React Context api - Consumer Does Not re-render after context changed

Question

I searched for an answer but could not find any, so I am asking here, I have a consumer that updates the context, and another consumer that should display the context. I am using react with typescript(16.3)

The Context(AppContext.tsx):

export interface AppContext {
    jsonTransactions: WithdrawTransactionsElement | null;
    setJsonTran(jsonTransactions: WithdrawTransactionsElement | null): void;
}

export const appContextInitialState : AppContext = {
    jsonTransactions: null,
    setJsonTran : (data: WithdrawTransactionsElement) => {
        return appContextInitialState.jsonTransactions = data;
    }
};

export const AppContext = React.createContext(appContextInitialState);

The Producer(App.tsx):

interface Props {}

class App extends React.Component<Props, AppContext> {

  state: AppContext = appContextInitialState;

  constructor(props : Props) {
    super(props);
  }

  render() {
    return (
        <AppContext.Provider value={this.state}>
          <div className="App">
            <header className="App-header">
              <SubmitTransactionFile/>
              <WithdrawTransactionsTable />
            </header>
          </div>
        </AppContext.Provider>
    );
  }
}

export default App;

The updating context consumer(SubmitTransactionFile.tsx)

class SubmitTransactionFile extends React.Component {

    private fileLoadedEvent(file: React.ChangeEvent<HTMLInputElement>, context: AppContext): void{
        let files = file.target.files;
        let reader = new FileReader();
        if (files && files[0]) {
            reader.readAsText(files[0]);
            reader.onload = (json) =>  {
                if (json && json.target) {
                    // @ts-ignore -> this is because result field is not recognized by typescript compiler
                    context.setJsonTran(JSON.parse(json.target.result))
                }
            }
        }
    }

    render() {
        return (
            <AppContext.Consumer>
                { context  =>
                    <div className="SubmitTransactionFile">
                        <label>Select Transaction File</label><br />
                        <input type="file" id="file" onChange={(file) =>
                            this.fileLoadedEvent(file, context)} />
                        <p>{context.jsonTransactions}</p>
                    </div>
                }
            </AppContext.Consumer>
        )
    }
}


export default SubmitTransactionFile;

and finaly the display consumer(WithdrawTransactionsTable.tsx):

class WithdrawTransactionsTable extends React.Component {

    render() {
        return (
            <AppContext.Consumer>
                { context  =>
                    <div>
                        <label>{context.jsonTransactions}</label>
                    </div>
                }
            </AppContext.Consumer>
        )
    }
}

export default WithdrawTransactionsTable;

It is my understanding that after fileLoadedEvent function is called the context.setJsonTran should re-render the other consumers and WithdrawTransactionsTable component should be re-rendered , but it does not.

what am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

When you update the state, you aren't triggering a re-render of the Provider and hence the consumer data doesn't change. You should update the state using setState and assign context value to provider like

class App extends React.Component<Props, AppContext> {
  constructor(props : Props) {
    super(props);
    this.state = {
         jsonTransactions: null,
         setJsonTran: this.setJsonTran
    };
  }

  setJsonTran : (data: WithdrawTransactionsElement) => {
        this.setState({
             jsonTransactions: data
        });
  }

  render() {
    return (
        <AppContext.Provider value={this.state}>
          <div className="App">
            <header className="App-header">
              <SubmitTransactionFile/>
              <WithdrawTransactionsTable />
            </header>
          </div>
        </AppContext.Provider>
    );
  }
}

export default App;

Answer 2

Your setJsonTran just mutates the default value of the context which will not cause the value given to the Provider to change.

You could instead keep the jsonTransactions in the topmost state and pass down a function that will change this state and in turn update the value.

Example

const AppContext = React.createContext();

class App extends React.Component {
  state = {
    jsonTransactions: null
  };

  setJsonTran = data => {
    this.setState({ jsonTransactions: data });
  };

  render() {
    const context = this.state;
    context.setJsonTran = this.setJsonTran;

    return (
      <AppContext.Provider value={context}>
        <div className="App">
          <header className="App-header">
            <SubmitTransactionFile />
            <WithdrawTransactionsTable />
          </header>
        </div>
      </AppContext.Provider>
    );
  }
}

const AppContext = React.createContext();

class App extends React.Component {
  state = {
    jsonTransactions: null
  };

  setJsonTran = data => {
    this.setState({ jsonTransactions: data });
  };

  render() {
    const context = this.state;
    context.setJsonTran = this.setJsonTran;

    return (
      <AppContext.Provider value={context}>
        <div className="App">
          <header className="App-header">
            <SubmitTransactionFile />
            <WithdrawTransactionsTable />
          </header>
        </div>
      </AppContext.Provider>
    );
  }
}

class SubmitTransactionFile extends React.Component {
  fileLoadedEvent(file, context) {
    let files = file.target.files;
    let reader = new FileReader();
    if (files && files[0]) {
      reader.readAsText(files[0]);
      reader.onload = json => {
        if (json && json.target) {
          // slice just to not output too much in this example
          context.setJsonTran(json.target.result.slice(0, 10));
        }
      };
    }
  }

  render() {
    return (
      <AppContext.Consumer>
        {context => (
          <div className="SubmitTransactionFile">
            <label>Select Transaction File</label>
            <br />
            <input
              type="file"
              id="file"
              onChange={file => this.fileLoadedEvent(file, context)}
            />
            <p>{context.jsonTransactions}</p>
          </div>
        )}
      </AppContext.Consumer>
    );
  }
}

class WithdrawTransactionsTable extends React.Component {
  render() {
    return (
      <AppContext.Consumer>
        {context => (
          <div>
            <label>{context.jsonTransactions}</label>
          </div>
        )}
      </AppContext.Consumer>
    );
  }
}

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

<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/react/16.6.3/umd/react.production.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/react-dom/16.6.3/umd/react-dom.production.min.js"></script>

<div id="root"></div>