Hi i have the following React-Redux based code snipped and dont understand the following line:
const List = connect(mapStateToProps)(ConnectedList);
I would understand that a function is assigned to the List constant if it would look like:
const List = connect(mapStateToProps);
But what effect has the (ConnectedList) in this statement and what is the technical name of that what happend?
Full Snipped:
import React from "react";
import { connect } from "react-redux";
const mapStateToProps = state => {
return { articles: state.articles };
};
const ConnectedList = ({ articles }) => (
<ul className="list-group list-group-flush">
{articles.map(el => (
<li className="list-group-item" key={el.id}>
{el.title}
</li>
))}
</ul>
);
const List = connect(mapStateToProps)(ConnectedList);
export default List;
connect(...) returns a function (as you already realized), so connect(...)(ConnectedList) calls the function returned by connect() with ConnectedList as its argument.
The longer version of this would be:
const tmp = connect(mapStateToProps);
const List = tmp(ConnectedList);
Since you asked for the technical name: Usually a function returning another function is called a higher-order function.
connect(mapStateToProps);
Returns a high order React component(HOC). In this case, connect will inject the state you are mapping on the mapStateToProps pure function.
The purpose of a HOC is to compose another component, that's why you need the second part:
connect(mapStateToProps)(ConnectedList);
The HOC returned by connect() will add the props to the ConnectedList component.
You can see the docs here: connect documentation
connect() return an higher-order-component (component that wraps a component).
This function is responsible to subscribe to changes in your application's redux store, and whenever a change in store detected, it will call the mapStateToProps function you provided, passing the new store state to that function.
The value returned from mapStateToProps will then be pass to the component you are wrapping as props.
This makes the components connected to the redux store, and hence the name of it.
By the way, I would name the component you are wrapping as List, and the component returned from the connect() function as the ConnectedList.
Related
In React docs in HOC section, there is an example
const CommentListWithSubscription = withSubscription(
CommentList,
(DataSource) => DataSource.getComments()
);
Could you please explain how a function scope works?
They put the second param as an arrow function, in this arrow function we have DataSource param and return a result of DataSource.getComments()
realization of HOC withSubscription
function withSubscription(WrappedComponent, selectData) {
return class extends React.Component {
constructor(props) {
super(props);
this.handleChange = this.handleChange.bind(this);
this.state = {
data: selectData(DataSource, props)
};
}
...
Here they use selectData as that function (DataSource) => DataSource.getComments()
and fire that function again with DataSource param
This moment a bit confused, is it the same DataSource that we put in arrow function above or different? and in general how does it work?
DataSource inside the HOC (withSubscription) is an existing variable in that scope or global scope, likely obtained via static import or a context.
DataSource in the parent (the code that calls the HOC) is just a place-holding parameter. Basically the parent is telling the HOC: "I don't know what data source you're using, just retrieve the comments from it (DataSource.getComments()) and use it as your state data".
If the parent wants another HOC instance to use different data (like blog post in the example), it just changes the instruction to DataSource.getBlogPost() for that HOC, possibly using some extra parameters passed via the HOC's props, like in the example. This pattern makes HOCs as flexible as it should be.
HOC concept
Any hoc is a normal function which returns a react Component , but with modified props
considering example in react docs :
const CommentListWithSubscription = withSubscription(
CommentList,
(DataSource) => DataSource.getComments()
);
I agree this is definitely not a easiest example to prefer.
consider a simple HOC withData
const withData = (component, endpoint) => {
function WrappedComponent(props) {
const [data, setData] = useState(null);
useEffect(() => {
fetch(endpoint).then((res) => setData(res));
}, []);
return (
<component data={data} {...props} />
);
}
return WrappedComponent;
};
const ComponentWithData = withData(MyCustomComponent, api_endpoint)
function MyCustomComponent (props){
const { data } = props
// use this data to do whatever
}
when a prop is injected into <component/> like data={[1,2,3]}, that prop can be accesible through props of resulting component like props.data
withSubscription takes 2 arguments: WrappedComponent and selectData.
Notice that in the constructor of withSubscription they set the initial state to equal the result of invoking selectData. selectData is called with 2 arguments: DataSource is the first argument and props is the second.
In this case DataSource is probably some module they imported previously but just didn't show you...
When they wrap a CommentListWithSubscription with "withSubscription", the DataSource there is the data source that is passed in the constructor to initialize the state. They should've named it dataSource instead, that's the correct naming convention.
Hope that helped :)
If don't understand HOC from their docs, just keep searching in other sources. There are hundreds if not thousands of sources that explain that concept. In programming you sometimes need to go through several sources for a concept or and idea to sink in properly. Good luck!
My question is just same as the title.
Let's say I wrote the following code.
class TODOList extends Component {
render() {
const {todos, onClick} = this.props;
return (
<ul>
{todos.map(todo =>
<Todo
key={todo.id}
onClick={onClick}
{...todo}
/>
)}
</ul>
);
}
}
const mapStateToProps = (state) => {
return {
todos: state.todos
}
}
const mapDispatchToProps = (dispatch) => {
return {
onClick(data){
dispatch(complete(data))
}
}
}
export default connect(mapStateToProps,mapDispatchToProps)(TODOList);
Now, after the last line, this code will export the TODOList component with the state as props. It's not that it contains state, but just received state and will have them as 'props', just like the method name 'mapStateToProps' explains.
In the medium post(https://medium.com/#dan_abramov/smart-and-dumb-components-7ca2f9a7c7d0) written by Dan Abramov, container component handles data as state, and presentational property do as props. Isn't it a presentational component that deals with data as props? I'm stuck with the idea that the right container should be one like below.
class CommentList extends React.Component {
this.state = { comments: [] };
componentDidMount() {
fetchSomeComments(comments =>
this.setState({ comments: comments }));
}
render() {
return (
<ul>
{this.state.comments.map(c => (
<li>{c.body}—{c.author}</li>
))}
</ul>
);
}
}
I'm not sure why react-redux named the API 'mapStateToProps', when I tried to make 'stateful'(not handling data by property) container component
First of all these guidelines are not part of the bible
you should write code that is easy to reason about for YOU and your TEAM.
I think you are missing something, A redux Container is different than a react Container.
I mean, connect will create the container for you, it doesn't mean the wraped component is a Container.
Basically you can export both versions from the same file, the Container (connected version) and the presentation version (the none connected one).
Another thing that usually throw people off, is the name of the function and argument of mapStateToProps.
I prefer the name mapStoreToProps as in
map the redux store to the component's props.
the name state can be confusing when we are in the context of react.
Edit
As a followup to your comment:
I totally didn't know these two are actually different. Could you please tell me about more details
They are different in the way that connect is creating a "Container" for you.
connect is a High Order Component that creates the Container Component for us with all the subscription logic + functions to pass portions of the store and action-creators to its children as props (mapStateToProps & mapDispatchToProps).
A "normal" Container is usually refers to a component that you write by hand, its often doesn't deal with how things should look but instead deal with certain logic of the app.
As for the other comments like
The connect HoC of react-redux just injects the properties you can request into your component. It returns a new component that is wrapped around your component so that it can update your component whenever the state you're interested in the redux store is modified
As i mentioned above, this is partially true. It's not just injecting the properties into our component, its subscribing to the store, grabbing it from the Provider (via context) and its doing all these with optimizations in mind, so we won't have to do it by ourselves.
I'm not sure how mapStateToProps can confuse someone. We are talking about a state management library
I've seen some devs that misunderstood this because react has a state and redux has a store (at least that's how it was called in most of the tutorials and documentations).
this can be confusing to some people that are new to either react or redux.
Edit 2
It was a bit confusing due to the sentence 'it doesn't mean the wraped component is a Container.' Why is the wrapped component not a container? Isn't a component created by connect also a container?
I mean that the wrapped component that you wrote doesn't have to be a Container.
You can connect a "Presentation" component:
const Link = ({ active, children, onClick }) => {
if (active) {
return <span>{children}</span>
}
return (
<a
href=""
onClick={e => {
e.preventDefault()
onClick()
}}
>
{children}
</a>
)
}
// ...
export default connect(mapState, mapDispatch)(Link)
mapStateToProps will be called when store data changes. It will pass the returned object as new props for the component. This will not affect the component's state. If you'd like to set a new state after the component got its new props you need to use another lifecycle method: static getDerivedStateFromProps (in earlier versions of react componentWillRecieveProps). The object returned by static getDerivedStateFromProps will be your new state.
https://reactjs.org/docs/state-and-lifecycle.html#adding-lifecycle-methods-to-a-class
connect() will connect your component to the redux store. Withouth the connect function (of course) your mapStateToProps will not work.
I'm not sure why react-redux named the API 'mapStateToProps'
We are talking about the store's state :)
The high level purpose is to seamlessly integrate Redux's state management into the React application. Redux revolves around the store where all the state exists. There is no way to directly modify the store except through reducers whom receive actions from action creators and for that to happen we need for an action to be dispatched from the action creator.
The connect() function directly connects our components to the Redux store by taking the state in the Redux store and mapping it into a prop.
This is power of Redux and its why we use it.
Lets say you are building a component called LaundryList and you want it to render a laundry list. After you have wired up the Provider in your "parent" component, I put it in quotes because technically Provider is a component so it becomes the parent.
You can then import the connect() function from react-redux, pass it mapStateToProps in order to get that laundry list from the Redux store into your LaundryList component.
Now that you have your list of linens inside of the LaundryList component you can start to focus on building a list of elements out of them like so:
class LaundryList extends Component {
render() {
console.log(this.props.linens);
return <div>LaundryList</div>;
}
}
That contains the list of linens object and for every list of linens inside of there we are going to return some jsx that is going to represent that linen on my list.
Back inside my laundry list component I will add a helper method inside the laundry list component called render list like so:
class LaundryList extends Component {
renderList() {
}
render() {
return <div>LaundryList</div>;
}
}
So this purpose of this helper method is to take the list of linens, map over them and return a big blob of jsx like so:
class LaundryList extends Component {
renderList() {
return this.props.linens.map((linen) => {
return (
);
});
}
render() {
return <div>LaundryList</div>;
}
}
So after a few hours of research, i get the problem that why my components aren't get the this.props.dispatch. The previous question: Pass parameters to mapDispatchToProps() .
So i found the source of the problem, but don't know how to solve it. I have nested components created by a recursive function. For example:
//App.js render
<Provider>
</ExampleComponent counter = {6}>
</Provider>
//ExampleComponent.js
createChild = () => {
const childs = [];
for (let i = 0; i < this.props.counter; i++){
childs.push(</ExampleComponent counter = {this.props.counter - 1}>)
}
return childs
}
render(){
return this.createChild()
}
export default connect()(ExampleComponent)
The problem here is, that only the direct component of the Provider receives the dispatch as a property, even if all the components are the same, and in an ideal way, they should be connected. Here's a picture how it looks like for better understand:
So what would be the best solution? How can i connect all of the components? (only my personal idea is to add the dispatch manually as a prop to the components, every solution is good what solves the problem)(and i need to tell that i use react-beautiful-dnd which also uses redux, so it might conflict with my store. I don't know, it might be.)
connect takes 2 arguments first one is for state, the second one is for dispatch.
The reason you are getting this error is that you are ignoring the props.
const mapStateToProps = (state, ownProps) => {
// state has access to your store
// ownProps has access to the props you are passing.
return {
...ownProps,
};
};
const mapDispatchToProps = (dispatch) => {
return {
dispatch: (action) => dispatch(action),
};
};
export default connect(mapStateToProps, mapDispatchToProps)(ExampleComponent);
You can also import your actions here and create functions that dispatch your actions using bind action creator from redux, but I don't think that is needed.
I am new to react-redux and I was surprised to see an example where a function, in this case being getVisiblieTodos, is called inside mapStateToProps. This function should be called in a reducer since it changes state? Is the code breaking "good form" for the sake of brevity? Is it okay to do this in general?
I am looking at code from this link
import { connect } from 'react-redux'
import { toggleTodo } from '../actions'
import TodoList from '../components/TodoList'
const getVisibleTodos = (todos, filter) => {
switch (filter) {
case 'SHOW_ALL':
return todos
case 'SHOW_COMPLETED':
return todos.filter(t => t.completed)
case 'SHOW_ACTIVE':
return todos.filter(t => !t.completed)
}
}
const mapStateToProps = (state) => {
return {
todos: getVisibleTodos(state.todos, state.visibilityFilter)
}
}
const mapDispatchToProps = (dispatch) => {
return {
onTodoClick: (id) => {
dispatch(toggleTodo(id))
}
}
}
const VisibleTodoList = connect(
mapStateToProps,
mapDispatchToProps
)(TodoList)
export default VisibleTodoList
In redux we want the store to hold the minimal data needed for the app. Everything that is derived from the base data, should be computed on the fly, to prevent cloning pieces of the store, and the need to recompute all derived data when something changes in the store.
Since the visible todos list is not part of the store, but computed using the list of todos, and the visibilityFilter, the getVisibleTodos() doesn't change the store's state. It produces the derived computed data from the those two properties.
A function that is used to get data from the store, and compute derived data is known as a selector. Using selectors, the derived data is not part of the store, and computed when needed. In addition, we can use memoized selectors, to save the computation overhead.
You may see getVisibleTodos as a reducer because it includes "switch .. case" block or/and because it has 2 arguments . However, it is not a rule.
A redux reducer ( by definition) changes store state according to dispatched action , and that's why it takes two arguments ( store state + dispatched action ) and it returns new state for the store without mutation.
getVisibleTodos here is a helper function which filter an array according to string (filter).
Also , filter is not a redux-action, it is just string that decides todos to be rendered.
I may agree with you it is something weird , and if we can see the whole application (reducers, actions,... ) we can decide if it is best practices or not .
todos in this component is a calculated property based on the state of the reducer, and it is not changing any state.
It's okay to transform properties comming from recuders that are used only by one component (they are called selectors). Imagine that you use todos in other components, you will not want to make changes in one component like filtering and seeing that in the other components. If this is the case, it's fine to do it.
Also, it is a good property of your reducer to store only the needed data. More state is more complexity in the app, and more overhead to calculate new states.
It seems to me that a function should do what its name says, nothing less, nothing more.
mapStateToProps() should just do that, ie "map", and should normally not call other functions.
I'm trying to understand the connect method of react-redux, and the functions it takes as parameters. In particular mapStateToProps().
The way I understand it, the return value of mapStateToProps will be an object derived from state (as it lives in the store), whose keys will be passed to your target component (the component connect is applied to) as props.
This means that the state as consumed by your target component can have a wildly different structure from the state as it is stored on your store.
Q: Is this OK?
Q: Is this expected?
Q: Is this an anti-pattern?
Yes, it is correct. Its just a helper function to have a simpler way to access your state properties
Imagine you have a posts key in your App state.posts
state.posts //
/*
{
currentPostId: "",
isFetching: false,
allPosts: {}
}
*/
And component Posts
By default connect()(Posts) will make all state props available for the connected Component
const Posts = ({posts}) => (
<div>
{/* access posts.isFetching, access posts.allPosts */}
</div>
)
Now when you map the state.posts to your component it gets a bit nicer
const Posts = ({isFetching, allPosts}) => (
<div>
{/* access isFetching, allPosts directly */}
</div>
)
connect(
state => state.posts
)(Posts)
mapDispatchToProps
normally you have to write dispatch(anActionCreator())
with bindActionCreators you can do it also more easily like
connect(
state => state.posts,
dispatch => bindActionCreators({fetchPosts, deletePost}, dispatch)
)(Posts)
Now you can use it in your Component
const Posts = ({isFetching, allPosts, fetchPosts, deletePost }) => (
<div>
<button onClick={() => fetchPosts()} />Fetch posts</button>
{/* access isFetching, allPosts directly */}
</div>
)
Update on actionCreators..
An example of an actionCreator: deletePost
const deletePostAction = (id) => ({
action: 'DELETE_POST',
payload: { id },
})
So, bindActionCreators will just take your actions, wrap them into dispatch call. (I didn't read the source code of redux, but the implementation might look something like this:
const bindActionCreators = (actions, dispatch) => {
return Object.keys(actions).reduce(actionsMap, actionNameInProps => {
actionsMap[actionNameInProps] = (...args) => dispatch(actions[actionNameInProps].call(null, ...args))
return actionsMap;
}, {})
}
Q: Is this ok?
A: yes
Q: Is this expected?
Yes, this is expected (if you are using react-redux).
Q: Is this an anti-pattern?
A: No, this is not an anti-pattern.
It's called "connecting" your component or "making it smart". It's by design.
It allows you to decouple your component from your state an additional time which increases the modularity of your code. It also allows you to simplify your component state as a subset of your application state which, in fact, helps you comply with the Redux pattern.
Think about it this way: a store is supposed to contain the entire state of your application.
For large applications, this could contain dozens of properties nested many layers deep.
You don't want to haul all that around on each call (expensive).
Without mapStateToProps or some analog thereof, you would be tempted to carve up your state another way to improve performance/simplify.
You got the first part right:
Yes mapStateToProps has the Store state as an argument/param (provided by react-redux::connect) and its used to link the component with certain part of the store state.
By linking I mean the object returned by mapStateToProps will be provided at construction time as props and any subsequent change will be available through componentWillReceiveProps.
If you know the Observer design pattern it's exactly that or small variation of it.
An example would help make things clearer:
import React, {
Component,
} from 'react-native';
class ItemsContainer extends Component {
constructor(props) {
super(props);
this.state = {
items: props.items, //provided by connect#mapStateToProps
filteredItems: this.filterItems(props.items, props.filters),
};
}
componentWillReceiveProps(nextProps) {
this.setState({
filteredItems: this.filterItems(this.state.items, nextProps.filters),
});
}
filterItems = (items, filters) => { /* return filtered list */ }
render() {
return (
<View>
// display the filtered items
</View>
);
}
}
module.exports = connect(
//mapStateToProps,
(state) => ({
items: state.App.Items.List,
filters: state.App.Items.Filters,
//the State.App & state.App.Items.List/Filters are reducers used as an example.
})
// mapDispatchToProps, that's another subject
)(ItemsContainer);
There can be another react component called itemsFilters that handle the display and persisting the filter state into Redux Store state, the Demo component is "listening" or "subscribed" to Redux Store state filters so whenever filters store state changes (with the help of filtersComponent) react-redux detect that there was a change and notify or "publish" all the listening/subscribed components by sending the changes to their componentWillReceiveProps which in this example will trigger a refilter of the items and refresh the display due to the fact that react state has changed.
Let me know if the example is confusing or not clear enough to provide a better explanation.
As for: This means that the state as consumed by your target component can have a wildly different structure from the state as it is stored on your store.
I didn't get the question, but just know that the react state (this.setState) is totally different from the Redux Store state!
The react state is used to handle the redraw and behavior of the react component. The react state is contained to the component exclusively.
The Redux Store state is a combination of Redux reducers states, each is responsible of managing a small portion app logic. Those reducers attributes can be accessed with the help of react-redux::connect#mapStateToProps by any component! Which make the Redux store state accessible app wide while component state is exclusive to itself.
This react & redux example is based off Mohamed Mellouki's example.
But validates using prettify and linting rules. Note that we define our props
and dispatch methods using PropTypes so that our compiler doesn't scream at us.
This example also included some lines of code that had been missing in Mohamed's
example. To use connect you will need to import it from react-redux. This
example also binds the method filterItems this will prevent scope problems in
the component. This source code has been auto formatted using JavaScript Prettify.
import React, { Component } from 'react-native';
import { connect } from 'react-redux';
import PropTypes from 'prop-types';
class ItemsContainer extends Component {
constructor(props) {
super(props);
const { items, filters } = props;
this.state = {
items,
filteredItems: filterItems(items, filters),
};
this.filterItems = this.filterItems.bind(this);
}
componentWillReceiveProps(nextProps) {
const { itmes } = this.state;
const { filters } = nextProps;
this.setState({ filteredItems: filterItems(items, filters) });
}
filterItems = (items, filters) => {
/* return filtered list */
};
render() {
return <View>/*display the filtered items */</View>;
}
}
/*
define dispatch methods in propTypes so that they are validated.
*/
ItemsContainer.propTypes = {
items: PropTypes.array.isRequired,
filters: PropTypes.array.isRequired,
onMyAction: PropTypes.func.isRequired,
};
/*
map state to props
*/
const mapStateToProps = state => ({
items: state.App.Items.List,
filters: state.App.Items.Filters,
});
/*
connect dispatch to props so that you can call the methods from the active props scope.
The defined method `onMyAction` can be called in the scope of the componets props.
*/
const mapDispatchToProps = dispatch => ({
onMyAction: value => {
dispatch(() => console.log(`${value}`));
},
});
/* clean way of setting up the connect. */
export default connect(mapStateToProps, mapDispatchToProps)(ItemsContainer);
This example code is a good template for a starting place for your component.
React-Redux connect is used to update store for every actions.
import { connect } from 'react-redux';
const AppContainer = connect(
mapStateToProps,
mapDispatchToProps
)(App);
export default AppContainer;
It's very simply and clearly explained in this blog.
You can clone github project or copy paste the code from that blog to understand the Redux connect.
It's a simple concept. Redux creates a ubiquitous state object (a store) from the actions in the reducers. Like a React component, this state doesn't have to be explicitly coded anywhere, but it helps developers to see a default state object in the reducer file to visualise what is happening. You import the reducer in the component to access the file. Then mapStateToProps selects only the key/value pairs in the store that its component needs. Think of it like Redux creating a global version of a React component's
this.state = ({
cats = [],
dogs = []
})
It is impossible to change the structure of the state by using mapStateToProps(). What you are doing is choosing only the store's key/value pairs that the component needs and passing in the values (from a list of key/values in the store) to the props (local keys) in your component. You do this one value at a time in a list. No structure changes can occur in the process.
P.S. The store is local state. Reducers usually also pass state along to the database with Action Creators getting into the mix, but understand this simple concept first for this specific posting.
P.P.S. It is good practice to separate the reducers into separate files for each one and only import the reducer that the component needs.
Here's an outline/boilerplate for describing the behavior of mapStateToProps:
(This is a vastly simplified implementation of what a Redux container does.)
class MyComponentContainer extends Component {
mapStateToProps(state) {
// this function is specific to this particular container
return state.foo.bar;
}
render() {
// This is how you get the current state from Redux,
// and would be identical, no mater what mapStateToProps does
const { state } = this.context.store.getState();
const props = this.mapStateToProps(state);
return <MyComponent {...this.props} {...props} />;
}
}
and next
function buildReduxContainer(ChildComponentClass, mapStateToProps) {
return class Container extends Component {
render() {
const { state } = this.context.store.getState();
const props = mapStateToProps(state);
return <ChildComponentClass {...this.props} {...props} />;
}
}
}
Yes, you can do this. You can also even process the state and return the object.
function mapStateToProps(state){
let completed = someFunction (state);
return {
completed : completed,
}
}
This would be useful if you want to shift the logic related to state from render function to outside of it.
I would like to re-structure the statement that you mentioned which is:
This means that the state as consumed by your target component can
have a wildly different structure from the state as it is stored on
your store
You can say that the state consumed by your target component has a small portion of the state that is stored on the redux store. In other words, the state consumed by your component would be the sub-set of the state of the redux store.
As far as understanding the connect() method is concerned, it's fairly simple! connect() method has the power to add new props to your component and even override existing props. It is through this connect method that we can access the state of the redux store as well which is thrown to us by the Provider. A combination of which works in your favor and you get to add the state of your redux store to the props of your component.
Above is some theory and I would suggest you look at this video once to understand the syntax better.
import React from 'react';
import {connect} from 'react-redux';
import Userlist from './Userlist';
class Userdetails extends React.Component{
render(){
return(
<div>
<p>Name : <span>{this.props.user.name}</span></p>
<p>ID : <span>{this.props.user.id}</span></p>
<p>Working : <span>{this.props.user.Working}</span></p>
<p>Age : <span>{this.props.user.age}</span></p>
</div>
);
}
}
function mapStateToProps(state){
return {
user:state.activeUser
}
}
export default connect(mapStateToProps, null)(Userdetails);