How to cancel a fetch on componentWillUnmount
You can use AbortController to cancel a fetch request.
See also: https://www.npmjs.com/package/abortcontroller-polyfill
class FetchComponent extends React.Component{
state = { todos: [] };
controller = new AbortController();
componentDidMount(){
fetch('https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/todos',{
signal: this.controller.signal
})
.then(res => res.json())
.then(todos => this.setState({ todos }))
.catch(e => alert(e.message));
}
componentWillUnmount(){
this.controller.abort();
}
render(){
return null;
}
}
class App extends React.Component{
state = { fetch: true };
componentDidMount(){
this.setState({ fetch: false });
}
render(){
return this.state.fetch && <FetchComponent/>
}
}
ReactDOM.render(<App/>, document.getElementById('root'))<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/react/15.1.0/react.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/react/15.1.0/react-dom.min.js"></script>
<div id="root"></div>The friendly people at React recommend wrapping your fetch calls/promises in a cancelable promise. While there is no recommendation in that documentation to keep the code separate from the class or function with the fetch, this seems advisable because other classes and functions are likely to need this functionality, code duplication is an anti-pattern, and regardless the lingering code should be disposed of or canceled in componentWillUnmount(). As per React, you can call cancel() on the wrapped promise in componentWillUnmount to avoid setting state on an unmounted component.
The provided code would look something like these code snippets if we use React as a guide:
const makeCancelable = (promise) => {
let hasCanceled_ = false;
const wrappedPromise = new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
promise.then(
val => hasCanceled_ ? reject({isCanceled: true}) : resolve(val),
error => hasCanceled_ ? reject({isCanceled: true}) : reject(error)
);
});
return {
promise: wrappedPromise,
cancel() {
hasCanceled_ = true;
},
};
};
const cancelablePromise = makeCancelable(fetch('LINK HERE'));
constructor(props){
super(props);
this.state = {
isLoading: true,
dataSource: [{
name: 'loading...',
id: 'loading',
}]
}
}
componentDidMount(){
cancelablePromise.
.then((response) => response.json())
.then((responseJson) => {
this.setState({
isLoading: false,
dataSource: responseJson,
}, () => {
});
})
.catch((error) =>{
console.error(error);
});
}
componentWillUnmount() {
cancelablePromise.cancel();
}
---- EDIT ----
I have found the given answer may not be quite correct by following the issue on GitHub. Here is one version that I use which works for my purposes:
export const makeCancelableFunction = (fn) => {
let hasCanceled = false;
return {
promise: (val) => new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
if (hasCanceled) {
fn = null;
} else {
fn(val);
resolve(val);
}
}),
cancel() {
hasCanceled = true;
}
};
};
The idea was to help the garbage collector free up memory by making the function or whatever you use null.
Since the post had been opened, an "abortable-fetch" has been added. https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2017/09/abortable-fetch
(from the docs:)
The controller + signal manoeuvre Meet the AbortController and AbortSignal:
const controller = new AbortController();
const signal = controller.signal;
The controller only has one method:
controller.abort(); When you do this, it notifies the signal:
signal.addEventListener('abort', () => {
// Logs true:
console.log(signal.aborted);
});
This API is provided by the DOM standard, and that's the entire API. It's deliberately generic so it can be used by other web standards and JavaScript libraries.
for example, here's how you'd make a fetch timeout after 5 seconds:
const controller = new AbortController();
const signal = controller.signal;
setTimeout(() => controller.abort(), 5000);
fetch(url, { signal }).then(response => {
return response.text();
}).then(text => {
console.log(text);
});
When you fire a Promise it might take a few seconds before it resolves and by that time user might have navigated to another place in your app. So when Promise resolves setState is executed on unmounted component and you get an error - just like in your case. This may also cause memory leaks.
That's why it is best to move some of your asynchronous logic out of components.
Otherwise, you will need to somehow cancel your Promise. Alternatively - as a last resort technique (it's an antipattern) - you can keep a variable to check whether the component is still mounted:
componentDidMount(){
this.mounted = true;
this.props.fetchData().then((response) => {
if(this.mounted) {
this.setState({ data: response })
}
})
}
componentWillUnmount(){
this.mounted = false;
}
I will stress that again - this is an antipattern but may be sufficient in your case (just like they did with Formik implementation).
A similar discussion on GitHub
EDIT:
This is probably how would I solve the same problem (having nothing but React) with Hooks:
OPTION A:
import React, { useState, useEffect } from "react";
export default function Page() {
const value = usePromise("https://something.com/api/");
return (
<p>{value ? value : "fetching data..."}</p>
);
}
function usePromise(url) {
const [value, setState] = useState(null);
useEffect(() => {
let isMounted = true; // track whether component is mounted
request.get(url)
.then(result => {
if (isMounted) {
setState(result);
}
});
return () => {
// clean up
isMounted = false;
};
}, []); // only on "didMount"
return value;
}
OPTION B: Alternatively with useRef which behaves like a static property of a class which means it doesn't make component rerender when it's value changes:
function usePromise2(url) {
const isMounted = React.useRef(true)
const [value, setState] = useState(null);
useEffect(() => {
return () => {
isMounted.current = false;
};
}, []);
useEffect(() => {
request.get(url)
.then(result => {
if (isMounted.current) {
setState(result);
}
});
}, []);
return value;
}
// or extract it to custom hook:
function useIsMounted() {
const isMounted = React.useRef(true)
useEffect(() => {
return () => {
isMounted.current = false;
};
}, []);
return isMounted; // returning "isMounted.current" wouldn't work because we would return unmutable primitive
}
Example: https://codesandbox.io/s/86n1wq2z8