# 🦉 OWL Component 🦉

## Content

- [Overview](#overview)
- [Example](#example)
- [Reference](#reference)
  - [Reactive System](#reactive-system)
  - [Properties](#properties)
  - [Static Properties](#static-properties)
  - [Methods](#methods)
  - [Lifecycle](#lifecycle)
  - [Root Component](#root-component)
  - [Composition](#composition)
  - [Form Input Bindings](#form-input-bindings)
  - [References](#references)
  - [Dynamic sub components](#dynamic-sub-components)
  - [Functional Components](#functional-components)
  - [SVG components](#svg-components)

## Overview

OWL components are the building blocks for user interface. They are designed to be:

1. **declarative:** the user interface should be described in terms of the state
   of the application, not as a sequence of imperative steps.

2. **composable:** each component can seamlessly be created in a parent component by
   a simple tag or directive in its template.

3. **asynchronous rendering:** the framework will transparently wait for each
   sub components to be ready before applying the rendering. It uses native promises
   under the hood.

4. **uses QWeb as a template system:** the templates are described in XML
   and follow the QWeb specification. This is a requirement for Odoo.

OWL components are defined as a subclass of Component. The rendering is
exclusively done by a [QWeb](qweb_templating_language.md) template (which needs to be preloaded in QWeb).
Rendering a component generates a virtual dom representation
of the component, which is then patched to the DOM, in order to apply the changes in an efficient way.

## Example

Let us have a look at a simple component:

```javascript
const { useState } = owl.hooks;

class ClickCounter extends owl.Component {
  state = useState({ value: 0 });

  increment() {
    this.state.value++;
  }
}
```

```xml
<button t-name="ClickCounter" t-on-click="increment">
  Click Me! [<t t-esc="state.value"/>]
</button>
```

Note that this code is written in ESNext style, so it will only run on the
latest browsers without a transpilation step.

This example shows how a component should be defined: it simply subclasses the
Component class. If no static `template` key is defined, then
Owl will use the component's name as template name. Here,
a state object is defined, by using the `useState` hook. It is not mandatory to use the state object, but it is certainly encouraged. The result of the `useState` call is
[observed](observer.md), and any change to it will cause a rerendering.

## Reference

An Owl component is a small class which represents a component or some UI element.
It exists in the context of an [environment](environment.md) (`env`), which is propagated from a
parent to its children. The environment needs to have a [QWeb](qweb_templating_language.md) instance, which
will be used to render the component template.

Be aware that the name of the component may be significant: if a component does
not define a `template` key, then Owl will lookup in QWeb to
find a template with the component name (or one of its ancestors).

### Reactive system

OWL components are normal javascript classes. So, changing a component internal
state does nothing more:

```js
class Counter extends Component {
  static template = xml`<div t-on-click="increment"><t t-esc="state.value"/></div>`;
  state = { value: 0 };

  increment() {
    this.state.value++;
  }
}
```

Clicking on the `Counter` component defined above will call the `increment`
method, but it will not rerender the component. To fix that, one could add an
explicit call to `render` in `increment`:

```js
    increment() {
        this.state.value++;
        this.render();
    }
```

However, it may be simple in this case, but it quickly become cumbersome, as a
component get more complex, and its internal state is modified by more than one
method.

A better way is to use the reactive system: by using the `useState` hook (see the
[hooks](hooks.md) section for more details), one can make Owl react to state
changes. The `useState` hook generates a proxy version of an object
(this is done by an [observer](observer.md)), which allows the component to
react to any change. So, the `Counter` example above can be improved like this:

```js
const { useState } = owl.hooks;

class Counter extends Component {
  static template = xml`<div t-on-click="increment"><t t-esc="state.value"/></div>`;
  state = useState({ value: 0 });

  increment() {
    this.state.value++;
  }
}
```

Obviously, we can call the `useState` hook more than once:

```js
const { useState } = owl.hooks;

class Counter extends Component {
  static template = xml`
      <div>
        <span t-on-click="increment(counter1)"><t t-esc="counter1.value"/></span>
        <span t-on-click="increment(counter2)"><t t-esc="counter2.value"/></span>
      </div>`;
  counter1 = useState({ value: 0 });
  counter2 = useState({ value: 0 });

  increment(counter) {
    counter.value++;
  }
}
```

Note that hooks are subject to one important [rule](hooks.md#one-rule): they need
to be called in the constructor.

### Properties

- **`el`** (HTMLElement | null): reference to the DOM root node of the element. It is `null` when the
  component is not mounted.

- **`env`** (Object): the component [environment](environment.md), which contains a QWeb instance.

- **`props`** (Object): this is an object containing all the properties given by
  the parent to a child component. For example, in the following situation,
  the parent component gives a `user` and a `color` value to the `ChildComponent`.

  ```xml
    <div>
      <ChildComponent user="state.user" color="color">
    </div>
  ```

  Note that `props` are owned by the parent, not by the component.
  As such, it should not ever be modified by the component (otherwise you risk
  unintended effects, since the parent may not be aware of the change)!!

  The `props` can be modified dynamically by the parent. In that case, the
  component will go through the following lifecycle methods: `willUpdateProps`,
  `willPatch` and `patched`.

### Static Properties

- **`template`** (string, optional): if given, this is the name of the QWeb template that will render the component. Note that there is a helper `xml` to
  make it easy to define an inline template.

* **`components`** (Object, optional): if given, this is an object that contains
  the classes of any sub components needed by the template. This is the main way
  used by Owl to be able to create sub components.

  ```js
  class ParentComponent extends owl.Component {
    static components = { SubComponent };
  }
  ```

* **`props`** (Object, optional): if given, this is an object that describes the
  type and shape of the (actual) props given to the component. If Owl mode is
  `dev`, this will be used to validate the props each time the component is
  created/updated. See [Props Validation](props_validation.md) for more information.

  ```js
  class Counter extends owl.Component {
    static props = {
      initialValue: Number,
      optional: true,
    };
  }
  ```

- **`defaultProps`** (Object, optional): if given, this object define default
  values for (top-level) props. Whenever `props` are given to the object, they
  will be altered to add default value (if missing). Note that it does not
  change the initial object, a new object will be created instead.

  ```js
  class Counter extends owl.Component {
    static defaultProps = {
      initialValue: 0,
    };
  }
  ```

- **`style`** (string, optional): it should be the return value of the [`css` tag](tags.md#css-tag),
  which is used to inject stylesheet whenever the component is visible on the
  screen.

There is another static property defined on the `Component` class: `current`.
This property is set to the currently being defined component (in the constructor).
This is the way [hooks](hooks.md) are able to get a reference to the target
component.

### Methods

We explain here all the public methods of the `Component` class.

- **`mount(target, options)`** (async): this is the main way a
  component is added to the DOM: the root component is mounted to a target
  HTMLElement (or document fragment). Obviously, this is asynchronous, since each children need to be
  created as well. Most applications will need to call `mount` exactly once, on
  the root component.

  The `options` argument is an optional object with a `position` key. The
  `position` key can have three possible values: `first-child`, `last-child`, `self`.

  - `first-child`: with this option, the component will be prepended inside the target,
  - `last-child` (default value): with this option, the component will be
    appended in the target element,
  - `self`: the target will be used as the root element for the component. This
    means that the target has to be an HTMLElement (and not a document fragment).
    In this situation, it is possible that the component cannot be unmounted. For
    example, if its target is `document.body`.

  Note that if a component is mounted, unmounted and remounted, it will be
  automatically re-rendered to ensure that changes in its state (or something
  in the environment, or in the store, or ...) will be taken into account.

  If a component is mounted inside an element or a fragment which is not in the
  DOM, then it will be rendered fully, but not active: the `mounted` hooks will
  not be called. This is sometimes useful if we want to load an application in
  memory. In that case, we need to mount the root component again in an element
  which is in the DOM:

  ```js
  const app = new App();
  await app.mount(document.createDocumentFragment());
  // app is rendered in memory, but not active
  await app.mount(document.body);
  // app is now visible
  ```

* **`unmount()`**: in case a component needs to be detached/removed from the DOM, this
  method can be used. Most applications should not call `unmount`, this is more
  useful to the underlying component system.

* **`render()`** (async): calling this method directly will cause a rerender. Note
  that this should be very rare to have to do it manually, the Owl framework is
  most of the time responsible for doing that at an appropriate moment.

  Note that the render method is asynchronous, so one cannot observe the updated
  DOM in the same stack frame.

* **`shouldUpdate(nextProps)`**: this method is called each time a component's props
  are updated. It returns a boolean, which indicates if the component should
  ignore a props update. If it returns false, then `willUpdateProps` will not
  be called, and no rendering will occur. Its default implementation is to
  always return true. This is an optimization, similar to React's `shouldComponentUpdate`. Most of the time, this should not be used, but it
  can be useful if we are handling large number of components.

* **`destroy()`**. As its name suggests, this method will remove the component,
  and perform all necessary cleanup, such as unmounting the component, its children,
  removing the parent/children relationship. This method should almost never be
  called directly (except maybe on the root component), but should be done by the
  framework instead.

Obviously, these methods are reserved for Owl, and should not be used by Owl
users, unless they want to override them. Also, Owl reserves all method names
starting with `__`, in order to prevent possible future conflicts with user code
whenever Owl needs to change.

### Lifecycle

A solid and robust component system needs useful hooks/methods to help
developers write components. Here is a complete description of the lifecycle of
a owl component:

| Method                                           | Description                                                 |
| ------------------------------------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------- |
| **[constructor](#constructorparent-props)**      | constructor                                                 |
| **[willStart](#willstart)**                      | async, before first rendering                               |
| **[mounted](#mounted)**                          | just after component is rendered and added to the DOM       |
| **[willUpdateProps](#willupdatepropsnextprops)** | async, before props update                                  |
| **[willPatch](#willpatch)**                      | just before the DOM is patched                              |
| **[patched](#patchedsnapshot)**                  | just after the DOM is patched                               |
| **[willUnmount](#willunmount)**                  | just before removing component from DOM                     |
| **[catchError](#catcherrorerror)**               | catch errors (see [error handling page](error_handling.md)) |

Notes:

- hooks call order is precisely defined: `[willX]` hooks are called first on parent,
  then on children, and `[Xed]` are called in the reverse order: first children,
  then parent.
- no hook method should ever be called manually. They are supposed to be
  called by the owl framework whenever it is required.

#### `constructor(parent, props)`

The constructor is not exactly a hook, it is the regular,
normal, constructor of the component. Since it is not a hook, you need to make
sure that `super` is called.

This is usually where you would set the initial state and the template of the
component.

```javascript
  constructor(parent, props) {
    super(parent, props);
    this.state = useState({someValue: true});
    this.template = 'mytemplate';
  }
```

Note that with ESNext class fields, the constructor method does not need to be
implemented in most cases:

```javascript
class ClickCounter extends owl.Component {
  state = useState({ value: 0 });

  ...
}
```

#### `willStart()`

willStart is an asynchronous hook that can be implemented to
perform some action before the initial rendering of a component.

It will be called exactly once before the initial rendering. It is useful
in some cases, for example, to load external assets (such as a JS library)
before the component is rendered. Another use case is to load data from a server.

```javascript
  async willStart() {
    await owl.utils.loadJS("my-awesome-lib.js");
  }
```

At this point, the component is not yet rendered. Note that a slow `willStart` method will slow down the rendering of the user
interface. Therefore, some care should be made to make this method as
fast as possible.

#### `mounted()`

`mounted` is called each time a component is attached to the
DOM, after the initial rendering and possibly later if the component was unmounted
and remounted. At this point, the component is considered _active_. This is a good place to add some listeners, or to interact with the
DOM, if the component needs to perform some measure for example.

It is the opposite of `willUnmount`. If a component has been mounted, it will
always be unmounted at some point in the future.

The mounted method will be called recursively on each of its children. First,
the parent, then all its children.

It is allowed (but not encouraged) to modify the state in the `mounted` hook.
Doing so will cause a rerender, which will not be perceptible by the user, but
will slightly slow down the component.

#### `willUpdateProps(nextProps)`

The willUpdateProps is an asynchronous hook, called just before new props
are set. This is useful if the component needs to perform an asynchronous task,
depending on the props (for example, assuming that the props are
some record Id, fetching the record data).

```javascript
  willUpdateProps(nextProps) {
    return this.loadData({id: nextProps.id});
  }
```

This hook is not called during the first render (but willStart is called
and performs a similar job).

#### `willPatch()`

The willPatch hook is called just before the DOM patching process starts.
It is not called on the initial render. This is useful to read
information from the DOM. For example, the current position of the
scrollbar.

Note that modifying the state is not allowed here. This method is called just
before an actual DOM patch, and is only intended to be used to save some local
DOM state. Also, it will not be called if the component is not in the DOM.

#### `patched(snapshot)`

This hook is called whenever a component did actually update its DOM (most
likely via a change in its state/props or environment).

This method is not called on the initial render. It is useful to interact
with the DOM (for example, through an external library) whenever the
component was patched. Note that this hook will not be called if the component is
not in the DOM.

Updating the component state in this hook is possible, but not encouraged.
One needs to be careful, because updates here will create an additional rendering, which in
turn will cause other calls to the `patched` method. So, we need to be particularly
careful at avoiding endless cycles.

#### `willUnmount()`

willUnmount is a hook that is called each time just before a component is unmounted from
the DOM. This is a good place to remove listeners, for example.

```javascript
  mounted() {
    this.env.bus.on('someevent', this, this.doSomething);
  }
  willUnmount() {
    this.env.bus.off('someevent', this, this.doSomething);
  }
```

This is the opposite method of `mounted`.

#### `catchError(error)`

The `catchError` method is useful when we need to intercept and properly react
to (rendering) errors that occur in some sub components. See the page on
[error handling](error_handling.md).

### Root Component

Most of the time, an Owl component will be created automatically by a tag (or the `t-component`
directive) in a template. There is however an obvious exception: the root component
of an Owl application has to be created manually:

```js
class App extends owl.Component { ... }

const app = new App();
app.mount(document.body);
```

The root component does not have a parent nor `props` (see note below). It will be setup with an
[environment](environment.md) (either the `env` defined on its class, or a
default empty environment).

Note: a root component can however be given a `props` object in its constructor,
like this: `new App(null, {some: 'object'});`. It will not be a true `props`
object, managed by Owl (so, for example, it will never be updated).

### Composition

The example above shows a QWeb template with a sub component. In a template,
components are declared with a tagname corresponding to the class name. It has
to be capitalized.

```xml
<div t-name="ParentComponent">
  <span>some text</span>
  <MyComponent info="13" />
</div>
```

```js
class ParentComponent extends owl.Component {
    static components = { MyComponent: MyComponent};
    ...
}
```

In this example, the `ParentComponent`'s template creates a component `MyComponent` just
after the span. The `info` key will be added to the subcomponent's `props`. Each
`props` is a string which represents a javascript (QWeb) expression, so it is
dynamic. If it is necessary to give a string, this can be done by quoting it:
`someString="'somevalue'"`.

Note that the rendering context for the template is the component itself. This means
that the template can access `state` (if it exists), `props`, `env`, or any
methods defined in the component.

```xml
<div t-name="ParentComponent">
    <ChildComponent count="state.val" />
</div>
```

```js
class ParentComponent {
  static components = { ChildComponent };
  state = useState({ val: 4 });
}
```

Whenever the template is rendered, it will automatically create the subcomponent
`ChildComponent` at the correct place. It needs to find the reference to the
actual component class in the special static `components` key, or the class registered in
QWeb's global registry (see `register` function of QWeb). It first looks inside
the static `components` key, then fallbacks on the global registry.

_Props_: In this example, the child component will receive the object `{count: 4}` in its
constructor. This will be assigned to the `props` variable, which can be accessed
on the component (and also, in the template). Whenever the state is updated, then
the sub component will also be updated automatically. See the [props section](props.md)
for more information.

**CSS and style:** Owl allows the parent to declare
additional css classes or style for the sub component: css declared in `class`, `style`, `t-att-class` or `t-att-style` will be added to the
root component element.

```xml
<div t-name="ParentComponent">
  <MyComponent class="someClass" style="font-weight:bold;" info="13" />
</div>
```

Warning: there is a small caveat with dynamic class attributes: since Owl needs
to be able to add/remove proper classes whenever necessary, it needs to be aware
of the possible classes. Otherwise, it will not be able to make the difference
between a valid css class added by the component, or other custom code, and a
class that need to be removed. This is why we only support the explicit syntax
with a class object:

```xml
<MyComponent t-att-class="{a: state.flagA, b: state.flagB}" />
```

### Form Input Bindings

It is very common to need to be able to read the value out of an html `input` (or
`textarea`, or `select`) in order to use it (note: it does not need to be in a
form!). A possible way to do this is to do it by hand:

```js
class Form extends owl.Component {
  state = useState({ text: "" });

  _updateInputValue(event) {
    this.state.text = event.target.value;
  }
}
```

```xml
<div>
  <input t-on-input="_updateInputValue" />
  <span t-esc="state.text" />
</div>
```

This works. However, this requires a little bit of _plumbing_ code. Also, the
plumbing code is slightly different if you need to interact with a checkbox,
or with radio buttons, or with select tags.

To help with this situation, Owl has a builtin directive `t-model`: its value
should be an observed value in the component (usually `state.someValue`). With
the `t-model` directive, we can write a shorter code, equivalent to the previous
example:

```js
class Form extends owl.Component {
  state = { text: "" };
}
```

```xml
<div>
  <input t-model="state.text" />
  <span t-esc="state.text" />
</div>
```

The `t-model` directive works with `<input>`, `<input type="checkbox">`,
`<input type="radio">`, `<textarea>` and `<select>`:

```xml
<div>
    <div>Text in an input: <input t-model="state.someVal"/></div>
    <div>Textarea: <textarea t-model="state.otherVal"/></div>
    <div>Boolean value: <input type="checkbox" t-model="state.someFlag"/></div>
    <div>Selection:
        <select t-model="state.color">
            <option value="">Select a color</option>
            <option value="red">Red</option>
            <option value="blue">Blue</option>
        </select>
    </div>
    <div>
        Selection with radio buttons:
        <span>
            <input type="radio" name="color" id="red" value="red" t-model="state.color"/>
            <label for="red">Red</label>
        </span>
        <span>
            <input type="radio" name="color" id="blue" value="blue" t-model="state.color" />
            <label for="blue">Blue</label>
        </span>
    </div>
</div>
```

Like event handling, the `t-model` directive accepts the following modifiers:

| Modifier  | Description                                                          |
| --------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `.lazy`   | update the value on the `change` event (default is on `input` event) |
| `.number` | try to parse the value to a number (using `parseFloat`)              |
| `.trim`   | trim the resulting value                                             |

For example:

```xml
<input t-model.lazy="state.someVal" />
```

These modifiers can be combined. For instance, `t-model.lazy.number` will only
update a number whenever the change is done.

Note: the online playground has an example to show how it works.

### References

The `useRef` hook is useful when we need a way to interact with some inside part
of a component, rendered by Owl. It can work either on a DOM node, or on a component,
tagged by the `t-ref` directive. See the [hooks section](hooks.md#useref) for
more detail.

As a short example, here is how we could set the focus on a given input:

```xml
<div>
    <input t-ref="input"/>
    <button t-on-click="focusInput">Click</button>
</div>
```

```js
import { useRef } from "owl/hooks";

class SomeComponent extends Component {
  inputRef = useRef("input");

  focusInput() {
    this.inputRef.el.focus();
  }
}
```

The `useRef` hook can also be used to get a reference to an instance of a sub
component rendered by Owl. In that case, we need to access it with the `comp`
property instead of `el`:

```xml
<div>
    <SubComponent t-ref="sub"/>
    <button t-on-click="doSomething">Click</button>
</div>
```

```js
import { useRef } from "owl/hooks";

class SomeComponent extends Component {
  static components = { SubComponent };
  subRef = useRef("sub");

  doSomething() {
    this.subRef.comp.doSomeThingElse();
  }
}
```

Note that these two examples uses the suffix `ref` to name the reference. This
is not mandatory, but it is a useful convention, so we do not forget to access
it with the `el` or `comp` suffix.

### Dynamic sub components

It is not common, but sometimes we need a dynamic component name. In this case,
the `t-component` directive can also be used to accept dynamic values with string interpolation (like the [`t-attf-`](qweb_templating_language.md#dynamic-attributes) directive):

```xml
<div t-name="ParentComponent">
    <t t-component="ChildComponent{{id}}" />
</div>
```

```js
class ParentComponent {
  static components = { ChildComponent1, ChildComponent2 };
  state = { id: 1 };
}
```

There is an even more dynamic way to use `t-component`: its value can be an
expression evaluating to an actual component class. In that case, this is the
class that will be used to create the component:

```js
class A extends Component<any, any, any> {
  static template = xml`<span>child a</span>`;
}
class B extends Component<any, any, any> {
  static template = xml`<span>child b</span>`;
}
class App extends Component<any, any, any> {
  static template = xml`<t t-component="myComponent" t-key="state.child"/>`;

  state = { child: "a" };

  get myComponent() {
    return this.state.child === "a" ? A : B;
  }
}
```

In this example, the component `App` selects dynamically the concrete sub
component class.

Note that the `t-component` directive can only be used on `<t>` nodes.

### Functional Components

Owl does not exactly have functional components. However, there is an extremely
close alternative: calling sub templates.

A stateless functional component in react is usually some kind of function that
maps props to a virtual dom (often with `jsx`). So, basically, almost like a
template rendered with `props`. In Owl, this can be done by
simply defining a template, that will access the `props` object:

```js
const Welcome = xml`<h1>Hello, {props.name}</h1>`;

class MyComponent extends Component {
  static template = xml`
        <div>
            <t t-call=${Welcome}/>
            <div>something</div>
        </div>
    `;
}
```

The way this works is that sub templates are inlined, and have access to the
ambient context. They can therefore access `props`, and any other part of the
caller component.

### SVG Components

Owl components can be used to generate dynamic SVG graphs:

```js
class Node extends Component {
  static template = xml`
        <g>
            <circle t-att-cx="props.x" t-att-cy="props.y" r="4" fill="black"/>
            <text t-att-x="props.x - 5" t-att-y="props.y + 18"><t t-esc="props.node.label"/></text>
            <t t-set="childx" t-value="props.x + 100"/>
            <t t-set="height" t-value="props.height/(props.node.children || []).length"/>
            <t t-foreach="props.node.children || []" t-as="child">
                <t t-set="childy" t-value="props.y + child_index*height"/>
                <line t-att-x1="props.x" t-att-y1="props.y" t-att-x2="childx" t-att-y2="childy" stroke="black" />
                <Node x="childx" y="childy" node="child" height="height"/>
            </t>
        </g>
    `;
  static components = { Node };
}

class RootNode extends Component {
  static template = xml`
        <svg height="180">
            <Node node="graph" x="10" y="20" height="180"/>
        </svg>
    `;
  static components = { Node };
  graph = {
    label: "a",
    children: [
      { label: "b" },
      { label: "c", children: [{ label: "d" }, { label: "e" }] },
      { label: "f", children: [{ label: "g" }] },
    ],
  };
}
```

This `RootNode` component will then display a live SVG representation of the
graph described by the `graph` property. Note that there is a recursive structure
here: the `Node` component uses itself as a subcomponent.

Note that since SVG needs to be handled in a specific way (its namespace needs
to be properly set), there is a small constraint for Owl components: if an owl
component is supposed to be a part of an svg graph, then its root node needs to
be a `g` tag, so Owl can properly set the namespace.
