Install

npm install --save react-refs-collection

Quick start

In functional components:

import useRefsCollection from 'react-refs-collection';

// Some functional component that renders multiple children and
// should be able to call imperative handlers on them:
const ItemsList = ({items}) => {
   const {getRefHandler, getRef} = useRefsCollection();

   const doSomeActionOnItem = useCallback(itemId => {
       getRef(itemId).doSomeAction();
   }, []);

   return (
        <div>
            {items.map(({id, ...restProps}) => (
                <Item
                    ref={getRefHandler(id)}
                    {...restProps}
                />
            ))}
        </div>
   )
}

Example of usage

For example we have the following UI:

1. Search input + submit button
2. List of some items

When user filled search input and submitted it - we have to scroll list of items to first item that matches given search criteria and focus this item.

Here is an implementation (Live Demo):

import useRefsCollection from 'react-refs-collection';

const MyComponent = (items) => {
  const {getRefHandler, getRef} = useRefsCollection();
  
  const [searchValue, setSearchValue] = useState("");

  const onChange = useCallback(e => {
    setSearchValue(e.target.value);
  }, []);

  const searchItem = useCallback(() => {
    const match = items.find(item =>
      item.value.toLowerCase().startsWith(searchValue.toLowerCase())
    );
    if (!match) return;
    const itemNode = getRef(match.id);
    if (itemNode) {
      itemNode.focus();
    }
  }, [getRef, searchValue]);

  // Search value when user pressed "Enter":
  const onInputKeyUp = useCallback(
    e => {
      if (e.keyCode === 13) {
        searchItem();
      }
    },
    [searchItem]
  );

  return (
    <div>
      <div>
        <input
          type="text"
          value={searchValue}
          onChange={onChange}
          onKeyUp={onInputKeyUp}
        />
        <button onClick={searchItem}>Search</button>
      </div>
      <div>
        {items.map(item => (
          <div
            key={item.id}
            className="focusable"
            ref={getRefHandler(item.id)}
            tabIndex={-1}
          >
            {item.value}
          </div>
        ))}
      </div>
    </div>
  );
}

const items = [
    {id: 1, content: 'One'},
    {id: 2, content: 'Two'},
    {id: 3, content: 'Three'},
    {id: 4, content: 'Four'},
    {id: 5, content: 'Five'},
    {id: 6, content: 'Six'},
    {id: 7, content: 'Seven'},
    {id: 8, content: 'Eight'},
    {id: 9, content: 'Nine'},
    {id: 10, content: 'Ten'}
]
ReactDOM.render(<MyComponent items={items} />, document.getElementById('app'));

API

useRefsCollection hook returns the following:

| method | description | |--------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | getRefHandler(key) | returns value that should be passed to "ref" property of some react component to store reference to this component in collection under given key | | getRef(key) | Returns reference by it's key | | getKeysByRef(ref) | Returns array of all keys that relates to given reference object (or empty array if there is no keys assigned to given reference object) | | getKeyByRef(ref) | Same as getKeysByRef, but returns only first found key or undefined if there is no key found. |

License

MIT