React Lifecycle

What’s up, football fam? Today we’re gonna talk about React Lifecycle methods.

If you’re a Liverpool FC fan like me, you know that the season has its own lifecycle, just like a React component.

So, let’s dive in and explore the various lifecycle methods available to us.

React components have several lifecycle methods that are called at specific times during the component’s lifecycle.

These methods can be used to handle component events and updates, and they can be broken down into three categories: mounting, updating, and unmounting.

Mounting

The mounting phase is when the component is first created and added to the DOM.

The following methods are called during the mounting phase:

constructor(): This method is called when the component is first created. It’s used to initialize state and bind methods.

render(): This method is required and is called to render the component to the screen. It should return a JSX element.

componentDidMount(): This method is called after the component is mounted to the DOM. It’s used to initialize data that requires access to the DOM.

Updating

The updating phase is when the component is re-rendered due to a change in props or state. The following methods are called during the updating phase:

shouldComponentUpdate(): This method is called before the component is re-rendered. It’s used to determine if the component should re-render or not based on the new props and state.

render(): This method is called to re-render the component to the screen. It should return a JSX element.

componentDidUpdate(): This method is called after the component is re-rendered. It’s used to perform side effects such as making API calls or updating the DOM.

Unmounting

The unmounting phase is when the component is removed from the DOM. The following method is called during the unmounting phase:

componentWillUnmount(): This method is called just before the component is removed from the DOM. It’s used to perform any cleanup that needs to be done, such as removing event listeners.

Now, let’s say you’re building an app that displays the latest Liverpool FC news.

You can use the following component to fetch the latest news articles from the official Liverpool FC API:

import React, { Component } from 'react';
import request from 'request';

// Define a class component called LiverpoolNews
class LiverpoolNews extends Component {
  constructor(props) {
    super(props);
    this.state = {
      articles: []
    };
  }

  // Make an API request to fetch the latest Liverpool FC news on component mount
  componentDidMount() {
    request('https://www.liverpoolfc.com/api/v1/articles', (error, response, body) => {
      if (!error && response.statusCode === 200) {
        const data = JSON.parse(body);
        const articles = data.articles;
        this.setState({ articles }); // Update the component's state with the fetched news articles
      }
    });
  }

  // Render the latest Liverpool FC news fetched from the API
  render() {
    const { articles } = this.state;

    return (
      <div>
        <h1>Liverpool FC News</h1>
        <ul>
          {articles.map(article => (
            <li key={article.id}>
              <a href={article.url}>{article.title}</a>
            </li>
          ))}
        </ul>
      </div>
    );
  }
}

export default LiverpoolNews;

In this example, we’re using the componentDidMount() method to make a request to the Liverpool FC API and set the articles state.

Then, in the render() method, we’re using the articles state to render a list of news articles to the screen.

Conclusion

So, there you have it, folks.

That’s an overview of React Lifecycle methods and how they can be used to handle component events and updates.

Whether you’re a Liverpool fan or not, give it a try and start building your own React components

Peace out!