Develop Reference

React-Redux connecting two separate component with a toggle

I know this is probably a very basic question, but it's more of a "I don't understand the docs please help me" type of question.
I'm trying to connect two components using React-Redux: the first is a sidebar, and the second is a modal that should appear when clicking on a button in the sidebar. The components are not related in any parent-child relation (except root) so I assume redux is the best option.
I've read all the redux (and react-redux) docs and I understand the core concepts of redux, but I'm having trouble understanding how to implement them in my components.
Basically I want a button in the sidebar that toggles a stored state (true/false is enough) and according to that state the modal would appears (state==true => display:block) and disappear via a button in the modal (state==false => display:none).
What I think I need is an action to toggle a state, for example:
const modalsSlice = createSlice({
name: 'modals',
initalState,
reducers: {
toggleModal(state, action){
state = !state;
}
}
});
then connecting the action in both components (I'm writing the components in classes not as functions) by using:
const toggleModal = {type: 'modals/toggleModal', payload: ''};
const mapStateToProps = state => state.showHideModal;
export default connect(mapStateToProps, toggleModal)(Component);
Now, assuming I'm correct so far, I'm not sure how to continue. I.e. how am I suppose to receive and make the change in the components themselves? Sure, I need to put a function in a button with a onClick={foo} listener but how does the foo suppose to receive and handle the state? And am I suppose to initialize the showHideModal state somewhere? In the root component? While configuring the store?
Any help would be much appreciated.

State Initialisation
You are supposed to initialise the state showHideModal in the slice itself. Moreover, it should be named as either showModal or hideModal for a better interpretation of what this state does.
const modalSlice = createSlice({
name: 'modal',
initialState: {
showModal: false,
},
reducers: {
toggleModal(state){
state.showModal = !state.showModal;
}
}
});
export const { toggleModal } = modalSlice.actions;
SideBar Component
The onClick event handler needs to be passed explicitly via mapDispatchToProps.
import { toggleModal } from './modalSlice';
class Sidebar extends Component {
handleClick = () => {
const { toggleModal } = this.props;
toggleModal();
}
render() {
return (
<div>
{/* rest of JSX */}
<button onClick={this.handleClick}>Toggle Modal</button>
{/* rest of JSX */}
</div>
);
}
}
const mapDispatchToProps = {
toggleModal,
};
export default connect({}, mapDispatchToProps)(Sidebar);
Modal
Note: You cannot access property directly from state like you did state.showHideModal;. You need to access the slice first, followed by property present in it state.modal.showHideModal;.
class Modal extends Component {
handleClick = () => {
const { toggleModal } = this.props;
toggleModal();
}
render() {
const { showModal } = this.props;
return (
<>
{showModal ? (
<div>
<button onClick={this.handleClick}>Close</button>
</div>
) : null}
</>
);
}
}
const mapDispatchToProps = {
toggleModal,
};
const mapStateToProps = state => ({
showModal: state.modal.showModal,
});
export default connect(mapStateToProps, mapDispatchToProps)(Modal);
Update
Coming, to the the reason why Redux throws following warning:
A non-serializable value was detected in an action, in the path: payload
It's because a SyntheticEvent is being passed as a payload to the action. In order to fix this, you need to move the toggleModal call from the onClick prop to a separate handler function. For you reference, check the handleClick function in Modal and SideBar.

React - How to re-render a component using another component?

I have a NavBar component that has a list of dynamically generated links (these links are generated after querying my backend for some categories). These links are stored inside a child component of the NavBar, called DrawerMenu.
The NavBar is a child of the main App.js component.
In my Category component, I have a "delete" function that deletes a category. Once I delete a category I want to remove the link to it in the NavBar. How would I go about doing this?
For further context, my components are given below:
DrawerMenu component
class DrawerMenu extends Component {
state = {
menuItems: [] // Takes a series of objects of the shape { name: "", link: "" }
}
getData = (query) => {
// Query backend for category data and set it to this.state.menuItems
}
componentDidMount() {
this.getData(menuItemsQuery)
}
render() {
const { classes, handleDrawerClose, open } = this.props
const { menuItems } = this.state
const drawer = (classes, handleDrawerClose) => (
<div>
...
{
menuItems.map((menuItem, index) => (
<Link color="inherit" key={index} to={menuItem.link} className={classes.drawerLink} component={RouterLink}>
<ListItem button className={classes.drawerListItem} onClick={handleDrawerClose}>
<ListItemText primary={menuItem.name} />
</ListItem>
</Link>
))
}
...
</div>
)
...
return (
<div>
<Drawer
variant="temporary"
anchor='left'
open={open}
onClose={handleDrawerClose}
classes={{
paper: `${open ? classes.drawerOpen : null} ${!open ? classes.drawerClose : null}`,
}}
ModalProps={{
keepMounted: true, // Better open performance on mobile.
}}
>
{drawer(classes, handleDrawerClose)}
</Drawer>
</div>
)
}
}
NavBar component
function PrimarySearchAppBar(props) {
return (
<div className={classes.grow}>
...
<DrawerMenu
classes={classes}
handleDrawerClose={handleDrawerClose}
open={open}
/>
...
</div>
)
}
Category component
class Category extends Component {
...
deleteCategory = async () => {
// Code to request backend to delete category
this.props.history.push(`/`)
}
...
}

There are two common ways of doing this: You can either use a state management tool, like Redux or pass your state down the component tree as props.
Redux is often used when several components depend on the same state or when the component that depends on a state is several layers deep, so it would get cumbersome to pass it down as props.
I'll assume your component tree is not very large, so I will create a simple example passing props down the tree.
class DrawerMenu extends Component {
// We're gonna manage the state here, so the deletion
// will actually be handled by this component
state = {
menuItems: [] // Takes a series of objects of the shape { name: "", link: "" }
}
handleDelete = (id) => {
let updatedMenuItem = [...this.state.menuItems]; //Create a copy
updatedMenuItem = updatedMenuItem(item => item.id !== id) // Remove the
deleted item
this.setState({
menuItems: updatedMenuItem
})
}
...
// Then wherever you render the category component
<Category handleDelete = {handleDelete}/> //Pass a reference to the delete method
}
Category Component
class Category extends Component {
...
deleteCategory = async () => {
// Code to request backend to delete category
this.props.handleDelete(categoryId) //Pass the id of the category
this.props.history.push(`/`)
}
...
}
I would suggest reading about state management, it is a core concept in React and you will use it everywhere. Redux and Context API for example.

Not sure why Dennis Vash deleted their answer, they are correct, but perhaps not descriptive enough in the solution.
The way you delete the category is not to call the backend itself from inside the category component, because then the navbar doesn't know that you made a call, but to call a callback that is in an ancestor shared by both the category component and the navbar to delete a category, and then rerequest the categories list from the server. In the example below, this ancestor that is shared is MyCategoriesProvider
Because the category component is likely to be in a much different place (or multiple places) in the tree than the NavBar, it's best to use context.
Honestly, this is a great place for redux, but I'm not going to push redux on you and instead will just demo a Context solution.
// We're going to create a context that will manage your categories
// The only job of this context is to hold the current categories,
// and supply the updating functions. For brevity, I'll just give
// it a handleDelete function.
// Ideally, you'd also store the status of the request in this context
// as well so you could show loaders in the app, etc
import { createContext } from 'react';
// export this, we'll be using it later
export const CategoriesContext = createContext();
// export this, we'll render it high up in the app
// it will only accept children
export const MyCategoriesProvider = ({children}) => {
// here we can add a status flag in case we wanted to show a spinner
// somewhere down in your app
const [isRequestingCategories,setIsRequestingCategories] = useState(false);
// this is your list of categories that you got from the server
// we'll start with an empty array
const [categories,setCategories] = useState([]);
const fetch = async () => {
setIsRequestingCategories(true);
setCategories(await apiCallToFetchCategories());
setIsRequestingCategories(false);
}
const handleDelete = async category => {
await apiCallToDeleteCategory(category);
// we deleted a category, so we should re-request the list from the server
fetch();
}
useEffect(() => {
// when this component mounts, fetch the categories immediately
fetch();
// feel free to ignore any warnings if you're using a linter about rules of hooks here - this is 100% a "componentDidMount" hook and doesn't have any dependencies
},[]);
return <CategoriesContext.Provider value={{categories,isRequestingCategories,handleDelete}}>{children}</CategoriesContext.Provider>
}
// And you use it like this:
const App = () => {
return (
<MyCategoriesProvider>
<SomeOtherComponent>
<SomeOtherComponent> <- let's say your PrimarySearchBar is in here somewhere
<SomeOtherComponent>
</MyCategoriesProvider>
)
}
// in PrimarySearchBar you'd do this:
function PrimarySearchBar(props) => {
const {categories} = useContext(CategoriesContext); // you exported this above, remember?
// pass it as a prop to navbar, you could easily put the useContext hook inside of any component
return <NavBar categories={categories}/>
}
// in your category component you could do this:
class Category extends Component {
render() {
// Don't forget, categoriesContext is the thing you exported way up at the top
<CategoriesContext.Consumer>
{({handleDelete}) => {
return <button onClick={() => handleDelete(this.props.category)}>
}}
</CategoriesContext.Consumer>
}
}
EDIT:
I see you're mixing class and functional components, which is fine. You should check out this article on how to use the context api in either of them - in functional components you typically use a useContext hook, while in class components you'll use a consumer.

I would just refresh the list of categories that come from the server, after the delete request is done.
I'd do it as follows:
I would make the drawer component not so smart, making it receive the list of menuItems.
<DrawerMenu
classes={classes}
handleDrawerClose={handleDrawerClose}
open={open}
items={/* ... */}
/>
This is an important step, because now, to refresh the list of items rendered, you just pass another list. The server-side logic remains disconnected from this component in this way.
I'm not sure where you render the Category components, but supposing it is rendered outside the PrimarySearchAppBar it seems that this menuItems might need to be passed to the components from an upper level. I see 2 solutions:
I'd do the request for the menuItems from the same place where I do the request for the categories:
const App = props => {
const [categories, setCategories] = React.useState([])
const [menuItems, setMenuItems] = React.useState([])
const fetchCategories = useCallback(()=> {
yourApi.getCategories().then(categories => setCategories(categories))
})
const fetchMenuItems = useCallback(() => {
yourApi.getMenuItems().then(menuItems => setMenuItems(menuItems))
})
useEffect(() => {
fetchCategories()
}, [])
useEffect(() => {
fetchMenuItems()
}, [categories])
const handleDeleteCategory = useCallback(idToDelete => {
yourApi.deleteCategory(idToDelete).then(fetchCategories)
})
return (
<div>
<PrimarySearchAppBar menuItems={menuItems}/>
<Categories categories={categories} onDeleteClick={handleDeleteCategory} />
</div>
)
}
you can do the same thing but do it with a provider and using the content API if you do not want to have all the logic here. It is good to have smart/fetches/server-side logic in a top level component and then pass down props to dumb components.
PS.
There is also a nice hook to make fetches easier:
https://github.com/doasync/use-promise
I currently use a custom version of a usePromise hook I found because I added some interesting features. I can share it if you want but I don't want to add noise to the answer.

Exposing the state of a react widget

I have made a react UI widget thats let's the user select a number of different times and dates. The user's current selection is stored in the state of a top level component, DateTimePicker. I then have a widget wrapper like so:
import ...
export default {
new: (args) => {
const store = {
reactElement: <DateTimePicker
startDate={args.startDate}
endDate={args.endDate}
/>
};
return {
getState: () => {
return store.reactElement.getState(); // DOESN'T WORK
},
render: (selector) => {
ReactDOM.render(store.reactElement, document.querySelector(selector));
}
};
}
};
I want to add a validation to make sure that at least X days/times are selected, but this validation needs to be implemented outside of the widget.
For this, I'll need someway of asking the widget of it 's state. i.e. what has the user selected? Although it seems like the state of the class is not part of the public api of a react component.
How can I acess the state, or is there another way I'm missing?

The solution to doing things imperatively from the parent to the child usually involves getting a ref to the child component. Something along these lines:
export default {
new: (args) => {
let myRef = React.createRef();
const store = {
reactElement: <DateTimePicker
ref={myRef}
startDate={args.startDate}
endDate={args.endDate}
/>
};
return {
getState: () => {
return myRef.current.getState();
},
render: (selector) => {
ReactDOM.render(store.reactElement, document.querySelector(selector));
}
};
}
};
With ref={myRef} added as a prop, whenever DateTimePicker gets mounted, it will assign a reference to the mounted component to myRef.current. You can then use that reference to interact directly with the most recently mounted component.

Close a dropdown when an element within it is clicked

I'm working on a Notification feature in my app (pretty much like Facebook notifications).
When I click a button in the header navigation, the dropdown opens and shows the notification list. The notification has a Link (from react-router) in it.
What I need to do is to close the dropdown whenever a Link is clicked.
Here's roughly the hierarchy I currently have:
Header > Navigation > Button > Dropdown > List > Notification > Link
Since the dropdown functionality is used more that once, I've abstracted its behavior away into a HOC that uses render prop:
export default function withDropDown(ClickableElement) {
return class ClickableDropdown extends PureComponent {
static propTypes = {
children: PropTypes.func.isRequired,
showOnInit: PropTypes.bool,
};
static defaultProps = {
showOnInit: false,
};
state = {
show: !!this.props.showOnInit,
};
domRef = createRef();
componentDidMount() {
document.addEventListener('mousedown', this.handleGlobalClick);
}
toggle = show => {
this.setState({ show });
};
handleClick = () => this.toggle(true);
handleGlobalClick = event => {
if (this.domRef.current && !this.domRef.current.contains(event.target)) {
this.toggle(false);
}
};
render() {
const { children, ...props } = this.props;
return (
<Fragment>
<ClickableElement {...props} onClick={this.handleClick} />
{this.state.show && children(this.domRef)}
</Fragment>
);
}
};
}
The HOC above encloses the Button component, so I have:
const ButtonWithDropdown = withDropdown(Button);
class NotificationsHeaderDropdown extends PureComponent {
static propTypes = {
data: PropTypes.arrayOf(notification),
load: PropTypes.func,
};
static defaultProps = {
data: [],
load: () => {},
};
componentDidMount() {
this.props.load();
}
renderDropdown = ref => (
<Dropdown ref={ref}>
{data.length > 0 && <List items={this.props.data} />}
{data.length === 0 && <EmptyList />}
</Dropdown>
);
render() {
return (
<ButtonWithDropdown count={this.props.data.length}>
{this.renderDropdown}
</ButtonWithDropdown>
);
}
}
List and Notification are both dumb functional components, so I'm not posting their code here. Dropdown is pretty much the same, with the difference it uses ref forwarding.
What I really need is to call that .toggle() method from ClickableDropdown created by the HOC to be called whenever I click on a Link on the list.
Is there any way of doing this without passing that .toggle() method down the Button > Dropdown > List > Notification > Link subtree?
I'm using redux, but I'm not sure this is the kind of thing I'd put on the store.
Or should I handle this imperatively using the DOM API, by changing the implementation of handleGlobalClick from ClickableDropdown?
Edit:
I'm trying with the imperative approach, so I've changed the handleGlobalClick method:
const DISMISS_KEY = 'dropdown';
function contains(current, element) {
if (!current) {
return false;
}
return current.contains(element);
}
function isDismisser(dismissKey, current, element) {
if (!element || !contains(current, element)) {
return false;
}
const shouldDismiss = element.dataset.dismiss === dismissKey;
return shouldDismiss || isDismisser(dismissKey, current, element.parentNode);
}
// Then...
handleGlobalClick = event => {
const containsEventTarget = contains(this.domRef.current, event.target);
const shouldDismiss = isDismisser(
DISMISS_KEY,
this.domRef.current,
event.target
);
if (!containsEventTarget || shouldDismiss) {
this.toggle(false);
}
return true;
};
Then I changed the Link to include a data-dismiss property:
<Link
to={url}
data-dismiss="dropdown"
>
...
</Link>
Now the dropdown is closed, but I'm not redirected to the provided url anymore.
I tried to defer the execution of this.toggle(false) using requestAnimationFrame and setTimeout, but it didn't work either.
Solution:
Based on the answer by #streletss bellow, I came up with the following solution:
In order to be as generic as possible, I created a shouldHideOnUpdate prop in the ClickableDropdown dropdown component, whose Hindley-Milner-ish signature is:
shouldHideOnUpdate :: Props curr, Props prev => (curr, prev) -> Boolean
Here's the componentDidUpdate implementation:
componentDidUpdate(prevProps) {
if (this.props.shouldHideOnUpdate(this.props, prevProps)) {
this.toggle(false);
}
}
This way, I didn't need to use the withRouter HOC directly in my withDropdown HOC.
So, I lifted the responsibility of defining the condition for hiding the dropdown to the caller, which is my case is the Navigation component, where I did something like this:
const container = compose(withRouter, withDropdown);
const ButtonWithDropdown = container(Button);
function routeStateHasChanged(currentProps, prevProps) {
return currentProps.location.state !== prevProps.location.state;
}
// ... then
render() {
<ButtonWithDropdown shouldHideOnUpdate={routeStateHasChanged}>
{this.renderDropdown}
</ButtonWithDropdown>
}

It seems you could simply make use of withRouter HOC and check if this.props.location.pathname has changed when componentDidUpdate:
export default function withDropDown(ClickableElement) {
class ClickableDropdown extends Component {
// ...
componentDidUpdate(prevProps) {
if (this.props.location.pathname !== prevProps.location.pathname) {
this.toggle(false);
}
}
// ...
};
return withRouter(ClickableDropdown)
}

Is there any way of doing this without passing that .toggle() method down the Button > Dropdown > List > Notification > Link subtree?
In the question, you mention that you are using redux.So I assume that you store showOnInit in redux.We don't usually store a function in redux.In toggle function,I think you should dispatch an CHANGE_SHOW action to change the showOnInit in redux, then pass the show data not the function to the children component.Then after reducer dispatch,the react will change “show” automatically.
switch (action.type) {
case CHANGE_SHOW:
return Object.assign({}, state, {
showOnInit: action.text
})
...
default:
return state
}
Link element and data pass
Use the property in Link-to,not data-...Like this:
<Link
to={{
pathname: url,
state:{dismiss:"dropdown"}
}}
/>
And the state property will be found in this.props.location.
give context a little try(not recommend)
It may lead your project to instable and some other problems.(https://reactjs.org/docs/context.html#classcontexttype)
First,define context
const MyContext = React.createContext(defaultValue);
Second,define pass value
<MyContext.Provider value={this.toggle}>
Then,get the value in the nested component
<div value={this.context} />

"Cannot update during an existing state transition" error in React

I'm trying to do Step 15 of this ReactJS tutorial: React.js Introduction For People Who Know Just Enough jQuery To Get By
The author recommends the following:
overflowAlert: function() {
if (this.remainingCharacters() < 0) {
return (
<div className="alert alert-warning">
<strong>Oops! Too Long:</strong>
</div>
);
} else {
return "";
}
},
render() {
...
{ this.overflowAlert() }
...
}
I tried doing the following (which looks alright to me):
// initialized "warnText" inside "getInitialState"
overflowAlert: function() {
if (this.remainingCharacters() < 0) {
this.setState({ warnText: "Oops! Too Long:" });
} else {
this.setState({ warnText: "" });
}
},
render() {
...
{ this.overflowAlert() }
<div>{this.state.warnText}</div>
...
}
And I received the following error in the console in Chrome Dev Tools:
Cannot update during an existing state transition (such as within render or another component's constructor). Render methods should be
a pure function of props and state; constructor side-effects are an
anti-pattern, but can be moved to componentWillMount.
Here's a JSbin demo. Why won't my solution work and what does this error mean?

Your solution does not work because it doesn't make sense logically. The error you receive may be a bit vague, so let me break it down. The first line states:
Cannot update during an existing state transition (such as within render or another component's constructor).
Whenever a React Component's state is updated, the component is rerendered to the DOM. In this case, there's an error because you are attempting to call overflowAlert inside render, which calls setState. That means you are attempting to update state in render which will in then call render and overflowAlert and update state and call render again, etc. leading to an infinite loop. The error is telling you that you are trying to update state as a consequence of updating state in the first place, leading to a loop. This is why this is not allowed.
Instead, take another approach and remember what you're trying to accomplish. Are you attempting to give a warning to the user when they input text? If that's the case, set overflowAlert as an event handler of an input. That way, state will be updated when an input event happens, and the component will be rerendered.

Make sure you are using proper expression. For example, using:
<View onPress={this.props.navigation.navigate('Page1')} />
is different with
<View onPress={ () => this.props.navigation.navigate('Page1')} />
or
<View onPress={ () => {
this.props.navigation.navigate('Page1')
}} />
The two last above are function expression, the first one is not. Make sure you are passing function object to function expression () => {}

Instead of doing any task related to component in render method do it after the update of component
In this case moving from Splash screen to another screen is done only after the componentDidMount method call.
import React, { Component } from 'react';
import {
StyleSheet,
Text,
View,
Button,
Image,
} from 'react-native';
let timeoutid;
export default class Splash extends Component {
static navigationOptions = {
navbarHidden: true,
tabBarHidden: true,
};
constructor(props) {
super(props)
this.state = { navigatenow: false };
}
componentDidMount() {
timeoutid=setTimeout(() => {
this.setState({ navigatenow: true });
}, 5000);
}
componentWillUnmount(){
clearTimeout(timeoutid);
}
componentDidUpdate(){
const { navigate,goBack } = this.props.navigation;
if (this.state.navigatenow == true) {
navigate('Main');
}
}
render() {
//instead of writing this code in render write this code in
componenetDidUdpate method
/* const { navigate,goBack } = this.props.navigation;
if (this.state.navigatenow == true) {
navigate('Main');
}*/
return (
<Image style={{
flex: 1, width: null,
height: null,
resizeMode: 'cover'
}} source={require('./login.png')}>
</Image>
);
}
}

Call the component props at each time as new render activity. Warning occurred while overflow the single render.
instead of
<Item onPress = { props.navigation.toggleDrawer() } />
try like
<Item onPress = {() => props.navigation.toggleDrawer() } />

You can also define the function overflowAlert: function() as a variable like so and it will not be called immediately in render
overflowAlert = ()=>{//.....//}