I'm trying to implement the strategy design pattern to dynamically change how I handle mouse events in a react component.
My component:
export default class PathfindingVisualizer extends React.Component {
constructor(props) {
super(props)
this.state = {
grid: [],
mouseLeftDown: false,
};
const mouseStrat2 = null; // Object I will change that has different functions for handling events
}
componentDidMount() {
this.resetGrid();
this.mouseStrat2 = new StartEndStrat();
}
render() {
//buttons that change the object i want handling mouse events
<button onClick={() => this.mouseStrat2 = new StartEndStrat(this)}>startendstrat</button>
<button onClick={() => this.mouseStrat2 = new WallStrat(this)}>wallstrat</button>
}
}
I want my mouse strats that will access change the component with differing methods to handle mouse events
export class StartEndStrat {
handleMouseDown(row, col) {
// I want to access component state and call functions of the component
this.setState({ mouseLeftDown: true });
PathfindingVisualizer.resetGrid();
}
//other functions to change other stuff
handleMouseEnter(row, col) {
console.log('start end strat');
}
}
export class WallStrat {
handleMouseDown(row, col) {
this.setState({ mouseLeftDown: true });
}
handleMouseEnter(row, col) {
console.log('wallstrat');
}
}
Solution I found was to use a ref callback to make the DOM element a global variable.
<MyComponent ref={(MyComponent) => window.MyComponent = MyComponent})/>
Then you can access MyComponent with window.MyComponent, functions with window.MyComponent.method() or state variables with window.MyComponent.state.MyVar
My App.js:
function App() {
return (
<div className="App">
<PathfindingVisualizer ref={(PathfindingVisualizer) => {window.PathfindingVisualizer = PathfindingVisualizer}} />
</div>
);
}
Other.js:
handleMouseDown() {
window.PathfindingVisualizer.setState({mouseLeftDown: true});
}