react-dom-observe

Utility for easier monitoring of the lifecycle of React-created DOM elements (and component instances) through references (ref callbacks).

Installation

You can add the react-dom-observe to your project using npm:

npm i --save @jurca/react-dom-observe

Usage

The library is designed to be used in ES2016 environment. Make sure you have proper polyfills included in your project if you need backwards compatibility.

To require library in ES2015 import, use a regular import of the default module export:

import observe from '@jurca/react-dom-observe'

To require the library in a CommonJS environment, use the following pattern:

const observe = require('@jurca/react-dom-observe').default

Usage in components

The react-dom-observe library allows for, for example, easier registration and deregistration of event listeners on DOM elements, without having to keep references to the elements:

class Component extends React.Component {
  constructor(props) {
    super(props)

    this._onFooBar = this.onFooBar.bind(this)
  }

  render() {
    return (
      <div ref={observe(this, this.onRootMounted, this.onRootUnmounted)}>
        <FooBar ref={observe(this, this.onFooBarMounted)}>
          A FooBar component content
        </FooBar>
      </div>
    )
  }

  onRootMounted(root) {
    root.addEventListener('fooBar', this._onFooBar)
  }

  onRootUnmounted(root) {
    root.removeEventListener('fooBar', this._onFooBar)
  }

  onFooBarMounted(fooBarInstance) {
    fooBarInstance.baz()
  }

  onFooBar(event) {
    // The fooBar event occurred
  }
}

The third argument (the element unmount callback) is optional. Alternatively, if you only need to be notified about the component being unmounted, set the mount callback to null and provide the unmount callback as the third argument:

class Foo extends React.Component {
  render() {
    return (
      <div ref={observe(this, null, this.onRootUnmounted)}>
        A Foo component
      </div>
    )
  }

  onRootUnmounted(root) {
    // root is the div element at the component's root that has just been
    // removed from the DOM
  }
}

In case you are referring to a component, but need the component's root element instead, you may set the fourth argument to true to resolve the component's instance to its DOM node (this is done using the ReactDOM.findDOMNode() API). Note that this pierces the component abstraction, and there is most likely a better way to what you are trying to accomplish (see the React documentation for more info).

class Foo extends React.Component {
  render() {
    return (
      <FooBar ref={observe(this, this.onDidMount, this.onDidUnmount, true)}/>
    )
  }

  onDidMount(fooBarRootElement) {
    // do something
  }

  onDidUnmount(fooBarRootElement) {
    // do something
  }
}

Usage in functional components

There is also a shorthand available for use in functional React components. This shorthand skips the first (this context) argument:

import observe from '@jurca/react-dom-observe/unbound'

const FooBar = props => {
  const onMounted = root => {
    // do something with the root
  }

  const onUnmounted = root => {
    // undo what has been done in the onMounted callback
  }

  return (
    <div ref={observe(onMounted, onUnmounted)}>
      A FooBar component
    </div>
  )
}