Fine-grained control over loading states in suspense

16 Oct 2023

In React, the Suspense component offers a built-in way to handle asynchronous operations and provide loading states for your app. However, sometimes you may need more fine-grained control over the loading states to customize the user experience. In this blog post, we will explore how to achieve this level of control with Suspense.

Understanding Suspense

Before diving into advanced loading states, let’s recap how Suspense works. The Suspense component allows you to wrap your async components and specify a fallback component to render while the async content is loading.

import React, { Suspense } from 'react';

const MyComponent = React.lazy(() => import('./MyComponent'));

function App() {
  return (
    <Suspense fallback={<div>Loading...</div>}>
      <MyComponent />
    </Suspense>
  );
}

export default App;

In the above example, the MyComponent is loaded asynchronously, and while it’s loading, the fallback component will be rendered. Once the async component is loaded, it will be rendered in place of the fallback.

Customizing loading states

To have more control over loading states, you can implement your own loading indicator component and conditionally render it based on loading conditions. Here’s an example:

import React, { Suspense, useState } from 'react';

const MyComponent = React.lazy(() => import('./MyComponent'));

const CustomLoader = () => {
  const [isLoading, setIsLoading] = useState(true);

  setTimeout(() => {
    setIsLoading(false);
  }, 3000); // Simulating loading delay of 3 seconds

  return isLoading ? <div>Loading custom content...</div> : null;
};

function App() {
  return (
    <Suspense fallback={<div>Loading...</div>}>
      <CustomLoader />
      <MyComponent />
    </Suspense>
  );
}

export default App;

In this example, we create a CustomLoader component that controls the loading state with the help of the useState hook. We simulate a loading delay of 3 seconds with setTimeout and set the loading state to false once the delay is over.

By rendering the CustomLoader before the async component, you can display your own loading indicator component and customize the loading experience for your users.

Conclusion

React’s Suspense component provides a convenient way to handle loading states in asynchronous rendering. By customizing the loading states, you can create a more tailored loading experience for your users. Fine-grained control over loading states allows you to display custom loading indicators and give your app a polished look. Embrace the power of Suspense to enhance the user experience in your React applications.

References: