React - animate mount and unmount of a single component

Question

This is a bit lengthy but I've used all the native events and methods to achieve this animation. No ReactCSSTransitionGroup, ReactTransitionGroup and etc.

Things I've used

• React lifecycle methods
• onTransitionEnd event

How this works

• Mount the element based on the mount prop passed(mounted) and with default style(opacity: 0)
• After mount or update, use componentDidMount (componentWillReceiveProps for further updates)to change the style (opacity: 1) with a timeout(to make it async).
• During unmount, pass a prop to the component to identify unmount, change the style again(opacity: 0), onTransitionEnd, remove unmount the element from the DOM.

Continue the cycle.

Go through the code, you'll understand. If any clarification is needed, please leave a comment.

Hope this helps.

class App extends React.Component{
  constructor(props) {
    super(props)
    this.transitionEnd = this.transitionEnd.bind(this)
    this.mountStyle = this.mountStyle.bind(this)
    this.unMountStyle = this.unMountStyle.bind(this)
    this.state ={ //base css
      show: true,
      style :{
        fontSize: 60,
        opacity: 0,
        transition: 'all 2s ease',
      }
    }
  }
  
  componentWillReceiveProps(newProps) { // check for the mounted props
    if(!newProps.mounted)
      return this.unMountStyle() // call outro animation when mounted prop is false
    this.setState({ // remount the node when the mounted prop is true
      show: true
    })
    setTimeout(this.mountStyle, 10) // call the into animation
  }
  
  unMountStyle() { // css for unmount animation
    this.setState({
      style: {
        fontSize: 60,
        opacity: 0,
        transition: 'all 1s ease',
      }
    })
  }
  
  mountStyle() { // css for mount animation
    this.setState({
      style: {
        fontSize: 60,
        opacity: 1,
        transition: 'all 1s ease',
      }
    })
  }
  
  componentDidMount(){
    setTimeout(this.mountStyle, 10) // call the into animation
  }
  
  transitionEnd(){
    if(!this.props.mounted){ // remove the node on transition end when the mounted prop is false
      this.setState({
        show: false
      })
    }
  }
  
  render() {
    return this.state.show && <h1 style={this.state.style} onTransitionEnd={this.transitionEnd}>Hello</h1> 
  }
}

class Parent extends React.Component{
  constructor(props){
    super(props)
    this.buttonClick = this.buttonClick.bind(this)
    this.state = {
      showChild: true,
    }
  }
  buttonClick(){
    this.setState({
      showChild: !this.state.showChild
    })
  }
  render(){
    return <div>
        <App onTransitionEnd={this.transitionEnd} mounted={this.state.showChild}/>
        <button onClick={this.buttonClick}>{this.state.showChild ? 'Unmount': 'Mount'}</button>
      </div>
  }
}

ReactDOM.render(<Parent />, document.getElementById('app'))

<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/react/15.3.2/react-with-addons.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/react/15.1.0/react-dom.min.js"></script>
<div id="app"></div>

Here is my solution using the new hooks API (with TypeScript), based on this post, for delaying the component's unmount phase:

function useDelayUnmount(isMounted: boolean, delayTime: number) {
    const [ shouldRender, setShouldRender ] = useState(false);

    useEffect(() => {
        let timeoutId: number;
        if (isMounted && !shouldRender) {
            setShouldRender(true);
        }
        else if(!isMounted && shouldRender) {
            timeoutId = setTimeout(
                () => setShouldRender(false), 
                delayTime
            );
        }
        return () => clearTimeout(timeoutId);
    }, [isMounted, delayTime, shouldRender]);
    return shouldRender;
}

Usage:

const Parent: React.FC = () => {
    const [ isMounted, setIsMounted ] = useState(true);
    const shouldRenderChild = useDelayUnmount(isMounted, 500);
    const mountedStyle = {opacity: 1, transition: "opacity 500ms ease-in"};
    const unmountedStyle = {opacity: 0, transition: "opacity 500ms ease-in"};

    const handleToggleClicked = () => {
        setIsMounted(!isMounted);
    }

    return (
        <>
            {shouldRenderChild && 
                <Child style={isMounted ? mountedStyle : unmountedStyle} />}
            <button onClick={handleToggleClicked}>Click me!</button>
        </>
    );
}

CodeSandbox link.

Using the knowledge gained from Pranesh's answer, I came up with an alternate solution that's configurable and reusable:

const AnimatedMount = ({ unmountedStyle, mountedStyle }) => {
  return (Wrapped) => class extends Component {
    constructor(props) {
      super(props);
      this.state = {
        style: unmountedStyle,
      };
    }

    componentWillEnter(callback) {
      this.onTransitionEnd = callback;
      setTimeout(() => {
        this.setState({
          style: mountedStyle,
        });
      }, 20);
    }

    componentWillLeave(callback) {
      this.onTransitionEnd = callback;
      this.setState({
        style: unmountedStyle,
      });
    }

    render() {
      return <div
        style={this.state.style}
        onTransitionEnd={this.onTransitionEnd}
      >
        <Wrapped { ...this.props } />
      </div>
    }
  }
};

Usage:

import React, { PureComponent } from 'react';

class Thing extends PureComponent {
  render() {
    return <div>
      Test!
    </div>
  }
}

export default AnimatedMount({
  unmountedStyle: {
    opacity: 0,
    transform: 'translate3d(-100px, 0, 0)',
    transition: 'opacity 250ms ease-out, transform 250ms ease-out',
  },
  mountedStyle: {
    opacity: 1,
    transform: 'translate3d(0, 0, 0)',
    transition: 'opacity 1.5s ease-out, transform 1.5s ease-out',
  },
})(Thing);

And finally, in another component's render method:

return <div>
  <ReactTransitionGroup>
    <Thing />
  </ReactTransitionGroup>
</div>

I countered this problem during my work, and simple as it seemed, it is really not in React. In a normal scenario where you render something like:

this.state.show ? {childen} : null;

as this.state.show changes the children are mounted/unmounted right away.

One approach I took is creating a wrapper component Animate and use it like

<Animate show={this.state.show}>
  {childen}
</Animate>

now as this.state.show changes, we can perceive prop changes with getDerivedStateFromProps(componentWillReceiveProps) and create intermediate render stages to perform animations.

We start with Static Stage when the children is mounted or unmounted.

Once we detect the show flag changes, we enter Prep Stage where we calculate necessary properties like height and width from ReactDOM.findDOMNode.getBoundingClientRect().

Then entering Animate State we can use css transition to change height, width and opacity from 0 to the calculated values (or to 0 if unmounting).

At the end of transition, we use onTransitionEnd api to change back to Static stage.

There are much more details to how the stages transfer smoothly but this could be overall idea:)

If anyone interested, I created a React library https://github.com/MingruiZhang/react-animate-mount to share my solution. Any feedback welcome:)

I think using Transition from react-transition-group is probably the easiest way to track mounting/unmounting. It is incredibly flexible. I'm using some classes to show how easy it is to use but you can definitely hook up your own JS animations utilizing addEndListener prop - which I've had a lot of luck using GSAP with as well.

Sandbox: https://codesandbox.io/s/k9xl9mkx2o

And here's my code.

import React, { useState } from "react";
import ReactDOM from "react-dom";
import { Transition } from "react-transition-group";
import styled from "styled-components";

const H1 = styled.h1`
  transition: 0.2s;
  /* Hidden init state */
  opacity: 0;
  transform: translateY(-10px);
  &.enter,
  &.entered {
    /* Animate in state */
    opacity: 1;
    transform: translateY(0px);
  }
  &.exit,
  &.exited {
    /* Animate out state */
    opacity: 0;
    transform: translateY(-10px);
  }
`;

const App = () => {
  const [show, changeShow] = useState(false);
  const onClick = () => {
    changeShow(prev => {
      return !prev;
    });
  };
  return (
    <div>
      <button onClick={onClick}>{show ? "Hide" : "Show"}</button>
      <Transition mountOnEnter unmountOnExit timeout={200} in={show}>
        {state => {
          let className = state;
          return <H1 className={className}>Animate me</H1>;
        }}
      </Transition>
    </div>
  );
};

const rootElement = document.getElementById("root");
ReactDOM.render(<App />, rootElement);