Ionic - Routerlink not triggering Lifecycle events

Question

I'm struggling with Ionic's lifecycle events used with RouterLink.

I have my app data in a JSON file that renders each item using the url paramenters when the page is loaded. I need buttons to go to the next or previous item and refresh the page content, ie:

• I'm on Item 1 (/lecture/item1) => click next => routerLink(/lecture/item2)
• I'm on Item 1 (/lecture/item1) => click prev => routerLink(/lecture/item0) That means that each time i move to a page i need to get the params from the url (/lecture/:param) and update the page data. The problem i'm facing is that RouterLink isn't triggering any Page Leaving lifecycle, so my states doesn't change, also, i can't clean the states (i can do it through an href param, but the whole app is refreshed). I found similar threads on this, but some of them are outdated/still opened: Routerlink bug github.

Is there any way/workaround to reload the component and update the states passing different parameters?

I already tried using useHistory hook, history.replace (Source), and routerDirection="back" but none of them are triggering ion page leaving hooks. I also tried replacing IonRouterOutlet with Switch but this means not having some important ionic features.

Thank you in advance!!

Here is an extract of code for reference:

lectures.json (Array of objects)

{
    "list" : [ {}  ]
}

App.tsx

<IonApp>      
      <IonReactRouter>
        <IonSplitPane contentId="main">
          <Menu />
          
          <IonRouterOutlet id="main">
            <Route path="/" exact>
              <Redirect to="/lectures" />
            </Route>
            <Route path="/lectures" exact component={Home}></Route>
            <Route path="/lectures/:name" exact>
              <Lecture />
            </Route>
          </IonRouterOutlet>
        </IonSplitPane>
      </IonReactRouter>
    </IonApp>

Lecture.tsx

const Page: React.FC = () => {

  const [lecturaIndex, setLecturaIndex] = useState<number>(0);
  const [btnLinks, setBtnLinks] = useState<{next?: string , prev?: string }>({});

 useIonViewDidEnter(()=>{
    // Gets page params and use them to find current item in data json
    let current;
    current = lectures.list.find(lecture => lecture.title === match.params.name); 
    setLecturaIndex(current.id);
   // Set next and prev buttons url for routerLink
    setBtnLinks({
      next: current.id < 13 ? `/lectures/${languages.list[current.id+1].title}` : '/lectures', 
      prev: current.id > 0 ? `/lectures/${languages.list[current.id-1].title}` : '/lectures'
    });
   // function that Enables/disables navigation buttons depending on current index. ie: if i=0; can't go back
    indexCheck(current);
  })

// THESE ARE NEVER TRIGGERED WHEN GOING TO NEXT PARAM (/lectures/:param)
useIonViewWillLeave(()=>{
    console.log('will leave lecture');
  })

  useIonViewDidLeave(()=>{
    console.log('did leave lecture');
  })
  return(
    <IonPage>
      <IonContent>        
        <IonButton          
          disabled={nextBtnDisable}           
          routerLink={btnLinks.next}
          routerDirection="back"      
          >
        NEXT
        </IonButton>
      </IonContent>
    </IonPage>
  )
}

Answer 1

Normally a useEffect with dependency on the route match param is sufficient for issuing side-effects like refetching relevant data.

The ionic useIonViewWillEnter and useIonViewDidEnter hooks described here are basically mounting lifecycle hooks, and don't seem like they'd trigger if you're already on a view and only changing URL path parameters. Move the logic to a useEffect hook which is called when component mounts and when any of its specified dependencies update.

Example:

useEffect(() => {
  // business logic to handle name param changes
}, [match.params.name]);

If the match params is ever undefined then you can use Optional Chaining operator to guard against null/undefined object accesses.

useEffect(() => {
  // business logic to handle name param changes
}, [match?.params?.name]);

Update

It seems the useIonViewWillEnter and useIonViewDidEnter hooks do also take dependency arrays and internally implement a useEffect hook. (should have dug a bit more previously)

Source

export const useIonViewWillEnter = (callback: LifeCycleCallback, deps: any[] = []) => {
  const context = useContext(IonLifeCycleContext);
  const id = useRef<number | undefined>();
  id.current = id.current || Math.floor(Math.random() * 1000000);
  useEffect(() => {
    callback.id = id.current!;
    context.onIonViewWillEnter(callback);
  }, deps);
};

export const useIonViewDidEnter = (callback: LifeCycleCallback, deps: any[] = []) => {
  const context = useContext(IonLifeCycleContext);
  const id = useRef<number | undefined>();
  id.current = id.current || Math.floor(Math.random() * 1000000);
  useEffect(() => {
    callback.id = id.current!;
    context.onIonViewDidEnter(callback);
  }, deps);
};

The useEffect hook isn't necessary then.

useIonViewDidEnter(() => {
  // business logic to handle name param changes
}, [match?.params?.name]);