React.js Component Guideline

guideline.rst

React.js Minimal Entropy Guide

DO's:

• Use explicit contracts to pipe data & events between systems
• Business rules should bubble towards the top, UI and semantics should sink towards the bottom

DONT's:

• Prescribe a single design pattern
• Use jQuery as a crutch
• Be a fundamentalist

Rendering

• Only change state on the components that need to be re-rendered
• Use ref=<name> to access the component from the parent
• All components should be instantiated inside a render() call; avoid storing components in state
• Define a key for items in a list

Use ternary operator with null to conditionally render:

<div>{this.state.verified ? <i className="verified"/> : null}</div>

Use map to programmatically render children:

<ul> {
_.map(this.state.items, function(item, index) {
  return <li key=index>{item}</li>
})
}</ul>

setProps vs setState

Props

represents the overall application state.

State

represents the individual state of a component.

Props

configures how the application is to be rendered.

State

configures how the component is to be rendered.

Where to use the methods:

setProps()

can only be called on a root component.

setState()

should only be called by the component itself.

set<Name>()

should be defined on a component that allows for its state to be modified externally.

Example public set state method:

setValue: function(val) {
  this.setState({value:val})
}

Data Binding

Avoid direct API calls from components.

Use channels or event streams to pipe data into components

• Event streams: https://baconjs.github.io/
• Channels: https://github.com/postaljs/postal.js

componentWillMount()

bind event stream to component state

componentWillUnmount()

unbind component from an event stream

Example Data Binding:

componentWillMount: function() {
  var self = this;
  this.site_sub = channel.subscribe("CRUD.site."+this.props.site_id, function(data) {
    self.setState({site: data.site})
  })
},
componentWillUnmount: function() {
  if (this.site_sub) {
    this.site_sub.unsubscribe();
    this.site_sub = null;
  }
}

Callbacks

• Use on<event> properties to pipe events to functions that modify other components
• If a component modifies a component that is not in its refs, try to use a callback instead

Slug field example:

<input type="text" name="name" onChange={function() {self.refs.slug.setValue(event.target.value)}}/>
<SlugField name="slug" ref="slug"/>