React: Feature Idea: useError hook

[debel]

Do you want to request a feature or report a bug?

Feature idea

What is the current behavior?

Currently there is no hook for dealing with errors in a component's sub-tree.

What is the expected behavior?

Have a hook that allows for functional components to act as Error Boundaries.

Example:

function myErrorBoundary() {
  const caughtError = useErrorCatching();
  if (caughtError !== null) { return <ErrorHandler error={caughtError} />; }
  return <RegularContent />;
}

Which versions of React, and which browser / OS are affected by this issue? Did this work in previous versions of React?
n/a

[aweary]

This is something the React team is working on.

See the last bullet point in How do lifecycle methods correspond to Hooks?

componentDidCatch and getDerivedStateFromError: There are no Hook equivalents for these methods yet, but they will be added soon.

[hg-pyun]

Do you have a roadmap(or abstract date) for when we're use it? :D

[gaearon]

No specific date, you'll have to use an ErrorBoundary class for now.

(Also, we don't think useError is the right design for this.)

[debel]

Thanks Dan,

Could you point us to some discussion about why useError would not be the right design?
(guessing it's because it forces the user to handle the error through a conditional)

[gaearon]

For the same reason <Provider> or memo() are not Hooks. They have an explicit meaning in the tree structure (i.e. their position in the tree affects for how errors/bailouts/context propagate up or down). You don't want a random third-party Hook to be able to "hide" useError() somewhere in it without seeing the result reflected in the tree structure.

[debel]

Ah, totally makes sense. So, might we except a solution similar to forward refs? e.g. const MyErrorHandler = React.errorBoundary((props, error) => {...})

[gaearon]

Possibly although we also had other thoughts related to unifying this API with multipass rendering (previously known as call/return experiment).

[gaearon]

I also wrote this on the topic: https://overreacted.io/why-isnt-x-a-hook/

I think we can close since it's not directly actionable in the current form.

[mildfuzz]

Any other issue we can track for this? Interested in how this develops

[imjuanleonard]

@gaearon how do you propose to use hooks with error boundaries please, with the error boundaries now the hooks error is uncatchable

[inoyakaigor]

@gaeron I don't want write something like «+1» for previous question but it is still actual and not only for me but for all devs who will find that thread

[ctepeo]

Writing at this epic thread issue in almost 2 years since it's started. The problem is still exists :(