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How can I correctly use the React context API in a class based component? [duplicate]

In this example, I have this react class:
class MyDiv extends React.component
constructor(){
this.state={sampleState:'hello world'}
}
render(){
return <div>{this.state.sampleState}
}
}
The question is if I can add React hooks to this. I understand that React-Hooks is alternative to React Class style. But if I wish to slowly migrate into React hooks, can I add useful hooks into Classes?

High order components are how we have been doing this type of thing until hooks came along. You can write a simple high order component wrapper for your hook.
function withMyHook(Component) {
return function WrappedComponent(props) {
const myHookValue = useMyHook();
return <Component {...props} myHookValue={myHookValue} />;
}
}
While this isn't truly using a hook directly from a class component, this will at least allow you to use the logic of your hook from a class component, without refactoring.
class MyComponent extends React.Component {
render(){
const myHookValue = this.props.myHookValue;
return <div>{myHookValue}</div>;
}
}
export default withMyHook(MyComponent);

Class components don't support hooks -
According to the Hooks-FAQ:
You can’t use Hooks inside of a class component, but you can definitely mix classes and function components with Hooks in a single tree. Whether a component is a class or a function that uses Hooks is an implementation detail of that component. In the longer term, we expect Hooks to be the primary way people write React components.

As other answers already explain, hooks API was designed to provide function components with functionality that currently is available only in class components. Hooks aren't supposed to used in class components.
Class components can be written to make easier a migration to function components.
With a single state:
class MyDiv extends Component {
state = {sampleState: 'hello world'};
render(){
const { state } = this;
const setState = state => this.setState(state);
return <div onClick={() => setState({sampleState: 1})}>{state.sampleState}</div>;
}
}
is converted to
const MyDiv = () => {
const [state, setState] = useState({sampleState: 'hello world'});
return <div onClick={() => setState({sampleState: 1})}>{state.sampleState}</div>;
}
Notice that useState state setter doesn't merge state properties automatically, this should be covered with setState(prevState => ({ ...prevState, foo: 1 }));
With multiple states:
class MyDiv extends Component {
state = {sampleState: 'hello world'};
render(){
const { sampleState } = this.state;
const setSampleState = sampleState => this.setState({ sampleState });
return <div onClick={() => setSampleState(1)}>{sampleState}</div>;
}
}
is converted to
const MyDiv = () => {
const [sampleState, setSampleState] = useState('hello world');
return <div onClick={() => setSampleState(1)}>{sampleState}</div>;
}

Complementing Joel Cox's good answer
Render Props also enable the usage of Hooks inside class components, if more flexibility is needed:
class MyDiv extends React.Component {
render() {
return (
<HookWrapper
// pass state/props from inside of MyDiv to Hook
someProp={42}
// process Hook return value
render={hookValue => <div>Hello World! {hookValue}</div>}
/>
);
}
}
function HookWrapper({ someProp, render }) {
const hookValue = useCustomHook(someProp);
return render(hookValue);
}
For side effect Hooks without return value:
function HookWrapper({ someProp }) {
useCustomHook(someProp);
return null;
}
// ... usage
<HookWrapper someProp={42} />
Source: React Training

you can achieve this by generic High order components
HOC
import React from 'react';
const withHook = (Component, useHook, hookName = 'hookvalue') => {
return function WrappedComponent(props) {
const hookValue = useHook();
return <Component {...props} {...{[hookName]: hookValue}} />;
};
};
export default withHook;
Usage
class MyComponent extends React.Component {
render(){
const myUseHookValue = this.props.myUseHookValue;
return <div>{myUseHookValue}</div>;
}
}
export default withHook(MyComponent, useHook, 'myUseHookValue');

Hooks are not meant to be used for classes but rather functions. If you wish to use hooks, you can start by writing new code as functional components with hooks
According to React FAQs
You can’t use Hooks inside of a class component, but you can
definitely mix classes and function components with Hooks in a single
tree. Whether a component is a class or a function that uses Hooks is
an implementation detail of that component. In the longer term, we
expect Hooks to be the primary way people write React components.
const MyDiv = () => {
const [sampleState, setState] = useState('hello world');
render(){
return <div>{sampleState}</div>
}
}

You can use the react-universal-hooks library. It lets you use the "useXXX" functions within the render function of class-components.
It's worked great for me so far. The only issue is that since it doesn't use the official hooks, the values don't show react-devtools.
To get around this, I created an equivalent by wrapping the hooks, and having them store their data (using object-mutation to prevent re-renders) on component.state.hookValues. (you can access the component by auto-wrapping the component render functions, to run set currentCompBeingRendered = this)
For more info on this issue (and details on the workaround), see here: https://github.com/salvoravida/react-universal-hooks/issues/7

Stateful components or containers or class-based components ever support the functions of React Hooks, so we don't need to React Hooks in Stateful components just in stateless components.
Some additional informations
What are React Hooks?
So what are hooks? Well hooks are a new way or offer us a new way of writing our components.
Thus far, of course we have functional and class-based components, right? Functional components receive props and you return some JSX code that should be rendered to the screen.
They are great for presentation, so for rendering the UI part, not so much about the business logic and they are typically focused on one or a few purposes per component.
Class-based components on the other hand also will receive props but they also have this internal state. Therefore class-based components are the components which actually hold the majority of our business logic, so with business logic, I mean things like we make an HTTP request and we need to handle the response and to change the internal state of the app or maybe even without HTTP. A user fills out the form and we want to show this somewhere on the screen, we need state for this, we need class-based components for this and therefore we also typically use class based components to orchestrate our other components and pass our state down as props to functional components for example.
Now one problem we have with this separation, with all the benefits it adds but one problem we have is that converting from one component form to the other is annoying. It's not really difficult but it is annoying.
If you ever found yourself in a situation where you needed to convert a functional component into a class-based one, it's a lot of typing and a lot of typing of always the same things, so it's annoying.
A bigger problem in quotation marks is that lifecycle hooks can be hard to use right.
Obviously, it's not hard to add componentDidMount and execute some code in there but knowing which lifecycle hook to use, when and how to use it correctly, that can be challenging especially in more complex applications and anyways, wouldn't it be nice if we had one way of creating components and that super component could then handle both state and side effects like HTTP requests and also render the user interface?
Well, this is exactly what hooks are all about. Hooks give us a new way of creating functional components and that is important.

React Hooks let you use react features and lifecycle without writing a class.
It's like the equivalent version of the class component with much smaller and readable form factor. You should migrate to React hooks because it's fun to write it.
But you can't write react hooks inside a class component, as it's introduced for functional component.
This can be easily converted to :
class MyDiv extends React.component
constructor(){
this.state={sampleState:'hello world'}
}
render(){
return <div>{this.state.sampleState}
}
}
const MyDiv = () => {
const [sampleState, setSampleState] = useState('hello world');
return <div>{sampleState}</div>
}

It won't be possible with your existing class components. You'll have to convert your class component into a functional component and then do something on the lines of -
function MyDiv() {
const [sampleState, setSampleState] = useState('hello world');
return (
<div>{sampleState}</div>
)
}

For me React.createRef() was helpful.
ex.:
constructor(props) {
super(props);
this.myRef = React.createRef();
}
...
<FunctionComponent ref={this.myRef} />
Origin post here.

I've made a library for this. React Hookable Component.
Usage is very simple. Replace extends Component or extends PureComponent with extends HookableComponent or extends HookablePureComponent. You can then use hooks in the render() method.
import { HookableComponent } from 'react-hookable-component';
// 👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇
class ComponentThatUsesHook extends HookableComponent<Props, State> {
render() {
// 👇👇👇👇👇👇
const value = useSomeHook();
return <span>The value is {value}</span>;
}
}

if you didn't need to change your class component then create another functional component and do hook stuff and import it to class component

Doesn't work anymore in modern React Versions. Took me forever, but finally resulted going back to go ol' callbacks. Only thing that worked for me, all other's threw the know React Hook Call (outside functional component) error.
Non-React or React Context:
class WhateverClass {
private xyzHook: (XyzHookContextI) | undefined
public setHookAccessor (xyzHook: XyzHookContextI): void {
this.xyzHook = xyzHook
}
executeHook (): void {
const hookResult = this.xyzHook?.specificHookFunction()
...
}
}
export const Whatever = new WhateverClass() // singleton
Your hook (or your wrapper for an external Hook)
export interface XyzHookContextI {
specificHookFunction: () => Promise<string>
}
const XyzHookContext = createContext<XyzHookContextI>(undefined as any)
export function useXyzHook (): XyzHookContextI {
return useContext(XyzHookContextI)
}
export function XyzHook (props: PropsWithChildren<{}>): JSX.Element | null {
async function specificHookFunction (): Promise<void> {
...
}
const context: XyzHookContextI = {
specificHookFunction
}
// and here comes the magic in wiring that hook up with the non function component context via callback
Whatever.setHookAccessor(context)
return (
< XyzHookContext.Provider value={context}>
{props.children}
</XyzHookContext.Provider>
)
}
Voila, now you can use ANY react code (via hook) from any other context (class components, vanilla-js, …)!
(…hope I didn't make to many name change mistakes :P)

Yes, but not directly.
Try react-iifc, more details in its readme.
https://github.com/EnixCoda/react-iifc

Try with-component-hooks:
https://github.com/bplok20010/with-component-hooks
import withComponentHooks from 'with-component-hooks';
class MyComponent extends React.Component {
render(){
const props = this.props;
const [counter, set] = React.useState(0);
//TODO...
}
}
export default withComponentHooks(MyComponent)
2.Try react-iifc： https://github.com/EnixCoda/react-iifc

Functional components inside vs outside of React class

I am wondering what the effects of coupling / nesting a functional component inside a React class component without explicitly passing props to it via params and using this.props via the parent class are. I understand that having a functional component outside of the React class component is easier to test and read, but am curious to know what the exact difference between using this.props vs props via params are in terms of performance / renders.
For example:
class Foo extends React.Component {
bar = () => { return (<p>{this.props.baz}</p>) }
render() {
return (
<h1>Hello, {this.props.name}</h1>
{this.bar()}
)
}
}
Vs.
class Foo extends React.Component {
render() {
return (
<h1>Hello, {this.props.name}</h1>
<Bar baz={'foobar'}
)
}
}
function Bar(props) {
return <p>{props.baz}</p>
}

Both give the same result except when you care about code reusability.
If you care about reusing the Bar function then you better keep it outside the class so you can import it elsewhere.
Example:
If Bar renders a success or warning message. you'll want to keep the same design for all warning messages in the system.
Now if every component has its own warning message code, you'll not be able to edit the warning message design easily also you'll have to keep rewriting the same code over and over again.

How do I reuse a React Component without having to change its inner props?

I don't know if that even exists. I am trying to reuse a component, however, the component I am trying to reuse receive props and already handles them inside of the component.
If I reuse this component in another place I am going to have to change all of the props received.
Is that a common thing when developing in React or I am doing something wrong?

I think you should divide the component with the props to two:
Component A. functionality (and all the props needed)
Component B. a type of container with no props just holding the component A
Hope this helps you!

Yes is common and is often resolved with HoC (High Order Components)
ref: https://reactjs.org/docs/higher-order-components.html
Example
function logProps(WrappedComponent) {
return class extends React.Component {
componentWillReceiveProps(nextProps) {
console.log('Current props: ', this.props);
console.log('Next props: ', nextProps);
}
render() {
// Wraps the input component in a container, without mutating it. Good!
return <WrappedComponent {...this.props} />;
}
}
}
const EnhancedComponent = logProps(WrappedComponent);

React - should Higher Order Component be written as a function?

I'm learning React. It seems to me that HOC like the following example from React's official docs:
function withSubscription(WrappedComponent, selectData) {
// ...and returns another component...
return class extends React.Component {
constructor(props) {
super(props);
this.handleChange = this.handleChange.bind(this);
this.state = {
data: selectData(DataSource, props)
};
}
componentDidMount() {
// ... that takes care of the subscription...
DataSource.addChangeListener(this.handleChange);
}
componentWillUnmount() {
DataSource.removeChangeListener(this.handleChange);
}
handleChange() {
this.setState({
data: selectData(DataSource, this.props)
});
}
render() {
// ... and renders the wrapped component with the fresh data!
// Notice that we pass through any additional props
return <WrappedComponent data={this.state.data} {...this.props} />;
}
};
}
can be rewritten in this way:
class WithSubscription extends React.Component {
constructor({ component, selectData, ...props }) {
super(props);
this.handleChange = this.handleChange.bind(this);
this.state = {
data: selectData(DataSource, props)
};
}
componentDidMount() {
DataSource.addChangeListener(this.handleChange);
}
componentWillUnmount() {
DataSource.removeChangeListener(this.handleChange);
}
handleChange() {
this.setState({
data: selectData(DataSource, this.props)
});
}
render() {
return <component data={this.state.data} {...this.props} />;
}
}
Then use it like this:
<WithSubscription component={BlogPost} selectData={(DataSource) => DataSource.getComments()} />
Are they both HOC? When is one style preferred than the other?

I was struggling with HOC too at first. Another way of looking at this is at wrappers of components that you could use to isolate the functionality from one component.
For example, I have multiple HOC. I have many components that are only defined by props, and they are immutable once they are created.
Then I have a Loader HOC Component, which handles all the network connectivity and then just passes the props to whatever component is wrapping (This would be the component you pass to the HOC).
The loader does not really care which component it is rendering, it only needs to fetch data, and pass it to the wrapped component.
In your example, you can actually accomplish the same, however it will become much more complex once you need to chain multiple HOC.
For example I have this chain of HOCs:
PermissionsHOC -> LoaderHOC -> BorderLayoutHOC -> Component
First one can check your permissions, second one is loading the data, third one is giving a generic layout and the forth one is the actual component.
It is much easier to detect HOCs if you realize that some components would benefit from having a generic logic on the parent. You could do the same in your example, however you would need to modify the HOC every time you add a child component, to add the logic for that one. Not very effective. This way, you can add new components easily. I do have a Base component which every component extends, but I use it to handle the helper functions like analytics, logger, handling errors, etc.

What they call an "HOC" is basically a function (just a regular function, not React specific) that behaves like component factory. Meaning it outputs wrapped components that are the result of wrapping any inside-component of your choice. And your choice is specified with the "WrappedComponent" parameter. (Notice how their so-called "HOC" actually returns a class).
So I don't know why they called it an "HOC" tbh. It's just a function that spits out components. If anyone knows why I'd be interested in hearing the reason.
In essence their example is doing exactly what you're doing, but it's more flexible because WrappedComponent is being taken in as a parameter. So you can specify whatever you want. Your code, on the other hand, has your inside component hard coded into it.
To see the power of their example, let's say you have a file called insideComp.js containing:
import withSubscription from './withSubscription';
class InsideComp extends React.Component{
// define it
}
export default withSubscription(InsideComp);
And when you use insideComp in another file:
import myComp from './insideComp.js';
You're not actually importing insideComp, but rather the wrapped version that "withSubscription" had already spit out. Because remember your last line of insideComp.js is
export default withSubscription(InsideComp);
So your InsideComp was modified before it was exported

The second one is not a HOC.
They coin the word HOC from higher order functions. One example of a higher order function is a function that takes a function as an argument and returns another function.
Similarly, a HOC is a function that takes an component as argument and returns another component.
This does sound weird to me because a higher order component is not a react component; it is a function instead. I guess the reason they call it HOC is because:
A react component is a class, which is indeed a constructor function in JavaScript (except that functional components are simply functions). A HOC actually takes a function (a constructor function) and returns another function (another constructor function), so it is actually a higher order function if you think about it. Probably because it is in the react context and this is a pattern to transform components, they call it HOC.
As to the difference between the two styles you mentioned:
First one: you would use the first one to generate a class like MyComponnet = withSubscription(AnotherComponent, ...), and whenever you need it in a render call just write <MyComponent><MyComponent>
Second one: this is less common. Every time you need it in a render call, you would need to include the WithSubscription component as you mentioned in the description <WithSubscription component={BlogPost} selectData={(DataSource) => DataSource.getComments()} />

In reactjs how can I call a method from another component?

Just trying reactjs and came across the situation that I want to call a method on another component:
class MyComp extends React.Component {
callMe(){
...
}
}
So mycomp2:
import MyComp from 'myComp';
class MyComp2 extends React.Component {
test(){
MyComp.callMe();
}
}
How can I do this ?

If the method callMe doesn't use this, you can declear it as static to use it like that.
class MyComp extends React.Component {
static callMe(){
...
}
}
If not, you can use ref to make it work.
You may need:
https://facebook.github.io/react/docs/refs-and-the-dom.html

Cannot. You cannot do that in react component. The only way is to move that function to their common ancestor.
Of course, there is another way, why not consider redux? let's react component talk through redux state. that way, you will never have this puzzle.

It depends on how your components are related to one another. If one is a parent and the other is a child then the function can be passed as a prop from parent to child, e.g.
class Parent extends React.Component {
callMe() {
console.log('called');
}
render() {
return (
<Child doSomething={() => this.callMe()} />
);
}
}
class Child extends React.Component {
render() {
<button onClick={this.props.doSomething}>Calls the parent fn</button>
}
}
Alternatively if they are not a parent-child relationship, then you need to introduce a parent component in which the function can live, then pass it via props in the same way.
If neither of these approaches seems to fit, then let us know what behaviour you are trying to achieve that requires this, and there my well be a different way to structure your code.