reactjs / reactjs/react.dev

[Suggestion]: Provide examples for useActionState with onSubmit handlers

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type: documentation
Dominant language
JavaScript
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Description

Summary

Add examples to the useActionState documentation showcasing how it can work inside onSubmit handlers of forms.

Page

https://react.dev/reference/react/useActionState

Details

The docs show how to use useActionState with the action property of a form. However, the docs don't show how to use useActionState when you need to use it from onSubmit instead. This has been something that I have been fighting.

Let's say you are developing a multi-step / wizard form across multiple components. Not all of the form is rendered at the same time, so uncontrolled components won't work here. You need to use controlled components for your input fields in order to keep all the form state as you go through steps.

When it comes to submission, using action={formAction} won't work anymore, because that will only submit with the input fields currently rendered. It is not at all clear what the expectations are for doing this in the onSubmit handler instead.

When I attempt to do something like this:

        <form
          onSubmit={form.onSubmit(async (values, event) => {
            const formData = new FormData();

            for (const [key, value] of Object.entries(values)) {
              formData.append(key, value);
            }

            startTransition(async () => {
              await formAction(formData);
            });
          })}
        >

I get interesting messages like TS80007: await has no effect on the type of this expression. on the line calling my form action, and I can't await the result and/or handle it.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with the useActionState reference page linked in the issue and review its existing form action example. Add an onSubmit example for controlled, multi-step forms that explains how to invoke the form action and handle its result, then verify that the documented behavior addresses the reported await and TypeScript confusion.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
javascript, react
Domain
documentation, frontend
Issue type
Documentation
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
55/100

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