React with ES7: Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property 'state' of undefined [duplicate]

Question

This question already has an answer here:

• Unable to access React instance (this) inside event handler 18 answers

I'm getting this error Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property 'state' of undefined whenever I type anything in the input box of AuthorForm. I'm using React with ES7.

The error occurs on 3rd line of setAuthorState function in ManageAuthorPage. Regardless of that line of code even if I put a console.log(this.state.author) in setAuthorState, it will stop at the console.log and call out the error.

Can't find similar issue for someone else over the internet.

Here is the ManageAuthorPage code:

import React, { Component } from 'react';
import AuthorForm from './authorForm';

class ManageAuthorPage extends Component {
  state = {
    author: { id: '', firstName: '', lastName: '' }
  };

  setAuthorState(event) {
    let field = event.target.name;
    let value = event.target.value;
    this.state.author[field] = value;
    return this.setState({author: this.state.author});
  };

  render() {
    return (
      <AuthorForm
        author={this.state.author}
        onChange={this.setAuthorState}
      />
    );
  }
}

export default ManageAuthorPage 

And here is the AuthorForm code:

import React, { Component } from 'react';

class AuthorForm extends Component {
  render() {
    return (
      <form>
                <h1>Manage Author</h1>
        <label htmlFor="firstName">First Name</label>
                <input type="text"
                    name="firstName"
          className="form-control"
                    placeholder="First Name"
          ref="firstName"
          onChange={this.props.onChange}
                    value={this.props.author.firstName}
          />
        <br />

        <label htmlFor="lastName">Last Name</label>
                <input type="text"
                    name="lastName"
          className="form-control"
                    placeholder="Last Name"
          ref="lastName"
                    onChange={this.props.onChange}
          value={this.props.author.lastName}
                    />

                <input type="submit" value="Save" className="btn btn-default" />
            </form>
    );
  }
}

export default AuthorForm

Answer 1

Make sure you're calling super() as the first thing in your constructor!

You should set this for setAuthorState method

class ManageAuthorPage extends Component {

  state = {
    author: { id: '', firstName: '', lastName: '' }
  };

  constructor(props) {
    super(props);
    this.handleAuthorChange = this.handleAuthorChange.bind(this);
  } 

  handleAuthorChange(event) {
    let {name: fieldName, value} = event.target;

    this.setState({
      [fieldName]: value
    });
  };

  render() {
    return (
      <AuthorForm
        author={this.state.author}
        onChange={this.handleAuthorChange}
      />
    );
  }
}

Another alternative based on arrow function:

class ManageAuthorPage extends Component {

  state = {
    author: { id: '', firstName: '', lastName: '' }
  };

  handleAuthorChange = (event) => {
    const {name: fieldName, value} = event.target;

    this.setState({
      [fieldName]: value
    });
  };

  render() {
    return (
      <AuthorForm
        author={this.state.author}
        onChange={this.handleAuthorChange}
      />
    );
  }
}

Answer 2

You have to bind your event handlers to correct context (this):

onChange={this.setAuthorState.bind(this)}