14

I have a form that, on submission displays the results of the form, but more importantly, scrolls to a component that shows the results. I am stuck trying to pass in refs and forward refs. All of the demos I've seen have been of components in the same file. My setup is as follows:

The App.js holds two components– Form.js which submits the form and Results.js which displays the results of the form submission. The Results.js component is further down the page so I want to scroll to that component once the user clicks enter on the form.

Here is a codesandbox that demonstrates my setup.

Here is the same code on here:

// App.js
import "./styles.css";
import Form from "./Form";
import Results from "./Results";

export default function App() {
  return (
    <>
      <Form />
      <Results />
    </>
  );
}
// Form.js
import { forwardRef, useState } from "react";

const Form = forwardRef(({ onScroll }, ref) => {
  const [name, setName] = useState("");

  const onSubmit = (e) => {
    e.preventDefault();
    onScroll();
  };

  return (
    <form onSubmit={onSubmit} className="tall">
      <input value={name} onChange={(e) => setName(e.target.value)} />
      <button type="submit">Submit</button>
    </form>
  );
});

export default Form;


// Results.js

import { useRef } from "react";
export default function Results() {
  const resultsRef = useRef();

  function handleScrollToResults() {
    resultsRef.current.scrollIntoView({ behavior: "smooth" });
  }

  return (
    <div onScroll={handleScrollToResults}>
      <h1>Results</h1>
    </div>
  );
}

1 Answer 1

14

Few things to be corrected.

  1. Results component should forward the ref, not to the Form component.
import { forwardRef } from "react";

const Results = forwardRef((props, ref) => {
  return (
    <div ref={ref}>
      <h1>Results</h1>
    </div>
  );
});

export default Results;
  1. Form component should receive the ref to Results as a prop (resultRef).
import { useState } from "react";

const Form = ({ resultRef }) => {
  const [name, setName] = useState("");

  const onSubmit = (e) => {
    e.preventDefault();
    resultRef.current.scrollIntoView({ behavior: "smooth" });
  };

  return (
    <form onSubmit={onSubmit} className="tall">
      <input value={name} onChange={(e) => setName(e.target.value)} />
      <button type="submit">Submit</button>
    </form>
  );
};

export default Form;
  1. Root component should create the ref using useRef and use it as below. Notice that Form is using the resultRef while Results is instantiating it.
import "./styles.css";
import Form from "./Form";
import Results from "./Results";
import { useRef } from "react";

export default function App() {
  const resultRef = useRef(null);

  return (
    <>
      <Form resultRef={resultRef} />
      <Results ref={resultRef} />
    </>
  );
}

Edit Scroll Component (forked)

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2 Comments

hi! This was really helpful. Can we do this without using hooks. Like in class components.
@risingStark, did you check this question ?

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