react components life cycle

 

in this chapter, we will discuss component lifecycle methods.

Lifecycle Methods

• componentWillMount is executed before rendering, on both the server and the client side.
• componentDidMount is executed after the first render only on the client side. This is where AJAX requests and DOM or state updates should occur. This method is also used for integration with other JavaScript frameworks and any functions with delayed execution such as setTimeout or setInterval. We are using it to update the state so we can trigger the other lifecycle methods.
• componentWillReceiveProps is invoked as soon as the props are updated before another render is called. We triggered it from setNewNumber when we updated the state.
• shouldComponentUpdate should return true or false value. This will determine if the component will be updated or not. This is set to true by default. If you are sure that the component doesn't need to render after state or props are updated, you can return false value.
• componentWillUpdate is called just before rendering.
• componentDidUpdate is called just after rendering.
• componentWillUnmount is called after the component is unmounted from the dom. We are unmounting our component in main.js.

In the following example, we will set the initial state in the constructor function. The setNewnumber is used to update the state. All the lifecycle methods are inside the Content component.

App.jsx

import React from 'react';

class App extends React.Component {
   constructor(props) {
      super(props);
      
      this.state = {
         data: 0
      }
      this.setNewNumber = this.setNewNumber.bind(this)
   };
   setNewNumber() {
      this.setState({data: this.state.data + 1})
   }
   render() {
      return (
         <div>
            <button onClick = {this.setNewNumber}>INCREMENT</button>
            <Content myNumber = {this.state.data}></Content>
         </div>
      );
   }
}
class Content extends React.Component {
   componentWillMount() {
      console.log('Component WILL MOUNT!')
   }
   componentDidMount() {
      console.log('Component DID MOUNT!')
   }
   componentWillReceiveProps(newProps) {    
      console.log('Component WILL RECIEVE PROPS!')
   }
   shouldComponentUpdate(newProps, newState) {
      return true;
   }
   componentWillUpdate(nextProps, nextState) {
      console.log('Component WILL UPDATE!');
   }
   componentDidUpdate(prevProps, prevState) {
      console.log('Component DID UPDATE!')
   }
   componentWillUnmount() {
      console.log('Component WILL UNMOUNT!')
   }
   render() {
      return (
         <div>
            <h3>{this.props.myNumber}</h3>
         </div>
      );
   }
}
export default App;

main.js

import React from 'react';
import ReactDOM from 'react-dom';
import App from './App.jsx';

ReactDOM.render(<App/>, document.getElementById('app'));

setTimeout(() => {
   ReactDOM.unmountComponentAtNode(document.getElementById('app'));}, 10000);

After the initial render, we will get the following screen.

react forms

In this chapter, we will learn how to use forms in React.

Simple Example

In the following example, we will set an input form with value = {this.state.data}. This allows to update the state whenever the input value changes. We are using onChange event that will watch the input changes and update the state accordingly.

App.jsx

import React from 'react';

class App extends React.Component {
   constructor(props) {
      super(props);
      
      this.state = {
         data: 'Initial data...'
      }
      this.updateState = this.updateState.bind(this);
   };
   updateState(e) {
      this.setState({data: e.target.value});
   }
   render() {
      return (
         <div>
            <input type = "text" value = {this.state.data} 
               onChange = {this.updateState} />
            <h4>{this.state.data}</h4>
         </div>
      );
   }
}
export default App;

main.js

import React from 'react';
import ReactDOM from 'react-dom';
import App from './App.jsx';

ReactDOM.render(<App/>, document.getElementById('app'));

When the input text value changes, the state will be updated.

Complex Example

In the following example, we will see how to use forms from child component. onChange method will trigger state update that will be passed to the child input value and rendered on the screen. A similar example is used in the Events chapter. Whenever we need to update state from child component, we need to pass the function that will handle updating (updateState) as a prop (updateStateProp).

App.jsx

import React from 'react';

class App extends React.Component {
   constructor(props) {
      super(props);
      
      this.state = {
         data: 'Initial data...'
      }
      this.updateState = this.updateState.bind(this);
   };
   updateState(e) {
      this.setState({data: e.target.value});
   }
   render() {
      return (
         <div>
            <Content myDataProp = {this.state.data} 
               updateStateProp = {this.updateState}></Content>
         </div>
      );
   }
}
class Content extends React.Component {
   render() {
      return (
         <div>
            <input type = "text" value = {this.props.myDataProp} 
               onChange = {this.props.updateStateProp} />
            <h3>{this.props.myDataProp}</h3>
         </div>
      );
   }
}
export default App;

main.js

import React from 'react';
import ReactDOM from 'react-dom';
import App from './App.jsx';

ReactDOM.render(<App/>, document.getElementById('app'));

This will produce the following result.

how to use react events

In this chapter, we will learn how to use events.

Simple Example

This is a simple example where we will only use one component. We are just adding onClick event that will trigger updateState function once the button is clicked.

App.jsx

import React from 'react';

class App extends React.Component {
   constructor(props) {
      super(props);
      
      this.state = {
         data: 'Initial data...'
      }
      this.updateState = this.updateState.bind(this);
   };
   updateState() {
      this.setState({data: 'Data updated...'})
   }
   render() {
      return (
         <div>
            <button onClick = {this.updateState}>CLICK</button>
            <h4>{this.state.data}</h4>
         </div>
      );
   }
}
export default App;

main.js

import React from 'react';
import ReactDOM from 'react-dom';
import App from './App.jsx';

ReactDOM.render(<App/>, document.getElementById('app'));

This will produce the following result.

Child Events

When we need to update the state of the parent component from its child, we can create an event handler (updateState) in the parent component and pass it as a prop (updateStateProp) to the child component where we can just call it.

App.jsx

import React from 'react';

class App extends React.Component {
   constructor(props) {
      super(props);
      
      this.state = {
         data: 'Initial data...'
      }
      this.updateState = this.updateState.bind(this);
   };
   updateState() {
      this.setState({data: 'Data updated from the child component...'})
   }
   render() {
      return (
         <div>
            <Content myDataProp = {this.state.data} 
               updateStateProp = {this.updateState}></Content>
         </div>
      );
   }
}
class Content extends React.Component {
   render() {
      return (
         <div>
            <button onClick = {this.props.updateStateProp}>CLICK</button>
            <h3>{this.props.myDataProp}</h3>
         </div>
      );
   }
}
export default App;

main.js

import React from 'react';
import ReactDOM from 'react-dom';
import App from './App.jsx';

ReactDOM.render(<App/>, document.getElementById('app'));

This will produce the following result.

working with react refs

The ref is used to return a reference to the element. Refs should be avoided in most cases, however, they can be useful when we need DOM measurements or to add methods to the components.

Using Refs

The following example shows how to use refs to clear the input field. ClearInput function searches for element with ref = "myInput" value, resets the state, and adds focus to it after the button is clicked.












The ref is used to return a reference to the element. Refs should be avoided in most cases, however, they can be useful when we need DOM measurements or to add methods to the components.

Using Refs

The following example shows how to use refs to clear the input field. ClearInput function searches for element with ref = "myInput" value, resets the state, and adds focus to it after the button is clicked.

App.jsx

import React from 'react';
import ReactDOM from 'react-dom';

class App extends React.Component {
   constructor(props) {
      super(props);
  
      this.state = {
         data: ''
      }
      this.updateState = this.updateState.bind(this);
      this.clearInput = this.clearInput.bind(this);
   };
   updateState(e) {
      this.setState({data: e.target.value});
   }
   clearInput() {
      this.setState({data: ''});
      ReactDOM.findDOMNode(this.refs.myInput).focus();
   }
   render() {
      return (
         <div>
            <input value = {this.state.data} onChange = {this.updateState} 
               ref = "myInput"></input>
            <button onClick = {this.clearInput}>CLEAR</button>
            <h4>{this.state.data}</h4>
         </div>
      );
   }
}
export default App;

main.js

import React from 'react';
import ReactDOM from 'react-dom';
import App from './App.jsx';

ReactDOM.render(<App/>, document.getElementById('app'));

Once the button is clicked, the input will be cleared and focused

react keys

React keys are useful when working with dynamically created components or when your lists are altered by the users. Setting the key value will keep your components uniquely identified after the change.

 

Using Keys

Let's dynamically create Content elements with unique index (i). The map function will create three elements from our data array. Since the key value needs to be unique for every element, we will assign i as a key for each created element.

App.jsx

import React from 'react';

class App extends React.Component {
   constructor() {
      super();
  
      this.state = {
         data:[
            {
               component: 'First...',
               id: 1
            },
            {
               component: 'Second...',
               id: 2
            },
            {
               component: 'Third...',
               id: 3
            }
         ]
      }
   }
   render() {
      return (
         <div>
            <div>
               {this.state.data.map((dynamicComponent, i) => <Content 
                  key = {i} componentData = {dynamicComponent}/>)}
            </div>
         </div>
      );
   }
}
class Content extends React.Component {
   render() {
      return (
         <div>
            <div>{this.props.componentData.component}</div>
            <div>{this.props.componentData.id}</div>
         </div>
      );
   }
}
export default App;

main.js

import React from 'react';
import ReactDOM from 'react-dom';
import App from './App.jsx';

ReactDOM.render(<App/>, document.getElementById('app'));

We will get the following result for the Key values of each element.
If we add or remove some elements in the future or change the order of the dynamically created elements, React will use the key values to keep track of each element.