Using Stateful JS Components

You know what's good for you, and you know what's right. But it doesn't matter - the wickedness of the temptation is too much.

The JS world is brimming with shiny component baubles: D3, Google Maps, Chosen, etc.

But they are salaciously stateful and mutative. And, you, raised in a pure, functional home, with caring, immutable parents, know they are wrong. But, my, how you still yearn for the sweet thrill of that forbidden fruit.

I won't tell, if you don't. But careful plans must be made ...

The overall plan

To use a stateful js component, you'll need to write two Reagent components:

• an outer component responsible for sourcing data via a subscription or r/atom or cursor, etc.
• an inner component responsible for wrapping and manipulating the stateful JS component via lifecycle functions.

The pattern involves the outer component, which sources data, supplying this data to the inner component via props.

Example Using Google Maps

(defn gmap-inner []
  (let [gmap    (atom nil)
        options (clj->js {"zoom" 9})
        update  (fn [comp]
                  (let [{:keys [latitude longitude]} (reagent/props comp)
                        latlng (js/google.maps.LatLng. latitude longitude)]
                    (.setPosition (:marker @gmap) latlng)
                    (.panTo (:map @gmap) latlng)))]

    (reagent/create-class
      {:reagent-render (fn []
                         [:div
                          [:h4 "Map"]
                          [:div#map-canvas {:style {:height "400px"}}]])

       :component-did-mount (fn [comp]
                              (let [canvas  (.getElementById js/document "map-canvas")
                                    gm      (js/google.maps.Map. canvas options)
                                    marker  (js/google.maps.Marker. (clj->js {:map gm :title "Drone"}))]
                                (reset! gmap {:map gm :marker marker}))
                              (update comp))

       :component-did-update update
       :display-name "gmap-inner"})))



(defn gmap-outer []
  (let [pos (subscribe [:current-position])]   ;; obtain the data
    (fn []
      [gmap-inner @pos])))

Notes:

• gmap-outer obtains data via a subscription. It is quite simple - trivial almost.
• it then passes this data as a prop to gmap-inner. This inner component has the job of wrapping/managing the stateful js component (Gmap in our case above)
• when the data (delivered by the subscription) to the outer layer changes, the inner layer, gmap-inner, will be given a new prop - @pos in the case above.
• when the inner component is given new props, its entire set of lifecycle functions will be engaged.
• the renderer for the inner layer ALWAYS renders the same, minimal container hiccup for the component. Even though the props have changed, the same hiccup is output. So it will appear to React as if nothing changes from one render to the next. No work to be done. React/Reagent will leave the DOM untouched.
• but this inner component has other lifecycle functions and this is where the real work is done.
• for example, after the renderer is called (which ignores its props), component-did-update will be called. In this function, we don't ignore the props, and we use them to update/mutate the stateful JS component.
• the props passed (in this case @pos) in must be a map, otherwise (reagent/props comp) will return nil.

Pattern Discovery

This pattern has been independently discovered by many. To my knowledge, this description of the Container/Component pattern is the first time it was written up.

Code Credit

The example gmaps code above was developed by @jhchabran in this gist: https://gist.github.com/jhchabran/e09883c3bc1b703a224d#file-2_google_map-cljs

D3 Examples

D3 (from @zachcp):

• Blog Post: http://zachcp.org/blog/2015/reagent-d3/
• Code: https://github.com/zachcp/simplecomponent
• Example: http://zachcp.github.io/simplecomponent/

A different take on using D3: https://gadfly361.github.io/gadfly-blog/posts-output/2016-10-22-d3-in-reagent/

JS Interop

You'll probably need to know how to do interop with js: http://www.spacjer.com/blog/2014/09/12/clojurescript-javascript-interop/

Perhaps use this library to make it even easier: https://github.com/binaryage/cljs-oops

Advanced Lifecycle Methods

If you mess around with lifecycle methods, you'll probably want to read Martin's explanations: https://www.martinklepsch.org/posts/props-children-and-component-lifecycle-in-reagent.html