UID

To generate a stable UID/Key for a given item, consistently between client and server, in 900 bytes.

Example - https://codesandbox.io/s/kkmwr6vv47

API

React UID provides 3 different APIs

• vanilla js API - uid(item) -> key
• React Component, via renderProp based API - <UID>{ id => <><label htmlFor={id}/><input id={id}/></>}</UID>
• React Hooks - useUID

Javascript

• uid(item, [index]) - generates UID for an object(array, function and so on), result could be used as React key. item should be an object, but could be anything. In case it is not an "object", and might have non-unique value - you have to specify second argument - index

 import {uid} from 'react-uid';
 
 // objects
 const data = [{a:1}, {b:2}];
 data.map( item => <li key={uid(item)}>{item}</li>)
 
 // unique strings
 const data = ["a", "b"];
 data.map( item => <li key={uid(item)}>{item}</li>)
 
 // strings
 const data = ["a", "a"];
  data.map( (item, index) => <li key={uid(item, index)}>{item}</li>)

JS API might be NOT (multi-tenant)SSR friendly,

React Components

• (deprecated)UID - renderless container for generation Ids
• UIDConsumer - renderless container for generation Ids

 import {UID} from 'react-uid';

 <UID>
     {id => (
       <Fragment>
         <input id={id} />
         <label htmlFor={id} />
       </Fragment> 
     )}
 </UID>

 // you can apply some "naming conventions" to the keys
  <UID name={ id => `unique-${id}` }>
      {id => (
        <Fragment>
          <input id={id} />
          <label htmlFor={id} />
        </Fragment>
      )}
  </UID>
  
  // UID also provide `uid` as a second argument
  <UID>
       {(_, uid) => (
         data.map( item => <li key={uid(item)}>{item}</li>) 
       )}
  </UID>
  
  // in the case `item` is not an object, but number or string - provide and index
  <UID>
       {(_, uid) => (
         data.map( (item, index) => <li key={uid(item, index)}>{item}</li>) 
       )}
  </UID>

The difference between uid and UID versions are in "nesting" - any UID used inside another UID would contain "parent prefix" in the result, scoping uid to the local tree branch.

UID might be NOT SSR friendly,

Hooks (16.8+)

• useUID() will generate a "stable" UID
• useUIDSeed() will generate a seed generator, you can use for multiple fields

import { useUID, useUIDSeed } from 'react-uid';

const Form = () => {
  const uid = useUID();  
  return (
    <>
     <label htmlFor={uid}>Email: </label>
     <input id={uid} name="email" />
    </>
  )
}

const Form = () => {
  const seed = useUIDSeed();  
  return (
    <>
     <label htmlFor={seed('email')}>Email: </label>
     <input id={seed('email')} name="email" />
     {data.map(item => <div key={seed(item)}>...</div>
    </>
  )
}

Hooks API is SSR friendly,

Server-side friendly UID

• UIDReset, UIDConsumer, UIDFork - SSR friendly UID. Could maintain consistency across renders. They are much more complex than UID, and provide functionality you might not need.

The key difference - they are not using global "singlentone" to track used IDs, but read it from Context API, thus works without side effects.

Next example will generate the same code, regardless how many time you will render it

 import {UIDReset, UIDConsumer} from 'react-uid';

 <UIDReset>
     <UIDConsumer>
         {(id,uid) => (
           <Fragment>
             <input id={id} />
             <label htmlFor={id} />
             data.map( item => <li key={uid(item)}>{item}</li>)
           </Fragment> 
         )}
     </UIDConsumer>
 </UIDReset>

UID is not 100% SSR friendly - use UIDConsumer.

Code splitting

Codesplitting may affect the order or existence of the components, so alter the componentDidMount order, and change the generated ID as result.

In case of SPA, this is not something you should be bothered about, but for SSR this could be fatal.

Next example will generate consistent keys regardless of component mount order. Each call to UIDFork creates a new branch of UIDs untangled from siblings.

import {UIDReset, UIDFork, UIDConsumer} from 'react-uid';

 <UIDReset>
     <UIDFork>
      <AsyncLoadedCompoent>
         <UIDConsumer>
           { uid => <span>{uid} is unique </span>}
         </UIDConsumer>
     </UIDFork>
     <UIDFork>
       <AsyncLoadedCompoent>
          <UIDConsumer>
            { uid => <span>{uid} is unique </span>}
          </UIDConsumer>
      </UIDFork>    
 </UIDReset>

The hooks API only needs the <UIDFork> wrapper.

So hard?

"Basic API" is not using Context API to keep realization simple, and React tree more flat.

Types

Written in TypeScript

Licence

MIT