Skip to main content

Reactor vs ReactJS

this environment variable

  • Reactor –  this is an instance of [DOM] Element to what this class is applied.
  • React.JS – this is an instance of React.Component – not related to real DOM element. You should use Refs to get access real DOM elements.

constructor(props,kids,parent) method

constructor in Reactor is called when DOM element is not attached to the DOM yet. The constructor is called once for the given DOM element/class.  Closest match of Reactor’s constructor is componentWillMount() in React.JS

componentDidMount() method

This method has the same semantic in Reactor and React.JS. The method is called once – after the element is attached to the DOM.

componentWillUnmount() method

This method has the same semantic in Reactor and React.JS. The method is called once – immediately before the element will be removed from the DOM.

render(props,kids) method

In Reactor the render() method is called in two cases:

  1. When VDOM to DOM transformation is needed, for example to create DOM element for JSX expression like: <Component prop\="..." />. In this case props will be an object – properties map. Kids will be an array (possibly empty).
  2. When element.componentUpdate({...}) is called for the given element. In this case both props and kids will be undefined.

Therefore Reactor.render() combines semantic of both, ReactJS.constructor() as ReactJS.render().

state.reconciliation = true | false

element.state.reconciliation = false will prevent reconciliation (patching) of element content while rendering. Effectively that is an equivalent of returning false from shouldComponentUpdate() of ReactJS