useFetcher

In HTML/HTTP, data mutations and loads are modeled with navigation: <a href> and <form action>. Both cause a navigation in the browser. The React Router equivalents are <Link> and <Form>.

But sometimes you want to call a loader outside of navigation, or call an action (and get the data on the page to revalidate) without changing the URL. Or you need to have multiple mutations in-flight at the same time.

Many interactions with the server aren't navigation events. This hook lets you plug your UI into your actions and loaders without navigating.

This feature only works if using a data router, see Picking a Router

This is useful when you need to:

• fetch data not associated with UI routes (popovers, dynamic forms, etc.)
• submit data to actions without navigating (shared components like a newsletter sign ups)
• handle multiple concurrent submissions in a list (typical "todo app" list where you can click multiple buttons and all should be pending at the same time)
• infinite scroll containers
• and more!

If you're building a highly interactive, "app like" user interface, you will useFetcher often.

import { useFetcher } from "react-router-dom";

function SomeComponent() {
  const fetcher = useFetcher();

  // call submit or load in a useEffect
  React.useEffect(() => {
    fetcher.submit(data, options);
    fetcher.load(href);
  }, [fetcher]);

  // build your UI with these properties
  fetcher.state;
  fetcher.formData;
  fetcher.json;
  fetcher.text;
  fetcher.formMethod;
  fetcher.formAction;
  fetcher.data;

  // render a form that doesn't cause navigation
  return <fetcher.Form />;
}

Fetchers have a lot of built-in behavior:

• Automatically handles cancellation on interruptions of the fetch
• When submitting with POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, the action is called first
  • After the action completes, the data on the page is revalidated to capture any mutations that may have happened, automatically keeping your UI in sync with your server state
• When multiple fetchers are inflight at once, it will
  • commit the freshest available data as they each land
  • ensure no stale loads override fresher data, no matter which order the responses return
• Handles uncaught errors by rendering the nearest errorElement (just like a normal navigation from <Link> or <Form>)
• Will redirect the app if your action/loader being called returns a redirect (just like a normal navigation from <Link> or <Form>)

Options

key

By default, useFetcher generate a unique fetcher scoped to that component (however, it may be looked up in useFetchers() while in-flight). If you want to identify a fetcher with your own key such that you can access it from elsewhere in your app, you can do that with the key option:

function AddToBagButton() {
  const fetcher = useFetcher({ key: "add-to-bag" });
  return <fetcher.Form method="post">...</fetcher.Form>;
}

// Then, up in the header...
function CartCount({ count }) {
  const fetcher = useFetcher({ key: "add-to-bag" });
  const inFlightCount = Number(
    fetcher.formData?.get("quantity") || 0
  );
  const optimisticCount = count + inFlightCount;
  return (
    <>
      <BagIcon />
      <span>{optimisticCount}</span>
    </>
  );
}

Components

fetcher.Form

Just like <Form> except it doesn't cause a navigation. (You'll get over the dot in JSX ... we hope!)

function SomeComponent() {
  const fetcher = useFetcher();
  return (
    <fetcher.Form method="post" action="/some/route">
      <input type="text" />
    </fetcher.Form>
  );
}

Methods

fetcher.load(href, options)

Loads data from a route loader.

import { useFetcher } from "react-router-dom";

function SomeComponent() {
  const fetcher = useFetcher();

  useEffect(() => {
    if (fetcher.state === "idle" && !fetcher.data) {
      fetcher.load("/some/route");
    }
  }, [fetcher]);

  return <div>{fetcher.data || "Loading..."}</div>;
}

Although a URL might match multiple nested routes, a fetcher.load() call will only call the loader on the leaf match (or parent of index routes).

If you find yourself calling this function inside of click handlers, you can probably simplify your code by using <fetcher.Form> instead.

Any fetcher.load calls that are active on the page will be re-executed as part of revalidation (either after a navigation submission, another fetcher submission, or a useRevalidator() call)

options.flushSync

The flushSync option tells React Router DOM to wrap the initial state update for this fetcher.load in a ReactDOM.flushSync call instead of the default React.startTransition. This allows you to perform synchronous DOM actions immediately after the update is flushed to the DOM.

fetcher.submit()

The imperative version of <fetcher.Form>. If a user interaction should initiate the fetch, you should use <fetcher.Form>. But if you, the programmer are initiating the fetch (not in response to a user clicking a button, etc.), then use this function.

For example, you may want to log the user out after a certain amount of idle time:

import { useFetcher } from "react-router-dom";
import { useFakeUserIsIdle } from "./fake/hooks";

export function useIdleLogout() {
  const fetcher = useFetcher();
  const userIsIdle = useFakeUserIsIdle();

  useEffect(() => {
    if (userIsIdle) {
      fetcher.submit(
        { idle: true },
        { method: "post", action: "/logout" }
      );
    }
  }, [userIsIdle]);
}

fetcher.submit is a wrapper around a useSubmit call for the fetcher instance, so it also accepts the same options as useSubmit.

If you want to submit to an index route, use the ?index param.

If you find yourself calling this function inside of click handlers, you can probably simplify your code by using <fetcher.Form> instead.

Properties

fetcher.state

You can know the state of the fetcher with fetcher.state. It will be one of:

• idle - nothing is being fetched.
• submitting - A route action is being called due to a fetcher submission using POST, PUT, PATCH, or DELETE
• loading - The fetcher is calling a loader (from a fetcher.load) or is being revalidated after a separate submission or useRevalidator call

fetcher.data

The returned data from the loader or action is stored here. Once the data is set, it persists on the fetcher even through reloads and resubmissions.

function ProductDetails({ product }) {
  const fetcher = useFetcher();

  return (
    <details
      onToggle={(event) => {
        if (
          event.currentTarget.open &&
          fetcher.state === "idle" &&
          !fetcher.data
        ) {
          fetcher.load(`/product/${product.id}/details`);
        }
      }}
    >
      <summary>{product.name}</summary>
      {fetcher.data ? (
        <div>{fetcher.data}</div>
      ) : (
        <div>Loading product details...</div>
      )}
    </details>
  );
}

fetcher.formData

When using <fetcher.Form> or fetcher.submit(), the form data is available to build optimistic UI.

function TaskCheckbox({ task }) {
  let fetcher = useFetcher();

  // while data is in flight, use that to immediately render
  // the state you expect the task to be in when the form
  // submission completes, instead of waiting for the
  // network to respond. When the network responds, the
  // formData will no longer be available and the UI will
  // use the value in `task.status` from the revalidation
  let status =
    fetcher.formData?.get("status") || task.status;

  let isComplete = status === "complete";

  return (
    <fetcher.Form method="post">
      <button
        type="submit"
        name="status"
        value={isComplete ? "complete" : "incomplete"}
      >
        {isComplete ? "Mark Complete" : "Mark Incomplete"}
      </button>
    </fetcher.Form>
  );
}

fetcher.json

When using fetcher.submit(data, { formEncType: "application/json" }), the submitted JSON is available via fetcher.json.

fetcher.text

When using fetcher.submit(data, { formEncType: "text/plain" }), the submitted text is available via fetcher.text.

fetcher.formAction

Tells you the action url the form is being submitted to.

<fetcher.Form action="/mark-as-read" />;

// when the form is submitting
fetcher.formAction; // "mark-as-read"

fetcher.formMethod

Tells you the method of the form being submitted: get, post, put, patch, or delete.

<fetcher.Form method="post" />;

// when the form is submitting
fetcher.formMethod; // "post"

The fetcher.formMethod field is lowercase without the future.v7_normalizeFormMethod Future Flag. This is being normalized to uppercase to align with the fetch() behavior in v7, so please upgrade your React Router v6 applications to adopt the uppercase HTTP methods.