First rules and Component State

Some things before start

Today, we know how create a stateless component : a simple function.

const MyComponent = () => (
  <span>My component works !</span>
);

And how create a stateless component with props (optionals or not) :

interface ComponentProps {
  componentName?: string
};
const MyComponent = ({componentName = 'New Component'}: ComponentProps) => (
  <span> works !</span>
);

Before the next step in our application, we have to learn 2 functionalities in React:

class components
component state management.

From a function to a class

Take our example of component without props :

const MyComponent = () => (
  <span>My component works !</span>
);

You can convert it to class in five steps :

Create an TypeScript class, with the same name, that extends React.Component.
Add a single empty method to it called render().
Move the body of the function into the render() method.
Replace props with this.props in the render() body.

Delete the remaining empty function declaration.

class MyComponent extends React.Component {
  render() {
 return (
   <span>My component works !</span>
 );
  }
}

Now, add props

interface ComponentProps {
  componentName?: string
};
class MyComponent extends React.Component<ComponentProps> {
  render() {
 let { componentName } = this.props; //destructuration
 if (!componentName) { 
   componentName = 'New Component'; //define default value
 }
 return (
   <span> works !</span>
 );
  }
}

The class slightly complicates things : we have to define manually the default values and more lines of code are needed. But this is useful to implement a new react functionality : component state .

Adding a local state to a class

Define a State interface and add a line with state to show a date

interface ComponentProps {
  componentName?: string;
}
interface ComponentState {
  author: string;
}
class MyComponent extends React.Component<ComponentProps, ComponentState> {
  render() {
 let { componentName } = this.props; //destructuration
 if (!componentName) { 
   componentName = 'New Component'; //define default value
 }
 return (
   <span>
      works !
     <br />
     Thanks {this.state.author}.
   </span>
 );
  }
}

Add a class constructor that assigns the initial this.state:

interface ComponentProps {
  componentName?: string;
}
interface ComponentState {
  author: string;
}
class MyComponent extends React.Component<ComponentProps, ComponentState> {
  constructor(props: ComponentProps) {
 super(props);
 this.state = {author: 'Benoit'} as ComponentState;
  }
  render() {
 let { componentName } = this.props; //destructuration
 if (!componentName) { 
   componentName = 'New Component'; //define default value
 }
 return (
   <span>
      works !
     <br />
     Thanks {this.state.author}.
   </span>
 );
  }
}

Note how we pass props to the base constructor:

constructor(props: ComponentProps) {
  super(props);
  this.state = {author: 'Benoit'} as ComponentState;
}

Class components should always call the base constructor with props.

Update component local state

Now, we add and input to update author value :

interface ComponentProps {
  componentName?: string;
}
interface ComponentState {
  author: string;
}
class MyComponent extends React.Component<ComponentProps, ComponentState> {
  constructor(props: ComponentProps) {
    super(props);
    this.state = { author: 'Benoit' } as ComponentState;
  }

  render() {
    let { componentName } = this.props;
    if (!componentName) {
      componentName = 'New Component';
    }
    return (
      <div>
        <p><input type="text" value={this.state.author} /></p>
        <p>
          <span>
             works !
          <br />
            Thanks {this.state.author}.
        </span>
        </p>
      </div>
    );
  }
}

If you test this and try to update value, that doesn’t work. Why? The React one-way binding.

If you want update value, you have to implement the event onChange.

interface ComponentProps {
  componentName?: string;
}
interface ComponentState {
  author: string;
}
class MyComponent extends React.Component<ComponentProps, ComponentState> {
  constructor(props: ComponentProps) {
    super(props);
    this.state = { author: 'Benoit' } as ComponentState;
  }

  onChange = (e: React.ChangeEvent<HTMLInputElement>) => {
    this.setState({ author: (e.target as HTMLInputElement).value });
  }

  render() {
    let { componentName } = this.props;
    if (!componentName) {
      componentName = 'New Component';
    }
    return (
      <div>
        <p><input type="text" value={this.state.author} onChange={this.onChange} /></p>
        <p>
          <span>
             works !
          <br />
            Thanks {this.state.author}.
        </span>
        </p>
      </div>
    );
  }
}

You can try and enjoy !

Now you’re armed to start the next step.

Rules, expected behavior

Remember : our Langton’s Ant moves according this 2 rules :

At a white square, turn 90° right, flip the color of the square, move forward one unit
At a black square, turn 90° left, flip the color of the square, move forward one unit

Please implement this rules on play button’s click.

To illustrate, I have made an example mapping for 10 steps (You can use it to make your unit tests) :