defmodule Phoenix.LiveComponent do
@moduledoc """
Components are a mechanism to compartmentalize state, markup, and
events in LiveView.
Components are defined by using `Phoenix.LiveComponent` and are used
by calling `Phoenix.LiveView.Helpers.live_component/3` in a parent LiveView.
Components run inside the LiveView process, but may have their own
state and event handling.
The simplest component only needs to define a `render` function:
defmodule HeroComponent do
# If you generated an app with mix phx.new --live,
# the line below would be: use MyAppWeb, :live_component
use Phoenix.LiveComponent
def render(assigns) do
~L\"""
<%= @content %>
\"""
end
end
When `use Phoenix.LiveComponent` is used, all functions in
`Phoenix.LiveView` are imported. A component can be invoked as:
<%= live_component @socket, HeroComponent, content: @content %>
Components come in two shapes, stateless or stateful. The component
above is a stateless component. Of course, the component above is not
any different compared to a regular function. However, as we will see,
components do provide their own exclusive feature set.
## Stateless components life-cycle
When `live_component` is called, the following callbacks will be invoked
in the component:
mount(socket) -> update(assigns, socket) -> render(assigns)
First `c:mount/1` is called only with the socket. `mount/1` can be used
to set any initial state. Then `c:update/2` is invoked with all of the
assigns given to `live_component/3`. The default implementation of
`c:update/2` simply merges all assigns into the socket. Then, after the
component is updated, `c:render/1` is called with all assigns.
A stateless component is always mounted, updated, and rendered whenever
the parent template changes. That's why they are stateless: no state
is kept after the component.
However, any component can be made stateful by passing an `:id` assign.
## Stateful components life-cycle
A stateful component is a component that receives an `:id` on `live_component/3`:
<%= live_component @socket, HeroComponent, id: :hero, content: @content %>
Stateful components are identified by the component module and their ID.
Therefore, two different component modules with the same ID are different
components. This means we can often tie the component ID to some application
based ID:
<%= live_component @socket, UserComponent, id: @user.id, user: @user %>
Also note the given `:id` is not necessarily used as the DOM ID. If you
want to set a DOM ID, it is your responsibility to set it when rendering:
defmodule UserComponent do
use Phoenix.LiveComponent
def render(assigns) do
~L\"""
<%= @user.name %>
\"""
end
end
In stateful components, `c:mount/1` is called only once, when the
component is first rendered. For each rendering, the optional
`c:preload/1` and `c:update/2` callbacks are called before `c:render/1`.
So on first render, the following callbacks will be invoked:
preload(list_of_assigns) -> mount(socket) -> update(assigns, socket) -> render(assigns)
On subsequent renders, these callbacks will be invoked:
preload(list_of_assigns) -> update(assigns, socket) -> render(assigns)
## Targeting Component Events
Stateful components can also implement the `c:handle_event/3` callback
that works exactly the same as in LiveView. For a client event to
reach a component, the tag must be annotated with a `phx-target`.
If you want to send the event to yourself, you can simply use the
`@myself` assign, which is an *internal unique reference* to the
component instance:
Say hello!
Note `@myself` is not set for stateless components, as they cannot
receive events.
If you want to target another component, you can also pass an ID
or a class selector to any element inside the targeted component.
For example, if there is a `UserComponent` with the DOM ID of `user-13`,
using a query selector, we can send an event to it with:
Say hello!
In both cases, `c:handle_event/3` will be called with the
"say_hello" event. When `c:handle_event/3` is called for a component,
only the diff of the component is sent to the client, making them
extremely efficient.
Any valid query selector for `phx-target` is supported, provided that the
matched nodes are children of a LiveView or LiveComponent, for example
to send the `close` event to multiple components:
Dismiss
### Preloading and update
Every time a stateful component is rendered, both `c:preload/1` and
`c:update/2` are called. To understand why both callbacks are necessary,
imagine that you implement a component and the component needs to load
some state from the database. For example:
<%= live_component @socket, UserComponent, id: user_id %>
A possible implementation would be to load the user on the `c:update/2`
callback:
def update(assigns, socket) do
user = Repo.get! User, assigns.id
{:ok, assign(socket, :user, user)}
end
However, the issue with said approach is that, if you are rendering
multiple user components in the same page, you have a N+1 query problem.
The `c:preload/1` callback helps address this problem as it is invoked
with a list of assigns for all components of the same type. For example,
instead of implementing `c:update/2` as above, one could implement:
def preload(list_of_assigns) do
list_of_ids = Enum.map(list_of_assigns, & &1.id)
users =
from(u in User, where: u.id in ^list_of_ids, select: {u.id, u})
|> Repo.all()
|> Map.new()
Enum.map(list_of_assigns, fn assigns ->
Map.put(assigns, :user, users[assigns.id])
end)
end
Now only a single query to the database will be made. In fact, the
preloading algorithm is a breadth-first tree traversal, which means
that even for nested components, the amount of queries are kept to
a minimum.
Finally, note that `c:preload/1` must return an updated `list_of_assigns`,
keeping the assigns in the same order as they were given.
## Managing state
Now that we have learned how to define and use components, as well as
how to use `c:preload/1` as a data loading optimization, it is important
to talk about how to manage state in components.
Generally speaking, you want to avoid both the parent LiveView and the
LiveComponent working on two different copies of the state. Instead, you
should assume only one of them to be the source of truth. Let's discuss
the two different approaches in detail.
Imagine a scenario where LiveView represents a board with each card in
it as a separate component. Each card has a form that allows to update
its title directly in the component. We will see how to organize the
data flow keeping either the view or the component as the source of truth.
### LiveView as the source of truth
If the LiveView is the source of truth, it will be responsible
for fetching all of the cards in a board. Then it will call `live_component/3`
for each card, passing the card struct as argument to CardComponent:
<%= for card <- @cards do %>
<%= live_component @socket, CardComponent, card: card, id: card.id, board_id: @id %>
<% end %>
Now, when the user submits a form inside the CardComponent to update the
card, `CardComponent.handle_event/3` will be triggered. However, if the
update succeeds, you must not change the card struct inside the component.
If you do so, the card struct in the component will get out of sync with
the LiveView. Since the LiveView is the source of truth, you should instead
tell the LiveView that the card was updated.
Luckily, because the component and the view run in the same process,
sending a message from the component to the parent LiveView is as simple
as sending a message to `self()`:
defmodule CardComponent do
...
def handle_event("update_title", %{"title" => title}, socket) do
send self(), {:updated_card, %{socket.assigns.card | title: title}}
{:noreply, socket}
end
end
The LiveView then receives this event using `handle_info`:
defmodule BoardView do
...
def handle_info({:updated_card, card}, socket) do
# update the list of cards in the socket
{:noreply, updated_socket}
end
end
As the list of cards in the parent socket was updated, the parent
will be re-rendered, sending the updated card to the component.
So in the end, the component does get the updated card, but always
driven from the parent.
Alternatively, instead of having the component directly send a
message to the parent, the component could broadcast the update
using `Phoenix.PubSub`. Such as:
defmodule CardComponent do
...
def handle_event("update_title", %{"title" => title}, socket) do
message = {:updated_card, %{socket.assigns.card | title: title}}
Phoenix.PubSub.broadcast(MyApp.PubSub, board_topic(socket), message)
{:noreply, socket}
end
defp board_topic(socket) do
"board:" <> socket.assigns.board_id
end
end
As long as the parent LiveView subscribes to the "board:ID" topic,
it will receive updates. The advantage of using PubSub is that we get
distributed updates out of the box. Now, if any user connected to the
board changes a card, all other users will see the change.
### LiveComponent as the source of truth
If the component is the source of truth, then the LiveView must no
longer fetch all of the cards structs from the database. Instead,
the view must only fetch all of the card ids and render the component
only by passing the IDs:
<%= for card_id <- @card_ids do %>
<%= live_component @socket, CardComponent, id: card_id, board_id: @id %>
<% end %>
Now, each CardComponent loads their own card. Of course, doing so per
card would be expensive and lead to N queries, where N is the number
of components, so we must use the `c:preload/1` callback to make it
efficient.
Once all card components are started, they can fully manage each
card as a whole, without concerning themselves with the parent LiveView.
However, note that components do not have a `handle_info/2` callback.
Therefore, if you want to track distributed changes on a card, you
must have the parent LiveView receive those events and redirect them
to the appropriate card. For example, assuming card updates are sent
to the "board:ID" topic, and that the board LiveView is subscribed to
said topic, one could do:
def handle_info({:updated_card, card}, socket) do
send_update CardComponent, id: card.id, board_id: socket.assigns.id
{:noreply, socket}
end
With `send_update`, the CardComponent given by `id` will be invoked,
triggering both preload and update callbacks, which will load the
most up to date data from the database.
## Live component blocks
When `live_component` is invoked, it is also possible to pass a `do/end`
block:
<%= live_component @socket, GridComponent, entries: @entries do %>
New entry: <%= @entry %>
<% end %>
The `do/end` will be available as an anonymous function in an assign named
`@inner_content`. The anonymous function must be invoked passing a new set
of assigns that will be merged into the user assigns. For example, the grid
component above could be implemented as:
defmodule GridComponent do
use Phoenix.LiveComponent
def render(assigns) do
~L\"""
<%= for entry <- @entries do %>
<%= @inner_content.(entry: entry) %>
<% end %>
\"""
end
end
Where the `:entry` assign was injected into the `do/end` block.
Note the `@inner_content` assign is also passed to `c:update/2`
along all other assigns. So if you have a custom `update/2`
implementation, make sure to assign it to the socket like so:
def update(%{inner_content: inner_content}, socket) do
{:ok, assign(socket, inner_content: inner_content)}
end
The above approach is the preferred one when passing blocks to `do/end`.
However, if you are outside of a .leex template and you want to invoke a
component passing a `do/end` block, you will have to explicitly handle the
assigns by giving it a `->` clause:
live_component @socket, GridComponent, entries: @entries do
new_assigns -> "New entry: " <> new_assigns[:entry]
end
## Live patches and live redirects
A template rendered inside a component can use `live_patch` and
`live_redirect` calls. The `live_patch` is always handled by the parent
`LiveView`, as components do not provide `handle_params`.
## Cost of stateful components
The internal infrastructure LiveView uses to keep track of stateful
components is very lightweight. However, be aware that in order to
provide change tracking and to send diffs over the wire, all of the
components assigns are kept in memory - exactly as it is done in
LiveViews themselves.
Therefore it is your responsibility to keep only the assigns necessary
in each component. For example, avoid passing all of LiveView components
when rendering a component:
<%= live_component @socket, MyComponent, assigns %>
Instead pass only the keys that you need:
<%= live_component @socket, MyComponent, user: @user, org: @org %>
Luckily, because LiveViews and LiveComponents are in the same process,
they share the same data structures. For example, in the code above,
the view and the component will share the same copies of the `@user`
and `@org` assigns.
You should also avoid using components to provide abstract DOM
components. As a guideline, a good LiveComponent encapsulates
application concerns and not DOM functionality. For example, if you
have a page that shows products for sale, you can encapsulate the
rendering of each of those products in a component. This component
may have many buttons and events within it. On the opposite side,
do not write a component that is simply encapsulating generic DOM
components. For instance, do not do this:
defmodule MyButton
use Phoenix.LiveComponent
def render(assigns) do
~L\"""
\"""
end
def handle_event("click", _, socket) do
_ = socket.assigns.on_click.()
{:noreply, socket}
end
end
Instead, it is much simpler to create a function:
def my_button(text, click) do
assigns = %{text: text, click: click}
~L\"""
\"""
end
If you keep components mostly as an application concern with
only the necessary assigns, it is unlikely you will run into
issues related to stateful components.
## Limitations
### Components require at least one HTML tag
Components must only contain HTML tags at their root. At least one HTML
tag must be present. It is not possible to have components that render
only text or text mixed with tags at the root.
### Change tracking requirement
Another limitation of components is that they must always be change
tracked. For example, if you render a component inside `form_for`, like
this:
<%= form_for @changeset, "#", fn f -> %>
<%= live_component @socket, SomeComponent, f: f %>
<% end %>
The component ends up enclosed by the form markup, where LiveView
cannot track it. In such cases, you may receive an error such as:
** (ArgumentError) cannot convert component SomeComponent to HTML.
A component must always be returned directly as part of a LiveView template
In this particular case, this can be addressed by using the `form_for`
variant without anonymous functions:
<%= f = form_for @changeset, "#" %>
<%= live_component @socket, SomeComponent, f: f %>
This issue can also happen with other helpers, such as `content_tag`:
<%= content_tag :div do %>
<%= live_component @socket, SomeComponent, f: f %>
<% end %>
In this case, the solution is to not use `content_tag` and rely on LiveEEx
to build the markup.
### SVG support
Given components compartmentalize markup on the server, they are also
rendered in isolation on the client, which provides great performance
benefits on the client too.
However, when rendering components on the client, the client needs to
choose the mime type of the component contents, which defaults to HTML.
This is the best default but in some cases it may lead to unexpected
results.
For example, if you are rendering SVG, the SVG will be interpreted as
HTML. This may work just fine for most components but you may run into
corner cases. For example, the `` SVG tag may be rewritten to
the `` tag, since `` is an obsolete HTML tag.
Luckily, there is a solution to this problem. Since SVG allows `