Javascript – React “after render” code

javascriptreactjs

I have an app where I need to set the height of an element (lets say "app-content") dynamically. It takes the height of the "chrome" of the app and subtracts it and then sets the height of the "app-content" to fit 100% within those constraints. This is super simple with vanilla JS, jQuery, or Backbone views, but I'm struggling to figure out what the right process would be for doing this in React?

Below is an example component. I want to be able to set app-content's height to be 100% of the window minus the size of the ActionBar and BalanceBar, but how do I know when everything is rendered and where would I put the calculation stuff in this React Class?

/** @jsx React.DOM */
var List = require('../list');
var ActionBar = require('../action-bar');
var BalanceBar = require('../balance-bar');
var Sidebar = require('../sidebar');
var AppBase = React.createClass({
  render: function () {
    return (
      <div className="wrapper">
        <Sidebar />
        <div className="inner-wrapper">
          <ActionBar title="Title Here" />
          <BalanceBar balance={balance} />
          <div className="app-content">
            <List items={items} />
          </div>
        </div>
      </div>
    );
  }
});

module.exports = AppBase;

Best Answer

componentDidMount()

This method is called once after your component is rendered. So your code would look like so.

var AppBase = React.createClass({
  componentDidMount: function() {
    var $this = $(ReactDOM.findDOMNode(this));
    // set el height and width etc.
  },

  render: function () {
    return (
      <div className="wrapper">
        <Sidebar />
          <div className="inner-wrapper">
            <ActionBar title="Title Here" />
            <BalanceBar balance={balance} />
            <div className="app-content">
              <List items={items} />
          </div>
        </div>
      </div>
    );
  }
});
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