Suppose I have a component like this -
const MyForm = ({ formId }) => (
<div>
<input type="text" placeholder="Full name"></input>
<input type="text" placeholder="Email"></input>
</div>
)
export default MyForm;
And then I have my App.js like so -
import React from "react";
import MyForm from "./MyForm";
const App = () => (
<div id="app">
<MyForm formId="formOne"></MyForm>
<MyForm formId="formTwo"></MyForm>
<button onClick={
() => {
// Here, when the user clicks the button,
// I want to get values of both the textboxes,
// from both the component instances
}
}>Submit</button>
</div>
)
export default App;
So basically, what I want is - when the button is clicked, I want to be able to retrieve the values of the textboxes. One way to do this is to raise an event from inside MyForm.js so that every text change is bubbled up to the parent via a callback function prop, but that feels too cumbersome, especially if the form has a lot of fields. Is there any simple or direct way to do this? Do I need to involve global state management tools like Redux?
State inside a component is specific only to that component, the parent , children or sibling of a component have no idea of the state. The only way to communicate the value from one component to another component is via props . In your case, what we need is a state to reside at the App which can then be passed as a prop to both the MyForm Components.
App.js
const [ formState, setFormState ] = useState({ formOne: {fullName: '', Email: ''}, formTwo: '' })
const updateFormValues = (formId, key, value) => {
const stateCopy = JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(formState));
const formToUpdate = stateCopy[formId];
formToUpdate[key] = value;
setFormState(stateCopy)
}
<MyForm formId="formOne" values={formState.formOne} updateFormValues={updateFormValues}></MyForm>
<MyForm formId="formTwo" values={formState.formTwo} updateFormValues={updateFormValues}></MyForm>
MyForm.js
const MyForm = ({ formId, values, updateFormValues }) => {
const onInputChange = (e, key) => {
updateFormValues(formId, key, e.target.value)
}
return(
<div>
<input type="text" onChange={(e) => onInputChange(e, 'fullName'} value={values.fullName} placeholder="Full name"></input>
<input type="text" onChange={(e) => onInputChange(e, 'email'} value={values.email} placeholder="Email"></input>
</div>
)}
export default MyForm;
To have access to data inside children components you need to lift the state to the parent component.
One-way data flow
Identify every component that renders something based on that state.
Find a common owner component (a single component above all the components that need the state in the hierarchy).
Either the common owner or another component higher up in the hierarchy should own the state.
If you can’t find a component where it makes sense to own the state, create a new component solely for holding the state and add it somewhere in the hierarchy above the common owner component.
One way to do this:
import React, { useState } from "react";
function MyForm(props) {
const { handleChange, values } = props;
return (
<div>
<label htmlFor="name">Your name</label>
<input
type="text"
placeholder="Full name"
onChange={handleChange}
value={values.name}
id="name"
name="name"
/>
<label htmlFor="email">Your email</label>
<input
type="email"
placeholder="Email"
onChange={handleChange}
value={values.email}
id="email"
name="email"
/>
</div>
);
}
function App() {
const [values, setValues] = useState({ name: "", email: "" });
const handleChange = (event) => {
const updatedForm = { ...values, [event.target.name]: event.target.value };
setValues(updatedForm);
};
return (
<div id="app">
<MyForm
formId="formOne"
values={values}
handleChange={handleChange}
></MyForm>
<button
onClick={() => {
console.log(values);
}}
>
Submit
</button>
</div>
);
}
export default App;
I have a long form in react. Before, it had a bunch of components that were defined as such:
<input
type='text'
value={this.state.form.nameOfFormField}
onChange={this.updateForm('nameOfFormField')} />
Where updateForm is a function in the form of (field) => (e) => {}, to make code reuse easier.
I wanted to make this easier to maintain, so I created a component, SpecialInput, which was defined as such:
const SpecialInputBuilder = (form, onChange) => ({ field, ..props }) => (
<input
type='text'
value={form[field]}
onChange={onChange(field)}
{...props} />
)
Now, I could define the Input during render like so:
const SpecialInput = SpecialInputBuilder(this.state.form, this.updateForm)
And use it in the component like this:
<SpecialInput field='nameOfFormField' />
Obviously, this is much more succinct. But this also means that the input field will drop focus every time input is entered into the field (i.e., when updateForm is called), because SpecialInput is defined every time the render function is called. Defining a key to each element does not seem to at all alleviate the problem. How can I fix this while still using this simpler component? Is there a middle ground?
Why not just change your input builder to just be a react component?
const SpecialInput = (props) => {
return (
<input
value={props.form[props.field]}
{...props}
type={props.type || 'text'}
onChange={() => props.onChange(props.field)}
/>
)
}
and just use it the same way.
<SpecialInput field='nameOfFormField' onChange={this.updateForm} form={this.state.form} />
I had a similar approach but ended up changing it to this;
(1) Input typer child component:
import React, { Component } from 'react';
class FreeTextField extends Component {
inputValueFn(e) {
this.props.userInput(this.props.responseObject, e.target.value);
}
render() {
return (
<div className="input-group">
<label>{this.props.buttonText ? this.props.buttonText : "Firstname"}</label>
<input type={this.props.type} placeholder="" className="form-control" defaultValue={this.props.defaultValue} onChange={this.inputValueFn.bind(this)} />
</div>
);
}
}
export default FreeTextField;
(2) From the parent component you can specify all relavent child attr via props
// import
import FreeTextField from './pathTo/FreeTextField';
// Initial state
this.state = {
responseObject: {}
}
// onChange it updates the responseObject
userInput(fieldKey,value) {
let responseObject = this.state.responseObject;
responseObject[fieldKey] = value;
this.setState({responseObject:responseObject});
}
// component render()
<FreeTextField
buttonText="First Name"
type="text"
formObjectKey="first_name"
userInput{this.userInput.bind(this)} />
The main issue is that your onChange call is executing as soon as it's rendered, instead of a reference to a function to be called when the input changes.
// this executes immediately
onChange={onChange(field)}
// this is a reference to the function with a prop prepended
onChange={onChange.bind(this,field)}
I am just writing to text input and in onChange event I call setState, so React re-renders my UI. The problem is that the text input always loses focus, so I need to focus it again for each letter :D.
var EditorContainer = React.createClass({
componentDidMount: function () {
$(this.getDOMNode()).slimScroll({height: this.props.height, distance: '4px', size: '8px'});
},
componentDidUpdate: function () {
console.log("zde");
$(this.getDOMNode()).slimScroll({destroy: true}).slimScroll({height: 'auto', distance: '4px', size: '8px'});
},
changeSelectedComponentName: function (e) {
//this.props.editor.selectedComponent.name = $(e.target).val();
this.props.editor.forceUpdate();
},
render: function () {
var style = {
height: this.props.height + 'px'
};
return (
<div className="container" style={style}>
<div className="row">
<div className="col-xs-6">
{this.props.selected ? <h3>{this.props.selected.name}</h3> : ''}
{this.props.selected ? <input type="text" value={this.props.selected.name} onChange={this.changeSelectedComponentName} /> : ''}
</div>
<div className="col-xs-6">
<ComponentTree editor={this.props.editor} components={this.props.components}/>
</div>
</div>
</div>
);
}
});
Without seeing the rest of your code, this is a guess.
When you create a EditorContainer, specify a unique key for the component:
<EditorContainer key="editor1"/>
When a re-rendering occurs, if the same key is seen, this will tell React don't clobber and regenerate the view, instead reuse. Then the focused item should retain focus.
I keep coming back here again and again and always find the solution to my elsewhere at the end.
So, I'll document it here because I know I will forget this again!
The reason input was losing focus in my case was due to the fact that I was re-rendering the input on state change.
Buggy Code:
import React from 'react';
import styled from 'styled-components';
class SuperAwesomeComp extends React.Component {
state = {
email: ''
};
updateEmail = e => {
e.preventDefault();
this.setState({ email: e.target.value });
};
render() {
const Container = styled.div``;
const Input = styled.input``;
return (
<Container>
<Input
type="text"
placeholder="Gimme your email!"
onChange={this.updateEmail}
value={this.state.email}
/>
</Container>
)
}
}
So, the problem is that I always start coding everything at one place to quickly test and later break it all into separate modules.
But, here this strategy backfires because updating the state on input change triggers render function and the focus is lost.
Fix is simple, do the modularization from the beginning, in other words, "Move the Input component out of render function"
Fixed Code
import React from 'react';
import styled from 'styled-components';
const Container = styled.div``;
const Input = styled.input``;
class SuperAwesomeComp extends React.Component {
state = {
email: ''
};
updateEmail = e => {
e.preventDefault();
this.setState({ email: e.target.value });
};
render() {
return (
<Container>
<Input
type="text"
placeholder="Gimme your email!"
onChange={this.updateEmail}
value={this.state.email}
/>
</Container>
)
}
}
Ref. to the solution: https://github.com/styled-components/styled-components/issues/540#issuecomment-283664947
If it's a problem within a react router <Route/> use the render prop instead of component.
<Route path="/user" render={() => <UserPage/>} />
The loss of focus happens because the component prop uses React.createElement each time instead of just re-rendering the changes.
Details here: https://reacttraining.com/react-router/web/api/Route/component
I had the same symptoms with hooks. Yet my problem was defining a component inside the parent.
Wrong:
const Parent =() => {
const Child = () => <p>Child!</p>
return <Child />
}
Right:
const Child = () => <p>Child!</p>
const Parent = () => <Child />
My answer is similar to what #z5h said.
In my case, I used Math.random() to generate a unique key for the component.
I thought the key is only used for triggering a rerender for that particular component rather than re-rendering all the components in that array (I return an array of components in my code). I didn't know it is used for restoring the state after rerendering.
Removing that did the job for me.
Applying the autoFocus attribute to the input element can perform as a workaround in situations where there's only one input that needs to be focused. In that case a key attribute would be unnecessary because it's just one element and furthermore you wouldn't have to worry about breaking the input element into its own component to avoid losing focus on re-render of main component.
What I did was just change the value prop to defaultValue and second change was onChange event to onBlur.
I got the same behavior.
The problem in my code was that i created a nested Array of jsx elements like this:
const example = [
[
<input value={'Test 1'}/>,
<div>Test 2</div>,
<div>Test 3</div>,
]
]
...
render = () => {
return <div>{ example }</div>
}
Every element in this nested Array re-renders each time I updated the parent element. And so the inputs lose there "ref" prop every time
I fixed the Problem with transform the inner array to a react component
(a function with a render function)
const example = [
<myComponentArray />
]
...
render = () => {
return <div>{ example }</div>
}
EDIT:
The same issue appears when i build a nested React.Fragment
const SomeComponent = (props) => (
<React.Fragment>
<label ... />
<input ... />
</React.Fragment>
);
const ParentComponent = (props) => (
<React.Fragment>
<SomeComponent ... />
<div />
</React.Fragment>
);
I solved the same issue deleting the key attribute in the input and his parent elements
// Before
<input
className='invoice_table-input invoice_table-input-sm'
type='number'
key={ Math.random }
defaultValue={pageIndex + 1}
onChange={e => {
const page = e.target.value ? Number(e.target.value) - 1 : 0
gotoPage(page)
}}
/>
// After
<input
className='invoice_table-input invoice_table-input-sm'
type='number'
defaultValue={pageIndex + 1}
onChange={e => {
const page = e.target.value ? Number(e.target.value) - 1 : 0
gotoPage(page)
}}
/>
The answers supplied didn't help me, here was what I did but I had a unique situation.
To clean up the code I tend to use this format until I'm ready to pull the component into another file.
render(){
const MyInput = () => {
return <input onChange={(e)=>this.setState({text: e.target.value}) />
}
return(
<div>
<MyInput />
</div>
)
But this caused it to lose focus, when I put the code directly in the div it worked.
return(
<div>
<input onChange={(e)=>this.setState({text: e.target.value}) />
</div>
)
I don't know why this is, this is the only issue I've had with writing it this way and I do it in most files I have, but if anyone does a similar thing this is why it loses focus.
If the input field is inside another element (i.e., a container element like <div key={"bart"}...><input key={"lisa"}...> ... </input></div>-- the ellipses here indicating omitted code), there must be a unique and constant key on the container element (as well as on the input field). Elsewise, React renders up a brand new container element when child's state is updated rather than merely re-rendering the old container. Logically, only the child element should be updated, but...
I had this problem while trying to write a component that took a bunch of address information. The working code looks like this
// import react, components
import React, { Component } from 'react'
// import various functions
import uuid from "uuid";
// import styles
import "../styles/signUp.css";
export default class Address extends Component {
constructor(props) {
super(props);
this.state = {
address1: "",
address2: "",
address1Key: uuid.v4(),
address2Key: uuid.v4(),
address1HolderKey: uuid.v4(),
address2HolderKey: uuid.v4(),
// omitting state information for additional address fields for brevity
};
this.handleChange = this.handleChange.bind(this);
}
handleChange(event) {
event.preventDefault();
this.setState({ [`${event.target.id}`]: event.target.value })
}
render() {
return (
<fieldset>
<div className="labelAndField" key={this.state.address1HolderKey} >
<label className="labelStyle" for="address1">{"Address"}</label>
<input className="inputStyle"
id="address1"
name="address1"
type="text"
label="address1"
placeholder=""
value={this.state.address1}
onChange={this.handleChange}
key={this.state.address1Key} ></input >
</div>
<div className="labelAndField" key={this.state.address2HolderKey} >
<label className="labelStyle" for="address2">{"Address (Cont.)"}</label>
<input className="inputStyle"
id="address2"
name="address2"
type="text"
label="address2"
placeholder=""
key={this.state.address2Key} ></input >
</div>
{/* omitting rest of address fields for brevity */}
</fieldset>
)
}
}
Sharp-eyed readers will note that <fieldset> is a containing element, yet it doesn't require a key. The same holds for <> and <React.Fragment> or even <div> Why? Maybe only the immediate container needs a key. I dunno. As math textbooks say, the explanation is left to the reader as an exercise.
I had this issue and the problem turned out to be that I was using a functional component and linking up with a parent component's state. If I switched to using a class component, the problem went away. Hopefully there is a way around this when using functional components as it's a lot more convenient for simple item renderers et al.
I just ran into this issue and came here for help. Check your CSS! The input field cannot have user-select: none; or it won't work on an iPad.
The core reason is: When React re-render, your previous DOM ref will be invalid. It mean react has change the DOM tree, and you this.refs.input.focus won't work, because the input here doesn't exist anymore.
For me, this was being caused by the search input box being rendered in the same component (called UserList) as the list of search results. So whenever the search results changed, the whole UserList component rerendered, including the input box.
My solution was to create a whole new component called UserListSearch which is separate from UserList. I did not need to set keys on the input fields in UserListSearch for this to work. The render function of my UsersContainer now looks like this:
class UserContainer extends React.Component {
render() {
return (
<div>
<Route
exact
path={this.props.match.url}
render={() => (
<div>
<UserListSearch
handleSearchChange={this.handleSearchChange}
searchTerm={this.state.searchTerm}
/>
<UserList
isLoading={this.state.isLoading}
users={this.props.users}
user={this.state.user}
handleNewUserClick={this.handleNewUserClick}
/>
</div>
)}
/>
</div>
)
}
}
Hopefully this helps someone too.
I switched value prop to defaultValue. That works for me.
...
// before
<input value={myVar} />
// after
<input defaultValue={myVar} />
My problem was that I named my key dynamically with a value of the item, in my case "name" so the key was key={${item.name}-${index}}. So when I wanted to change the input with item.name as the value, they key would also change and therefore react would not recognize that element
included the next code in tag input:
ref={(input) => {
if (input) {
input.focus();
}
}}
Before:
<input
defaultValue={email}
className="form-control"
type="email"
id="email"
name="email"
placeholder={"mail#mail.com"}
maxLength="15"
onChange={(e) => validEmail(e.target.value)}
/>
After:
<input
ref={(input) => {
if (input) {
input.focus();
}
}}
defaultValue={email}
className="form-control"
type="email"
id="email"
name="email"
placeholder={"mail#mail.com"}
maxLength="15"
onChange={(e) => validEmail(e.target.value)}
/>
I had a similar issue, this is fixed it.
const component = () => {
return <input onChange={({target})=>{
setValue(target.vlaue)
}
} />
}
const ThisComponentKeptRefreshingContainer = () => {
return(
<component />
)
}
const ThisContainerDidNot= () => {
return(
<> {component()} </>
)
}
As the code illustrate calling the component child like an element gave that re-rendering effect, however, calling it like a function did not.
hope it helps someone
I had the same problem with an html table in which I have input text lines in a column. inside a loop I read a json object and I create rows in particular I have a column with inputtext.
http://reactkungfu.com/2015/09/react-js-loses-input-focus-on-typing/
I managed to solve it in the following way
import { InputTextComponent } from './InputTextComponent';
//import my inputTextComponent
...
var trElementList = (function (list, tableComponent) {
var trList = [],
trElement = undefined,
trElementCreator = trElementCreator,
employeeElement = undefined;
// iterating through employee list and
// creating row for each employee
for (var x = 0; x < list.length; x++) {
employeeElement = list[x];
var trNomeImpatto = React.createElement('tr', null, <td rowSpan="4"><strong>{employeeElement['NomeTipologiaImpatto'].toUpperCase()}</strong></td>);
trList.push(trNomeImpatto);
trList.push(trElementCreator(employeeElement, 0, x));
trList.push(trElementCreator(employeeElement, 1, x));
trList.push(trElementCreator(employeeElement, 2, x));
} // end of for
return trList; // returns row list
function trElementCreator(obj, field, index) {
var tdList = [],
tdElement = undefined;
//my input text
var inputTextarea = <InputTextComponent
idImpatto={obj['TipologiaImpattoId']}//index
value={obj[columns[field].nota]}//initial value of the input I read from my json data source
noteType={columns[field].nota}
impattiComposite={tableComponent.state.impattiComposite}
//updateImpactCompositeNote={tableComponent.updateImpactCompositeNote}
/>
tdElement = React.createElement('td', { style: null }, inputTextarea);
tdList.push(tdElement);
var trComponent = createClass({
render: function () {
return React.createElement('tr', null, tdList);
}
});
return React.createElement(trComponent);
} // end of trElementCreator
});
...
//my tableComponent
var tableComponent = createClass({
// initial component states will be here
// initialize values
getInitialState: function () {
return {
impattiComposite: [],
serviceId: window.sessionStorage.getItem('serviceId'),
serviceName: window.sessionStorage.getItem('serviceName'),
form_data: [],
successCreation: null,
};
},
//read a json data soure of the web api url
componentDidMount: function () {
this.serverRequest =
$.ajax({
url: Url,
type: 'GET',
contentType: 'application/json',
data: JSON.stringify({ id: this.state.serviceId }),
cache: false,
success: function (response) {
this.setState({ impattiComposite: response.data });
}.bind(this),
error: function (xhr, resp, text) {
// show error to console
console.error('Error', xhr, resp, text)
alert(xhr, resp, text);
}
});
},
render: function () {
...
React.createElement('table', {style:null}, React.createElement('tbody', null,trElementList(this.state.impattiComposite, this),))
...
}
//my input text
var inputTextarea = <InputTextComponent
idImpatto={obj['TipologiaImpattoId']}//index
value={obj[columns[field].nota]}//initial value of the input I read //from my json data source
noteType={columns[field].nota}
impattiComposite={tableComponent.state.impattiComposite}//impattiComposite = my json data source
/>//end my input text
tdElement = React.createElement('td', { style: null }, inputTextarea);
tdList.push(tdElement);//add a component
//./InputTextComponent.js
import React from 'react';
export class InputTextComponent extends React.Component {
constructor(props) {
super(props);
this.state = {
idImpatto: props.idImpatto,
value: props.value,
noteType: props.noteType,
_impattiComposite: props.impattiComposite,
};
this.updateNote = this.updateNote.bind(this);
}
//Update a inpute text with new value insert of the user
updateNote(event) {
this.setState({ value: event.target.value });//update a state of the local componet inputText
var impattiComposite = this.state._impattiComposite;
var index = this.state.idImpatto - 1;
var impatto = impattiComposite[index];
impatto[this.state.noteType] = event.target.value;
this.setState({ _impattiComposite: impattiComposite });//update of the state of the father component (tableComponet)
}
render() {
return (
<input
className="Form-input"
type='text'
value={this.state.value}
onChange={this.updateNote}>
</input>
);
}
}
Simple solution in my case:
<input ref={ref => ref && ref.focus()}
onFocus={(e)=>e.currentTarget.setSelectionRange(e.currentTarget.value.length, e.currentTarget.value.length)}
/>
ref triggers focus, and that triggers onFocus to calculate the end and set the cursor accordingly.
The issue in my case was that the key prop values I was setting on the InputContainer component and the input fields themselves were generated using Math.random(). The non-constant nature of the values made it hard for track to be kept of the input field being edited.
For me I had a text area inside a portal. This text area was loosing focus. My buggy portal implementation was like this:
export const Modal = ({children, onClose}: modelProps) => {
const modalDOM = document.getElementById("modal");
const divRef = useRef(document.createElement('div'));
useEffect(()=>{
const ref = divRef.current;
modalDOM?.appendChild(ref);
return ()=>{
modalDOM?.removeChild(ref);
}
});
const close = (e: React.MouseEvent) => {
e.stopPropagation();
onClose();
};
const handleClick = (e: React.MouseEvent) => {
e.stopPropagation()
}
return (
createPortal(
<div className="modal" onClick={close}>
<div className="modal__close-modal" onClick={close}>x</div>
{children}
</div>,
divRef.current)
)
}
const Parent = ({content: string}: ParentProps) => {
const [content, setContent] = useState<string>(content);
const onChangeFile = (e: React.MouseEvent) => {
setContent(e.currentTarget.value);
}
return (
<Modal>
<textarea
value={content}
onChange={onChangeFile}>
</textarea>
</Modal>
)
}
Turned out following implementation worked correctly, here I am directly attaching modal component to the DOM element.
export const Modal = ({children, onClose}: modelProps) => {
const modalDOM = document.getElementById("modal");
const close = (e: React.MouseEvent) => {
e.stopPropagation();
onClose();
};
return (
createPortal(
<div className="modal" onClick={close}>
<div className="modal__close-modal" onClick={close}>x</div>
{children}
</div>,
modalDOM || document.body)
)
}
Turns out I was binding this to the component which was causing it to rerender.
I figured I'd post it here in case anyone else had this issue.
I had to change
<Field
label="Post Content"
name="text"
component={this.renderField.bind(this)}
/>
To
<Field
label="Post Content"
name="text"
component={this.renderField}
/>
Simple fix since in my case, I didn't actually need this in renderField, but hopefully me posting this will help someone else.
Changing text in the input of some control can cause parent control rerendering in some cases (according to binding to props).
In this case focus will be lost. Editing should not has effect to parent container in DOM.