mithril-hooks

Use hooks with Mithril.

• Introduction
• Online demos
• Usage
  • Example
  • Hooks and application logic
  • Rendering rules
    • With useState
    • With other hooks
    • Cleaning up
• API
  • withHooks
  • Default hooks
    • useState
    • useEffect
    • useLayoutEffect
    • useReducer
    • useRef
    • useMemo
    • useCallback
    • Omitted hooks
  • Custom hooks
  • Children
• Compatibility
• Size
• Supported browsers
• History
• License

Introduction

Use hook functions from the React Hooks API in Mithril:

• useState
• useEffect
• useLayoutEffect
• useReducer
• useRef
• useMemo
• useCallback
• and custom hooks

Online demos

Editable demos using the Flems playground:

• Simplest example
• Simple form handling with useState
• "Building Your Own Hooks" chat API example - this example roughly follows the React documentation on custom hooks
• Custom hooks and useReducer
• Custom hooks to search iTunes with a debounce function

Usage

npm install mithril-hooks

import { withHooks, useState /* and other hooks */ } from "mithril-hooks";

Example

// Toggle.ts

import m from 'mithril';
import { withHooks, useState } from 'mithril-hooks';

type TAttrs = {
  isOn?: boolean;
};

const ToggleFn = (attrs?: TAttrs) => {
  const [isOn, setIsOn] = useState(attrs.isOn);

  return m('.toggle', [
    m('button',
      {
        onclick: () => setIsOn(current => !current),
      },
      'Toggle',
    ),
    m('div', isOn ? 'On' : 'Off'),
  ]);
};

export const Toggle = withHooks<TAttrs>(ToggleFn);

Use the counter:

import { Toggle } from "./Toggle"

m(Toggle, { isOn: true })

Hooks and application logic

Hooks can be defined outside of the component, imported from other files. This makes it possible to define utility functions to be shared across the application.

Custom hooks shows how to define and incorporate these hooks.

Rendering rules

With useState

Mithril's redraw is called when the state is initially set, and every time a state changes value.

With other hooks

Hook functions are always called at the first render.

For subsequent renders, a dependency list can be passed as second parameter to instruct when it should rerun:

useEffect(
  () => {
    document.title = `You clicked ${count} times`
  },
  [count] // Only re-run the effect if count changes
)

For the dependency list, mithril-hooks follows the React Hooks API:

• Without a second argument: will run every render (Mithril lifecycle function view).
• With an empty array: will only run at mount (Mithril lifecycle function oncreate).
• With an array with variables: will only run whenever one of the variables has changed value (Mithril lifecycle function onupdate).

Note that effect hooks do not cause a re-render themselves.

Cleaning up

If useEffect returns a function, that function is called at unmount (Mithril lifecycle function onremove).

useEffect(
  () => {
    const subscription = subscribe()

    // Cleanup function:
    return () => {
      unsubscribe()
    }
  }
)

At cleanup Mithril's redraw is called.

API

withHooks

Higher order function that returns a component that works with hook functions.

type TAttrs = {};

const RenderFn = (attrs?: TAttrs) => {
  // Use hooks...
  return m('div', '...')
};

export const HookedComponent = withHooks<TAttrs>(RenderFn);

The returned HookedComponent can be called as any Mithril component:

m(HookedComponent, {
  // ... attributes
})

Options

Argument	Type	Required	Description
renderFunction	Function	Yes	Function with view logic
attrs	Object	No	Attributes to pass to renderFunction

Signature

const withHooks: <T>(
  renderFunction: (attrs?: T) => Vnode<T, {}> | Children,
  initialAttrs?: T
) => Component<T, {}>;

withHooks also receives vnode and children, where vnode includes the hook state. Extended signature:

const withHooks: <T>(
  renderFunction: (
    attrs?: T & { vnode: Vnode<T, MithrilHooks.State>; children: Children },
  ) => Vnode<T, MithrilHooks.State> | Children,
  initialAttrs?: T,
) => Component<T, MithrilHooks.State>;

Default hooks

The React Hooks documentation provides excellent usage examples for default hooks. Let us suffice here with shorter descriptions.

useState

Provides the state value and a setter function:

const [count, setCount] = useState(0)

The setter function itself can pass a function - useful when values might otherwise be cached:

setCount(current => current + 1)

A setter function can be called from another hook:

const [inited, setInited] = useState(false)

useEffect(
  () => {
    setInited(true)
  },
  [/* empty array: only run at mount */]
)

Signature

const useState: <T>(initialValue?: T) => [
  T,
  (value: T | ((currentValue: T, index: number) => T)) => void
];

useEffect

Lets you perform side effects:

useEffect(
  () => {
    const className = "dark-mode"
    const element = window.document.body
    if (darkModeEnabled) {
      element.classList.add(className)
    } else {
      element.classList.remove(className)
    }
  },
  [darkModeEnabled] // Only re-run when value has changed
)

Signature

const useEffect: (
  fn: () => unknown | (() => unknown),
  deps?: unknown[],
) => void;

useLayoutEffect

Similar to useEffect, but fires synchronously after all DOM mutations. Use this when calculations must be done on DOM objects.

useLayoutEffect(
  () => {
    setMeasuredHeight(domElement.offsetHeight)
  },
  [screenSize]
)

Signature

const useLayoutEffect: (
  fn: () => unknown | (() => unknown),
  deps?: unknown[],
) => void;

useReducer

From the React docs:

An alternative to useState. Accepts a reducer of type (state, action) => newState, and returns the current state paired with a dispatch method. (If you’re familiar with Redux, you already know how this works.)

useReducer is usually preferable to useState when you have complex state logic that involves multiple sub-values or when the next state depends on the previous one.

Example:

import { withHooks, useReducer } from "mithril-hooks";

type TState = {
  count: number;
};

type TAction = {
  type: string;
};

const counterReducer = (state: TState, action: TAction) => {
  switch (action.type) {
    case 'increment':
      return { count: state.count + 1 };
    case 'decrement':
      return { count: state.count - 1 };
    default:
      throw new Error(`Unhandled action: ${action}`);
  }
};

type TCounterAttrs = {
  initialCount: number;
};

const CounterFn = (attrs: TCounterAttrs) => {
  const { initialCount } = attrs;
  const initialState = { count: initialCount }
  const [countState, dispatch] = useReducer<TState, TAction>(counterReducer, initialState)
  const count = countState.count

  return [
    m("div", count),
    m("button", {
      disabled: count === 0,
      onclick: () => dispatch({ type: "decrement" })
    }, "Less"),
    m("button", {
      onclick: () => dispatch({ type: "increment" })
    }, "More")
  ]
};

const Counter = withHooks(CounterFn);

m(Counter, { initialCount: 0 })

Signature

const useReducer: <T, A = void>(
  reducer: Reducer<T, A>,
  initialValue?: T | U,
  initFn?: (args: U) => T,
) => [T, (action: A) => void];

type Reducer<T, A> = (state: T, action: A) => T;

useRef

The "ref" object is a generic container whose current property is mutable and can hold any value.

const domRef = useRef<HTMLDivElement>(null)

return [
  m("div",
    {
      oncreate: vnode => dom.current = vnode.dom as HTMLDivElement
    },
    count
  )
]

To keep track of a value:

import { withHooks, useState, useEffect, useRef } from "mithril-hooks";

const TimerFn = () => {
  const [ticks, setTicks] = useState(0)
  const intervalRef = useRef<number>()
  
  const handleCancelClick = () => {
    clearInterval(intervalRef.current)
    intervalRef.current = undefined
  }

  useEffect(
    () => {
      const intervalId = setInterval(() => {
        setTicks(ticks => ticks + 1)
      }, 1000)
      intervalRef.current = intervalId
      // Cleanup:
      return () => {
        clearInterval(intervalRef.current)
      }
    },
    [/* empty array: only run at mount */]
  )

  return [
    m("span", `Ticks: ${ticks}`),
    m("button", 
      {
        disabled: intervalRef.current === undefined,
        onclick: handleCancelClick
      },
      "Cancel"
    )
  ]
};

const Timer = withHooks(TimerFn);

Signature

const useRef: <T>(initialValue?: T) => { current: T };

useMemo

Returns a memoized value.

import { withHooks, useMemo } from "mithril-hooks";

const computeExpensiveValue = (count: number): number => {
  // some computationally expensive function
  return count + Math.random();
};

const CounterFn = ({ count, useMemo }) => {
  const memoizedValue = useMemo(
    () => {
      return computeExpensiveValue(count)
    },
    [count] // only recalculate when count is updated
  )
  // Render ...
};

Signature

const useMemo: <T>(
  fn: MemoFn<T>,
  deps?: unknown[],
) => T;

type MemoFn<T> = () => T;

useCallback

Returns a memoized callback.

The function reference is unchanged in next renders (which makes a difference in performance expecially in React), but its return value will not be memoized.

const someCallback = (): number => {
  return Math.random();
};

type TCallback = () => void;
let previousCallback: TCallback;

const CallbackFn = () => {
  const [someValue, setSomeValue] = useState(0);

  const memoizedCallback = useCallback(() => {
    return someCallback();
  }, [someValue]);

  // Render ...
};

Signature

const const useCallback: <T>(
  fn: MemoFn<T>,
  deps?: unknown[],
) => MemoFn<T>;

type MemoFn<T> = () => T;

Omitted hooks

These React hooks make little sense with Mithril and are not included:

• useContext
• useImperativeHandle
• useDebugValue

Custom hooks

// useCount.ts
import { useState } from "mithril-hooks";

export const useCount = (initialValue = 0) => {
  const [count, setCount] = useState(initialValue)
  return [
    count,                      // value
    () => setCount(count + 1),  // increment
    () => setCount(count - 1)   // decrement
  ]
}

Then use the custom hook:

// app.ts
import { withHooks } from "mithril-hooks";
import { useCount } from "./useCount";

type TCounterAttrs = {
  initialCount: number;
};

const CounterFn = ({ initialCount }: TCounterAttrs) => {
  const [count, increment, decrement] = useCount(initialCount)
  return m("div", [
    m("p", 
      `Count: ${count}`
    ),
    m("button", 
      {
        disabled: count === 0,
        onclick: () => decrement()
      },
      "Less"
    ),
    m("button", 
      {
        onclick: () => increment()
      },
      "More"
    )
  ])
}

const Counter = withHooks(CounterFn);

m(Counter, { initialCount: 0 });

Children

Child elements can be accessed through the variable children:

import m, { Children } from 'mithril';
import { withHooks, useState } from "mithril-hooks";

type TCounterAttrs = {
  title: string;
};
const CounterFn = (attrs: TCounterAttrs & { children: Children }) => {
  const { initialCount, children } = attrs;
  const [count, setCount] = useState(initialCount)
  return [
    m("div", count),
    children
  ]
};

const Counter = withHooks<TCounterAttrs>(CounterFn);

m(Counter,
  { initialCount: 1 },
  [
    m("div", "This is a child element")
  ]
)

Compatibility

Tested with Mithril 1.1.6 and Mithril 2.x.

Size

1.5 Kb gzipped

Supported browsers

Output from npx browserslist:

and_chr 81
and_ff 68
and_qq 10.4
and_uc 12.12
android 81
baidu 7.12
chrome 83
chrome 81
edge 83
edge 18
firefox 78
firefox 77
ie 11
ios_saf 13.4-13.5
ios_saf 13.3
ios_saf 12.2-12.4
kaios 2.5
op_mini all
op_mob 46
opera 69
safari 13.1
samsung 12.0
samsung 11.1-11.2

History

• Initial version: Barney Carroll
• Updated and enhanced by Arthur Clemens with support from Isiah Meadows

License

MIT