One common scenario in web development is the need to perform certain actions based on the progress of an operation. Whether it’s loading data from an API, rendering elements based on the scroll position, or animating components during a transition, handling side effects based on progress tracking is a recurring requirement.

In this blog post, we will explore how to create a custom React hook called useProgressEffect to handle side effects based on progress tracking.

Table of Contents

• Understanding useProgressEffect
• Implementing the useProgressEffect Hook
• Using the useProgressEffect Hook
• Conclusion

Understanding useProgressEffect

The useProgressEffect hook we’re going to create will allow us to execute certain actions based on a specific progress value. It will take in a progress value as an argument and a callback function that will be triggered whenever the progress value updates within a specified range.

Implementing the useProgressEffect Hook

Let’s start by defining the initial structure and basic logic of our useProgressEffect hook:

import { useEffect, useRef } from 'react';

const useProgressEffect = (progress, callback, min = 0, max = 100) => {
  const prevProgressRef = useRef(progress);

  useEffect(() => {
    if (prevProgressRef.current !== progress) {
      if (progress >= min && progress <= max) {
        callback();
      }
      prevProgressRef.current = progress;
    }
  }, [progress, callback, min, max]);
};

export default useProgressEffect;

In the useProgressEffect hook, we use the useEffect hook to listen for changes in the progress value. We compare the current progress value with the previous value stored in a ref using the useRef hook, and if they differ, we check if the progress value is within the specified range (min and max). If it is, we call the provided callback function.

Using the useProgressEffect Hook

Now that we have our custom useProgressEffect hook, let’s see how we can use it in a practical example. Suppose we have a component that fetches some data from an API, and we want to trigger an alert when the progress reaches 50%:

import React, { useState, useEffect } from 'react';
import useProgressEffect from './useProgressEffect';

const MyComponent = () => {
  const [progress, setProgress] = useState(0);

  useEffect(() => {
    // Simulating API call progress
    const interval = setInterval(() => {
      setProgress((prevProgress) => prevProgress + 10);
    }, 1000);
    
    return () => clearInterval(interval);
  }, []);

  useProgressEffect(progress, () => {
    if (progress === 50) {
      alert('50% progress reached!');
    }
  });

  return (
    <div>
      <h1>Loading Data...</h1>
      <p>Progress: {progress}%</p>
    </div>
  );
};

export default MyComponent;

In this example, we simulate the progress of an API call by increasing the progress state value every second. We use the useEffect hook to initiate the progress update and clear the interval on component unmount. We then use our custom useProgressEffect hook to trigger an alert when the progress reaches 50%.

Conclusion

Being able to handle side effects based on progress tracking is a valuable skill in web development. By creating a custom hook like useProgressEffect, we can easily encapsulate this logic and reuse it across different components.

In this blog post, we’ve covered how to create a useProgressEffect hook that allows us to execute actions based on a specific progress value range. We’ve also demonstrated its usage in a practical example.

By leveraging the power of custom hooks, we can make our code more reusable, modular, and easier to maintain.