AJAX and APIs #

How can I make an AJAX call? #

You can use any AJAX library you like with React. Some popular ones are Axios, jQuery AJAX, and the browser built-in window.fetch.

Where in the component lifecycle should I make an AJAX call? #

You should populate data with AJAX calls in the componentDidMount lifecycle method. This is so you can use setState to update your component when the data is retrieved.

Example: Using AJAX results to set local state #

The component below demonstrates how to make an AJAX call in componentDidMount to populate local component state.

The example API returns a JSON object like this:

{
  "items": [
    { "id": 1, "name": "Apples",  "price": "$2" },
    { "id": 2, "name": "Peaches", "price": "$5" }
  ] 
}

class MyComponent extends React.Component {
  constructor(props) {
    super(props);
    this.state = {
      error: null,
      isLoaded: false,
      items: []
    };
  }

  componentDidMount() {
    fetch("https://api.example.com/items")
      .then(res => res.json())
      .then(
        (result) => {
          this.setState({
            isLoaded: true,
            items: result.items
          });
        },
        // Note: it's important to handle errors here
        // instead of a catch() block so that we don't swallow
        // exceptions from actual bugs in components.
        (error) => {
          this.setState({
            isLoaded: true,
            error
          });
        }
      )
  }

  render() {
    const { error, isLoaded, items } = this.state;
    if (error) {
      return <div>Error: {error.message}</div>;
    } else if (!isLoaded) {
      return <div>Loading...</div>;
    } else {
      return (
        <ul>
          {items.map(item => (
            <li key={item.id}>
              {item.name} {item.price}
            </li>
          ))}
        </ul>
      );
    }
  }
}

Here is the equivalent with Hooks:

function MyComponent() {
  const [error, setError] = useState(null);
  const [isLoaded, setIsLoaded] = useState(false);
  const [items, setItems] = useState([]);

  // Note: the empty deps array [] means
  // this useEffect will run once
  // similar to componentDidMount()
  useEffect(() => {
    fetch("https://api.example.com/items")
      .then(res => res.json())
      .then(
        (result) => {
          setIsLoaded(true);
          setItems(result);
        },
        // Note: it's important to handle errors here
        // instead of a catch() block so that we don't swallow
        // exceptions from actual bugs in components.
        (error) => {
          setIsLoaded(true);
          setError(error);
        }
      )
  }, [])

  if (error) {
    return <div>Error: {error.message}</div>;
  } else if (!isLoaded) {
    return <div>Loading...</div>;
  } else {
    return (
      <ul>
        {items.map(item => (
          <li key={item.id}>
            {item.name} {item.price}
          </li>
        ))}
      </ul>
    );
  }
}