DEV Community

Ali Haydar
Ali Haydar

Posted on

React Context API

React Context API: What is it and How it works?

Context API is a (sort of) new feature in React 16.3 that allows you to easily and lightly communicate state across the entire project (or portion of it). Let's have a look at how to put it to use.

Context API for React, In this post, we'll look at what Context API is and how you may utilize it in your React project. The Context API is a React framework that lets you share unique facts and helps you solve prop-drilling problems at various levels of your project.

*What is Context API?
*

A React app may use the React Context API to generate global variables that can be passed around. This is an alternative to "prop drilling," which entails passing props from grandma to kid to parent and so on. Context is also marketed as a simpler, lighter way to Redux state management.

Context API is a (sort of) new feature in React 16.3 that allows you to easily and lightly communicate state across the entire project (or portion of it).

React context API: How it works?

React.create All you need is Context(). It will provide you a customer and a provider. Provider is a component that supplies the state to its children, as its name indicates. It will contain the "store" and serve as the parent of any components that may require it. A component that consumes and utilizes the state is known as a consumer.

Context API will replace redux?

Redux is fantastic, because it was created to meet a specific requirement for state management. It really met this demand so effectively that it became widely accepted that you can't be a "genuine" React developer until you knew how to use Redux. However, Redux has drawbacks, which is why it's critical to understand what Context API provides that Redux does not:

Simplicity - When individuals use redux, they tend to handle practically all of their state in redux, which leads to two issues:

Why should I create/update three files merely to add one little feature?

One of the most appealing aspects of React one-way data binding is that it's simple to grasp: a component transmits state to its children. It is taken away from us when we use Redux.

We may establish numerous unconnected contexts (stores) and utilize each in its own area in the program using the Context API.

What is the Context API and how can I utilize it?

It's possible that you're thinking to yourself: "Well, I'm persuaded. What is the best way to integrate Context API into my app?" First, make certain you require it. Instead of sending shared state as props, some users utilize shared state across layered components. And if you do require it, you should do the following steps:

Create a folder called contexts inside your app's root directory (this is optional). It's only a convention.)

Make a file with the name your context name>.

Context.js, such as userContext.js, imports and creates a context in the following way:

Top comments (0)