Zero-dependencies library for React to store and access multiple references to child components.
See Example of usage section for an example when this library can be helpful.

Install

npm install --save react-refs-collection

Quick start

In functional components:

import useRefsCollection from 'react-refs-collection';

// Some functional component that renders multiple children and
// should be able to call imperative handlers on them:
const ItemsList = ({items}) => {
   const {getRefHandler, getRef} = useRefsCollection();

   const doSomeActionOnItem = useCallback(itemId => {
       getRef(itemId).doSomeAction();
   }, []);

   return (
        <div>
            {items.map(({id, ...restProps}) => (
                <Item
                    ref={getRefHandler(id)}
                    {...restProps}
                />
            ))}
        </div>
   )
}

Example of usage

For example we have the following UI:

1. Search input + submit button
2. List of some items

When user filled search input and submitted it - we have to scroll list of items to first item that matches given search criteria and focus this item.

Here is an implementation (Live Demo):

import useRefsCollection from 'react-refs-collection';

const MyComponent = (items) => {
  const {getRefHandler, getRef} = useRefsCollection();
  
  const [searchValue, setSearchValue] = useState("");

  const onChange = useCallback(e => {
    setSearchValue(e.target.value);
  }, []);

  const searchItem = useCallback(() => {
    const match = items.find(item =>
      item.value.toLowerCase().startsWith(searchValue.toLowerCase())
    );
    if (!match) return;
    const itemNode = getRef(match.id);
    if (itemNode) {
      itemNode.focus();
    }
  }, [getRef, searchValue]);

  // Search value when user pressed "Enter":
  const onInputKeyUp = useCallback(
    e => {
      if (e.keyCode === 13) {
        searchItem();
      }
    },
    [searchItem]
  );

  return (
    <div>
      <div>
        <input
          type="text"
          value={searchValue}
          onChange={onChange}
          onKeyUp={onInputKeyUp}
        />
        <button onClick={searchItem}>Search</button>
      </div>
      <div>
        {items.map(item => (
          <div
            key={item.id}
            className="focusable"
            ref={getRefHandler(item.id)}
            tabIndex={-1}
          >
            {item.value}
          </div>
        ))}
      </div>
    </div>
  );
}

const items = [
    {id: 1, content: 'One'},
    {id: 2, content: 'Two'},
    {id: 3, content: 'Three'},
    {id: 4, content: 'Four'},
    {id: 5, content: 'Five'},
    {id: 6, content: 'Six'},
    {id: 7, content: 'Seven'},
    {id: 8, content: 'Eight'},
    {id: 9, content: 'Nine'},
    {id: 10, content: 'Ten'}
]
ReactDOM.render(<MyComponent items={items} />, document.getElementById('app'));

API

useRefsCollection hook returns the following:

method	description
getRefHandler(key)	returns value that should be passed to "ref" property of some react component to store reference to this component in collection under given key
getRef(key)	Returns reference by it's key
getKeysByRef(ref)	Returns array of all keys that relates to given reference object (or empty array if there is no keys assigned to given reference object)
getKeyByRef(ref)	Same as getKeysByRef, but returns only first found key or undefined if there is no key found.

License

MIT