For parent-child communication, simply pass props.
For child-parent communication:
Say your GroceryList
component has a list of items generated through an array. When a list item is clicked, you want to display its name:
var handleClick = function(i, items) {
console.log('You clicked: ' + items[i]);
}
function GroceryList(props) {
return (
<div>
{props.items.map(function(item, i) {
return (
<div onClick={handleClick.bind(this, i, props.items)} key={i}>{item}</div>
);
})}
</div>
);
}
ReactDOM.render(
<GroceryList items={['Apple', 'Banana', 'Cranberry']} />, mountNode
);
Notice the use of bind(this, arg1, arg2, ...)
: we're simply passing more arguments to handleClick
. This is not a new React concept; it's just JavaScript.
For communication between two components that don't have a parent-child relationship, you can set up your own global event system. Subscribe to events in componentDidMount()
, unsubscribe in componentWillUnmount()
, and call setState()
when you receive an event. Flux pattern is one of the possible ways to arrange this.