I tried to create a chat application using node.js and react.js. However, I'm facing an issue where clicking the button on my page refreshes the entire page. As a beginner in web development, please forgive me if this is an obvious problem. You can find my code below:
// Array of messages that will be displayed
messageArray = [];
var socket = io();
// Ask the user for their username
var user = prompt("Please enter your name", "Anonymous");
// Emit the username information to keep track of it
socket.emit('new user', user);
$('#chat').submit(function() {
// When the user submits, create a message object with
// details about their name, time sent, message, and socket id.
// The server-side will fill in the socket id
alert("hey");
var date = new Date();
var message = user + " (" + date.toLocaleTimeString('en-US') + "): " + $('#m').val();
var messageJSON = {text:message, username:user, id:"", time:date}
socket.emit('chat message', messageJSON);
// Reset the value field
$('#m').val('');
return false;
});
// Upon receiving a chat message, update messageArray and
// re-render the ViewingBox
socket.on('chat message', function(messages){
messageArray = [];
for (var i = 0; i < messages.length; i++) {
alert(messages[i].text)
messageArray.push(messages[i].text);
}
React.render(
<ViewingBox />,
document.getElementById('root')
);
});
// ViewingBox holds the view of the page and gets updated whenever
// a new message is received
var ViewingBox = React.createClass({
render: function() {
return (
<div>
<h2>Global Chat: Logged in as {user}</h2>
<ul id="messages">
{messageArray.map(function(data, i) {
return (<li>{data}</li>)
})}
</ul>
<form id="chat" action="#">
<input id="m" autoComplete = "off" />
/*
*
Button in question
*
*/
<button>Send</button>
</form>
</div>
);
}
});
// Render the viewingBox when the page initially loads
React.render(
<ViewingBox />,
document.getElementById('root')
);
The relevant HTML code:
<!doctype html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Socket.IO chat</title>
<style>
* { margin: 0; padding: 0; box-sizing: border-box; }
body { font: 13px Helvetica, Arial; }
form { background: #000; padding: 3px; position: fixed; bottom: 0; width: 100%; }
form input { border: 0; padding: 10px; width: 90%; margin-right: .5%; }
form button { width: 9%; background: rgb(130, 224, 255); border: none; padding: 10px; }
#messages { list-style-type: none; margin: 0; padding: 0; }
#messages li { padding: 5px 10px; }
#messages li:nth-child(odd) { background: #eee; }
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div id="root"></div>
<script src="https://fb.me/react-0.13.3.js"></script>
<script src="https://fb.me/JSXTransformer-0.13.3.js"></script>
<script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-2.1.3.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdn.socket.io/socket.io-1.2.0.js"></script>
<script type="text/jsx" src="/reactclient.js"></script>
</body>
</html>
For some reason, the alert in my submit function is not being triggered. Instead, it just refreshes the page whenever I click the button. I'm unsure whether this is an issue with React, jQuery, or if there's something wrong with my HTML code. I already tried using 'onsubmit = "return false"' in my button and preventDefault(). However, I still couldn't identify the problem. Can you help me fix this issue on my page? Additionally, what tools should I consider using to analyze this issue more closely?