reload / re-render the page if the parameters of the url change - react

Question

I am building a social network web app so i have multiple and different users and their profiles. I have a route for "/profile/:userId" in my Switch in my App.js file (and also in my backend obviously). I also have a NavLink button on my navigation bar for going to my profile. Users can also press on the username of someone's post and go to their profiles. All that work great but with one problem. When i am in a user's profile (not my profile) and click on "my profile" button from my navigation bar, even though the route changes (ie if i am user user1 and i am watching a random profile "/profile/user2" and press the profile button from my navigation bar, i go to route "/profile/user1" but the page does not re-render so i am still watching user's "user2" profile). So i want to trigger a reload if the parameters of the url change. Or at least that's what i though of. If you have a better idea of when to reload / re-render the page please share it with me. I am very new to react by the way so bear with me:D

I don't know exactly what part of my code i should upload along with my question to help so if you need any part of my code please tell me and i will upload it. the "profile" button on my navigation bar and also the username of any user on a post are both a Navlink.

the Navlink (which is the "username" of the user that uploaded the post) from my Post.js (the file responsible of every single post i am rendering):

<div className="Post-user-nickname">
  <NavLink className='Nav-link' to={'/profile/' + this.props.creator._id} user={this.props.creator}>{this.props.author}</NavLink>
</div>

the Navlink in my navigation bar:

item = { id: 'Profile', text: 'Profile', link: '/profile/' + this.props.userId, auth: true }

<NavLink to={item.link} exact onClick={this.props.onChoose}>
            {item.text}
</NavLink>

edit: my Profile.js componentDidMount:

  componentDidMount() {
    const userId = this.props.match.params.userId;
    this.setState({userIdNew: userId});
    console.log('-------------------- ' + userId);
    fetch('http://localhost:8080/feed/profile/' + userId, {
      headers: {
        Authorization: 'Bearer ' + this.props.token
      }
    })
      .then(res => {
        if (res.status !== 200) {
          throw new Error('Failed to fetch user status.');
        }
        return res.json();
      })
      .then(resData => {
        this.setState({ status: resData.status, user: resData.user });
        console.log('prwtos: ' + this.state.user._id);
        this.setState({
          posts: resData.user.posts.map(post => {
            return {
              ...post
            };
          })
        });
        this.setState({ imagePath: 'http://localhost:8080/' + resData.user.posts.map(post => {
          let imgUrl = post.imageUrl;
          return imgUrl;
        }) 
        });
        this.setState({ userImage: 'http://localhost:8080/' + resData.user.image })
      })
      .catch(this.catchError);
      this.loadPosts();
      this.loadFollowers();
      this.loadFollowing();
      const socket = openSocket('http://localhost:8080');
      socket.on('posts', data => {
        if (data.action === 'create') {
          this.addPost(data.post);
        } else if (data.action === 'update') {
          this.updatePost(data.post);
        } else if (data.action === 'delete') {
          this.loadPosts();
        }
      });
      this.setState({userIdNew: userId});
  }

Answer 1

Basically, you are performing the request in componentDidMount when the component (the page) is loaded, going to another profile it doesn't mean change page, you are changing props but the request is never reloaded, you could

• Extract the request logic in another function that lives inside the component, something like fetchUser , this will use this.props.match.params.userId

• In componentDidMount :

  • Call fetchUser
  • Save current user id in state

• In componentDidUpdate :

  • You can check if the current user id in props is different from the one you saved in state (another profile is showed), if it is, you can call fetchUser again to obtain the new user data and retriggering a new render