[reactjs] ReactJS lifecycle method inside a function Component

Instead of writing my components inside a class, I'd like to use the function syntax.

How do I override componentDidMount, componentWillMount inside function components?
Is it even possible?

const grid = (props) => {
    console.log(props);
    let {skuRules} = props;

    const componentDidMount = () => {
        if(!props.fetched) {
            props.fetchRules();
        }
        console.log('mount it!');
    };
    return(
        <Content title="Promotions" breadcrumbs={breadcrumbs} fetched={skuRules.fetched}>
            <Box title="Sku Promotion">
                <ActionButtons buttons={actionButtons} />
                <SkuRuleGrid 
                    data={skuRules.payload}
                    fetch={props.fetchSkuRules}
                />
            </Box>      
        </Content>  
    )
}

Solution One: You can use new react HOOKS API. Currently in React v16.8.0

Hooks let you use more of React’s features without classes. Hooks provide a more direct API to the React concepts you already know: props, state, context, refs, and lifecycle. Hooks solves all the problems addressed with Recompose.

A Note from the Author of recompose (acdlite, Oct 25 2018):

Hi! I created Recompose about three years ago. About a year after that, I joined the React team. Today, we announced a proposal for Hooks. Hooks solves all the problems I attempted to address with Recompose three years ago, and more on top of that. I will be discontinuing active maintenance of this package (excluding perhaps bugfixes or patches for compatibility with future React releases), and recommending that people use Hooks instead. Your existing code with Recompose will still work, just don't expect any new features.

Solution Two:

If you are using react version that does not support hooks, no worries, use recompose(A React utility belt for function components and higher-order components.) instead. You can use recompose for attaching lifecycle hooks, state, handlers etc to a function component.

Here’s a render-less component that attaches lifecycle methods via the lifecycle HOC (from recompose).

// taken from https://gist.github.com/tsnieman/056af4bb9e87748c514d#file-auth-js-L33

function RenderlessComponent() {
  return null; 
}

export default lifecycle({

  componentDidMount() {
    const { checkIfAuthed } = this.props;
    // Do they have an active session? ("Remember me")
    checkIfAuthed();
  },

  componentWillReceiveProps(nextProps) {
    const {
      loadUser,
    } = this.props;

    // Various 'indicators'..
    const becameAuthed = (!(this.props.auth) && nextProps.auth);
    const isCurrentUser = (this.props.currentUser !== null);

    if (becameAuthed) {
      loadUser(nextProps.auth.uid);
    }

    const shouldSetCurrentUser = (!isCurrentUser && nextProps.auth);
    if (shouldSetCurrentUser) {
      const currentUser = nextProps.users[nextProps.auth.uid];
      if (currentUser) {
        this.props.setCurrentUser({
          'id': nextProps.auth.uid,
          ...currentUser,
        });
      }
    }
  }
})(RenderlessComponent);

You can make use of create-react-class module. Official documentation

Of course you must first install it

npm install create-react-class

Here is a working example

import React from "react";
import ReactDOM from "react-dom"
let createReactClass = require('create-react-class')


let Clock = createReactClass({
    getInitialState:function(){
        return {date:new Date()}
    },

    render:function(){
        return (
            <h1>{this.state.date.toLocaleTimeString()}</h1>
        )
    },

    componentDidMount:function(){
        this.timerId = setInterval(()=>this.setState({date:new Date()}),1000)
    },

    componentWillUnmount:function(){
        clearInterval(this.timerId)
    }

})

ReactDOM.render(
    <Clock/>,
    document.getElementById('root')
)

if you using react 16.8 you can use react Hooks... React Hooks are functions that let you “hook into” React state and lifecycle features from function components... docs

According to the documentation:

import React, { useState, useEffect } from 'react'
// Similar to componentDidMount and componentDidUpdate:

useEffect(() => {


});

see React documentation

You can use react-pure-lifecycle to add lifecycle functions to functional components.

Example:

import React, { Component } from 'react';
import lifecycle from 'react-pure-lifecycle';

const methods = {
  componentDidMount(props) {
    console.log('I mounted! Here are my props: ', props);
  }
};

const Channels = props => (
<h1>Hello</h1>
)

export default lifecycle(methods)(Channels);

If you need use React LifeCycle, you need use Class.

Sample:

import React, { Component } from 'react';

class Grid extends Component {

 constructor(props){
  super(props)
 }

 componentDidMount () { /* do something */ }

 render () { 
   return <h1>Hello</h1>
 }

}

You can make your own "lifecycle methods" using hooks for maximum nostalgia.

Utility functions:

import { useEffect, useRef } from "react";

export const useComponentDidMount = handler => {
  return useEffect(() => {
    return handler();
  }, []);
};

export const useComponentDidUpdate = (handler, deps) => {
  const isInitialMount = useRef(true);

  useEffect(() => {
    if (isInitialMount.current) {
      isInitialMount.current = false;

      return;
    }

    return handler();
  }, deps);
};

Usage:

import { useComponentDidMount, useComponentDidUpdate } from "./utils";

export const MyComponent = ({ myProp }) => {
  useComponentDidMount(() => {
    console.log("Component did mount!");
  });

  useComponentDidUpdate(() => {
    console.log("Component did update!");
  });

  useComponentDidUpdate(() => {
    console.log("myProp did update!");
  }, [myProp]);
};