React.js - Communicating between sibling components

user_1961614 0
Viewed 70643

I'm new to React, and I'd like to ask a strategy question about how best to accomplish a task where data must be communicated between sibling components.

First, I'll describe the task:

Say I have multiple <select> components that are children of a single parent that passes down the select boxes dynamically, composed from an array. Each box has exactly the same available options in its initial state, but once a user selects a particular option in one box, it must be disabled as an option in all other boxes until it is released.

Here's an example of the same in (silly) code. (I'm using react-select as a shorthand for creating the select boxes.)

In this example, I need to disable (ie, set disabled: true) the options for "It's my favorite" and "It's my least favorite" when a user selects them in one select box (and release them if a user de-selects them).

var React = require('react');
var Select = require('react-select');



var AnForm = React.createClass({

    render: function(){


        // this.props.fruits is an array passed in that looks like:
        // ['apples', 'bananas', 'cherries','watermelon','oranges']
        var selects = this.props.fruits.map(function(fruit, i) {

            var options = [
                { value: 'first', label: 'It\'s my favorite', disabled: false },
                { value: 'second', label: 'I\'m OK with it', disabled: false },
                { value: 'third', label: 'It\'s my least favorite', disabled: false }
            ];


            return (
                <Child fruit={fruit} key={i} options={options} />
            );
        });


        return (
            <div id="myFormThingy">
                {fruitSelects}
            </div>
        )
    }

});


var AnChild = React.createClass({

    getInitialState: function() {
        return {
            value:'',
            options: this.props.options
        };
    },

    render: function(){

        function changeValue(value){
            this.setState({value:value});
        }


        return (
            <label for={this.props.fruit}>{this.props.fruit}</label>
            <Select
                name={this.props.fruit}
                value={this.state.value}
                options={this.state.options}
                onChange={changeValue.bind(this)}
                placeholder="Choose one"
            />
        )
    }
});

Is updating the child options best accomplished by passing data back up to the parent through a callback? Should I use refs to access the child components in that callback? Does a redux reducer help?

I apologize for the general nature of the question, but I'm not finding a lot of direction on how to deal with these sibling-to-sibling component interactions in a unidirectional way.

Thanks for any help.

flux reactjs javascript
2 Answers

The following help me to setup communication between two siblings. The setup is done in their parent during render() and componentDidMount() calls.

class App extends React.Component<IAppProps, IAppState> {
    private _navigationPanel: NavigationPanel;
    private _mapPanel: MapPanel;

    constructor() {
        super();
        this.state = {};
    }

    // `componentDidMount()` is called by ReactJS after `render()`
    componentDidMount() {
        // Pass _mapPanel to _navigationPanel
        // It will allow _navigationPanel to call _mapPanel directly
        this._navigationPanel.setMapPanel(this._mapPanel);
    }

    render() {
        return (
            <div id="appDiv" style={divStyle}>
                // `ref=` helps to get reference to a child during rendering
                <NavigationPanel ref={(child) => { this._navigationPanel = child; }} />
                <MapPanel ref={(child) => { this._mapPanel = child; }} />
            </div>
        );
    }
}
user_51452580
Related