Develop Reference

React setState doesn't work as I expected

I making a form validation on the page. In one of the tutorials I found a validation method that works correctly but I don't understand one thing.
I declare a variable before the class that stores the object with the default input values. When the field is wrong, the corresponding property is modified, while after correctly filling the form the fields are cleared to default values (errors properties becomes empty).
I don't understand the moment when state is set to the default values. Since the initialState object is a reference type, it should have different values after their change in the validate method.
For example, when I assign a string to the usernameError property, I expected this value to remain in this object. Meanwhile, when I do it:
this.setState(initialState);
Form errors will be cleared.
Shortened code:
const initialState = {
username: "",
surname: "",
email: "",
usernameError: "",
surnameError: "",
emailError: "",
};
class Contact extends React.Component {
constructor(props) {
super(props);
this.state = initialState;
this.handleSubmit = this.handleSubmit.bind(this);
}
validate() {
let usernameError = "";
if (!this.state.username) {
usernameError = "Fill in the missing field";
}
if ( usernameError ) {
this.setState({ usernameError });
return false;
}
return true;
}
handleSubmit(e) {
e.preventDefault();
const isValid = this.validate();
if (isValid) {
this.setState(initialState);
}
}
handleChange = (event) => {
this.setState({
[event.target.name]: event.target.value,
});
};
render() {
// contact form...
}

What you see is the correct behavior. You have to think of this.state = initialState as the new copy creation of initialState object. Because if its just the reference to initialState object, react state object will have no power to deal with state properties. So, to make your code working as per expectations, you have to make these objects separate, or create a copy explicitly. To reset errors, update the state as this.setState({usernameError :''});
Or in the other case of initialState the result will be same but you will be confused.

set multiple states, and push to state of array in one onClick function

I'm running into a recurring issue in my code where I want to grab multiple pieces of data from a component to set as states, and push those into an array which is having its own state updated. The way I am doing it currently isn't working and I think it's because I do not understand the order of the way things happen in js and react.
Here's an example of something I'm doing that doesn't work: jsfiddle here or code below.
import React, {Component} from 'react';
class App extends Component {
constructor(props) {
super(props);
this.state = {
categoryTitle: null,
categorySubtitle: null,
categoryArray: [],
}
}
pushToCategoryArray = () => {
this.state.categoryArray.push({
'categoryTitle': this.state.categoryTitle,
'categorySubtitle': this.state.categorySubtitle,
})
}
setCategoryStates = (categoryTitle, categorySubtitle) => {
this.setState({
categoryTitle: categoryTitle,
categorySubtitle: categorySubtitle,
})
this.pushToCategoryArray();
}
render() {
return (
<CategoryComponent
setCategoryStates={this.setCategoryStates}
categoryTitle={'Category Title Text'}
categorySubtitle={'Category Subtitle Text'}
/>
);
}
}
class CategoryComponent extends Component {
render() {
var categoryTitle = this.props.categoryTitle;
var categorySubtitle = this.props.categorySubtitle;
return (
<div onClick={() => (this.props.setCategoryStates(
categoryTitle,
categorySubtitle,
))}
>
<h1>{categoryTitle}</h1>
<h2>{categorySubtitle}</h2>
</div>
);
}
}
I can see in the console that I am grabbing the categoryTitle and categorySubtitle that I want, but they get pushed as null into this.state.categoryArray. Is this a scenario where I need to be using promises? Taking another approach?

This occurs because setState is asynchronous (https://reactjs.org/docs/state-and-lifecycle.html#using-state-correctly).
Here's the problem
//State has categoryTitle as null and categorySubtitle as null.
this.state = {
categoryTitle: null,
categorySubtitle: null,
categoryArray: [],
}
//This gets the correct values in the parameters
setCategoryStates = (categoryTitle, categorySubtitle) => {
//This is correct, you're setting state BUT this is not sync
this.setState({
categoryTitle: categoryTitle,
categorySubtitle: categorySubtitle,
})
this.pushToCategoryArray();
}
//This method is using the state, which as can be seen from the constructor is null and hence you're pushing null into your array.
pushToCategoryArray = () => {
this.state.categoryArray.push({
'categoryTitle': this.state.categoryTitle,
'categorySubtitle': this.state.categorySubtitle,
})
}
Solution to your problem: pass callback to setState
setCategoryStates = (categoryTitle, categorySubtitle) => {
//This is correct, you're setting state BUT this is not sync
this.setState({
categoryTitle: categoryTitle,
categorySubtitle: categorySubtitle,
}, () => {
/*
Add state to the array
This callback will be called once the async state update has succeeded
So accessing state in this variable will be correct.
*/
this.pushToCategoryArray()
})
}
and change
pushToCategoryArray = () => {
//You don't need state, you can simply make these regular JavaScript variables
this.categoryArray.push({
'categoryTitle': this.state.categoryTitle,
'categorySubtitle': this.state.categorySubtitle,
})
}

I think React doesn't re-render because of the pushToCategoryArray that directly change state. Need to assign new array in this.setState function.
// this.state.categoryArray.push({...})
const prevCategoryArray = this.state.categoryArray
this.setState({
categoryArray: [ newObject, ...prevCategoryArray],
)}

ReactJS calling function twice inside child component fails to set parent state twice

I'm having an issue where I want to save the data from a particular fieldset with the default values on componentDidMount().
The data saving happens in the parent component, after it is sent up from the child component. However, as React's setState() is asynchronous, it is only saving data from one of the fields. I have outlined a skeleton version of my problem below. Any ideas how I can fix this?
// Parent Component
class Form extends Component {
super(props);
this.manageData = this.manageData.bind(this);
this.state = {
formData: {}
}
}
manageData(data) {
var newObj = {
[data.name]: data.value
}
var currentState = this.state.formData;
var newState = Object.assign({}, currentState, newObj);
this.setState({
formData: newState, // This only sets ONE of the fields from ChildComponent because React delays the setting of state.
)};
render() {
return (
<ChildComponent formValidate={this.manageData} />
)
}
// Child Component
class ChildComponent extends Component {
componentDidMount() {
const fieldA = {
name: 'Phone Number',
value: '123456678'
},
fieldB = {
name: 'Email Address',
value: 'john#example.com'
}
this.props.formValidate(fieldA);
this.props.formValidate(fieldB)
}
render() {
/// Things happen here.
}
}

You're already answering you're own question. React handles state asynchronously and as such you need to make sure you use the current component's state when setState is invoked. Thankfully the team behind React is well-aware of this and have provided an overload for the setState method. I would modify your manageData call to the following:
manageData(data) {
this.setState(prevState => {
const nextState = Object.assign({}, prevState);
nextState.formData[data.name] = data.value;
return nextState;
});
}
This overload for the setState takes a function whose first parameter is the component's current state at the time that the setState method is invoked. Here is the link where they begin discussing this form of the setState method.
https://reactjs.org/docs/state-and-lifecycle.html#state-updates-may-be-asynchronous

Change manageData to this
manageData(data) {
const newObj = {
[data.name]: data.value
};
this.setState(prevState => ({
formData: {
...prevState.formData,
...newObj
}
}));
}

ReactJS: How to get state value into container?

I need to get data from DB depending on a search string value. Therefore I'm using an input field. The search string is stored as a state value.
The data for the component comes from a container (using npm meteor/react-meteor-data).
Now my problem is, how do I get the search string into the container to set the parameter for the publication?
container/example.js
export default createContainer((prop) => {
Meteor.subscribe('images', searchString) // How to get searchString?
return { files: Images.find({}).fetch() }
}, Example)
component/example.jsx
class Example extends Component {
constructor(props) {
super(props)
this.state = {
searchString: ''
}
}
searchImage(event) {
const searchString = event.target.value
this.setState({ searchString })
}
render() {
return (<Input onChange={ this.searchImage.bind(this) }/>)
}
}
export default Example
publication
Meteor.publish('images', function(search) {
return Images.find({ title: search }).cursor
})

Maybe you can create two different components: a parent and a child, and you can wrap child component with createContainer HOC like the following
childComponent.js
const Example = (props) => {
return <Input onChange={props.searchImage}/>
}
export default createContainer(({searchString}) => {
Meteor.subscribe('images', searchString)
return { files: Images.find({}).fetch() }
}, Example)
parentComponent.js
class ExampleWrapper extends Component {
constructor(props) {
super(props)
this.state = {
searchString: ''
}
}
searchImage = (event) => {
const searchString = event.target.value
this.setState({ searchString })
} // instead of binding this, you can also use arrow function that
// takes care of binding
render() {
return (<Example searchImage={this.searchImage} searchString={this.state.searchString} {...this.props} />)
}
}
export default ExampleWrapper
The idea is, since createContainer is a higher order component, it doesn't have access to the props of any component wrapped by it.
What we need to do is, passing the value of searchString from a parent component.
The way to do is the following:
ExampleWrapper has a state called searchString and Example component has a prop called searchString. We can set the value of searchString prop to state.searchString.
Since the default export corresponds to createContainer({..some logic…}, Example}), createContainer can make use of prop called searchString.
In order to change the value of state.searchString we also passed searchImage function as a prop to Example component. Whenever there is a change event, onChange triggers searchImage function that updates the value of state.searchString. And eventually, the minute the value of state.searchString changes searchString prop’s value changes thus your subscription result also changes

onChange={ (e)=> {this.setState({ searchString: $(e.target).val() }) } }
This is how we assign values to our internal state properties :)
EDIT: I appear to have misunderstood the question...

Notify react components about value change

Suppose that I have a component class which is responsible to change any number entered into textbox to text:
class NumbersToText extends Component {
onChange(event) {
const { target } = event;
const { value } = target;
if (hasNumbers(value)) {
target.value = numbersToText(value);
// HERE I NEED TO NOTIFY ABOUT CHANGES
}
}
render() {
return (
<span onChange={this.onChange}>
{this.props.children}
</span>
);
}
}
Now the usage would look something like this:
<NumbersToText>
<input onChange={this.saveValue}
</NumbersToText>
Let's say that all works, and the value gets changed to text.
Now the problem is that after I change numbers to text and assign that value to input onChange handlers are not executed again, thus saveValue is not called with updated value.
How should this problem be approached in order to trigger onChange handlers with new value?

I don't know exactly what you mean by numbers to text so I'll just assume you want to modify the value before calling the onChange function in the input, and also reflect that value in the input.
First of all, what you're doing will never work on React, React reflects internal virtual objects into the DOM, meaning you shloud not modify the DOM directly and instead you should modify this internal representantion (via setState, props) to reflect this change into the DOM.
There's also two types of inputs on React, controlled and uncontrolled. I will assume you want to use this on uncontrolled inputs.
The only possible solution I can see, is to transform the input using the React.cloneElement function adding a aditional step before calling the input's onChange callback.
Here's a possible implementation that will make the input uppercase.
class UpperCase extends React.Component {
constructor(props) {
super(props);
}
onChange(e, input, next) {
let value = input.value || '';
value = value.toUpperCase();
input.value = value;
next(value);
}
render() {
let childs = React.Children.map(this.props.children, child => {
let input = null; //Will take advantage of javascript's closures
let onChangeChild = child.props.onChange.bind(child);
return React.cloneElement(child, {
ref: ref => input = ref,
onChange: e => {
this.onChange(e, input, onChangeChild)
}
});
});
return (
<span>
{childs}
</span>
);
}
}
And you can use it like this:
<UpperCase>
<input onChange={(val) => console.log(val)}></input>
<textarea onChange={(val) => console.log(val)}></textarea>
</UpperCase>

Thanks to #tiagohngl I came up with a similar, but maybe a little less cluttered (without cloning elements) way:
class NumbersToText extends Component {
onChange(event) {
const { target } = event;
const { value } = target;
if (hasNumbers(value)) {
target.value = numbersToText(value);
this.childrenOnChange(event);
}
}
childrenOnChange(event) {
const { children } = this.props;
React.Children.forEach(children, child => {
if (child.props.onChange) {
child.props.onChange(event);
}
});
}
render() {
return (
<span onChange={this.onChange}>
{this.props.children}
</span>
);
}
}

export default class NumbersToText extends React.Component {
constructor(props) {
super(props)
this.onChange = this.onChange.bind(this);
}
componentWillMount() {
this.setState({ anyData: [] });
}
onChange(event) {
this.setState({anyData: event.target.value},
()=>{console.log("AnyData: "+this.state.anyData)});
// callback to console.log after setState is done
}
render() {
return (
<input type="text"
value={this.state.anyData}
onChange={this.onChange} />
);
}
}
As you mention that,
onChange is not called after changed value.
There are multiple possibilities.
onChange is not binded.
There are no state change in render method, so it will not re-render
make use of console.log() to trace the problem
I slightly ammend the code for illustration.
Hope it helps.
How react handle State Change (answer I posted before)