so let's say I have a react dashboard application, which has several different routes. Now, one of those routes is Analytics route, and I was wondering, if is, what is the best way to fetch the data rendered in Analytics route only the first time you visit it and then pull it from somewhere.
I've been thinking about using Redux for it, but I've never used it, so I have no idea, OR if I should store it in localStorage. But that has a problem though, because on different route, I would like to fetch images the same way.
The reason I'm asking this is because I use Firebase Firestore as my DB and it could get quite costly, because I would have to do 4 read operations i.e. on the Analytics route each time it is rendered. Or, is it the normal approach?
Is it a good idea to use React Context and useContext hook in this case?
Thanks in advance.
use redux for state management, where you can store the application state and the components who need data. You can call Api in order to fetch data only first time in the root component of the app.
use react-query you can do exactly this in a much simpler way as compared to context or react-redux.
you can use a useEffect hook and do an api call each time you visit that page and you don't have to store it anywhere and it will only get you the date you need i recently made an app and this way actually helped me alot
In an interview, an interviewer asked me that where should you make API-hits in a simple react application? Meaning in which life-cycle method in a Class-Component. I knew the answer to be ComponentDidMount - because it is the first life-cycle method where we get complete rendered dom meaning dom is now ready!
Then he asked, but why NOT in comonentDidUpdate?
Now, I told him what I had read somewhere, I don't know the exact answer of this -- except ComponentDidMount runs first, so make it there.
Now, can someone tell me if my answer was correct? Or should we make API-hits in ComponentDidUpdate()?
I am confused. Kindly, someone explain with reasoning? Thanks in Advance!
It depends on when you want to call the API:
If an API call is done only once then do componentDidMount
If after render based on some state, you want to fetch data again then do it in componentDidUpdate
EDIT:
Same scenarios can be handled within functional components using useEffect hook as follows:
1- Only runs the first time when the components render same as componentDidMount:
useEffect(() => {
// Run only once when the component renders
}, []); // Pass empty array as dependencies
2- Run every time when component renders either by props change or by local state change same as componentDidUpdate without comparing previous and current props:
useEffect(() => {
// Run every time the component re-renders including the first time
}); // Do NOT pass array dependencies
3- Run only when particular props change, same as componentDidUpdate but with props comparison:
useEffect(() => {
// Run only when the component prop1 and prop2 changes
}, [prop1, prop2]); // Pass props as array dependencies
Reference: Using the Effect Hook
Lets take an example scenario.
You have a profile page and it has a text box which allows you to update tags.
You do a fetch for the whole profile in the componentDidMount to get all the details and show the content.
And then componentDidUpdate will have to be used for something like the update on tags, lets say you do a fetch to get tags based on the user input for every 3 letters the user type. then you use componenDidUpdate to check the state and do the call.
If you think of the same in functional components we'll have to use useEffect.
useEffect(()=>{},[]);
See the array of dependecies, if you pass an empty array it would act similar to componentDidMount.
And the componentDidUpdate
useEffect(()=>{},[tagText]);
Here the effect will run only when a change it done to the tagText, but the componenDidUpdate would be different as you will have to compare the previous state and decide whether the text is updated.
According the Official React Documentation (Link):
componentDidMount
componentDidMount() is invoked immediately after a component is mounted (inserted into the tree). Initialization that requires DOM nodes should go here. If you need to load data from a remote endpoint, this is a good place to instantiate the network request.
This method is a good place to set up any subscriptions. If you do
that, don’t forget to unsubscribe in componentWillUnmount().
componentDidUpdate()
componentDidUpdate() is invoked immediately after updating occurs.
This method is not called for the initial render.
Use this as an opportunity to operate on the DOM when the component
has been updated. This is also a good place to do network requests as
long as you compare the current props to previous props (e.g. a
network request may not be necessary if the props have not changed).
Check out this link for a complete big picture. This will be handy while learning react.
Im a little uncertain as to how Redux ties in with React ( without using the ReactRedux library ). Assume the following component structure
App
--TodoListController
----SomeComponent1
----TodoList
------TodoItem
--ProfileController
Question 1. Which components should listen for changes?:
Im assuming that the proper component to subscribe for state changes in the redux main (and only ) store should be the TodoListController and the ProfileController respectively ( essentially the non presentation components ).
Is this correct to assume or should all components listen to the state and render whatever is of interest to them? I essentially dont know which component should listen to state changes and am only guessing at this point
Question 2. Handling network calls:
I know this is to be examined per case but ill mention it anyway. Currently im handling network calls in the following manner:
A) When TodoListController mounts i get the state from the mainstore and also initiate a request to the server for the latest data. I also listen for changes in the store. So in practice:
class TodoListController extends React.Component{
componentWillMount(){
mainStore.subscribe()
getDataFromServer(function(data){
mainStore.dispatch(data)
})
}
getDataFromStoreAndUpdate(){
this.state.datawecarefor = mainStore.todoReducer.data
//set the state here to trigger a rerender
}
componentWillUnmount(){
mainStore.unsubscribe()
}
render(){
//render whatever component here that uses this.state.datawecarefor
}
}
Do you see any obvious flaws with this approach? I dont know what i dont know at this point.
Question 3. Where should store related helper functions live?
I currently have a reducer that holds all todolists for various users. Currently, when the redux store state updates i retrieve all this data and iterate through it to find the user im interested in. This shouldnt be in the controller itself but as a hepler function. I thought of creating a wrapper around the Redux store and it's reducers to create functions like getTodoListForUser(userId) but i dont know if thats the right approach. How do you handle logic like that?
P.S: Many people will point out that i should use the ReactRedux library that comes with many optimisations and they re probably right. This however isnt a production project, only one im trying to put together to better udnerstanding the core of both these two libraries before moving to something more optimal.
I know you don't want to use ReactRedux, but luckily enough there is a video of Dan Abramov explaining the source code. You should watch it, it will explain why they did what they did and how they did it. When I was first learning how redux and react worked together it made every so much more clear (and then I used ReactRedux anyway :)).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJ38wSFbM3A
There has been a lot of debate on where to connect React App's to the redux store. But it's mostly recommended that you want to connect where it makes logical sense. For example, if you have a container component that holds a bunch of comments, you don't need to connect all of the comments, you can just connect the container. In the same light you don't just want to connect your entire app at the top because then its more expensive to diff and update your app.
On another note you should probably try to handle network calls in redux middleware and dispatch an action your react component catches to cause a render.
I use componentDidMount() method in my parent React component to fetch some data from API, which are then saved in redux-state.
In my render method, I have another component which should use data from the global redux-state.
I can send data to my child component via props or I can load them using mapStateToProps().
If I try to console.log or assign data to var from props in my child component constructor or in componentDidMount() method, I'm not getting my data as expected (I'm getting initial state).
Console.log in my render method will show me initial state at first rendering, on the second it will show correct data.
I need point where I'm sure that I have correct data.
...where var a = this.props.somethingFromState; will be assigned correctly.
Is render method best place and what is best practice for doing this in general. Thanks.
There are a couple of questions here.
With respect to where to load data, componentDidMount is indeed the correct place to call ajax methods and load data as suggested by the facebook docs.
In terms of whether or not to then pass that data down to child components via props, I like to follow Dan Abramov's (the author of redux) guid on presentational vs container components. In short, try to have a container component that loads your data and does all the logic, and then pass whatever is necessary down to presentational components via props, making them pure functions if possible.
In terms of when you will have the correct data, check the React lifecycle docs above. You will see that the constructor fires, then componentWillMount, then render, then componentDidMount. So if your ajax call gets the data in componentDidMount, you will have called render first, resulting in no data being loaded on the already mounted component. Most people solve this by putting a spinner until the data has finished loading from ajax. A simple if statement should accomplish this
I'm currently learning React and I am trying to figure out how to use it with Redux for building a mobile app. I'm kind of confused on how the two are related/usable together. For example, I completed this tutorial in React https://www.raywenderlich.com/99473/introducing-react-native-building-apps-javascript, but now I want to play around with adding some reducers/actions to that app and I am not sure where those would tie in with what I've already done.
React is a UI framework that takes care of updating the UI in response to the “source of truth” that is usually described as a state “owned” by some component. Thinking in React describes the React state ownership concept very well, and I strongly suggest you go through it.
This state ownership model works well when the state is hierarchical and more or less matches the component structure. This way the state gets “spread out” across many components, and the app is easy to understand.
However sometimes distant parts of the app want to have access to the same state, for example, if you cache fetched data and want to consistently update it everywhere at the same time. In this case, if you follow the React model, you’ll end up with a bunch of very large components at the top of the component tree that pass a myriad of props down through some intermediate components that don’t use them, just to reach a few leaf components that actually care about that data.
When you find yourself in this situation, you can (but don’t have to) use Redux to “extract” this state management logic from the top-level components into separate functions called “reducers”, and “connect” the leaf components that care about that state directly to it instead of passing the props through the whole app. If you don’t have this problem yet, you probably don’t need Redux.
Finally, note that Redux is not a definitive solution to this problem. There are many other ways to manage your local state outside the React components—for example, some people who didn’t like Redux are happy with MobX. I would suggest you to first get a firm understanding of React state model, and then evaluate different solutions independently, and build small apps with them to get a sense of their strengths and weaknesses.
(This answer is inspired by Pete Hunt’s react-howto guide, I suggest you to read it as well.)
I've found that the ideal path for adding Redux to an application/stack is to wait until after you/app/team are feeling the pains that it solves. Once you start seeing long chains of props building up and being passed down through multiple levels of components or your finding yourself orchestrating complex state manipulations/reads, that could be a sign that your app may benefit from introducing Redux et al.
I recommend taking an app that you've already built with "just React" and see how Redux might fit into it. See if you can gracefully introduce it by plucking out one piece of state or set of "actions" at a time. Refactor towards it, without getting hung up on a big bang rewrite of your app. If you're still having trouble seeing where it might add value, then that could be a sign that your app is either not large or complex enough to merit something like Redux on top of React.
If you haven't come across it yet, Dan (answered above) has a great short-video series that walks through Redux on a more fundamental level. I highly suggest spending some time absorbing pieces of it: https://egghead.io/series/getting-started-with-redux
Redux also has some pretty great docs. Especially explaining a lot of the "why" such as http://redux.js.org/docs/introduction/ThreePrinciples.html
I have prepared this document to understand Redux. Hope this clears your doubt.
-------------------------- REDUX TUTORIAL ----------------------
ACTIONS-
Actions are payloads of information that send data from your application to the store. They are the only source of information from the store. You can send them
only using store.dispatch().
Example-
const ADD_TODO = 'ADD_TODO'
{
type:ADD_TODO,
text: 'Build my first redux app'
}
Actions are plain javascript object. Action must have a [ type ] property that indicates the type of action being performed. The type should be defined as a string constant.
ACTION CREAToRS-----
---------------- ---- Action creators are exactly the function that creates action
It is easy to conflate the terms - action and action creator.
In redux action, creator returns an action.
function addToDo(text) {
return {
type: ADD_TODO,
text
}
}
to initialte dispatch pass the result to the dispatch() function.
dispatch(addToDo(text));
dispatch(completeToDo(index))
Alternatively, you can create a bound action creator that automatically dispatches.
cosnt boundAddTodO = text => dispatch(addToDo(text));
now you can directly called it
boundaddTodO(text);
The dispatch() functionn can be directly accessed from store.dispatch(). but we
access it using a helper connect() method.
Actions.js.....................
Actions...........
exports cosnt ADD_TODO = 'ADD_TODO';
exports cosnt TOGGLE_TODO = 'TOGGLE_TODO'
Actions Creators
export function addToDO(text){
return {
type: ADD_TODO,
text
}
}
.........................REDUCERS..................................
Reducers specify how the applications state changes in response to actions sent to the store.
Designing the state shap
In redux all the application state is store in single object. You have to store some data as well as some state.
{
visibilityFilter: 'SHOW_ALL',
todos: [
{
text: 'Consider using redux',
completed: true
},
{
text: 'Kepp all the state in single tree'
}
]
}
Handling Actions
---------------- the reducers are the pure functions that take the previous state and action, and return a new state.
(previousState, action) => newState
We will start by specifying the initial state. Redux will call our reducers with an undefined state for the first time. this is our chance to return the state of our app.
import { visiblilityFilters } from './actions';
const initialState = {
visibilityFilter: VisibilityFilters.SHOW_ALL,
todo: []
}
function todoApp(state, action){
if(typeof state == 'undefined'){
return initialState;
}
// dont handle other cases as of now.
return state;
}
you can do the same using ES6 way of handling the JS
function todoApp(state = initialState, action) {
switch (action.type) {
case SET_VISIBILITY_FILTER:
return Object.assign({}, state, {
visibilityFilter: action.filter
})
default:
return state
}
}
................................. STORE...................................
The store is a object that brings them together. the store has following responsbility
hold application state
allow access to state via getState()
Allow state to be updated via dispatch()
Register listerneres via suscriber(listener)
Note. use combineReducers() to combine several reducers into one.
const store = createStore(todoapp); // the todoapp are the reducers
This is how redux works. A action is dispatched from any compoenent or view. Action MUST have "type" property and may be any property which holds information of action happened. The data passed in action, could be relevant to different reducer, so same object get passed to different reducer. Each reducer takes/ make-out its part/contribution to state. The output is then merged and new state get formed, and the component which must be subscribed for state change event gets notified.
In above example, brown color has all 3 component RGB. Each reducer receives same brown color and they seperate out its contribution to the color.
Firstly, you don't need to add Redux to your application if you don't need it! Simple, so don't force yourself to include it in your project if you don't need it at all! But that doesn't mean Redux is no good, it's really helpful in large applications, so read on ...
Redux is a state management for your React application, think about Redux like a local store which track of your state as you go, you can access the state in any page and route you want, also compare to Flux, you only have one store, means one source of truth...
Look at this image to understand what Redux does first at a glance:
Also this's how Redux introduce itself:
Redux is a predictable state container for JavaScript apps.
It helps you write applications that behave consistently, run in
different environments (client, server, and native), and are easy to
test. On top of that, it provides a great developer experience, such
as live code editing combined with a time traveling debugger.
You can use Redux together with React, or with any other view library.
It is tiny (2kB, including dependencies).
Also as per documentation, there are Three Principles for Redux as below:
1. Single source of truth
2. State is read-only
3. Changes are made with pure functions
So basically when you need to a single store to keep track of anything you like in your application, then Redux is handy, you can access it anywhere in your app, in any route... simply using store.getState();
Also using the middleware Redux, you can do manage the state much better, there a list of handy components and middleware on official page of Redux!
Simply if your application gonna be big, with many components, states and routing try to implements Redux from start! It will help you on the way for sure!
When we write application we need to manage state of the application.
The React manages states locally within the component if we need to share the states between components we can use props or callbacks.
But as application grows it becomes difficult to manage states and state transformations.State and state transformations need to properly tracked in order to debug the applications.
Redux is a predictable state container for JavaScript apps that manages state and state transformations and is often used with React,
The concept of redux can be explained in following image.
When user triggers an action when user interact with the component and an action is dispatched to store then the reducer in the store accepts the action and update the state of the application and stored in the application wide immutable global variable when there is an update in store the corresponding view component subscribed to the state will get updated.
Since state is managed globally and with redux it is easier to maintain.
Having used Redux and personally finding it cumbersome, I found passing around an object to my components as a prop can be a much easier way to maintain state. Not to mention it's an easy way of making references to functions to call in other components. It can solve a lot of the cumbersome issues of passing messages between components in React, so it's a two for one.