infinite Render in React

Question

I am having problem figuring out why my application is doing endless render.

Inside, My stateful component, I am calling a redux action in componentDidMount method (calling componentWillMount also do endless render)

class cryptoTicker extends PureComponent {
  componentDidMount() {
    this.props.fetchCoin()
    // This fetches some 1600 crypto coins data,Redux action link for the same in end
  }

  render() {
    return (
      <ScrollView>
        <Header />
        <View>
          <FlatList
            data={this.state.searchCoin ? this.displaySearchCrypto : this.props.cryptoLoaded}
            style={{ flex: 1 }}
            extraData={[this.displaySearchCrypto, this.props.cryptoLoaded]}
            keyExtractor={item => item.short}
            initialNumToRender={50}
            windowSize={21}
            removeClippedSubviews={true}
            renderItem={({ item, index }) => (
              <CoinCard
                key={item["short"]}
              />
            )} 
          />
        </View>
      </ScrollView>
    )
  }
}

In CoinCard I am literally doing nothing besides this (Notice CoinCard inside Flat list)

class CoinCard extends Component {
  render () { 
    console.log("Inside rende here")
    return (
        <View> <Text> Text </Text>  </View>
    )  
  }
}

Now, When I console log in my coincard render, I can see infinite log of Inside rende here

[Question:] Can anyone please help me figure out why this could be happening?

You can click here to see my actions and click here to see my reducer.

[Update:] My repository is here if you want to clone and see it by yourself.

[Update: 2]: I have pushed the above shared code on github and it will still log endless console.log statements (if you can clone, run and move back to this commit ).

[Update:3]: I am no longer using <ScrollView /> in <FlatList /> also when I mean endless render, I mean is that it is endless (& Unecessarily) passing same props to child component (<Coincard />), if I use PureComponent, it won't log endlessly in render () { but in componentWillRecieveProps, If I do console.log(nextProps), I can see the same log passed over and over again

Answer 1

There are some points to note in your code.

• The CoinCard Component must be a PureComponent, which will not re-render if the props are shallow-equal.
• You should not render your Flatlist inside the ScrollView component, which would make the component render all components inside it at once which may cause more looping between the Flatlist and ScrollView.
• You can also a definite height to the rendered component to reduce the number of times component is rendered for other props.

• Another thing to note is, only props in the component are rendered on scroll bottom, based on the log statement mentioned below.

  import {Dimensions} from 'react-native'
  
  const {width, height} = Dimensions.get('window)
  
  class CoinCard extends React.PureComponent {
  render () { 
    console.log(this.props.item.long)  //... Check the prop changes here, pass the item prop in parent Flatlist. This logs component prop changes which will show that same items are not being re-rendered but new items are being called.
    return (
      <View style={{height / 10, width}}> //... Render 10 items on the screen
        <Text>
          Text
        </Text>
      </View>
    )  
   }
  }
  

UPDATE

This extra logging is due to the props being from the Flatlist to your component without PureComponent shallow comparison.

Note that componentWillReceiveProps() is deprecated and you should avoid them in your code. React.PureComponent works under the hood and uses shouldComponentUpdate to use shallow comparison between the current and updated props. Therefore log console.log(this.props.item.long) in your PureComponent' render will log the unique list which can be checked.

Answer 2

Like izb mentions, the root cause of the pb is the business call that is done on a pure component whereas it is just loaded. It is because your component make a business decision (<=>"I decide when something must be showed in myself"). It is not a good practice in React, even less when you use redux. The component must be as stupid a possible and not even decide what to do and when to do it.

As I see in your project, you don't deal correctly with component and container concept. You should not have any logic in your container, as it should simply be a wrapper of a stupid pure component. Like this:

import { connect, Dispatch } from "react-redux";
import { push, RouterAction, RouterState } from "react-router-redux";
import ApplicationBarComponent from "../components/ApplicationBar";

export function mapStateToProps({ routing }: { routing: RouterState }) {
    return routing;
}

export function mapDispatchToProps(dispatch: Dispatch<RouterAction>) {
    return {
        navigate: (payload: string) => dispatch(push(payload)),
    };
}
const tmp = connect(mapStateToProps, mapDispatchToProps);
export default tmp(ApplicationBarComponent);

and the matching component:

import AppBar from '@material-ui/core/AppBar';
import IconButton from '@material-ui/core/IconButton';
import Menu from '@material-ui/core/Menu';
import MenuItem from '@material-ui/core/MenuItem';
import { StyleRules, Theme, withStyles, WithStyles } from '@material-ui/core/styles';
import Tab from '@material-ui/core/Tab';
import Tabs from '@material-ui/core/Tabs';
import Toolbar from '@material-ui/core/Toolbar';
import Typography from '@material-ui/core/Typography';
import AccountCircle from '@material-ui/icons/AccountCircle';
import MenuIcon from '@material-ui/icons/Menu';
import autobind from "autobind-decorator";
import * as React from "react";
import { push, RouterState } from "react-router-redux";

const styles = (theme: Theme): StyleRules => ({
  flex: {
    flex: 1
  },
  menuButton: {
    marginLeft: -12,
    marginRight: 20,
  },
  root: {
    backgroundColor: theme.palette.background.paper,
    flexGrow: 1
  },
});
export interface IProps extends RouterState, WithStyles {
  navigate: typeof push;
}

@autobind
class ApplicationBar extends React.PureComponent<IProps, { anchorEl: HTMLInputElement | undefined }> {
  constructor(props: any) {
    super(props);
    this.state = { anchorEl: undefined };
  }
  public render() {

    const auth = true;
    const { classes } = this.props;
    const menuOpened = !!this.state.anchorEl;
    return (
      <div className={classes.root}>
        <AppBar position="fixed" color="primary">
          <Toolbar>
            <IconButton className={classes.menuButton} color="inherit" aria-label="Menu">
              <MenuIcon />
            </IconButton>
            <Typography variant="title" color="inherit" className={classes.flex}>
              Title
            </Typography>

            <Tabs value={this.getPathName()} onChange={this.handleNavigate} >
              {/* <Tabs value="/"> */}
              <Tab label="Counter 1" value="/counter1" />
              <Tab label="Counter 2" value="/counter2" />
              <Tab label="Register" value="/register" />
              <Tab label="Forecast" value="/forecast" />
            </Tabs>

            {auth && (
              <div>
                <IconButton
                  aria-owns={menuOpened ? 'menu-appbar' : undefined}
                  aria-haspopup="true"
                  onClick={this.handleMenu}
                  color="inherit"
                >
                  <AccountCircle />
                </IconButton>
                <Menu
                  id="menu-appbar"
                  anchorEl={this.state.anchorEl}
                  anchorOrigin={{
                    horizontal: 'right',
                    vertical: 'top',
                  }}
                  transformOrigin={{
                    horizontal: 'right',
                    vertical: 'top',
                  }}
                  open={menuOpened}
                  onClose={this.handleClose}
                >
                  <MenuItem onClick={this.handleClose}>Profile</MenuItem>
                  <MenuItem onClick={this.handleClose}>My account</MenuItem>
                </Menu>
              </div>
            )}
          </Toolbar>
        </AppBar>
      </div >
    );
  }
  private getPathName(): string {
    if (!this.props.location) {
      return "/counter1";
    }
    return (this.props.location as { pathname: string }).pathname;
  }
  private handleNavigate(event: React.ChangeEvent<{}>, value: any) {
    this.props.navigate(value as string);
  }

  private handleMenu(event: React.MouseEvent<HTMLInputElement>) {
    this.setState({ anchorEl: event.currentTarget });
  }

  private handleClose() {
    this.setState({ anchorEl: undefined });
  }
}
export default withStyles(styles)(ApplicationBar);

Then you will tell me: "but where do I initiate the call that will fill my list?" Well I see here that you use redux-thunk (I prefer redux observable... more complicated to learn but waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more powerful), then this should be thunk that initiates the dispatch of this!

To summarize:

• Components: the stupidest element that normally should have only the render method, and some other method handler to bubble up user events. This method only takes care of showing its properties to the user. Don't use the state unless you have a visual information that belongs only to this component (like the visibility of a popup for example). Anything that is showed or updated comes from above: a higher level component, or a container. It doesn't decide to update its own values. At best, it handles a user event on a subcomponent, then bubble up another event above, and... well maybe at some point, some new properties will be given back by its container!
• Container: very stupid logic that consists in wrapping a top level component into redux for it to plug events to actions, and to plug some part of the store to properties
• Redux thunk (or redux observable): it is the one that handles the whole user application logic. This guy is the only one who knows what to trigger and when. If a part of your front end must contain the complexity, it's this one!
• Reducers: define how to organize the data in the store for it to be as easily usable as possible.
• The store: ideally one per top level container, the only one that contains the data that must be showed to the user. Nobody else should.

If you follow these principles, you should never face any issue like "why the hell this is called twice? and... who made it? and why at this moment?"

Something else: if you use redux, use an immutability framework. Otherwise you may face issues as reducers must be pure functions. For this you can use a popular one immutable.js but not convenient at all. And the late ousider that is actually a killer: immer (made by the author or mobx).

Answer 3

It seems Jacob in the above comment has managed to make the component render only twice.

This will definitely cause double initial render (and would cause an infinite render if it wasn't a PureComponent):

componentDidUpdate() {
    var updateCoinData;

    if (!updateCoinData) { // <- this is always true
        updateCoinData = [...this.props.cryptoLoaded];
        this.setState({updateCoinData: true}); // <- this will trigger a re render since `this.state.updateCoinData` is not initially true
    }
    ...
}

Link to the issue in your repository