React Modifying Textarea Values

reactjs

I am working on a project which is basically notepad. I am having problems though updating the <textarea>'s value when an ajax call is made. I tried setting the textarea's value property but then no changes to its value can be made. How can I make it so on a state change the textarea's value changes and can be edited.

The code I have is as follows.

In the parent class

<Editor name={this.state.fileData} />

In the Editor class

var Editor = React.createClass({
render: function() {
return (
    <form id="noter-save-form" method="POST">
    <textarea id="noter-text-area" name="textarea" value={this.props.name}></textarea>
    <input type="submit" value="Save" />
    </form>
);
}

});

I can't use defaultValue because the value of the textarea is not known on page load and when I try and put the data between the textareas nothing happens. I would like it to take the state value whenever the state changes but have it editable in between.

Thanks

Edit

I managed to get it working using jQuery but would like to do it in React instead, I called this before render:

$('#noter-text-area').val(this.props.name);

I think you want something along the line of:

Parent:

<Editor name={this.state.fileData} />

Editor:

var Editor = React.createClass({
  displayName: 'Editor',
  propTypes: {
    name: React.PropTypes.string.isRequired
  },
  getInitialState: function() { 
    return {
      value: this.props.name
    };
  },
  handleChange: function(event) {
    this.setState({value: event.target.value});
  },
  render: function() {
    return (
      <form id="noter-save-form" method="POST">
        <textarea id="noter-text-area" name="textarea" value={this.state.value} onChange={this.handleChange} />
        <input type="submit" value="Save" />
      </form>
    );
  }
});

This is basically a direct copy of the example provided on https://facebook.github.io/react/docs/forms.html

Update for React 16.8:

import React, { useState } from 'react';

const Editor = (props) => {
    const [value, setValue] = useState(props.name);

    const handleChange = (event) => {
        setValue(event.target.value);
    };

    return (
        <form id="noter-save-form" method="POST">
            <textarea id="noter-text-area" name="textarea" value={value} onChange={handleChange} />
            <input type="submit" value="Save" />
        </form>
    );
}

Editor.propTypes = {
    name: PropTypes.string.isRequired
};

As a newbie in React world, I came across a similar issues where I could not edit the textarea and struggled with binding. It's worth knowing about controlled and uncontrolled elements when it comes to react.

The value of the following uncontrolled textarea cannot be changed because of value

 <textarea type="text" value="some value"
    onChange={(event) => this.handleOnChange(event)}></textarea>

The value of the following uncontrolled textarea can be changed because of use of defaultValue or no value attribute

<textarea type="text" defaultValue="sample" 
    onChange={(event) => this.handleOnChange(event)}></textarea>

<textarea type="text" 
   onChange={(event) => this.handleOnChange(event)}></textarea>

The value of the following controlled textarea can be changed because of how value is mapped to a state as well as the onChange event listener

<textarea value={this.state.textareaValue} 
onChange={(event) => this.handleOnChange(event)}></textarea>

Here is my solution using different syntax. I prefer the auto-bind than manual binding however, if I were to not use {(event) => this.onXXXX(event)} then that would cause the content of textarea to be not editable OR the event.preventDefault() does not work as expected. Still a lot to learn I suppose.

class Editor extends React.Component {
  constructor(props) {
    super(props)
    this.state = {
      textareaValue: ''
    }
  }
  handleOnChange(event) {
    this.setState({
      textareaValue: event.target.value
    })
  }
  handleOnSubmit(event) {
    event.preventDefault();
    this.setState({
      textareaValue: this.state.textareaValue + ' [Saved on ' + (new Date()).toLocaleString() + ']'
    })
  }
  render() {
    return <div>
        <form onSubmit={(event) => this.handleOnSubmit(event)}>
          <textarea rows={10} cols={30} value={this.state.textareaValue} 
            onChange={(event) => this.handleOnChange(event)}></textarea>
          <br/>
          <input type="submit" value="Save"/>
        </form>
      </div>
  }
}
ReactDOM.render(<Editor />, document.getElementById("content"));

The versions of libraries are

"babel-cli": "6.24.1",
"babel-preset-react": "6.24.1"
"React & ReactDOM v15.5.4"

React Modifying Textarea Values

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