Refs and the DOM

Refs and the DOM

In the typical React dataflow, props are the only way that parent components interact with their children. To modify a child, you re-render it with new props. However, there are a few cases where you need to imperatively modify a child outside of the typical dataflow. The child to be modified could be an instance of a React component, or it could be a DOM element. For both of these cases, React provides an escape hatch.

When to Use Refs

There are a few good use cases for refs:

• Managing focus, text selection, or media playback.
• Triggering imperative animations.
• Integrating with third-party DOM libraries.

Avoid using refs for anything that can be done declaratively.

For example, instead of exposing open() and close() methods on a Dialog component, pass an isOpen prop to