React Places Autocomplete: Detect Clicks outside of suggestions

React Places Autocomplete: Detect Clicks outside of suggestions

React Places Autocomplete is a popular library used for adding location autocomplete functionality to React applications. However, one common challenge developers face is detecting clicks outside of the autocomplete suggestions. In this blog post, we will explore multiple solutions to this problem.

Solution 1: Using useRef and event listeners

The first solution involves using the useRef hook to create a reference to the autocomplete component, and then attaching event listeners to the document to detect clicks outside of the suggestions.

{`import React, { useRef, useEffect } from 'react';

const AutocompleteComponent = () => {
  const autocompleteRef = useRef(null);

  useEffect(() => {
    const handleClickOutside = (event) => {
      if (autocompleteRef.current && !autocompleteRef.current.contains(event.target)) {
        // Handle click outside logic here
      }
    };

    document.addEventListener('click', handleClickOutside);

    return () => {
      document.removeEventListener('click', handleClickOutside);
    };
  }, []);

  return (
    

      {/* Autocomplete component code */}
    
  );
};

export default AutocompleteComponent;`}

Solution 2: Using React’s synthetic events

The second solution involves using React’s synthetic events to detect clicks outside of the suggestions. This solution leverages the fact that React’s synthetic events bubble up the DOM tree.

{`import React, { useState } from 'react';

const AutocompleteComponent = () => {
  const [showSuggestions, setShowSuggestions] = useState(false);

  const handleDocumentClick = () => {
    setShowSuggestions(false);
  };

  return (
    

       setShowSuggestions(true)}
        onBlur={() => setShowSuggestions(false)}
      />
      {showSuggestions && (
        
 e.stopPropagation()}>
          {/* Autocomplete suggestions */}
        
      )}
    
  );
};

export default AutocompleteComponent;`}

Solution 3: Using React’s useRef and event listeners with a wrapper component

The third solution involves creating a wrapper component that handles the click outside logic and wraps the autocomplete component.

{`import React, { useRef, useEffect } from 'react';

const ClickOutsideWrapper = ({ children, onClickOutside }) => {
  const wrapperRef = useRef(null);

  useEffect(() => {
    const handleClickOutside = (event) => {
      if (wrapperRef.current && !wrapperRef.current.contains(event.target)) {
        onClickOutside();
      }
    };

    document.addEventListener('click', handleClickOutside);

    return () => {
      document.removeEventListener('click', handleClickOutside);
    };
  }, [onClickOutside]);

  return 
{children}
;
};

const AutocompleteComponent = () => {
  const handleOutsideClick = () => {
    // Handle click outside logic here
  };

  return (
    
      {/* Autocomplete component code */}
    
  );
};

export default AutocompleteComponent;`}

With these solutions, you can now easily detect clicks outside of the suggestions in React Places Autocomplete. Choose the solution that best fits your project’s requirements and implement it accordingly.