Develop Reference

react js variable update delay - react.js [duplicate]

I'm reading Forms section of reactjs documentation and just tried this code to demonstrate onChange usage (JSBIN).
var React= require('react');
var ControlledForm= React.createClass({
getInitialState: function() {
return {
value: "initial value"
};
},
handleChange: function(event) {
console.log(this.state.value);
this.setState({value: event.target.value});
console.log(this.state.value);
},
render: function() {
return (
<input type="text" value={this.state.value} onChange={this.handleChange}/>
);
}
});
React.render(
<ControlledForm/>,
document.getElementById('mount')
);
When I update the <input/> value in the browser, the second console.log inside the handleChange callback prints the same value as the first console.log, Why I can't see the result of this.setState({value: event.target.value}) in the scope of handleChange callback?

From React's documentation:
setState() does not immediately mutate this.state but creates a
pending state transition. Accessing this.state after calling this
method can potentially return the existing value. There is no
guarantee of synchronous operation of calls to setState and calls may
be batched for performance gains.
If you want a function to be executed after the state change occurs, pass it in as a callback.
this.setState({value: event.target.value}, function () {
console.log(this.state.value);
});

As mentioned in the React documentation, there is no guarantee of setState being fired synchronously, so your console.log may return the state prior to it updating.
Michael Parker mentions passing a callback within the setState. Another way to handle the logic after state change is via the componentDidUpdate lifecycle method, which is the method recommended in React docs.
Generally we recommend using componentDidUpdate() for such logic instead.
This is particularly useful when there may be successive setStates fired, and you would like to fire the same function after every state change. Rather than adding a callback to each setState, you could place the function inside of the componentDidUpdate, with specific logic inside if necessary.
// example
componentDidUpdate(prevProps, prevState) {
if (this.state.value > prevState.value) {
this.foo();
}
}

You could try using ES7 async/await. For instance using your example:
handleChange: async function(event) {
console.log(this.state.value);
await this.setState({value: event.target.value});
console.log(this.state.value);
}

Watch out the react lifecycle methods！
http://projects.wojtekmaj.pl/react-lifecycle-methods-diagram/
https://reactjs.org/docs/react-component.html
I worked for several hours to find out that getDerivedStateFromProps will be called after every setState().
😂

Sometime this issue occurs with state.
In case of hooks, you should use useEffect hook, As below-
const [fruit, setFruit] = useState('');
setFruit('Apple');
useEffect(() => {
console.log('Fruit', fruit);
}, [fruit])
This saved my day, Hope will help you!!!

Accessing this.state after calling the setState method is not guaranteed to return the updated status due to the asynchronous nature of setState.
To guarantee an update after calling setState, there are two solutions you may pursue.
Solution 1: As mentioned in one of the above answers, put your code in the componentDidUpdate method
Solution 2: As mentioned in another of the above answers, pass your stuff as a callback
this.setState({value: myValue}, function () {
this.functionThatIsExecutedWhenStateIsUpdated();
});
It's important to note that these two solutions are not clearly interchangeable. The one cannot easily solve all the use-cases of the other. As a general rule, if you can, best practice says that solution 1 is preferred. But, there are use-cases where only solution 2 "more effectively" works such as the "update-my-view-and-post-my-data" use case. This use case goes like this:
After adding an item, say, "Add Schedule", I want to both add that item to a front-end list and immediately post the just-updated-list to the backend, as demonstrated in the concept below:
If you dont do either solution, i.e. if you only say this in your code:
addToItemArray = () => {
this.setState{{ scheduledItemsArray: newObjectListWithMax}}
this.postData();
}
<button className="btn btn-secondary btn-block" onClick={this.addToItemArray}>Add Shedule</button>
... you will post the list excluding the "Delivery to Max" item, because the state wont be updated when you this.postData() (again, because its asynchronous).
If you utilise solution 1, you would make a POST after typing in every character in the Schedule Name textbox!
There are other ways aswell to cater for this use-case but solution 2 best conveys the intent when reading the code.
Given the ubiquitous nature of this use case in virtually every web app, the callback technique explained by Michael's answer is an indispensable piece of code in every developers toolkit.

async-await syntax works perfectly for something like the following...
changeStateFunction = () => {
// Some Worker..
this.setState((prevState) => ({
year: funcHandleYear(),
month: funcHandleMonth()
}));
goNextMonth = async () => {
await this.changeStateFunction();
const history = createBrowserHistory();
history.push(`/calendar?year=${this.state.year}&month=${this.state.month}`);
}
goPrevMonth = async () => {
await this.changeStateFunction();
const history = createBrowserHistory();
history.push(`/calendar?year=${this.state.year}&month=${this.state.month}`);
}

React bathces different set state calls so that it can determine what is the most optimal strategy for rerendering the website is going to be.
Imagine you have an application where you have a lot of different components. Perhaps, with one button click you are updating the state in multiple components, not just on the current one. In this case, React does not want to just completely isolate and do all those different updates independently.
React wants to figure out if it can stack all these updates together, maybe there is a more optimal way of updating these components so that it is more performant. This is what React is doing behind the scenes. As a result, set state call is asynchronous call.

Simply putting - this.setState({data: value}) is asynchronous in
nature that means it moves out of the Call Stack and only comes back
to the Call Stack unless it is resolved.
Please read about Event Loop to have a clear picture about Asynchronous nature in JS and why it takes time to update -
https://medium.com/front-end-weekly/javascript-event-loop-explained-4cd26af121d4
Hence -
this.setState({data:value});
console.log(this.state.data); // will give undefined or unupdated value
as it takes time to update.
To achieve the above process -
this.setState({data:value},function () {
console.log(this.state.data);
});

Measuring react components mount times

I'm trying to find a way to measure the time certain components take to mount, taking into consideration than the library for measuring is asynchronous (firebase-performance) to be specific.
I need to find out how long a page consisting of multiple asynchronously mounted components takes to render. I am not sure, how I should go about tracking the time between the time component is invoked (function) and the time it takes to mount (render).
I'm slightly confused by the life-cycle methods, as componentWillMount is considered deprecated. Basically, my understanding would be, that in order to track the time component takes to render would be the following.
class Example extends Component<Props> {
async componentDidMount() {
// let's just say this takes 3 seconds as an external API call
await exampleCall()
}
render() {
return <h1>Test</h1>
}
}
And in order to measure the performance of this component in a easily reproducable way, I wanted to construct a wrapper for the component
import perf from '#react-native-firebase/perf'
const withPerformance = (PassedComponent) => {
class Tracker extends Component<Props> {
constructor(props) {
super(props)
console.log('constructor fired')
this.trace = null
}
async componentWillMount() {
const trace = await perf.stratTrace('perf_test')
console.log('Started perf tracking')
this.trace = trace
}
async componentDidMount() {
if (this.trace) {
console.log('Stopped tracking perf')
await this.trace.stop()
} else {
console.log('Mounted, but tracking did not instantiate')
}
}
render() {
return <PassedComponent {...this.props} />
}
}
return Tracker
}
So in order for my perf tracking needs, I could just wrap my existing components with the following wrapper
// last line of Example.js:
export default withPerformance(Example)
This however results, when opening the remote debugger in my simulator with very confusingly:
constructor fired [constructor]
Mounted, but tracking did not instantiate [componentDidMount]
Started perf tracking [componentWillMount]
And my firebase console is empty with no custom traces.
This is confusing and wrong for multiple reasons, but the worst culprit is obviously the breaking of the flow of the lifecycle methods, which should be as follows:
But in my case, it seems to be constructor -> CDM -> CWM
This seems to seemingly break the component lifecycle as componentWillMount somehow fires after componentDidMount (albeit this might be due to the asynchronous nature), which is not ideal to begin with.
componentWillMount is a deprecated lifecycle method to begin with, but there seems to be no replacement for it introduced where I could begin any asynchronous subscriptions before the actual DOM nodes are loaded.
I am forced to use asynchronity in the lifecycle methods, which is not ideal to begin with.
As of note, I am aware of the Profiler introduced in react, but I need this to be able to work in production as well, which right now is not recommended with the Profiler.
Any idea how I should go about doing this?
I did experiment with manual tracking with performance.now() which does work, but it's a client requirement (not in an architectural, but actual client sense) does want the integration to work with the firebase performance tracking.

Best way to run a function when page refresh

I am trying to call a function when the page is refreshed. I adding a state if the page is rendered with the data I got from my backend end but I get an warning message "Warning: Cannot update during an existing state transition (such as within render). Render methods should be a pure function of props and state." Even though it works fine (except with the warning message), I dont think this is the best, most efficient way to do it?
If this is the best, most efficient way, how do I fix the waring message?
function Demo() {
constructor(){
this.state = {
username: "unknown",
rendered: false,
}
this.renderUserProfile = this.renderUserProfile.bind(this);
}
update(){
//code to retrieve data from backend node.js *
this.setState({ username: data });
this.setState({ rendered: true });
}
render(){
if (!this.state.rendered) {
this.update();
}
return (<p>demo</p>)
}
}
Thank you for your help!

Do never change state inside render, because every state (or prop) change will call render again. That is what the warning is telling you: you risk having infinite loops.
There is no need of a state param for "rendered", because your component will call render anyway as soon as this.setState({username: data}); executes. If you want something to happen then, add it in update just after the setState line.
Now let's imagine that you still really want it. If you don't want your component to render when the rendered state changes, then just don't use the React Component state, but any standard class attribute:
class MyComponent extends React.Component {
rendered = false
...
render() {
this.rendered = true
....
}
}
Just be aware that this looks super wrong (and useless) since it tries to go around what the React framework is good at.
Finally, from this code there is no way to know how you intend you have new data coming in. If it is an Ajax call, then you will call this.update with that data in the callback of your Ajax call - certainly not in render.

componentDidMount or componentWillMount which one I need to use

I created a a box similar to twitter using react. I was looking at the react documentation found several component life cycles but not sure which one I should use to improve my code performance: componentDidMount or componentWillMount?
When I type something in my text box I see an update in the console printing the text box value. Can anyone help me understand which method to use and when in this case?
https://jsfiddle.net/c9zv7yf5/2/
class TwitterBox extends React.Component {
constructor(props) {
super(props);
this.state = { enteredTextBoxvalue : '' };
this.handleChange = this.handleChange.bind(this);
}
handleChange(event) {
this.setState({enteredTextBoxvalue: event.target.value});
if((event.target.value).length > 3) {
this.setState({className : 'wholeContainer'});
//console.log("long characters");
}
}
render() {
return (<div>Hello {this.props.name}
<textarea className={this.state.className}
value={this.state.enteredTextBoxvalue}
onChange = {this.handleChange}>
there should be only 140 characters
</textarea>
</div>);
}
}
ReactDOM.render(
<TwitterBox name="World" />,
document.getElementById('container')
);

componentWillMount is called right before the component gets rendered.
componentDidMount is called right after the component gets rendered.
If you need to prepare data you use componentWillMount.
componentDidMount is popularly used among sending api calls or grabbing data just right after the component renders and is highly recommended to use that.

componentWillMount:
This function is called right before the component’s first render, so at first glance it appears to be a perfect place to put data fetching logic
componentDidMount:
Using componentDidMount makes it clear that data won’t be loaded until after the initial render. This reminds you to set up initial state properly, so you don’t end up with undefined state that causes errors.

As part of your question is about performance you could consider also having a look at shouldComponentUpdate to avoid reconciliation.
componentWillMount is invoked immediately before mounting occurs. It is called before render().
componentDidMount is invoked immediately after a component is mounted.

componentWillMount
component is about to render, plays the same role as constructor
there is no component in DOM yet you cannot do anything involving DOM
manipulation
calling setState() synchronously will not trigger
re-render as the component is not rendered yet
I would not recommend calling async /api requests here (technically there is no guaranty they will finish before component will be mounted, in this case the your component will not be re-rendered to apply those data)
componentDidMount
component has been rendered, it already seats in the DOM
you can perform manipulations involving DOM elements here (e.g. initialize third-party plugin)
call async /api requests, etc.

what is right way to do API call in react js?

I have recently moved from Angular to ReactJs. I am using jQuery for API calls. I have an API which returns a random user list that is to be printed in a list.
I am not sure how to write my API calls. What is best practice for this?
I tried the following but I am not getting any output. I am open to implementing alternative API libraries if necessary.
Below is my code:
import React from 'react';
export default class UserList extends React.Component {
constructor(props) {
super(props);
this.state = {
person: []
};
}
UserList(){
return $.getJSON('https://randomuser.me/api/')
.then(function(data) {
return data.results;
});
}
render() {
this.UserList().then(function(res){
this.state = {person: res};
});
return (
<div id="layout-content" className="layout-content-wrapper">
<div className="panel-list">
{this.state.person.map((item, i) =>{
return(
<h1>{item.name.first}</h1>
<span>{item.cell}, {item.email}</span>
)
})}
<div>
</div>
)
}
}

In this case, you can do ajax call inside componentDidMount, and then update state
export default class UserList extends React.Component {
constructor(props) {
super(props);
this.state = {person: []};
}
componentDidMount() {
this.UserList();
}
UserList() {
$.getJSON('https://randomuser.me/api/')
.then(({ results }) => this.setState({ person: results }));
}
render() {
const persons = this.state.person.map((item, i) => (
<div>
<h1>{ item.name.first }</h1>
<span>{ item.cell }, { item.email }</span>
</div>
));
return (
<div id="layout-content" className="layout-content-wrapper">
<div className="panel-list">{ persons }</div>
</div>
);
}
}

You may want to check out the Flux Architecture. I also recommend checking out React-Redux Implementation. Put your api calls in your actions. It is much more cleaner than putting it all in the component.
Actions are sort of helper methods that you can call to change your application state or do api calls.

Use fetch method inside componentDidMount to update state:
componentDidMount(){
fetch('https://randomuser.me/api/')
.then(({ results }) => this.setState({ person: results }));
}

This discussion has been for a while and #Alexander T.'s answer provided a good guide to follow for newer of React like me. And I'm going to share some additional know-how about calling the same API multiple times to refresh the component, I think it's probably a common question for beginners.
componentWillReceiveProps(nextProps), from official documentation :
If you need to update the state in response to prop changes (for
example, to reset it), you may compare this.props and nextProps and
perform state transitions using this.setState() in this method.
We could conclude that here is the place we handle props from the parent component, have API calls, and update the state.
Base on #Alexander T.'s example:
export default class UserList extends React.Component {
constructor(props) {
super(props);
this.state = {person: []};
}
componentDidMount() {
//For our first load.
this.UserList(this.props.group); //maybe something like "groupOne"
}
componentWillReceiveProps(nextProps) {
// Assuming parameter comes from url.
// let group = window.location.toString().split("/")[*indexParameterLocated*];
// this.UserList(group);
// Assuming parameter comes from props that from parent component.
let group = nextProps.group; // Maybe something like "groupTwo"
this.UserList(group);
}
UserList(group) {
$.getJSON('https://randomuser.me/api/' + group)
.then(({ results }) => this.setState({ person: results }));
}
render() {
return (...)
}
}
Update
componentWillReceiveProps() will be deprecated.
Here are only some methods (all of them in Doc) in the life cycle I think that they are related to deploying API in the general cases:
By referring to the diagram above:
Deploy API in componentDidMount()
The proper scenario to have API call here is that the content (from the response of API) of this component will be static, componentDidMount() only fire once while the component is mounting, even new props are passed from the parent component or have actions to lead re-rendering.
The component do check difference to re-render but not re-mount.
Quote from doc:
If you need to load data from a remote endpoint, this is a good place to
instantiate the network request.
Deploy API in static getDerivedStateFromProps(nextProps, prevState)
We should notice that there are two kinds of component updating, setState() in current component would not trigger this method but re-rendering or new props from parent component would.
We could find out this method also fires while mounting.
This is a proper place to deploy API if we want to use the current component as a template, and the new parameters to make API calls are props coming from parent component.
We receive a different response from API and return a new state here to change the content of this component.
For example:
We have a dropdown list for different Cars in the parent component, this component needs to show the details of the selected one.
Deploy API in componentDidUpdate(prevProps, prevState)
Different from static getDerivedStateFromProps(), this method is invoked immediately after every rendering except the initial rendering. We could have API calling and render difference in one component.
Extend the previous example:
The component to show Car's details may contain a list of series of this car, if we want to check the 2013 production one, we may click or select or ... the list item to lead a first setState() to reflect this behavior (such as highlighting the list item) in this component, and in the following componentDidUpdate() we send our request with new parameters (state). After getting the response, we setState() again for rendering the different content of the Car details. To prevent the following componentDidUpdate() from causing the infinity loop, we need to compare the state by utilizing prevState at the beginning of this method to decide if we send the API and render the new content.
This method really could be utilized just like static getDerivedStateFromProps() with props, but need to handle the changes of props by utilizing prevProps. And we need to cooperate with componentDidMount() to handle the initial API call.
Quote from doc:
... This is also a good place to do network requests as long as you
compare the current props to previous props ...

I would like you to have a look at redux
http://redux.js.org/index.html
They have very well defined way of handling async calls ie API calls, and instead of using jQuery for API calls, I would like to recommend using fetch or request npm packages, fetch is currently supported by modern browsers, but a shim is also available for server side.
There is also this another amazing package superagent, which has alot many options when making an API request and its very easy to use.

You can also fetch data with hooks in your function components
full example with api call: https://codesandbox.io/s/jvvkoo8pq3
second example: https://jsfiddle.net/bradcypert/jhrt40yv/6/
const Repos = ({user}) => {
const [repos, setRepos] = React.useState([]);
React.useEffect(() => {
const fetchData = async () => {
const response = await axios.get(`https://api.github.com/users/${user}/repos`);
setRepos(response.data);
}
fetchData();
}, []);
return (
<div>
{repos.map(repo =>
<div key={repo.id}>{repo.name}</div>
)}
</div>
);
}
ReactDOM.render(<Repos user="bradcypert" />, document.querySelector("#app"))

1) You can use Fetch API to fetch data from Endd Points:
Example fetching all Github repose for a user
/* Fetch GitHub Repos */
fetchData = () => {
//show progress bar
this.setState({ isLoading: true });
//fetch repos
fetch(`https://api.github.com/users/hiteshsahu/repos`)
.then(response => response.json())
.then(data => {
if (Array.isArray(data)) {
console.log(JSON.stringify(data));
this.setState({ repos: data ,
isLoading: false});
} else {
this.setState({ repos: [],
isLoading: false
});
}
});
};
2) Other Alternative is Axios
Using axios you can cut out the middle step of passing the results of
the http request to the .json() method. Axios just returns the data
object you would expect.
import axios from "axios";
/* Fetch GitHub Repos */
fetchDataWithAxios = () => {
//show progress bar
this.setState({ isLoading: true });
// fetch repos with axios
axios
.get(`https://api.github.com/users/hiteshsahu/repos`)
.then(result => {
console.log(result);
this.setState({
repos: result.data,
isLoading: false
});
})
.catch(error =>
this.setState({
error,
isLoading: false
})
);
}
Now you can choose to fetch data using any of this strategies in componentDidMount
class App extends React.Component {
state = {
repos: [],
isLoading: false
};
componentDidMount() {
this.fetchData ();
}
Meanwhile you can show progress bar while data is loading
{this.state.isLoading && <LinearProgress />}

Render function should be pure, it's mean that it only uses state and props to render, never try to modify the state in render, this usually causes ugly bugs and decreases performance significantly. It's also a good point if you separate data-fetching and render concerns in your React App. I recommend you read this article which explains this idea very well. https://medium.com/#learnreact/container-components-c0e67432e005#.sfydn87nm

This part from React v16 documentation will answer your question, read on about componentDidMount():
componentDidMount()
componentDidMount() is invoked immediately after a component is
mounted. 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().
As you see, componentDidMount is considered the best place and cycle to do the api call, also access the node, means by this time it's safe to do the call, update the view or whatever you could do when document is ready, if you are using jQuery, it should somehow remind you document.ready() function, where you could make sure everything is ready for whatever you want to do in your code...

As an addition/update to Oleksandr T.'s excellent answer:
If you use class components, backend calls should happen in componentDidMount.
If you use hooks instead, you should use the effect hook
For example:
import React, { useState, useEffect } from 'react';
useEffect(() => {
fetchDataFromBackend();
}, []);
// define fetchDataFromBackend() as usual, using Fetch API or similar;
// the result will typically be stored as component state
Further reading:
Using the Effect Hook in the official docs.
How to fetch data with React Hooks? by Robin Wieruch

A clean way is to make an asynchronous API call inside componentDidMount with try/catch function.
When we called an API, we receive a response. Then we apply JSON method on it, to convert the response into a JavaScript object. Then we take from that response object only his child object named "results" (data.results).
In the beginning we defined "userList" in state as an empty array. As soon as we make the API call and receive data from that API, we assign the "results" to userList using setState method.
Inside the render function we tell that userList will be coming from state. Since the userList is an array of objects we map through it, to display a picture, a name and a phone number of each object "user". To retrieve this information we use dot notation (e.g. user.phone).
NOTE: depending on your API, your response may look different. Console.log the whole "response" to see which variables you need from it, and then assign them in setState.
UserList.js
import React, { Component } from "react";
export default class UserList extends Component {
state = {
userList: [], // list is empty in the beginning
error: false
};
componentDidMount() {
this.getUserList(); // function call
}
getUserList = async () => {
try { //try to get data
const response = await fetch("https://randomuser.me/api/");
if (response.ok) { // ckeck if status code is 200
const data = await response.json();
this.setState({ userList: data.results});
} else { this.setState({ error: true }) }
} catch (e) { //code will jump here if there is a network problem
this.setState({ error: true });
}
};
render() {
const { userList, error } = this.state
return (
<div>
{userList.length > 0 && userList.map(user => (
<div key={user}>
<img src={user.picture.medium} alt="user"/>
<div>
<div>{user.name.first}{user.name.last}</div>
<div>{user.phone}</div>
<div>{user.email}</div>
</div>
</div>
))}
{error && <div>Sorry, can not display the data</div>}
</div>
)
}}

As best place and practice for external API calls is React Lifecycle method componentDidMount(), where after the execution of the API call you should update the local state to be triggered new render() method call, then the changes in the updated local state will be applied on the component view.
As other option for initial external data source call in React is pointed the constructor() method of the class. The constructor is the first method executed on initialization of the component object instance. You could see this approach in the documentation examples for Higher-Order Components.
The method componentWillMount() and UNSAFE_componentWillMount() should not be used for external API calls, because they are intended to be deprecated. Here you could see common reasons, why this method will be deprecated.
Anyway you must never use render() method or method directly called from render() as a point for external API call. If you do this your application will be blocked.

You must try "axios" library for API call.
Instead of direct using jQuery.
Thanks.

It would be great to use axios for the api request which supports cancellation, interceptors etc. Along with axios, l use react-redux for state management and redux-saga/redux-thunk for the side effects.