Managing suspense fallbacks in React applications

16 Oct 2023

In React applications, suspense is a powerful feature that allows you to handle asynchronous operations and delays in rendering components. Suspense enables you to show fallback UIs until the actual components are ready to render.

What is suspense fallback?

Suspense fallback is a loading state that is shown while waiting for the data or components to load. It helps improve the overall user experience by displaying a loading indicator or placeholder content instead of leaving the user staring at a blank screen.

Using suspense fallback in React

To use suspense fallback in React, you need to wrap the code that may have a loading time or asynchronous operations with the <Suspense> component. The <Suspense> component takes a fallback prop, which specifies the UI to show while waiting for the asynchronous operation to complete.

Here’s an example of using suspense fallback in React:

import React, { Suspense } from 'react';
import LoadingIndicator from './LoadingIndicator';
import AsyncComponent from './AsyncComponent';

const MyComponent = () => {
  return (
    <Suspense fallback={<LoadingIndicator />}>
      <AsyncComponent />
    </Suspense>
  );
};

export default MyComponent;

In the example above, MyComponent wraps the AsyncComponent with the <Suspense> component. When AsyncComponent is being loaded, the <LoadingIndicator /> will be shown as the fallback UI.

Customizing suspense fallback UI

You can customize the suspense fallback UI by creating a separate component and rendering it as the fallback within the <Suspense> component. This allows you to display a loading animation, a skeleton layout, or any other content that suits your application’s design.

Here’s an example of a custom suspense fallback component:

import React from 'react';
import loadingAnimation from './loadingAnimation.gif';

const CustomFallback = () => {
  return (
    <div>
      <img src={loadingAnimation} alt="Loading animation" />
      <p>Loading...</p>
    </div>
  );
};

export default CustomFallback;

To use this custom fallback component, you can replace the <LoadingIndicator /> component in the previous example with <CustomFallback />.

Conclusion

Using suspense fallbacks in your React applications can greatly improve the user experience during asynchronous loading operations. Whether you choose to use a simple loading indicator or create a custom UI, suspense fallbacks provide a straightforward way to handle delays and keep your app responsive.

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