react-defer

Just a quick mixin to avoid headaches and componentWillMount/componentWillUnmount boilerplate when dealing with deferreds and intervals in components that get unmounted. Supports executing any deferred inline function or auto-defers a method. Also works with intervals.

The enforced semantics are the following: "Execute the function if the component is still mounted by the time it kicks in. Otherwise, silently discard it altogether and clean up after yourself."

In particular, if you chain deferrals, you may end up calling deferred callbacks after the component has unmounted (for exemple when a Promise of whatever is resolved). Wrap the callback in Defer.IfMounted and if this happens, it will silently fail.

Examples

var Defer = require("react-defer");

React.createClass({
	mixins: [DeferMixin],
	alwaysDeferThisMethod: Defer.Deferred(function() {
		this.setState({
			hello: "world",
		});
	}),
	alwaysRAFThisMethod: Defer.DeferredAnimationFrame(function() {
		somethingThatAlwaysNeedsToBeDoneInNextAF();
	}),
	nonDeferredMethod: function() {
		this.setState({
			sup: "bro",
		});
	},
	someOtherMethod: function() {
		this.defer(this.nonDeferredMethod)("some", "args");
	},
	someInterfacingMethod: function() {
		this.giveMeSomthingReturningAPromise().then(Defer.IfMounted(this.nonDeferredMethod));
	},
}
});

API

Mixin.timeout(fn: function, delay: Number): function

Returns a function that will be deferred by delay upon calling (like a currified setTimeout). If the components unmounts before the timeout expires, then the timeout is silently cleared. The returned function itself returns an Object with a single method, clear, which clears the underlying timeout manually.

Mixin.defer(fn: function): function

Shortcut to timeout(fn, 1). Useful to setState in the next rendering cycle, althought this might very well be code smell.

Mixin.interval(fn, function, period: Number): function

Similar to timeout but instead sets an interval.

Mixin.deferAnimationFrame(fn: function)

Similar to defer but instead defers to the next animation frame. Uses the raf npm package requestAnimationFrame polyfill.

Mixin.intervalAnimationFrame(fn: function)

Similar to interval but instead ticks on each next animation frame. Uses the raf npm package requestAnimationFrame polyfill.

IfMounted(fn: function): function

Returns a function with the same this context that will silently fail if it is invoked after the component has unmounted.

Deferred(fn: function): function

Returns a function with the same this context that is deferred. Useful for defining methods that are always called deferred. Code smell warning, you should know whether your function call is going to be deferred or not.

DeferredAnimationFrame(fn: function): function

Similar to Deferred but instead defers to the next animation frame. Uses the raf npm package requestAnimationFrame polyfill.

License

MIT Elie Rotenberg elie@rotenberg.io