react_style_guide.md

React Style Guide

Prefer Stateless functional components where possible.

Stateless function components are more concise, and there are plans for react to increase performance of them. Good:

export function KuiButton(props) {
  return <button className="kuiButton" {...props} />
};

Bad:

export class KuiButton extends React.Component {
  render() {
    return <button className="kuiButton" {...this.props} />
  }
}

When state is involved, use ES6 style React Classes over ES5.

Good:

export class ClickCounter extends React.Component {
  state = { clickCount: 0 };

  onClick = () => {
    this.setState(prevState => ({
      clickCount: prevState.clickCount + 1
    }));
  }

  render() {
    return <button className="kuiButton" onClick={this.onClick} />
  }
}

Bad:

 export const ClickCounter = React.createClass({
  getInitialState() {
    return {
      clickCount: 0
    };
  },
  onClick() {
    this.setState(prevState => ({
      clickCount: prevState.clickCount + 1
    }));
  },
  render() {
    return <button className="kuiButton" onClick={this.onClick} />
  }
});

When a state change involves the previous state or props, pass setState a function instead of an object.

https://facebook.github.io/react/docs/react-component.html#setstate

Good:

 this.setState((prevState, props) => ({
   clickCount: prevState.clickCount + props.incrementValue
 }));

Bad:

  this.setState({ clickCount: this.state.clickCount + this.props.incrementValue });

Because this.props and this.state may be updated asynchronously, you should not rely on their values for calculating the next state.

• https://facebook.github.io/react/docs/state-and-lifecycle.html#state-updates-may-be-asynchronous

This will be even more important when the fibers-based implementation is released:

• https://github.com/acdlite/react-fiber-architecture
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCuYPiUIONs

Prefer reactDirective over react-component

When using ngReact to embed your react components inside angular html, prefer reactDirective over react-component. You can read more about these two ngReact methods here. Using react-component means adding a bunch of components into angular, while reactDirective keeps them isolated, and is also a more succinct syntax.

Good:

<hello-component fname="person.fname" lname="person.lname" watch-depth="reference"></hello-component>

Bad:

<react-component name="HelloComponent" props="person" watch-depth="reference" />

Prefix ui_framework elements with kui, but not their file names.

Good:

button.js:
export function KuiButton(props) {
  return <button className="kuiButton" {...props} />
};

Bad:

button.js:
export function Button(props) {
  return <button className="kuiButton" {...props} />
};

The filenames leave it off because snake casing already increases file name length.

Action function names and prop function names

Name action functions in the form of a strong verb and passed properties in the form of on. E.g:

<sort-button onClick={action.sort}/>
<pagerButton onPageNext={action.turnToNextPage} />

Avoid creating a function and passing that as a property, in render functions.

Best (relies on stage 2 proposal):

export class ClickCounter extends React.Component {
  state = { clickCount: 0 };

  // This syntax ensures `this` is bound within handleClick
  onClick = () => {
    this.setState(prevState => { clickCount: prevState.clickCount + 1 });
  }

  render() {
    return <button className="kuiButton" onClick={this.onClick} />
  }
}

Good:

export class ClickCounter extends React.Component {
  constructor() {
    this.state = { clickCount: 0 };
    this.onClick = this.onClick.bind(this);
  }

  onClick() {
    this.setState(prevState => { clickCount: prevState.clickCount + 1 });
  }

  render() {
    return <button className="kuiButton" onClick={this.onClick} />
  }
}

Bad:

export class ClickCounter extends React.Component {
  state = { clickCount: 0 };

  onClick() {
    this.setState(prevState => { clickCount: prevState.clickCount + 1 });
  }

  render() {
    return <button className="kuiButton" onClick={() => this.onClick()} />
  }
}

Also Bad:

  render() {
    return <button className="kuiButton" onClick={this.onClick.bind(this)} />
  }

Background: https://facebook.github.io/react/docs/handling-events.html There is also an eslint rule we should be able to turn on for this.

Never mutate state directly

Good:

this.setState(prevState => { clickCount: prevState.clickCount + 1 });

Bad:

this.state.clickCount += 1;

Prefer primitives over objects when storing in state.

Good:

this.setState({
  currentPage: 0,
  selectedIds: []
});

Discouraged:

this.setState({
  pager: new Pager(),
  selectedIds: new SelectedIds()
});

Favor spread operators

render() {
  return <button className="kuiButton" {...this.props} />
}

export function Button({ className, ...rest }) {
  const classNames = classNames('KuiButton', className);
  return <button className={classNames} {...rest} />
};

General Guidelines

Prefer pure functions when possible

Pure functions are easier to understand. We don't want to have to think about side effects or mutated state. When invoking a pure function, all we have to think about is what goes in and what comes out.