How to expose a custom ref handle in React

In this blogpost I am going to show you how you can expose a custom ref handle in React using the useImperativeHandle hook. This is extremely handy when you want to use compontent internal functionality outside its function scope.

• Customize the exposed instance value
• Real-world example

Customize the exposed instance value

In general, components to not expose their DOM nodes to their parent. To access those nodes, you have to use forwardRef:

const Child = forwardRef((props, ref) => {
  const handleClick = () => console.log('click!');

  return (
    <button ref={ref} onClick={handleClick}>
      {props.children}
    </button>
  );
});

const Parent = () => {
  const childRef = useCallback(node => {
    if (node) {
      console.log(node);
    }
  }, []);

  return (
    <Child ref={childRef}>
      I am a button
    </Child>
  );
};

In this example we have two components, Child and Parent. By using a ref, the Parent gets access to the <button> DOM node of the Child. When running the example above, you will see the following output in your console:

<button>I am a button</button>

To expose a custom handle instead of a DOM node, use useImperativeHandle:

const Child = forwardRef((props, ref) => {
  const handleClick = () => console.log('click!');

  useImperativeHandle(ref, () => ({ handleClick }));

  return (
    <button onClick={handleClick}>
      {props.children}
    </button>
  );
});

const Parent = () => {
  const childRef = useCallback(handle => {
    if (handle) {
      console.log(handle);
      handle.handleClick();
    }
  }, []);

  return (
    <Child ref={childRef}>
      I am a button
    </Child>
  );
};

Note that the ref is no longer assigned to the <button>. Instead of a node, the parent receives an object containing the handleClick function. The following will be logged to the console:

{handleClick: ƒ}
click!

Real-world example

Now as you know how to customize the exposed instance value of a component, you might ask yourself when this would be useful.

I recently implemented a notification functionality where I used this technique. For showing notifications I created a dedicated provider which stores a message in its state. Whenever there is a message, the Notification component will be rendered:

export const NotificationProvider = forwardRef((props, ref) => {
  const { children, action } = props;
  const [message, setMessage] = useState();
  const showNotification = setMessage;
  const closeNotification = () => setMessage(undefined);

  useImperativeHandle(ref, () => ({ closeNotification }));

  return (
    <NotificationContext.Provider value={{ showNotification, closeNotification }}>
      {children}
      {message && <Notification action={action}>{message}</Notification>}
    </NotificationContext.Provider>
  );
});

The provider also lets you configure an action via props. This action will be used globally for all notifications and gets rendered inside the Notification component. In my case I passed in a button with an onClick event handler. Whenever you click on the button the exposed provider function closeNotification gets executed and closes the notification:

export const App = () => {
  const notificationProviderRef = useRef(null);

  return (
    <NotificationProvider ref={notificationProviderRef} action={<button onClick={() => notificationProviderRef.current?.closeNotification()}>close</button>}>
      <Content />
    </NotificationProvider>
  );
};

That’s it. In this blogpost I described how you can expose a custom ref handle by using useImperativeHandle. This is the way to go if you want to make child functionality accessible for the parent.