Introducing the React Context API

The React Context API has come a long way since it was first introduced as an experimental feature. Since version 16.3.0, it has been officially added to React and has become a game-changer for many developers. In fact, many are now using the new Context API instead of Redux. The Context API allows you to share data between components without having to pass a prop to every child component.

To illustrate how to use the new Context API, let’s revisit the example from Chapter 8, React Hooks, where we fetched GitHub issues using React Hooks, but this time by using the Context API instead.

Creating our first context

The first thing you need to do is to create the issue context. For this, you can create a folder called contexts inside your src folder, where you will add the Issue.tsx file.

Then, you need to import some functions from React and axios:

import { FC, createContext, useState, useEffect, ReactElement, useCallback }...