back to true. However, none of this matters because the component won't re-render anyways (as explained above).
If you really do need to use useEffect() then you should combine it into one function and use it to update state so that it triggers a re-render:
const [isMounted, setIsMounted] = useState(false); // Create state variables
useEffect(() => {
setIsMounted(true); // The effect and clean up are in one function
return () => {
console.log('will unmount');
setIsMounted(false);
}
}, [] // This prevents firing on every update, w/o it you'll get an infinite loop
);
Lastly, from the code you shared, your component couldn't be causing the warning because there are no state updates anywhere in your code. You should check the picker's repo for issues.
Edit: Seems the warning is caused by your Picker package and there's already an issue for it https://github.com/ealush/emoji-picker-react/issues/142

Relations setState and child component

I made some app to get asynchronously data from remote server.
The app just parent component - to get data, and two child components.
One child component for display asynchronous data.
Other child for filter functionality. Just input string where user typing and data in first component display appropriate items.
There are a lot code with console.log everywhere, but in simple scheme it:
class App extends Component {
state = {isLoading:true, query:''}
getData = (location) => {
axios.get(endPoint).then(response=>{ response.map((item) => { places.push(item)})
// ***** first setState
this.setState({isLoading:false})
})
}
updateQuery = (e) => {
// ***** second setState
this.setState({query:e.target.value.trim()})
}
componentDidMount(){
this.getData(location)
}
render() {
if (!this.state.isLoading){
if (this.state.query){
const match = new RegExp(escapeRegExp(this.state.query),'i')
searchTitles = places.filter(function(item){return match.test(item.name)})
}else{
searchTitles = places.slice();
}
}
return (
<div className="App">
<input type='text' onChange={this.updateQuery} value={this.state.query}/>
<List places = {searchTitles}/>
</div>
);
}
}
export default App;
When state change in case of using everything is OK - content refreshed in next child component.
But child component that display data - some items not full of content... no photos and some text information. So probably its rendered before getting remote data.
But why its not re-render it after state.isLoad toggled to 'false' (in code - after got response) ?
I put among code console.log to track processes ... and weird things: state.isLoad switched to false before some part of data came from server. (((
I dont use ShouldComponentUpdate() inside child component.
Per React's documentation for setState
setState() will always lead to a re-render unless
shouldComponentUpdate() returns false.
As mentioned, one way to avoid a re-render is shouldComponentUpdate returning false (shouldComponentUpdate takes in nextProps and nextState) but it's not clear why someone would trigger a state change with setState and then nullify that state change with shouldComponentUpdate.

Is it possible to control a child component in react if the parent component render many times?

I am working on the issue regarding parent component render twice and child component also render twice. the existing code for the parent is
<childform
value ="name"
serverapi={this.valueservice.api}
update={this.update}
/>
the child component start render using
componentDidMount()
{
this.callservice(serverapi)
}
since its componentDidMount function called twice, the API also render twice which has to be avoided, each time the parent render the child's state is been refreshed so I cannot compare with the state, is it possible anyway to check or solution to this issue that I can refer? that resolves how many time I call the parent it call the API once
It seems that the update prop you are passing to childform is a boolean indicating whether or not the component should rerender. If that is the case you can use the shouldComponentUpdate() lifecycle method the to check if there is an update and only rerender when true:
shouldComponentUpdate(nextProps, nextState) {
//You can perform more logic here such as
//return this.props.update === nextProps.update
return nextProps.update;
}
You can find more information here:
https://reactjs.org/docs/react-component.html#shouldcomponentupdate
You can have a global variable called cache.
What this cache do is to check if your_awesome_api is called before.
This code below is a common approach:
// cache.js
let cache = {};
export default cache;
// someComponent.js
import cache from './cache';
// ...ignore some react component code...
componentDidMount() {
if (cache['your_awesome_api']) {
doSomething(cache['your_awesome_api'])
} else {
this.callservice(your_awesome_api).then(result => {
cache['your_awesome_api'] = result
})
}
}
This way, you don't need to worry about re-rendering problem ever!
Re-rendering in react is really common!

Why in React componentWillReceiveprops fires before setState() in componentDidMount?

I have been programming with React for a while now but I have never faced this annoying issue, in one of my components componentWillReceiveProps fires before setState() in componentDidMount gets executed. This causes several issues in my application.
I have a variable this.props.flag received from props which is going to be stored in the state of the component:
componentDidMount() {
if (!_.isEmpty(this.props.flag)) {
console.log('Flag Did:', this.props.flag);
this.setState({
flag: this.props.flag
},
() => doSomething()
);
}
In my componentWillReceiveProps method the variable this.state.flag is going to be replaced just if it is empty or if it different from the value of this.props.flag (the checks are made by using the lodash library):
componentWillReceiveProps(nextProps) {
const { flag } = this.state;
console.log('Flag Will:', !_.isEqual(flag, nextProps.flag), flag, nextProps.flag);
if (!_.isEmpty(nextProps.flag) && !_.isEqual(flag, nextProps.flag)) {
this.setState({
flag: nextProps.flag,
},
() => doSomething()
);
}
}
Suppose that the prop flag in this case has always the same value and that this.state.flag is initialized to undefined. When I check the console log I see the following result:
Flag Did: true
Flag Will: true undefined true
Therefore when the code enters componentWillReceiveProps the value of this.state.flagis still undefined, that means has not been set yet by the setState in componentDidMount.
This is not consistent with React lifecycle or am I missing something? How can I avoid such behaviour?
ComponentWillReceiveProps() will be called in each update life-cycle caused by changes to props (parent component re-rendering). Since Javascript is synchronous you might have validate props sometimes to save app crashes. I've not totally understood the context of your app but what you can do is:
componentWillReceiveProps(nextProps) {
const { flag } = this.state;
if(!flag){
return;,
}
console.log('Flag Will:', !_.isEqual(flag, nextProps.flag), flag, nextProps.flag);
if (!_.isEmpty(nextProps.flag) && !_.isEqual(flag, nextProps.flag)) {
this.setState({
flag: nextProps.flag,
},
() => doSomething()
);
}
}
You can return if state is undefined. It will be called again upon parent re-rendering. But this might not be use-case.
Anyways you should look into this:
But I can think of at least 1 (maybe theoretical) scenario where the order will reversed:
Component receives props, and starts rendering. While component is
rendering, but has not yet finished rendering, component receives new
props. componentWillReceiveProps() is fired, (but componentDidMount
has not yet fired) After all children and component itself have
finished rendering, componentDidMount() will fire. So
componentDidMount() is not a good place to initialise
component-variables like your { foo: 'bar' }. componentWillMount()
would be a better lifecycle event. However, I would discourage any use
of component-wide variables inside react components, and stick to
design principles:
all component variables should live in either state or props (and be
immutable) all other variables are bound by the lifecycle method (and
not beyond that)
As suggested by user JJJ, given the asynchronous nature of setState, the check if (!_.isEmpty(nextProps.flag) && !_.isEqual(flag, nextProps.flag)) in componentWillReceiveProps is executed before setState inside componentDidMount executes flag: this.props.flag. The order of the operations is:
Code enters componentDidMount.
Code executes setState in
componentDidMount (flag: this.props.flag hasn't happened yet).
Code exits componentDidMount, setState in componentDidMount is
still under execution (flag: this.props.flag hasn't happened yet).
Component receive new props, therefore enters
componentWillReceiveProps.
The statement if
(!_.isEmpty(nextProps.flag) && !_.isEqual(flag, nextProps.flag)) in
componentWillReceiveProps is executed (this.state.flag is still
undefined).
Code finishes the execution of setState inside
componentDidMount and sets flag: this.props.flag and executes
doSomething().
Code finishes the execution of setState inside
componentWillMount and sets flag: nextProps.flag and executes
doSomething().
Given the asynchronous nature of setState, 6 and 7 could be executed in parallel and therefore we do not know which one will finish its execution first. DoSomething() in this case is potentially called at least 2 times when it must be called once instead.
In order to solve these issues, I changed my code this way:
componentWillReceiveProps(nextProps) {
if (!_.isEmpty(nextProps.flag) && !_.isEqual(this.props.flag, nextProps.flag)) {
this.setState({
flag: nextProps.flag,
},
() => doSomething()
);
}
}
This way I compare the new version(nextProps) with the old version(this.props) of the props, without waiting for the flag value to be stored in the component's state.

`componentWillReceiveProps` explanation

I recently wanted to upgrade my knowledge of React, so I started from the component lifecycle methods. The first thing that got me curious, is this componentWillReceiveProps. So, the docs are saying that it's fired when component is receiving new (not necessarily updated) props. Inside that method we can compare them and save into the state if needed.
My question is: Why do we need that method, if changes in props of that component (inside parent render) will trigger the re-render of this child component?
One common use case are state (this.state) updates that may be necessary in response to the updated props.
Since you should not try to update the component's state via this.setState() in the render function, this needs to happen in componentWillReceiveProps.
Additionally, if some prop is used as a parameter to some fetch function you should watch this prop in componentWillReceiveProps to re-fetch data using the new parameter.
Usually componentDidMount is used as a place where you trigger a method to fetch some data. But if your container, for example, UserData is not unmounted and you change userId prop, the container needs to fetch data of a user for corresponding userId.
class UserData extends Component {
componentDidMount() {
this.props.getUser(this.props.userId);
}
componentWillReceiveProps(nextProps) {
if (this.props.userId !== nextProps.userid) {
this.props.getUser(nextProps.userId);
}
}
render() {
if (this.props.loading) {
return <div>Loading...</div>
}
return <div>{this.user.firstName}</div>
}
}
It is not a full working example. Let's imagine that getUser dispatch Redux action and Redux assign to the component user, loading and getUser props.
It 'serves' as an opportunity to react to the incoming props to set the state of your application before render. If your call setState after render you will re-render infinitely and that's why you're not allowed to do that, so you can use componentWillReceiveProps instead.
But... you are beyond CORRECT in your confusion, so correct in fact that they are deprecating it and other Will-lifecycle hooks Discussion Deprecation.
There are other ways to accomplish what you want to do without most of those Will-lifecycle methods, one way being don't call setState after render, just use the new incoming props directly in render (or wherever) to create the stateful value you need and then just use the new value directly, you can then later set state to keep a reference for the next iteration ex: this.state.someState = someValue, this will accomplish everything and not re-render the component in an infinite loop.
Use this as an opportunity to react to a prop transition before render() is called by updating the state using this.setState(). The old props can be accessed via this.props. Calling this.setState() within this function will not trigger an additional render.
Look at this article
the componentWillReceiveProps will always receive as param "NxtProps", componentWillReceiveProps is called after render().
some people use this method use this to compare nxtProps and this.props to check, if something should happen before the component call render, and to some validations.
check the react's documentation to know more about react lifecycle!
hope this could help you!
changes in props of that component (inside parent render) will trigger the re-render of this child component
You are absolutely right. You only need to use this method if you need to react to those changes. For instance, you might have a piece of state in a child component that is calculated using multiple props.
Small Example:
class Test extends Component {
state = {
modified: "blank"
};
componentDidMount(){
this.setState({
modified: `${this.props.myProp} isModified`
});
}
componentWillReceiveProps(nextProps) {
this.setState({
modified: `${nextProps.myProp} isModified`
});
}
render() {
return <div className="displayed">{this.state.modified}</div>
}
}
In this example, componentDidMount sets the state using this.props. When this component receives new props, without componentWillReceiveProps, this.state.modified would never be updated again.
Of course, you could just do {this.props.myProp + "IsModified"} in the render method, but componentWillReceiveProps is useful when you need to update this.state on prop changes.

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