I've been working on a project to create a smooth transitioning dialog component in React, and I want to share my journey through the process, highlighting key steps and challenges encountered along the way.
Part 1: Setting the Foundation
In the first part of the series, I laid the groundwork by setting up the component structure. I created a context to manage the state and developed the main dialog component with its header, body, footer, and container.
My primary goal was to ensure that the dialog could support minimisation and expansion while being adaptable to content changes. This foundation was crucial for building a reusable and functional dialog component.
Part 2: Adding Smooth Animations
Next, I focused on adding smooth animations to the dialog's minimise and expand transitions using CSS properties like max-width and max-height. I preferred these properties over transform and zoom for better fluidity and control. I introduced the DialogAnimation component and updated the DialogContainer to support these animations.
Managing state with React hooks was essential to ensure that the transitions were smooth and seamless. This step significantly improved the user experience by making the dialog interactions more fluid.
Part 3: Refining Animation Reliability
In the third part, I addressed the reliability of the dialog's animations by calculating both expanded and minimised dimensions. To achieve this, I expanded and minimised the dialog in successive render cycles to measure dimensions accurately using getBoundingClientRect.
This approach improved state management and involved using styled components for seamless animations. Although this step increased the complexity and potential performance overhead, it was necessary to ensure smooth and accurate transitions.
Part 4: Eliminating Flickering Issues
Finally, I resolved flickering issues by introducing an invisible container for dimension calculations. This technique, inspired by game development practices like double buffering, allowed for smoother, jank-free transitions. I detailed the setup of a secondary container, managed state with context, and refined the transition functions to ensure clean and accurate animations.
Despite the added complexity, this approach significantly enhanced the overall user experience by eliminating any flickering during transitions.
Conclusion
Creating a smooth transitioning dialog component in React has been a rewarding journey filled with challenges and learnings. By setting a solid foundation, adding smooth animations, refining animation reliability, and eliminating flickering issues, I've gained valuable insights into creating robust and user-friendly components.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read through this post. I really encourage you to dive into each blog post for all the nitty-gritty steps and code details. I'm genuinely looking forward to hearing your thoughts and suggestions to validate or even enhance this approach. Do you think the animation is worth the complexity and trade-offs? Can we find a better way to pull this off? Maybe sticking to vanilla JS/CSS or exploring 3rd-party libraries like framer motion could be the way to go. Your comments and insights mean a lot to me.
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