Component not rendering list of components in React.js

Question

So I am building an application using react, and my list is not showing on render(). I have my parent component, and have a list of components, coming from SearchResult. Here is my code:

class CreateBookGroup extends Component {
  constructor(props) {
    super(props);

    this.state = {
      titleToSearch: "",
      searchResults: []
    }

  }

  new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
      let searchBook = this.searchFormatter();
      console.log("Search book is " + searchBook);
      searchForBook(searchBook, resolve, reject);
    }).then((res, err) => {
      if (err) {
        return console.error(err);
      }
      console.log(res.body);

      for (let i = 0; i < res.body.items.length; i++) {

        let smallThumbnail = null;

        if (res.body.items[i].volumeInfo.imageLinks) {
          smallThumbnail = res.body.items[i].volumeInfo.imageLinks.smallThumbnail;
        }

        let resultToAdd = {
          bookCover: smallThumbnail,
          bookTitle: res.body.items[i].volumeInfo.title,
          bookAuthors: res.body.items[i].volumeInfo.authors,
          bookDescription: res.body.items[i].volumeInfo.description
        }

        this.state.searchResults.push(resultToAdd);
      }



    });
  }

  render() {
    const searchBookRes = this.state.searchResults.map((result) => {
      <SearchResult
        bookCover={result.bookCover}
        bookTitle={result.bookTitle}
        authorName={result.bookAuthors}
        bookDescription={result.bookDescription}
        />
    });

    console.log(searchBookRes.length);

    return (
      <div className="GlobalAlignment">
        <Header/>
        <Container>
          <Row>
            <Col lg={12}>

              <h1>Create a group</h1>
              <div className="bookGroupDiv">

                <input
                  type="text"
                  className="searchText"
                  required
                  name="bookSearch"
                  onChange={this.handleChange.bind(this, "titleToSearch")}
                  placeholder="Search for a title"/>

                <button className="btnStandard searchBtn" onClick={this.searchGoogleBookApi.bind(this)}>Search</button>

              </div>

              {searchBookRes}
  ..................................

I have even tried to preset state, so that it looks like this when the page initially opens:

constructor(props) {
    super(props);

    this.state = {
      titleToSearch: "",
      searchResults: [{bookTitle: "Sample", bookCover: "Cover", bookAuthors: "Author", bookDescription: "This is the description"}]
    }

  }

However, the {searchBookRes} still does not show any of my list items, even though they appear when I log them to the console.

Also, I have manually entered in test values into my child component, and placed it directly into the Component like this (This passes down props just fine):

return (
      <div className="GlobalAlignment">
        <Header/>
        <Container>
          <Row>
            <Col lg={12}>

              <h1>Create a group</h1>
              <div className="bookGroupDiv">

                <input
                  type="text"
                  className="searchText"
                  required
                  name="bookSearch"
                  onChange={this.handleChange.bind(this, "titleToSearch")}
                  placeholder="Search for a title"/>

                <button className="btnStandard searchBtn" onClick={this.searchGoogleBookApi.bind(this)}>Search</button>

              </div>

              <SearchResult
                 bookCover={'Test cover'}
                 bookTitle={'test title'}
                 authorName={'test author'}
                 bookDescription={'test description'}
    />

So since this passes down props fine, and shows component, I know there is not a problem with the SearchResult component. Does anyone see what I could be doing wrong? I am returning to react after a long time away, and can't figure out why this issue is occurring. Thank you for the help.

Mayank Shukla · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-29 05:45:49Z

2

You are not returning anything inside the map body, Write it like this:

const searchBookRes = this.state.searchResults.map((result) => {
      return <SearchResult
                 bookCover={result.bookCover}
                 bookTitle={result.bookTitle}
                 authorName={result.bookAuthors}
                 bookDescription={result.bookDescription}
             />
});

Never mutate the state value directly, so instead of this.state.searchResults.push(resultToAdd), first create a local variable do the changes in that then use setState to update the state value, like this:

let values = this.state.searchResults.slice();
for (let i = 0; i < res.body.items.length; i++) {
    let smallThumbnail = null;

    if (res.body.items[i].volumeInfo.imageLinks) {
        smallThumbnail = res.body.items[i].volumeInfo.imageLinks.smallThumbnail;
    }

    let resultToAdd = {
        bookCover: smallThumbnail,
        bookTitle: res.body.items[i].volumeInfo.title,
        bookAuthors: res.body.items[i].volumeInfo.authors,
        bookDescription: res.body.items[i].volumeInfo.description
    }

    values.push(resultToAdd);;
}

this.setState({searchResults: values});

answered May 29, 2017 at 5:45

Mayank Shukla

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1 Comment

hermt2 Over a year ago

Ahhh, such a simple mistake. And thank you for the advice on mutating state as well.

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