Book Image

Designing React Hooks the Right Way

By : Fang Jin
Book Image

Designing React Hooks the Right Way

By: Fang Jin

Overview of this book

React hook creates a unique solution for using states in function components to orchestrate UI communication. They provide you with an easy interface to write custom data management solutions with low development and maintenance costs. Understanding how Hooks are designed enables you to use them more effectively, and this book helps you to do just that. This book starts with a custom-crafted solution to reveal why Hooks are needed in the first place. You will learn about the React engine and discover how each built-in Hook can manage a persistent value by hooking into it. You will walk through the design and implementation of each hook with code so that you gain a solid understanding. Finally, you'll get to grips with each Hook's pitfalls and find out how to effectively overcome them. By the end of this React book, you'll have gained the confidence to build and write Hooks for developing functional and efficient web applications at scale.
Table of Contents (12 chapters)

Questions and answers

Here are some questions and answers to refresh your knowledge:

  1. What is a ref?

    A React ref is a container to hold a persistent value. In general, you can use the value as a raw state with no update capability.

  2. What is useRef?

    A useRef hook can be used to create a ref in a function component. Once created, it can be used as a persistent container during the life cycle of the component.

  3. What are the common usages of useRef?

    One major usage of useRef is to hold a DOM instance that can be used to invoke native DOM functionalities. Another major usage of useRef is to sneak behind React to do something without kicking off the engine accidentally.