Released in 2013, React is a popular JavaScript library to build user applications. Now maintained by Facebook and its community of developers, React recently released a stable version 16.8 “The One with the Hooks”.
React Hooks has created a lot of buzz. The first stable React release with support for Hooks, it is the new powerful way to write components and reuse code, as well as organize the logic inside a component into reusable isolated units. React Native will also support Hooks in its 0.59 release. Hooks are fully backward compatible and work alongside your existing code. If you are looking to implement the latest release, partner with a React.JS Development Company to leverage its features.
So, what’s the most-talked-about Hook Implementation in React 16.8?
Hooks are functions that allow to “hook into” React state and lifecycle features from function components. Hooks don’t function inside classes — rather they let you use React without classes. Unlike patterns such as render props and higher-order components, Hooks don’t introduce excessive nesting into your component tree.
React provides a few built-in Hooks like useState. You can also create your own Hooks to reuse stateful behavior between different components. Let us cover some popular features offered in the new stable release.
- Completely opt-in: You can try Hooks in a few components without rewriting any existing code.
- 100% backwards compatibility: Hooks don’t contain any breaking changes.
How Hooks will Help React Community
Over the years, several problems have been troubling the React community when it comes to writing and maintaining components. The release of version 16.8 with hooks addresses several problems associated with different library with a similar component model.
Hooks allows to reuse stateful logic without changing component hierarchy. This makes it easy to share Hooks among many components or with the community.
Hooks let you split one component into smaller functions based on what pieces are related, rather than forcing a split based on lifecycle methods.
Hooks let you use more of React’s features without classes. React components have always been closer to functions and embrace functions without sacrificing the essence of React. Hooks does not require to learn complex functional or reactive programming techniques.
Use React 16.8 with Hooks For
Hooks don’t work inside classes — they let you use React state and other features via functions, without classes. It does not essentially mean rewriting existing components all of sudden, but you can start using Hooks in the new ones also.
useCallback: Lets to implement a memoization enriched callback function which enables an equality check between a function and inputs, to check if renders should be performed.
useMemo: Enables to develop and pass in a function and an array of input values. The function will be recomputed if the input values change.
useRef: Useful for accessing refs and initializing to a given value.
useImperativeHandle: Hook to control the object that is exposed to a parent component when using a ref. Devise custom behavior that would be available to the parent using the current property.
useLayoutEffect: Read elements from the DOM directly. As a result, this can block updates and hence should ideally be avoided.
useDebugValue: Display a custom label for hooks in the React DevTools.
Upgrading to React v16.8.x
Upgrading to v16.8 is a simple process, mainly because it doesn’t introduce breaking changes unless you’re on a very old branch. The team at React ensures that incremental upgrades don’t introduce API changes or breaking changes that would result in poor functioning of app.
If you are on version 16.0, you can upgrade to 16.8.x by downloading or installing both react and react-dom packages using npm or yarn, or using the CDN links to unpkg.com. Hire React.JS Developer to gain benefits of React v 16.8 with hooks.
If you’ve used create-react-app to setup your React project, then you can edit the package.json to update to upgraded versions of react-scripts, react and react-dom to latest versions before running npm install to download and upgrade the packages.