Trigger child re-rendering in React.js

An easy option to re-render a child is to update a unique key attribute every time you need a re-render.

<ChildComponent key={this.state.updatedKey}/>

The problem here is that you're storing state in this.props instead of this.state. Since this component is mutating items, items is state and should be stored in this.state. (Here's a good article on props vs. state.) This solves your rendering problem, because when you update items you'll call setState, which will automatically trigger a re-render.

Here's what your component would look like using state instead of props:

var MyList = React.createClass({
    getInitialState: function() {
        return { items: this.props.initialItems };
    },

    toggleHighlight: function() {
        var newItems = this.state.items.map(function (item) {
            item.highlighted = !item.highlighted;
            return item;
        });

        this.setState({ items: newItems });
    },

    render: function() {
        return (
            <div>
                <button onClick={this.toggleHighlight}>Toggle highlight</button>
                { this.state.items.map(function(item) {
                    return <MyComponent key={item.id} text={item.text} 
                             highlighted={item.highlighted}/>;
                }) }
            </div>
        );    
    }
});

React.render( <MyList initialItems={initialItems}/>,
              document.getElementById('container') );

Note that I renamed the items prop to initialItems, because it makes it clear that MyList will mutate it. This is recommended by the documentation.

You can see the updated fiddle here: https://jsfiddle.net/kxrf5329/

I have found a nice solution using key attribute for re-render with React Hook. If we changed key property of a child component or some portion of React Component, it will re-render entirely. It will use when you need to re-render some portion of React Component of re-render a child component. Here is a example. I will re-render the full component.

import React, { useState, useEffect } from "react";
import { PrEditInput } from "./shared";

const BucketInput = ({ bucketPrice = [], handleBucketsUpdate, mood }) => {
  const data = Array.isArray(bucketPrice) ? bucketPrice : [];
  const [state, setState] = useState(Date.now());
  useEffect(() => {
    setState(Date.now());
  }, [mood, bucketPrice]);
  return (
    <span key={state}>
      {data.map((item) => (
        <PrEditInput
          key={item.id}
          label={item?.bucket?.name}
          name={item.bucketId}
          defaultValue={item.price}
          onChange={handleBucketsUpdate}
          mood={mood}
        />
      ))}
    </span>
  );
};

export default BucketInput;