DevTut

# Communication Between Components

# Child to Parent Components

Sending data back to the parent, to do this we simply pass a function as a prop from the parent component to the child component, and the child component calls that function.

In this example, we will change the Parent state by passing a function to the Child component and invoking that function inside the Child component.

import React from 'react';

class Parent extends React.Component {
    constructor(props) {
        super(props);
        this.state = { count: 0 };

        this.outputEvent = this.outputEvent.bind(this);
    }
    outputEvent(event) {
        // the event context comes from the Child
        this.setState({ count: this.state.count++ });
    }

    render() {
        const variable = 5;
        return (
            <div>
                Count: { this.state.count }
                <Child clickHandler={this.outputEvent} />
            </div>
        );
    }
}

class Child extends React.Component {
    render() {
        return (
            <button onClick={this.props.clickHandler}>
                Add One More
            </button>
        );
    }
}

export default Parent;

Note that the Parent's outputEvent method (that changes the Parent state) is invoked by the Child's button onClick event.

The only way if your components does not have a parent-child relationship (or are related but too further such as a grand grand grand son) is to have some kind of a signal that one component subscribes to, and the other writes into.

Those are the 2 basic operations of any event system: subscribe/listen to an event to be notify, and send/trigger/publish/dispatch a event to notify the ones who wants.

There are at least 3 patterns to do that. You can find a comparison here (opens new window).

Here is a brief summary:

  • Pattern 1: **Event Emitter/Target/Dispatcher**: the listeners need to reference the source to subscribe.
      - to subscribe: `otherObject.addEventListener('click', () => { alert('click!'); });` - to dispatch: `this.dispatchEvent('click');`

      Pattern 2: Publish/Subscribe: you don't need a specific reference to the source that triggers the event, there is a global object accessible everywhere that handles all the events.

      • to subscribe: globalBroadcaster.subscribe('click', () => { alert('click!'); });
      • to dispatch: globalBroadcaster.publish('click');

      Pattern 3: Signals: similar to Event Emitter/Target/Dispatcher but you don't use any random strings here. Each object that could emit events needs to have a specific property with that name. This way, you know exactly what events can an object emit.

      • to subscribe: otherObject.clicked.add( () => { alert('click'); });
      • to dispatch: this.clicked.dispatch();

      # Parent to Child Components

      That the easiest case actually, very natural in the React world and the chances are - you are already using it.

      You can pass props down to child components. In this example message is the prop that we pass down to the child component, the name message is chosen arbitrarily, you can name it anything you want.

      import React from 'react';

class Parent extends React.Component {
    render() {
        const variable = 5;
        return (
            <div>
                <Child message="message for child" />
                <Child message={variable} />
            </div>
        );
    }
}

class Child extends React.Component {
    render() {
        return <h1>{this.props.message}</h1>
    }
}

export default Parent;

      Here, the <Parent /> component renders two <Child /> components, passing message for child inside the first component and 5 inside the second one.

      In summary, you have a component (parent) that renders another one (child) and passes to it some props.

      # Remarks

      There are a total of 3 cases of communication between React components:

      • Case 1: Parent to Child communication
      • Case 2: Child to Parent communication
      • Case 3: Not-related components (any component to any component) communication

    • ← Stateless Functional Components →