React js calling setState twice when invoked from componentDidMount - javascript

Got a weird unexpected behavior in react.
I created a parent component with a method to register (push to a state-array) child elements, which the child element will invoke on componentDidMount. for some reason each element is registered twice because each call invokes setState twice on the parent component.
Notes:
I have disabled the parent-component rendering by overriding shouldComponentUpdate, and this scenario still happens.
I have checked that none of the registered elements get unmounted.
I want to avoid checks for multiple registrations, and to control it with the react life-cycle methods.
The registration method:
register_field = (field_to_register) => {
this.setState((prev_state) => {
let new_fields = prev_state.fields;
new_fields.push(field_to_register);
return {fields: new_fields};
})
}
I tried to debug it using the console debugger, and the second registration iteration happens when App.js invokes render (the first registration iteration happens before).

Current W.A is to save a property on each child element which will define if the element was registered or not.
I wanted to avoid this kind of solution, but could not find anything usefull.
register_field = (field_to_register) => {
this.setState((prev_state) => {
if(field_to_register.registered){
return;
}
field_to_register.registered = true;
let new_fields = prev_state.fields;
new_fields.push(field_to_register);
return {fields: new_fields};
})
}

Remove or comment ALL the console.log after your render function in your components.
console.log cause to re-render.

Related

React: infinite loop even though useEffect should detect change and prevent loop

const [label, setLabel] = useState([<>, <>]);
const [labelType, setLabelType] = useState('none');
useEffect( () => {
if (props.label === 'label1') {
setLabel([<div>...</div>, <div>...</div>])
}
if (props.label=== 'label2') {
setLabel([<div>...</div>, <div>...</div>]);
}
if (props.label === 'label3') {
setLabel([<div>...</div>, <div>...</div>])
}
}, [labelType] );
setLabelType(props.label)
return (
<div className=''>
<div id=''>{label}</div>
</div>
)
So I'm basically passing in a prop and just trying to use that value to decide what to set my {label} to and the initial value of props.label is 'label1'. If my console logs, I see that 'none' is changed to 'label1' by setLabelType(props.label) and my understanding is that since setLabelType() was used, the stated is updated/ component re-rendered and plus labelType specifically is changed then useEffect() is triggered and the appropriate branch/setLabel() is called based on props. Next render useEffect() is not called since 'label1' -> 'label1' is no change (vs. first time 'none' -> 'label1').
But reality is that I have an infinite loop instead, could anyone explain to me why? I think maybe I need to have setLabelType(props.label) in a function but the trigger for this code to execute is in a different component so there's no 'onChange' prop that would call it in this component (basically when sibling component is clicked, passes data to common parent, parent passes data back down to this child and use the prop to decide render). This seems really simple but I'm confused.
Thanks

How does React update a component and its children after a state change?

I am watching Paul O Shannessy - Building React From Scratch
And I understand the mounting process very well but I have hard day trying to understand how React update a component and its children
The reconciler controls the update process by this method:
function receiveComponent(component, element) {
let prevElement = component._currentElement;
if (prevElement === element) {
return;
}
component.receiveComponent(element);
}
Component.receiveComponent
receiveComponent(nextElement) {
this.updateComponent(this._currentElement, nextElement);
}
and this is the Component.updateComponent method:
updateComponent(prevElement, nextElement) {
if (prevElement !== nextElement) {
// React would call componentWillReceiveProps here
}
// React would call componentWillUpdate here
// Update instance data
this._currentElement = nextElement;
this.props = nextElement.props;
this.state = this._pendingState;
this._pendingState = null;
let prevRenderedElement = this._renderedComponent._currentElement;
let nextRenderedElement = this.render();
if (shouldUpdateComponent(prevRenderedElement, nextRenderedElement)) {
Reconciler.receiveComponent(this._renderedComponent, nextRenderedElement);
}
}
This is the part of the code that updates the component after state change, and i assume that it should update the children too, but i can't understand how this code achieves that, in the mounting process React instantiate components to dive deeper in the tree but this doesn't happen here, we need to find the first HTML element then we can change our strategy and update that HTML element in another place in the code, and I can't find any way to find any HTML elements this way.
Finding the first HTML is the way to stop this endless recursion and logically this is what I expect from the code, to stop recursion the same way in the mounting process, but in mounting, this demanded component instantiation so we can delegate to the reconciler that will discover that we are dealing with a wrapper instance of an HTML element not a wrapper instance of a custom component then React can place that HTML element in the DOM.
I can't understand how the code works in the update process. this code as I see won't dive deeper in the tree and I think won't update the children and can't let React find the first HTML element so React can update the DOM element, isn't it?
This is the code repo on Github
I created a codesandbox to dig in
Here is the codesandbox I created
and here's a short recording of me opening the debugger and seeing the call stack.
How it works
Starting from where you left off, Component.updateComponent:
updateComponent(prevElement, nextElement) {
//...
if (shouldUpdateComponent(prevRenderedElement, nextRenderedElement)) {
Reconciler.receiveComponent(this._renderedComponent, nextRenderedElement);
//...
in the Component.updateComponent method Reconciler.receiveComponent is called which calls component.receiveComponent(element);
Now, this component refers to this._renderedComponent and is not an instance of Component but of DOMComponentWrapper
and here's the receiveComponent method of DOMComponentWrapper:
receiveComponent(nextElement) {
this.updateComponent(this._currentElement, nextElement);
}
updateComponent(prevElement, nextElement) {
// debugger;
this._currentElement = nextElement;
this._updateDOMProperties(prevElement.props, nextElement.props);
this._updateDOMChildren(prevElement.props, nextElement.props);
}
Then _updateDOMChildren ends up calling the children render method.
here's a call stack from the codesandbox I created to dig in.
How do we end up in DOMComponentWrapper
in the Component's mountComponent method we have:
let renderedComponent = instantiateComponent(renderedElement);
this._renderedComponent = renderedComponent;
and in instantiateComponent we have:
let type = element.type;
let wrapperInstance;
if (typeof type === 'string') {
wrapperInstance = HostComponent.construct(element);
} else if (typeof type === 'function') {
wrapperInstance = new element.type(element.props);
wrapperInstance._construct(element);
} else if (typeof element === 'string' || typeof element === 'number') {
wrapperInstance = HostComponent.constructTextComponent(element);
}
return wrapperInstance;
HostComponent is being injected with DOMComponentWrapper in dilithium.js main file:
HostComponent.inject(DOMComponentWrapper);
HostComponent is only a kind of proxy meant to invert control and allow different Hosts in React.
here's the inject method:
function inject(impl) {
implementation = impl;
}
and the construct method:
function construct(element) {
assert(implementation);
return new implementation(element);
}
When we have no DOMComponentWrapper
If we are updating a chain of Non Host Components like:
const Child = <div>Hello</div>
const Parent = () => <Child />
How does Child get rendered from an update to Parent?
the Parent Component has the following:
_renderedComponent which is an instance of Child(which is also a Component)
renderedComponent has an instance of Child because it gets the type of the "root" Element (the one returned by the render method)
so Reconciler.receiveComponent(this._renderedComponent, nextRenderedElement) will be calling component.receiveComponent(element) of the Child which in turn calls this.updateComponent(this._currentElement, nextElement); (of Child) which calls it's render method (let nextRenderedElement = this.render();)
React completely copy the actual DOM and create the virtual DOM in javascript. In our application whenever we update any of the data that ends up being rendered in our components, React does not rerender the entire DOM. It only affects the thing that matters. So react actually copies the virtual DOM again. This time it applies the changes to the data that got updated.
It will make the change in the red component and then it will compare this virtual DOM to the old DOM. It will see the different part. Then it will apply the DOM changes only to that different component.
The updating phase starts if props or the state changes. If the data at the top level changes:
If it is passing that data down to its children, all the children are going to be rerendered. If the state of the component at the mid-level gets changed:
This time only its children will get rerendered. React will rerender any part of the tree below that node. Because the data that generates the children components' view actually sits at the parent component(mid-level one). But anything above it, the parent or the siblings will not rerender. because data does not affect them. this concept is called Unidirectional Data Flow.
You can see in action in chrome browser. chose the rendering and then enable the painting flushing option
If you make any change on the page, you will see that updated components will be flashed.
UPDATING PHASE
componentWillReceiveProps method is invoked first in the component lifecycle's updating phase. It is called when a component receives new properties from its parent component. With this method we compare the current component's properties using the this.props object with the next component's properties
using the nextElement.props object. Based on this comparison, we can choose to update the component's state using the this.setState() function, which will NOT trigger
an additional render in this scenario.
Note that no matter how many times you call this.setState() in the componentWillReceiveProps() method, it won't trigger any additional renders of that component. React does an internal optimization where it batches the state updates together.
shouldComponentUpdated dictates if the components should rerender or not. By default, all class components will rerender whenever the props they receive or their state change. this method can prevent the default behavior by returning False. In this method, existing props and state values get compared with the next props and state values and return boolean to let React know whether the component should update or not. this method is for performance optimization. If it returns False componentWillUpdate(), render() and componentDidUpdate() wont get called.
The componentWillUpdate() method is called immediately before React updates the DOM. It gets two arguments: nextProps and nextState. You can use these arguments to prepare for the DOM update. However, you cannot use this.setState() in the componentWillUpdate() method.
After calling the componentWillUpdate() method, React invokes the render() method that performs the DOM update. Then, the componentDidUpdate() method is called.
The componentDidUpdate() method is called immediately after React updates the DOM. It gets these two arguments: prevProps and prevState. We use this method to interact with the updated DOM or perform any post-render operations. For example, in a counter example, counter number is increased in componentDidUpdate.
After componentDidUpdate() is called, the updating cycle ends. A new cycle is started when a component's state is updated or a parent component passes new properties. Or when you call the forceUpdate() method, it triggers a new updating cycle, but skips the shouldComponentUpdate() method (this method is for optimization) on a component that
triggered the update. However, shouldComponentUpdate() is called on all the child components as per the usual updating phase. Try to avoid using the forceUpdate() method as much as possible; this will promote your application's maintainability
Another answer might be the structure of the Fiber tree. During execution, react renders a ReactComponent into an object made out of ReactNodes and props. These ReactNodes are assembled into a FiberNode tree (which might be the in memory representation of the virutal dom?).
In the FiberNode tree, depending on the traversal algorithm (children first, sibling first, etc), React always has a single "next" node to continue. So, React will dive deeper into the tree, and update FiberNodes, as it goes along.
If we take the same example,
function App() {
return <div>
<Parent>
<Child01/>
<Child01/>
</Parent>
<Child03/>
</div>
}
function Parent({children}) {
const [state, setState] = useState(0);
return <div>
<button onClick={x => x+1)>click</button>
<Child02 />
{children}
</div>
}
Which React will transform into this FiberNode tree:
node01 = { type: App, return: null, child: node02, sibling: null }
node02 = { type: 'div', return: node01, child: node03, sibling: null }
node03 = { type: Parent, return: node02, child: node05(?), sibling: node04 }
node04 = { type: Child03, return: node02, child: null, sibling: null }
node05 = { type: Child01, return: node03, child: null, sibling: node06 }
node06 = { type: Child01, return: node03, child: null, sibling: null }
// Parent will spawn its own FiberTree,
node10 = { type: 'div', return: node02, child: node11, sibling: null }
node11 = { type: 'button', return: node10, child: null, sibling: node12 }
node12 = { type: Child02, return: node10, child: null, sibling: node05 }
I might have missed something (ie. node03's child might be node10), but the idea is this - React always have a single node (the 'next' node) to render when it traverses the fiber tree.
I think React not re-render parent component first instead of that, React re-render child component first.
Example: A (parent) -> B (child) -> C (child of B)
When A update state C (re-render) -> B -> A
Hey Consider using a Tree data structure for your need, ReactJs follows a unidirectional manner of Updating the state i.e. As soon as the there is a Change in the parent state then all the children which are passed on the props that are residing in the Parent Component are updated once and for all!
Consider using something known as Depth First Search as an algo option which will find you the Node that connects to the parent and once you reach that node , you check for the state and if there is a deviation from the state variables that are shared by the parent you can update them!
Note : This may all seem a bit theoretical but if you could do something remotely close to this thing you will have created a way to update components just how react does!
I found out experimentally that React will only re-render elements if it have to, which is always, except for {children} and React.memo().
Using children correctly, together with batched dom updates makes a very efficient and smooth user experience.
consider this case:
function App() {
return <div>
<Parent>
<Child01/>
<Child01/>
</Parent>
<Child03/>
</div>
}
function Parent({children}) {
const [state, setState] = useState(0);
return <div>
<button onClick={x => x+1)>click</button>
<Child02 />
{children}
</div>
}
when clicking on the button, you will get the following:
- button click
- setState(...), add Parent to dirty list
- start re-rendering all dirty nodes
- Parent rerenders
- Child02 rerenders
- DONE
Note that
Parent (app) and sibling (Child03) nodes will not get re-rendered, or you'll end up with a re-render recursion.
Parent is re-rendered because its state has changed, so its output has to be recalculated.
{children} have not been affected by this change, so it stays the same. (unless a context is involved, but that's a different mechanism).
finally, <Child02 /> has been marked dirty, because that part of the virtual dom has been touched. While it's trivial for us to see it was not effected, the only way React could verify it is by comparing props, which is not done by default!
the only way to prevent Child02 from rendering is wrapping it with React.memo, which might be slower than just re-rendring it.

need to pass an effect via props or force component reload from outside the root component in preact/react

I have a situation that an item outside the component might influence the item in the backend. ex: change the value of one of the properties that are persisted, let's say the item status moves from Pending to Completed.
I know when it happens but since it is outside of a component I need to tell to the component that it is out of sync and re-fetch the data. But from outside. I know you can pass props calling the render method again. But the problem is I have a reducer and the state will pick up the last state and if I use an prop to trigger an effect I get into a loop.
Here is what I did:
useEffect(() => {
if (props.effect && !state.effect) { //this runs when the prop changes
return dispatch({ type: props.effect, });
}
if (state.effect) { // but then I get here and then back up and so on
return ModelEffect[state.effect](state?.data?.item)}, [state.status, state.effect, props.effect,]);
In short since I can't get rid of the prop the I get the first one then the second and so on in an infinite loop.
I render the root component passing the id:
render(html`<${Panel} id=${id}/>`,
document.getElementById('Panel'));
Then the idea was that I could do this to sync it:
render(html`<${Panel} id=${id} effect="RELOAD"/>`,
document.getElementById('Panel'));
any better ways to solve this?
Thanks a lot
I resolved it by passing the initialized dispatch function to a global.
function Panel (props) {
//...
const [state, dispatch,] = useReducer(RequestReducer, initialData);
//...
useEffect(() => {
//...
window.GlobalDispatch = dispatch;
//...
}, [state.status, state.effect,]);
with that I can do:
window.GlobalDispatch({type:'RELOAD'});

componentDidUpdate not firing after the first time the component is mounted (React)

I have a function that switches windows (components) on a single page by clicking a button.
The function that swaps windows:
getProfileContent = () => {
var html = [];
if (this.state.content === "picks") {
html.push(<Picks picks={this.state.picks} deletePick={this.deletePick} />);
}
if (this.state.content === "api") {
html.push(<Admin admin="admin" />);
}
if (this.state.content === 'settings') {
html.push(<Settings />);
}
return html;
};
The content defaults to "picks" when the parent component initially loads and the first time the "Picks" component loads everything works fine because the componentDidUpdate update function below is triggered:
"Picks" component update function:
componentDidUpdate(prevProps, prevState) {
console.log('here')
if (Object.keys(prevProps.picks).length !== Object.keys(this.props.picks).length) {
this.sortPicks();
}
}
However, after swapping windows via getProfileContent and coming back to the "Picks" component the componentDidUpdate function is not triggered. I have also tried adding a different "key" value to the Picks component in hopes the new prop would trigger the componentDidUpdate, but no luck. I have the console log outside if the condition so I know componentDidUpdate isn't being called regardless of the condition. Any help is appreciated, thanks!
This question has been solved with help from #lanxion. Basically, the first time the component mounts the componentDidUpdate function is called, but only because of the parent component updating and passing in new props. The second time the component is mounted the parent already has the correct props, thus only componentDidMount is called and not componentDidUpdate. Placing the code in componentDidMount and componentDidUpdate (with conditionals) solved my issue,
It is possible that the props values are not changing, thus the same props values are being passed down and thus have the same length. Quite possibly it IS reaching the componentDidUpdate() hook, but the condition returns false and thus you don't go into the sortPicks() function. Hard to say without knowing the rest of the code.

Cant change variable with callback function but console logging works

I am trying to change a variable in react with a callback function but cannot seem to do so. Here is my react component:
const MyComponent = () => {
let scenePinned;
const sceneCallback = event => {
if (event && event.state === 'DURING') {
console.log('Pinned');
scenePinned = true;
} else {
console.log('Not Pinned');
scenePinned = false;
}
};
console.log(scenePinned);
return (
<div>
<div style={scenePinned ? 'pinned' : 'not pinned'}/>
{(progress, event) => (
//Stuff Happens Here
), sceneCallback(event) )}
</div>
);
}
I am using react-scrollmagic and am trying to get the scenePinned variable to change from false to true and back to false again when scene is pinned to top. The console logging of Pinned and Not Pinned is happening correctly but I cannot seem to change the scenePinned variable. I am sure this is something very basic that I am not getting but I cannot understand why this is happening. Any help would be appreciated.
Note: I have tried using state to store the value but the callback is fired on scroll so the maximum depth is exceeded when trying to use state to store the scrolling status.
You need to use state for this. Otherwise the variable is reinitialized every time the component is rendered, and the value is lost.
console.log(scenePinned);
will run for the first time when the page loads
with react we use state the handle dynamic values.
or use rxjs
or create your own object and set listeners on it. with some custom event
so ex. with state
state={scenePinned:null}
then inside render method console.log(this.state.scenePinned)
A possible solution is to define a state variable in a parent component that will pass it to <MyComponent> as a prop.
Them move the sceneCallback function to the parent component and pass it as a prop to <MyComponent>
An explanation on how to define such a callback exists in many places. Here is one: (mine... ;) https://stackoverflow.com/a/55555578/5532513

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