Question

What are error boundaries in React v16?

Answer 1

Error boundaries are components that catch JavaScript errors anywhere in their child component tree, log those errors, and display a fallback UI instead of the component tree that crashed.

A class component becomes an error boundary if it defines a new lifecycle method called componentDidCatch(error, info) or static getDerivedStateFromError() :

class ErrorBoundary extends React.Component {
  constructor(props) {
    super(props);
    this.state = { hasError: false };
  }

  componentDidCatch(error, info) {
    // You can also log the error to an error reporting service
    logErrorToMyService(error, info);
  }

  static getDerivedStateFromError(error) {
    // Update state so the next render will show the fallback UI.
    return { hasError: true };
  }

  render() {
    if (this.state.hasError) {
      // You can render any custom fallback UI
      return <h1>{"Something went wrong."}</h1>;
    }
    return this.props.children;
  }
}

After that use it as a regular component:

<ErrorBoundary>
  <MyWidget />
</ErrorBoundary>