react-custom-events

Why

React way of handling events is to pass callbacks to child components. This becomes cumbersome when child is several levels deep.

One way to avoid passing callbacks deep is using Context

But context is not meant for all use cases and not so intuitive.

I prefer the web components way, as they are close to native html tags and most common way of handling events in them is CustomEvent.

This package is a react layer above CustomEvent

How to use

Installation

npm i react-custom-events

Emit Event

import { emitCustomEvent } from 'react-custom-events';

emitCustomEvent('my-event');

Attach data to event

emitCustomEvent('my-event', data);

Listen Event

import { useCustomEventListener } from 'react-custom-events';

its a custom hook, so can be used in function component only(see notes below)

useCustomEventListener('my-event', data => {
    doSomethingWithData( data );
});

No need to remove event listener, it uses react's useEffect hook to remove listener on component unmount

And no need to worry about where component is present in dom, these events can be sent and listened to anywhere

Notes

• Will support class components in future, for now addEventListener can be used