React Checkbox not sending onChange

Question

To get the checked state of your checkbox the path would be:

this.refs.complete.state.checked

The alternative is to get it from the event passed into the handleChange method:

event.target.checked

It's better not to use refs in such cases. Use:

<input
    type="checkbox"
    checked={this.state.active}
    onClick={this.handleClick}
/>

There are some options:

checked vs defaultChecked

The former would respond to both state changes and clicks. The latter would ignore state changes.

onClick vs onChange

The former would always trigger on clicks. The latter would not trigger on clicks if checked attribute is present on input element.

If you have a handleChange function that looks like this:

handleChange = (e) => {
  this.setState({
    [e.target.name]: e.target.value,
  });
}

You can create a custom onChange function so that it acts like an text input would:

<input
  type="checkbox"
  name="check"
  checked={this.state.check}
  onChange={(e) => {
    this.handleChange({
      target: {
        name: e.target.name,
        value: e.target.checked,
      },
    });
  }}
/>

In the scenario you would NOT like to use the onChange handler on the input DOM, you can use the onClick property as an alternative. The defaultChecked, the condition may leave a fixed state for v16 IINM.

 class CrossOutCheckbox extends Component {
      constructor(init){
          super(init);
          this.handleChange = this.handleChange.bind(this);
      }
      handleChange({target}){
          if (target.checked){
             target.removeAttribute('checked');
             target.parentNode.style.textDecoration = "";
          } else {
             target.setAttribute('checked', true);
             target.parentNode.style.textDecoration = "line-through";
          }
      }
      render(){
         return (
            <span>
              <label style={{textDecoration: this.props.complete?"line-through":""}}>
                 <input type="checkbox"
                        onClick={this.handleChange}
                        defaultChecked={this.props.complete}
                  />
              </label>
                {this.props.text}
            </span>
        )
    }
 }

I hope this helps someone in the future.