How to autofocus next TextInput on react-native

Question

I'm trying to create a passcode protected screen. The screen will uses 4 numeric input as the passcode.

The way I'm doing this is create a TextInput Component and call it 4 times in my main screen.

The problem I'm having is the TextInputs will not focus on the next one as I type the value of the previous TextInput.

I'm using refs for all PasscodeTextInput component (I've been informed that it is a legacy method but I do not know any other way, alas).

Tried this method(without creating my own component), no luck too. METHOD

index.ios.js

import React, { Component } from 'react';
import { AppRegistry, TextInput, View, Text } from 'react-native';
import { PasscodeTextInput } from './common';

export default class ProgressBar extends Component {
  render() {
    const { centerEverything, container, passcodeContainer,  textInputStyle} = styles;
    return (
      <View style={[centerEverything, container]}>
        <View style={[passcodeContainer]}>
          <PasscodeTextInput
            autoFocus={true}
            ref="passcode1"
            onSubmitEditing={(event) => { this.refs.passcode2.focus() }} />
          <PasscodeTextInput
            ref="passcode2"
            onSubmitEditing={(event) => { this.refs.passcode3.focus() }} />
          <PasscodeTextInput
            ref="passcode3"
            onSubmitEditing={(event) => { this.refs.passcode4.focus() }}/>
          <PasscodeTextInput
            ref="passcode4" />
        </View>
      </View>
    );
  }
}

const styles = {
  centerEverything: {
    justifyContent: 'center',
    alignItems: 'center',
  },
  container: {
    flex: 1,
    backgroundColor: '#E7DDD3',
  },
  passcodeContainer: {
    flexDirection: 'row',
  },
}

AppRegistry.registerComponent('ProgressBar', () => ProgressBar);

PasscodeTextInput.js

import React from 'react';
import {
  View,
  Text,
  TextInput,
  Dimensions
} from 'react-native';

const deviceWidth = require('Dimensions').get('window').width;
const deviceHeight = require('Dimensions').get('window').height;

const PasscodeTextInput = ({ ref, autoFocus, onSubmitEditing, onChangeText, value}) => {

  const { inputStyle, underlineStyle } = styles;

  return(
    <View>
      <TextInput
        ref={ref}
        autoFocus={autoFocus}
        onSubmitEditing={onSubmitEditing}
        style={[inputStyle]}
        maxLength={1}
        keyboardType="numeric"
        placeholderTextColor="#212121"
        secureTextEntry={true}
        onChangeText={onChangeText}
        value={value}
      />
      <View style={underlineStyle} />
    </View>
  );
}

const styles = {
  inputStyle: {
    height: 80,
    width: 60,
    fontSize: 50,
    color: '#212121',
    fontSize: 40,
    padding: 18,
    margin: 10,
    marginBottom: 0
  },
  underlineStyle: {
    width: 60,
    height: 4,
    backgroundColor: '#202020',
    marginLeft: 10
  }
}

export { PasscodeTextInput };

Update 1

index.ios.js

import React, { Component } from 'react';
import { AppRegistry, TextInput, View, Text } from 'react-native';
import { PasscodeTextInput } from './common';

export default class ProgressBar extends Component {

  constructor() {
    super()
    this.state = {
      autoFocus1: true,
      autoFocus2: false,
      autoFocus3: false,
      autoFocus4: false,
    }
  }

  onTextChanged(t) { //callback for immediate state change
    if (t == 2) { this.setState({ autoFocus1: false, autoFocus2: true }, () => { console.log(this.state) }) }
    if (t == 3) { this.setState({ autoFocus2: false, autoFocus3: true }, () => { console.log(this.state) }) }
    if (t == 4) { this.setState({ autoFocus3: false, autoFocus4: true }, () => { console.log(this.state) }) }
  }

  render() {
    const { centerEverything, container, passcodeContainer, testShit, textInputStyle } = styles;
    return (
      <View style={[centerEverything, container]}>
        <View style={[passcodeContainer]}>
          <PasscodeTextInput
            autoFocus={this.state.autoFocus1}
            onChangeText={() => this.onTextChanged(2)} />
          <PasscodeTextInput
            autoFocus={this.state.autoFocus2}
            onChangeText={() => this.onTextChanged(3)} />
          <PasscodeTextInput
            autoFocus={this.state.autoFocus3}
            onChangeText={() => this.onTextChanged(4)} />
          <PasscodeTextInput
            autoFocus={this.state.autoFocus4} />
        </View>
      </View>
    );
  }
}

const styles = {
  centerEverything: {
    justifyContent: 'center',
    alignItems: 'center',
  },
  container: {
    flex: 1,
    backgroundColor: '#E7DDD3',
  },
  passcodeContainer: {
    flexDirection: 'row',
  },
}

AppRegistry.registerComponent('ProgressBar', () => ProgressBar);

Answer 1

There is a defaultProp for TextInput where one can focus after component mounted.

autoFocus

If true, focuses the input on componentDidMount, the default value is false. for more information please read the related Docs.

UPDATE

After componentDidUpdate it won't work properly. In that case, one can use ref to focus programmatically.

Answer 2

You cannot forward the ref to <TextInput> using that way because ref is one of the special props. Thus, calling this.refs.passcode2 will return you <PasscodeTextInput> instead.

Try change to the following to get the ref from <TextInput>.

PasscodeTextInput.js

const PasscodeTextInput = ({ inputRef, ... }) => {

  ...

  return (
    <View>
      <TextInput
        ref={(r) => { inputRef && inputRef(r) }}
        ...
      />
    </View>
    ...
  );
}

Then, assign the inputRef from <PasscodeTextInput> to a variable and use focus() to switch focus (it is not deprecated as of RN 0.41.2).

index.ios.js

return (
  <PasscodeTextInput
    autoFocus={true}
    onChangeText={(event) => { event && this.passcode2.focus() }} />

  <PasscodeTextInput
    inputRef={(r) => { this.passcode2 = r }}
    onChangeText={(event) => { event && this.passcode3.focus() }} />

  <PasscodeTextInput
    inputRef={(r) => { this.passcode3 = r }}
    onChangeText={(event) => { event && this.passcode4.focus() }} />

  <PasscodeTextInput
    inputRef={(r) => { this.passcode4 = r }} />
);

P.S: event && this.passcode2.focus() prevents focus is switched when trying to clear the old passcode and enter a new one.