React Todo List Example

React Todo List Example (Adding a Todo)

WARNING: There's a lot going on here. It may be useful to Start from part 1.

Now that we are managing our store and our actions, let's implement a view layer using React.

Existing code:

JAVASCRIPT

const todo = (state, action) => {
  switch (action.type) {
    case 'ADD_TODO':
      return {
        id: action.id,
        text: action.text,
        completed: false
      };
    case 'TOGGLE_TODO':
      if (state.id !== action.id) {
        return state;
      }

      return {
        ...state,
          completed: !state.completed
      };
    default: 
      return state;
  }
};

const todos = (state = [], action) => {
  switch (action.type) {
    case 'ADD_TODO':
      return [
        ...state,
        todo(undefined, action)
      ];
    case 'TOGGLE_TODO':
      return state.map(t =>
        todo(t, action)
      );
    default:
      return state;
  }
};

const visibilityFilter = (
  state = 'SHOW_ALL',
  action
) => {
  switch (action.type) {
    case 'SET_VISIBILITY_FILTER':
      return action.filter;
    default:
      return state;
  }
};

const { combineReducers } = Redux;
const todoApp = combineReducers({
  todos,
  visibilityFilter
});

const { createStore } = Redux;
const store = createStore(todoApp);

Hopefully you already know a bit about React, JSX, props, etc.

React-specific JS:

JAVASCRIPT

const { Component } = React;

let nextTodoId = 0;
class TodoApp extends Component {
  render() {
    return (
      <div>
        <button onClick={() => {
            store.dispatch({
              type: 'ADD_TODO',
              text: 'Test',
              id: nextTodoId++
            });
          }}>
          Add Todo
        </button>
        <ul>
          {this.props.todos.map(todo =>
            <li key={todo.id}>
              {todo.text}
            </li>
          )}
        </ul>
      </div>
    )
  };
}

// See Section 8 for earlier `render()` example
const render = () => {
  ReactDOM.render(
    // Render the TodoApp Component to the <div> with id 'root'
    <TodoApp 
      todos={store.getState().todos}
    />,
    document.getElementById('root')

  )
};

store.subscribe(render);
render();

HTML:

HTML

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head><!-- ... CDN imports for Redux and React ... --></head>

<body>
  <!-- This is where our React application will be rendered -->
  <div id='root'></div>
</body>
</html>

Now that all that code is written

With the code above, every time you click the "Add Todo" button, a new Todo item with the text "Test" is added to the bulleted list.

Let's add an <input> to our TodoApp component's return. We'll use React's callback ref() API. ref() is a function that gets the node corresponding to the ref that we'll save with the name this.input.

From there, we can reference the value in this.input inside our button click handler, then reset the value after the 'ADD_TODO' action has been dispatched.

JAVASCRIPT

.
.
.
class TodoApp extends Component {
  render() {
    return (
      <div>
        <input ref={node => {
          this.input = node;
        }} />
        <button onClick={() => {
          store.dispatch({
            type: 'ADD_TODO',
            text: this.input.value,
            id: nextTodoId++
          });
          this.input.value = '';
        }}>
        .
        . // rest of TodoApp component code
        .
    );
  }
}

Recap of how the application works

We start with the TodoApp component. This component isn't aware of how todos are being added, but what it can do is express its desire to mutate the state by dispatching an action with a type of 'ADD_TODO'.
The text field for the todo item to be added is taken from the input box, along with an incrementing id for the todo item's id.

It is common for React components to dispatch actions in Redux apps, however it's equally important to be able to render the current state.

The TodoApp component assumes that it will receive todos as a prop, and it maps the items to display a list, using the id as a key (see the <ul> section in TodoApp).
We render the TodoApp component inside the render() function that runs any time the state changes (as well as when the app is initilized.) The render() function reads the current state of the store and passes the array of todos to the TodoApp componenet as a prop via the line <TodoApp todos={store.getState().todos} />.
The render() function is called every time there is a change to the store, so the todos prop is always up to date.

Recap of how mutations work in Redux

Any change to state is caused by a store.dispatch() call somewhere in the component.

When an action is dispatched, the store calls the reducer it was created with with the current state & the action being dispatched. In the case of this example, this is the todoApp reducer that we obtained by const todoApp = combineReducers({todos, visibilityFilter}).
Continuing with our example, the 'ADD_TODO' action type is matched in the switch statement inside the todos() reducer, so the child todo() reducer is called. The todo() child reducer is passed undefined (because there is no state for a new todo) and the action 'ADD_TODO'
Inside of the todo() child reducer, we have a similar switch statement. Since 'ADD_TODO' is matched, the reducer returns the initial state of the todo item (the id from nextTodoId++ and text from the input box inside the TodoApp component, along with completed: false).
The todos() reducer that just called the child todo() reducer will then return a new array built from the existing items along with the newly created item added to the end (remember, this array is built using ES6's ... spread operator).
Now our combined reducer todoApp will use this new todos array as the new value for the todos field in the global state object. So, it's going to return a new state object where the todos field corresponds to the array with the newly added todo item.
The todoApp reducer is the root reducer in this application. It is the one the store was created with, so its next state is the next state of the Redux store, and all the listeners are notified.
The render() function is subscribed to the store's changes, so it is called again and gets the fresh state with store.getState() and passes the updated todos as a prop to the TodoApp component.

Now the cycle can be repeated.

Previous Next

Black Friday Sale Upgrade Your Home →

React Todo List Example