Caching props in getDefaultProps an anti-pattern in React? - javascript

I am writing a complex react app and using Cortex as my central model. The philosophy with cortex is that it wraps your data and on changing the data, calls a complete re-render from the root. This works great especially when you have non hierarchical views changing state and affecting the other.
The issue that I am facing is maintaining states/props on re-render. For example I have a certain hierarchy which goes like this:
<Page>
<EditorCard>
<Editor/>
<PublishButton/>
</EditorCard>
</Page>
The EditorCard needs the JavaScript instance of the Editor in order to make changes to the Editor on clicking the PublishButton (I am using an external library inside Editor which exposes methods for editing). Hence the Editor on ComponentDidMount sets the instance as a prop on the EditorCard by calling a function passed down to it.
My issue is that when I click the PublishButton I change the value of the cortex object which causes a re-render from the root and I loose the props for that Editor (since component is already mounted ComponentDidMount is not called again).
The way I took care of this problem is by caching of getDefaultProps.
Inside EditorCard my default props are:
getDefaultProps: function() {
return {
cachedData: {},
}
},
And is saving the editor instance as this.props.cachedData.editor = editorInstance
This saves props over multiple re-renders.
Is this how getDefaultProps caching was meant to be used? On saving props over multiple re-renders am I breaking some of the core react rules with this hack? Could you suggest a better structure if so?

No, getDefaultProps is what it means to be: getting the default props in case the owner hasn't passed those to you. You could say it's a shorthand for a = this.props.bla || 'hello';.
That being said, if I'm understand your question correctly, I see three ways to solve it.
Cache that in your state instead. Props are passed by the parent and are meant to be read from, inside the child, at least in vanilla React.
Instead of putting that props passing logic in your componentDidMount, why not put it in componentDidUpdate?
ref lets you grab the instance and call its methods directly.

Related

React - Fetch data in the parent or inside its childs?

Note: I am not using Redux (only Context + Hooks)
Introduction
I have a screen "Profile", that renders a TabView.
This TabView, renders two components as scenes:
UserPosts
UserInformation
My Profile screen, fetches the user data from my database, as it has to render some stuff that depends on this data.
Also, it is passed down via props to my "UserInformation" component, as it just renders the user data. So... there is no data fetching in my "UserInformation" component.
In the other hand, my "UserPosts" component is responsible of fetching the user posts, as it renders a component "UserPostsGrid" which renders those posts with pagination (endless FlatList).
Note: Data fetching is performed in custom hooks, not directly inside
the component (also, those hooks manages the respective stateful
data).
Problem
The main problem comes when I need to refresh the user data and the user posts when the user pull-to-refresh inside the "Profile" screen.
There is no problem for this screen to fetch the user data, as I have said before the "Profile" screen is responsible of that action.
But the posts are the stateful data of my child...
Multiple solutions?
I have thought to solve this problem using the current solution:
React.forwardRef() + React.useImperativeHandle()
With this, I will be able to pass a ref to my "UserPosts" and use imperative programming for accessing the data fetching method: userPostsRef.current.refreshPosts();
I have never seen other scenarios for solving this problem like this, but it should work. Instead, other coders implement a ContextProvider to handle all the data and be able to access it wherever they want. The main problem I notice here is: extra memoization + extra re-renders.
Another solution might be to implement all the data fetching inside the parent, and pass the respective callbacks via props to the child. The main problem I notice here is that we are creating some kind of "God Component" and we might have multiple lines of code...
My question
Is it an anti-pattern or a bad practice to implement the first solution ?
To answer your question:
Yes, it is an antipattern in React, because React is built around the idea that you specify the state of your app, and then let React render the components depending on this given state.
If something should change, you are supposed to specify a new state that represents the difference to the old state.
Refs should only be used if there is no other option. Basically, if you use Refs you say "I don't want to use React for this specific part of my code".
As always, imperative code using refs should be avoided in most cases
To use state instead of commands:
I would approach this kind of problem by trying to translate the imperative action into some state of information.
The user says "get me the latest data", that is a command, i.e. imperative.
Now I would ask "what is the user telling me about the state of the data right now ?"
An answer would be "this data is not up to date anymore", and this can be expressed as a state, and passed around via props.
A solution for your problem:
E.g. you might use a prop needsUpdate, which is set to true when the data should be updated, and to false when fetched.
To avoid unnecessary renders (setting needsUpdate = false would cause another call of e.g. useEffect, even if nothing happens there), I probably would use a child component prop like latestUpdateRequest and a child state like latestUpdate which holds a counter or timestamp, and then compare if(latestUpdateRequest > latestUpdate).
To inform the parent about the change just pass a callback function like dataUpdated() as a prop.

Redux: How do partial re-renderings work?

This question is about internals for partial re-renderings with React-Redux.
To explain what I mean, I will first introduce a very crude technique for managing state without any state management libary.
The technique uses a a huge "AppState"-object that is owned by the top-level App-component.
Suppose that this AppState holds not only state-properties, but also several callbacks that mutate those state-properties.
Furthermore, suppose that we use props to pass down this AppState throughout the entire component hierarchy.
Thanks to the ES6-spread syntax, passing a huge number of props can be done without a lot of boilerplate code.
In the top-level App-component, it will look like this:
<ChildComponent {...this.state} />
In all other components, it will look like this:
<GrandChildComponent {...this.props} />
It is important to note that the ES6-spread syntax does not actually pass the AppState-object. Instead, it extracts all the AppState-properties and passes them as separate props.
Now we should distinguish between top-level properties and nested child-properties of the AppState:
If I mutate a top-level property of this AppState by calling setState, then the entire app will re-render (unless I use things like pure components).
However, if I change a nested child-property of this AppState, then nothing will happen because React does not notice the property change.
This leads to my final questions:
What is the render-performance of this crude approach in comparison to Redux?
How exactly does Redux handle "partial renderings", such that only some of the Components re-render after a state mutation?
If I mutate a top-level property of this AppState by calling setState, then the entire app will re-render (because everything depends on the AppState).
If you mutate and use pure components then nothing will render, you change state by creating a new state object.
However, if I mutate a nested child-property of this AppState, then nothing will happen because React does not notice the property change.
This is only true if you mutate and components are pure.
What is the render-performance of this crude approach in comparison to Redux?
Prop drilling will re render the entire tree but branches that use state that didn't change won't re render if they are pure. Prop drilling is bad for maintenance because if you need to refactor grand child state logic you may need to refactor the whole tree or branch. But from a performance point it would not take a big hit provided that you use pure components and are careful when passing callbacks and not re creating them on every render (see useCallback).
How exactly does Redux handle "partial renderings", such that only some of the Components re-render after a state mutation?
React-redux useSelector or connect mapStateToProps are always called every time dispatch changed state and before rendering.
If the result is different than last result then react-redux will trigger render of the component. If the component gets props then a render could also be triggered because props change and mapstate/selector will be executed.
A connected component will observe state and render when the result of mapState or selector has changed. An example app with logs showing what react-redux will execute can be found here
For state management, you don't necessarily have to use Redux, if your use cases are small, maybe React Hook would be perfect for you.
For React rerendering matter, what I know is there are several strategies (useMemo, PureComponents) provided by React for managing and improve the performance. It really depends on how you manage your components.
One example is using PureComponent, even if you have a large state in your top-level app.js, if you manage the child components properly, they will not re-render if their receiving props haven't changed.

Should i pass functions to my component manually or using ref attribute?

I have built my own FormBuilder component (which is almost 5k line now), so it can cover all my needs, one issue i'm encountering is loading a new set of FormData any time the user needs, since my FormBuilder can accept a set of nested components, its kinda hard comparing the changes, and handling everything in component did mount, one easy way is building a loadFormData method inside the FormBuilder and calling this method from outside the component
I know this can easily be accomplished using ref attribute, but react highly suggest avoiding this and i got discouraged! and i was not sure if i should do this or not!
So i came up with a new alternative which kinda does the same thing:
class A {
onGetFormBuilderInternalFunction = (functions) => {
this.formBuilderFunctions = functions
}
onLoadButtonClick = () => {
this.formBuilderFunctions.loadFormData(someNewData)
}
render () {
<FormBuilder onGetInternalFunction={this.onGetFormBuilderInternalFunction}
}
}
class FormBuilder {
componentDidMount() {
if (this.props.onGetInternalFunction) {
this.props.onGetInternalFunction({
loadFormData: this.loadFormData,
})
}
}
}
So what do you think ?, is this a better approach ? or is this still a bad one ?, i was thinking using this method will at least only gives access to functions i need and not everything else.
I should also mention, loadFormData is simply one example, and there are at least a couple of these special function which i really really think is best to simply call from outside, so even if i do somehow pass the new data from props and handle it in componentDidUpdate, for the rest of these functions, i still need to access the FormBuilder
Yes that is the correct way to do it. However, if you have a 5,000 line component I would strongly suggest breaking it up into smaller sub components.
Keep state and handler functions in Parent and pass it down to FormBuilder as props.
I'm not sure how your component is set up so these are just thoughts based on a vague understanding.
Generally, you wouldn't want to do either of those approaches. Instead, the recommended approach is to pass someNewData to FormBuilder as one or more props (I'm guessing one prop, in your case).
Avoid using refs for anything that can be done declaratively.
– React Docs: When to Use Refs
This sort of scenario is discussed in Lifting State Up:
Instead of trying to sync the state between different components, you should rely on the top-down data flow.
– React Docs: Lifting State Up # Lessons Learned
If you're keeping track of changed state separate from your initial data, then you just need to reset that state when the form data (someNewData) changes. However, that's not the recommended approach.
Instead, uncontrolled components might be a great fit. By setting defaultValue to the initial data (i.e. someNewData.someField) and then letting the component deal with the value until you need it (e.g. when submit is clicked read the value from the component), you might be able to simplify your FormBuilder. Note: if you want to reset the uncontrolled component when your initial data (someNewData.someField) changes, you will need to use a key prop on the uncontrolled component with the value based someNewData.someField.
If you want to “reset” some state when a prop changes, consider either making a component fully controlled or fully uncontrolled with a key instead.
– React Docs: React Component # static getDerivedStateFromProps()
In response to your main question:
Better as you are doing right now than using ref.
I base this answer on what the react documentation says in the last paragraph of the "ref" glossary description and that the current approach can also be supported in case FormBuilder is refactored to be a functional component in the future (with Hooks and so), while using "ref" wouldn't.

How should child components in React communicate between each other in a clean and maintainable fashion?

I'm fairly new to React and I'm trying to understand a clean way for child components to communicate with each other.
In a simple component, I know that I can make use of props to pass data to child and callbacks for children to pass data back to parent component.
In a slightly more complex case, when I have multiple children components in a parent component, the communication between the children gets a little confusing. I'm not sure what I should do for children components of the same level to communicate with each other.
In my case, I decided that, maybe, I could use states. So I will have a state value in the parent component, and pass it on the children's props. Similarly, the callback handlers (called from the children component) in the parent component will help to set the states accordingly so that a state value gets passed on from one child to another through React's binding.
And a pseudo code could look something like:
//Inside Parent Component
constructor() {
//initialise state for the child components
this.setState({testList: []});
}
render() {
return (
<div>
<ChildA onSomething={this.onSomethingHandler} testList={this.state.testList} />
<ChildB onSomethingElse={this.onSomethingElseHandler} testList={this.state.testList} />
</div>
);
}
onSomethingHandler(evt):void {
if(blah.blah.blah) this.setState({testList: this.state.testList.splice().push(evt.value)};
}
onSomethingElseHandler(evt):void {
//Some other complex biz logic...
if(blah.blah.blah) this.setState({testList: this.state.testList.splice().push(somethingOtherStuffDueToLogic)};
}
//Inside ChildA Component
export IChildAProps {
onSomething: (evt)=>void
}
render() {
//Do some logic from the value in testList property
if(this.state.testList == blah blah)...
return (
<button onClick={this.props.onSomething({id:321, value:"wassup! I'm ChildA."})}>ChildA</button>
)
}
//Inside ChildB Component
export IChildBProps {
onSomethingElse: (evt)=>void
}
render() {
//Do some logic from the value in testList property
if(this.state.testList == blah blah)...
return (
<button onClick={this.props.onSomething({id:123, value:"yo! I'm ChildB."})}>ChildB</button>
)
}
At this point, I'm starting to wonder if the logic in that 2 handler methods, namely onSomethingHandler() and onSomethingElseHandler() in the Parent component, should actually be resided inside the child components themselves? I thought of this because those logic look like something the child component should be handling on their own to serve their purpose. The parent component shouldn't do it for them or it might just grow messy. But I've no choice because of how I'm handling their communication. Apart from this, I also created a new state simply just to allow them to communicate.
So far, this is still relatively manageable. But in my own experiment, it has got to a stage where I've children component nested inside another children components that need to communicate across other children components of the same (or sometimes different) level. Using states for communication also meant that I have many states all over the place, which doesn't look like a good idea to me. And the parent components ended up with tons of messy callback handler methods to manage all that propagation of data up and down the component tree.
The situation is so messy that I can at most illustrate it as something like so:
And you can see in the above illustration, ChildB ended up having yet another state just to help passing that information between its children components.
I'm sure I'm missing something that I should know about React. The callbacks I'm having in the parent components seem a little too much just to handle data propagation. How should I really organise the communication of children components in a clean and maintainable way?
Every React programmer hits this wall at some point in time. I did too. The answer is to use Redux for state management. You have experienced how tedious it is to use React's native state.
Redux is a state management mechanism which can be used in conjunction with React. So you won't be using React's state, instead you will use Redux.
Redux provides a single store, where the state of entire application is stored. You can access the state in your components using connect() method.
But there is a caveat. Not all of the react components are connected to the Redux store. There are two types of components-
Smart/connected components: Connected to redux store
Dumb components: Dependent on connected components
The idea is to pass the state from redux store to Connected components via React's props. The connected components can directly consume state from the store. The dumb components are not directly connected to the redux store. The connected components also pass the state to the dumb components via props. So you see, React's state is bypassed altogether. Now, if you want to change the state, following events must happen-
An event is fired from the smart/dumb component.
Actions are dispatched to the store
Reducers create a new state according to the actions.
A new state will be stored in the store.
Store will return new state to the connected components via connect() through props
Dumb components will receive new state from connected components through props
What are actions and reducers?
Actions are nothing but javascript objects that describe how to change the state.
Reducer is a "pure" function which builds and returns the new state tree according to the action dispatched to the store.
Redux - http://redux.js.org/
Redux-thunk - https://github.com/gaearon/redux-thunk
Redux-saga - https://github.com/yelouafi/redux-saga
Most fashion way is using Redux.js (or flux.js) to matain your child components state.
http://redux.js.org/
If you don't like invoke third party js. You can use refs property:
https://facebook.github.io/react/docs/more-about-refs.html
We can use the react context API,
Context provides a way to pass data through the component tree without having to pass props down manually at every level
Also, note that Mark Erikson has mentioned in his blog,
Yes, the new context API is going to be great for passing down data to deeply nested components - that's exactly what it was designed for.
If you're only using Redux to avoid passing down props, context could replace Redux - but then you probably didn't need Redux in the first place.
Context also doesn't give you anything like the Redux DevTools, the ability to trace your state updates, middleware to add centralized application logic, and other powerful capabilities that Redux enables.
To handle scenarios you mentioned, context API is a good option and you don't have to use additional libraries for that.

Communication between Reactjs Components

After struggling too much with Redux, flux and other pub/sub methods i ended up with the following technique. I do not know if that can cause some big damage or flaws so posting it here to get some light from the experienced programmers about its pros and cons.
var thisManager = function(){
var _Manager = [];
return{
getThis : function(key){
return _Manager[key];
},
setThis : function(obj){
_Manager[obj.key] = obj.value;
}
}
};
var _thisManager = new thisManager();
// React Component
class Header extends Component{
constructor(){
super();
_thisManager.setThis({ key: "Header", value:this}
}
someFunction(data){
// call this.setState here with new data.
}
render(){
return <div />
}
}
// Then from any other component living far somewhere you can pass the data to the render function and it works out of the box.
i.e.
class Footer extends Component{
_click(e){
let Header = _thisManager.getThis('Header');
Header.somefunction(" Wow some new data from footer event ");
}
render(){
return(
<div>
<button onClick={this._click.bind(this)}> send data to header and call its render </button>
</div>
);
}
}
I am sending json as a data in my application and it perfectly renders the desired components and i can invoke the render without any pub/sub or deep passing down the props to invoke a parent method with a changing this.setState to cause re-render.
So far the application works fine and i am also loving its simplicity too. Kindly throw light on this technique pros and cons
Regards
EDIT:
It is bad to call render so i changed it to another method to get more pros and cons of this setup.
Two main concerns with this setup:
1. You should never call react lifecycle methods directly
2. Backdoors into components are a bad idea, which destroy react's maintainability
Ad 1:
If you invoke render() (or any other react method) directly, react probably does not call componentDidMount(), componentDidUpdate()` and other lifecycle methods in the component tree.
Dangers are:
Many designs with react component rely heavily on the lifecycle methods being fired: getInitialState(), componentWillReceiveProps(), shouldComponentUpdate(), componentDidMount(), etc etc. If you call render() directly, many components will likely break or show strange behaviour.
You run the risk of breaking react's difference engine: through life-cycle management, react keeps a virtual copy of DOM in its (internal) memory. To work correctly, the integrity of this copy if vital to react's working.
Better would be (but still in violation of my second point):
Include a different method inside the component.
Which has a setState() if you want to re-render.
And call that method from the outside.
Ad 2.
A direct reference to a mounted component (as your thisManager does) has some additional risks. React's designs and limitations are there for a reason: to maintain unidirectional flow and component hierarchy with props and state, to make things easy to maintain.
If you break this pattern - by building a backdoor into a component, which allows manipulation of state - you break this design principle of react. It is a quick shortcut, but is sure to cause great pain and frustation when your app grows.
As far as I know, the only acceptable exceptions to this rule are:
Methods inside a component that respond to ajax call results, to update state (e.g. after fetching data from server)
Methods inside a component to handle triggers from its direct descendent children components (e.g. run validation on form after a child button has been clicked)
So if you want to use it for that purpose, then you should be fine.
Word of warning: the standard react approach guards random access to components, because the invoking component or method needs to have a reference to the component. In both examples such a reference is available.
In your setup, ANY outside piece of code could lookup the ref to the "header" in your table, and call the method which updates state.
With such indirect reference, and no way of telling which source actually called your component, your code is likely to become much harder to debug/ maintain.

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