Call a React component method from outside

Question

There are two ways to access an inner function. One, instance-level, like you want, another, static level.

Instance

You need to call the function on the return from React.render. See below.

Static

Take a look at ReactJS Statics. Note, however, that a static function cannot access instance-level data, so this would be undefined.

var onButtonClick = function () {
    //call alertMessage method from the reference of a React Element! 
    HelloRendered.alertMessage();
    //call static alertMessage method from the reference of a React Class! 
    Hello.alertMessage();
    console.log("clicked!");
}

var Hello = React.createClass({
    displayName: 'Hello',
    statics: {
        alertMessage: function () {
            alert('static message');
        }
    },
    alertMessage: function () {
        alert(this.props.name);
    },

    render: function () {
        return React.createElement("div", null, "Hello ", this.props.name);
    }
});

var HelloElement = React.createElement(Hello, {
    name: "World"
});

var HelloRendered = React.render(HelloElement, document.getElementById('container'));

Then do HelloRendered.alertMessage().

You can do like

import React from 'react';

class Header extends React.Component{

    constructor(){
        super();
        window.helloComponent = this;
    }

    alertMessage(){
       console.log("Called from outside");
    }

    render(){

      return (
      <AppBar style={{background:'#000'}}>
        Hello
      </AppBar>
      )
    }
}

export default Header;

Now from outside of this component you can called like this below

window.helloComponent.alertMessage();

I've done something like this:

class Cow extends React.Component {

    constructor (props) {
        super(props);
        this.state = {text: 'hello'};
    }

    componentDidMount () {
        if (this.props.onMounted) {
            this.props.onMounted({
                say: text => this.say(text)
            });
        }
    }

    render () {
        return (
            <pre>
                 ___________________
                < {this.state.text} >
                 -------------------
                        \   ^__^
                         \  (oo)\_______
                            (__)\       )\/\
                                ||----w |
                                ||     ||
            </pre>
        );
    }

    say (text) {
        this.setState({text: text});
    }

}

And then somewhere else:

class Pasture extends React.Component {

    render () {
        return (
            <div>
                <Cow onMounted={callbacks => this.cowMounted(callbacks)} />
                <button onClick={() => this.changeCow()} />
            </div>
        );
    }

    cowMounted (callbacks) {
        this.cowCallbacks = callbacks;
    }

    changeCow () {
        this.cowCallbacks.say('moo');
    }

}

I haven't tested this exact code, but this is along the lines of what I did in a project of mine and it works nicely :). Of course this is a bad example, you should just use props for this, but in my case the sub-component did an API call which I wanted to keep inside that component. In such a case this is a nice solution.

1. With React hooks - useImperativeHandle + useRef

const MyComponent = ({myRef}) => {
  const handleClick = () => alert('hello world')
  useImperativeHandle(myRef, () => ({
    handleClick
  }), [/* dependencies (if any) */])
  return (<button onClick={handleClick}>Original Button</button>)
}

MyComponent.defaultProps = {
  myRef: {current: {}}
}

const MyParentComponent = () => {
  const myRef = React.useRef({})
  return (
    <>
      <MyComponent 
        myRef={myRef}
      />
      <button onClick={myRef.current.handleClick}>
        Additional Button
      </button>
    </>
  )
}

2. With only React hook - useRef

const MyComponent = ({myRef}) => {
  const handleClick = () => alert('hello world')
  myRef.current.handleClick = handleClick
  return (<button onClick={handleClick}>Original Button</button>)
}

MyComponent.defaultProps = {
  myRef: {current: {}}
}

const MyParentComponent = () => {
  const myRef = React.useRef({})
  return (
    <>
      <MyComponent 
        myRef={myRef}
      />
      <button onClick={myRef.current.handleClick}>
        Additional Button
      </button>
    </>
  )
}

Good Luck...