React useOnGlobalEvent hook
Executes a callback whenever an event occurs on the global object.
- Use the
useRef()
hook to create a variable,listener
, which will hold the listener reference. - Use the
useRef()
hook to create a variable that will hold the previous values of thetype
andoptions
arguments. - Use the
useEffect()
hook andEventTarget.addEventListener()
to listen to the given eventtype
on theWindow
global object. - Use
EventTarget.removeEventListener()
to remove any existing listeners and clean up when the component unmounts.
const useOnGlobalEvent = (type, callback, options) => { const listener = React.useRef(null); const previousProps = React.useRef({ type, options }); React.useEffect(() => { const { type: previousType, options: previousOptions } = previousProps; if (listener.current) { window.removeEventListener( previousType, listener.current, previousOptions ); } listener.current = window.addEventListener(type, callback, options); previousProps.current = { type, options }; return () => { window.removeEventListener(type, listener.current, options); }; }, [callback, type, options]); }; const App = () => { useOnGlobalEvent('mousemove', e => { console.log(`(${e.x}, ${e.y})`); }); return <p>Move your mouse around</p>; }; ReactDOM.createRoot(document.getElementById('root')).render( <App /> );