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React Components
React Components

React Components: Explore the power of React components for cutting-edge web development

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React Components

Chapter 2. Working with Properties and State

In the previous chapter, we set up our workflow. We worked out how to compile ReactJS and ES6 code through a build step, interpret it directly in our browser, and even run it using services such as JSBin. Now, we can begin creating components for our content management system.

In this chapter, we're going to start building our interface. We'll see interesting and effective ways to connect components. The important thing in this chapter is learning how to arrange components in complex hierarchies. We're going to nest several components and communicate between them and our data source, using a custom data backend.

Nesting components

Let's think about how we want to structure the components of our interface. Many content management systems feature lists of items—items that we store in and retrieve from a database. For example, let's imagine a system through which we can manage the pages of a website.

For such a system, we need an entry-point—something like PageAdmin, which connects our persistence layer to our interface:

import React from "react";

class PageAdmin extends React.Component {
    render() {
        return <ol>...page objects</ol>;
    }
}

export default PageAdmin;

We can also represent the persistence layer in the form of a backend class:

class Backend {
    getAll() {
        // ...returns an array of pages
    }

    update(id, property, value) {
        // ...updates a page
    }

    delete(id) {
        // ...deletes a page
    }
}

Note

Later, we'll look at ways of persisting this data. For now, it's OK to just use static data...

Shared component actions

So, how do we change from a PageView class to a PageEditor class? For that, we need to hook into browser events and fiddle with the state:

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

        this.state = {
            "isEditing": false
        };
    }

    render() {
        if (this.state.isEditing) {
            return <PageEditor
                {...this.props}
                onCancel={this.onCancel.bind(this)}
                />;
        }

        return <PageView
            {...this.props}
            onPageEdit={this.onEdit.bind(this)}
            />;
    }

    onEdit() {
        this.setState({
            "isEditing": true
        });
    }

    onCancel() {
        this.setState({
            "isEditing": false
        });
    }
}

We're providing a way for child components to call methods in parent components by passing down methods child components can use. When...

Component life cycle methods

There are a couple of tricks I want to show you before we wrap up. The first is a life cycle method we can use to tell when a component's properties will change. We can use this to change the appearance of a component, or refresh the internal state.

We can add this method to PageEditor, for example:

class PageEditor extends Component {
    constructor(props) {
        super(props);

        this.state = {
            "changed": false
        };

        this.bind(
            "onCancel",
            "onUpdate"
        );
    }

    isChanged(next, previous) {
        return JSON.stringify(next) !== JSON.stringify(previous)
    }

    componentWillReceiveProps(props) {
        this.setState({
            "changed": this.isChanged(props, this.props)
        });
    }

    render() {
        return <div>
            <input
                type="text"
                name="title"
          ...

Summary

In this chapter, you learned even more about ES6 classes and how they complement React components in structure and functionality. We also looked at some interesting uses of state and properties.

Above all, we saw how it's both possible and beneficial to avoid the internal component state. Properties are a powerful tool for component design. We know how to react to changing properties and how to reduce the work React needs to do to render our interfaces.

In the next chapter, we are going to discuss how to persist this data (to different kinds of local storage). We will see how to connect to these data stores through events.

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Key benefits

  • Learn to build better websites by creating a variety of different components in React
  • Conceptualize the design and build maintainable web apps with the help of components
  • A fast-paced guide to help you learn about component-based development in React

Description

The reader will learn how to use React and its component-based architecture in order to develop modern user interfaces. A new holistic way of thinking about UI development will establish throughout this book and the reader will discover the power of React components with many examples. After reading the book and following the example application, the reader has built a small to a mid-size application with React using a component based UI architecture. The book will take the reader through a journey to discover the benefits of component-based user interfaces over the classical MVC architecture. Throughout the book, the reader will develop a wide range of components and then bring them together to build a component-based UI. By the end of this book, readers would have learned several techniques to build powerful components and how the component-based development is beneficial over regular web development.

Who is this book for?

This book is ideal for developers who are familiar with the basics of React and are looking for a guide to building a wide range of components as well as develop component-driven UIs.

What you will learn

  • How to structure an app into components Working with nested components
  • Work with nested components
  • Set up communication across components
  • Style the existing components
  • Work with Material Design as a component
  • Render components on the server
  • Make the best of design patterns
  • Make the app pluggable

Product Details

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Publication date, Length, Edition, Language, ISBN-13
Publication date : Apr 21, 2016
Length: 182 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781785883729
Vendor :
Facebook
Tools :

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Product Details

Publication date : Apr 21, 2016
Length: 182 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781785883729
Vendor :
Facebook
Tools :

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Table of Contents

11 Chapters
1. Thinking in Components Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
2. Working with Properties and State Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
3. Saving and Communicating Data Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
4. Styling and Animating Components Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
5. Going Material! Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
6. Changing Views Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
7. Rendering on the Server Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
8. React Design Patterns Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
9. Thinking of Plugins Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
10. Testing Components Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Index Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
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