react-error-boundary vs react-error-overlay
Error Handling in React Applications
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Error Handling in React Applications

Error handling is a critical aspect of building robust React applications. The libraries 'react-error-boundary' and 'react-error-overlay' serve different purposes in managing errors within React applications. 'react-error-boundary' provides a way to catch JavaScript errors in the component tree, log those errors, and display a fallback UI. On the other hand, 'react-error-overlay' is designed to provide a better development experience by displaying error overlays during development, making it easier to debug issues as they arise.

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react-error-boundary7,756,0137,82844 kB13 days agoMIT
react-error-overlay4,342,042103,948385 kB2,361a year agoMIT
Feature Comparison: react-error-boundary vs react-error-overlay

Error Boundary Functionality

  • react-error-boundary:

    This package allows you to create error boundaries in your React application. An error boundary is a React component that catches JavaScript errors in its child component tree, logs those errors, and displays a fallback UI instead of crashing the entire application. This is crucial for maintaining a good user experience in production environments.

  • react-error-overlay:

    This package does not provide error boundary functionality but instead focuses on displaying error overlays during development. It shows a full-screen overlay with error details when a runtime error occurs, helping developers quickly identify and fix issues.

Use Case

  • react-error-boundary:

    Ideal for production applications where you want to ensure that errors in the component tree do not crash the entire app. It is useful for wrapping components that may throw errors, allowing you to handle those errors gracefully and provide a better user experience.

  • react-error-overlay:

    Best suited for development environments where immediate feedback on errors is essential. It helps developers see errors as they happen, making it easier to debug and fix issues before deploying the application.

Integration with React

  • react-error-boundary:

    Integrates seamlessly with React's component lifecycle, allowing you to wrap any component in an error boundary. It uses the static method 'getDerivedStateFromError' to update the state when an error is caught, and the 'componentDidCatch' lifecycle method for logging errors.

  • react-error-overlay:

    Works alongside React's development server to intercept errors and display overlays. It is automatically enabled in development mode, providing a smooth integration without additional configuration.

User Experience

  • react-error-boundary:

    Enhances user experience by preventing the entire application from crashing and providing a fallback UI that can inform users of the issue without losing their current state or data.

  • react-error-overlay:

    Improves developer experience by providing clear and immediate feedback on errors, allowing developers to focus on fixing issues without having to dig through logs or console outputs.

Customization

  • react-error-boundary:

    Allows for customization of the fallback UI, enabling developers to create user-friendly error messages and recovery options tailored to their application's needs.

  • react-error-overlay:

    Offers limited customization options, primarily focusing on displaying error messages. However, it provides a clear and consistent way to present errors during development.

How to Choose: react-error-boundary vs react-error-overlay
  • react-error-boundary:

    Choose 'react-error-boundary' if you need to catch and handle errors in your React component tree gracefully, allowing you to display fallback UIs when errors occur. It is particularly useful for production applications where you want to prevent the entire app from crashing due to unhandled errors.

  • react-error-overlay:

    Choose 'react-error-overlay' if you are looking for a development tool that enhances your debugging experience by providing immediate feedback on errors in your application. It overlays error messages on the screen, making it easier to identify and fix issues during development.

Similar Npm Packages to react-error-overlay

react-error-overlay is a development tool designed to provide a better error reporting experience in React applications. It overlays the application with a user-friendly error message when a JavaScript error occurs, making it easier for developers to identify and fix issues during development. This package enhances the development experience by providing clear and actionable error messages, which can significantly speed up the debugging process. While react-error-overlay is a valuable tool, there are several alternatives that offer similar functionalities. Here are a few:

  • @pmmmwh/react-refresh-webpack-plugin is a plugin for Webpack that enables React Fast Refresh, allowing developers to see changes in their React components in real-time without losing the component state. This plugin enhances the development experience by providing instant feedback on code changes and reducing the need for full page reloads. While it primarily focuses on hot reloading, it also helps in catching errors during development, making it a useful alternative to react-error-overlay.

  • react-dev-utils is a set of utility functions and tools for React development, commonly used in Create React App projects. It includes various utilities for error handling, logging, and development server configuration. While it does not provide an overlay specifically for error reporting, it offers a comprehensive set of tools that can assist in debugging and improving the development workflow.

  • react-error-boundary is a higher-order component that allows developers to catch JavaScript errors in their component tree and display a fallback UI instead of crashing the entire application. This package is particularly useful for handling errors in production and providing a better user experience when something goes wrong. While it serves a different purpose than react-error-overlay, it complements error handling in React applications.

  • react-hot-loader is another library that enables hot reloading for React components, allowing developers to see changes instantly without losing their component state. While its primary focus is on hot reloading, it can also help catch errors during development. However, it is worth noting that react-hot-loader is less commonly used in recent projects due to the rise of React Fast Refresh.

For a comprehensive comparison of these packages, check out this link: Comparing @pmmmwh/react-refresh-webpack-plugin vs react-dev-utils vs react-error-boundary vs react-error-overlay vs react-hot-loader.

README for react-error-boundary
react-error-boundary logo

react-error-boundary: Reusable React error boundary component. Supports all React renderers (including React DOM and React Native).

If you like this project, 🎉 become a sponsor or ☕ buy me a coffee

Getting started

# npm
npm install react-error-boundary

# pnpm
pnpm add react-error-boundary

# yarn
yarn add react-error-boundary

FAQs

Frequently asked questions can be found here.

API

ErrorBoundary

A reusable React error boundary component. Wrap this component around other React components to "catch" errors and render a fallback UI.

This package is built on top of React error boundaries, so it has all of the advantages and constraints of that API. This means that it can't catch errors during:

  • Server side rendering
  • Event handlers
  • Asynchronous code (including effects)

ℹ️ The component provides several ways to render a fallback: fallback, fallbackRender, and FallbackComponent. Refer to the documentation to determine which is best for your application.

ℹ️ This is a client component. You can only pass props to it that are serializeable or use it in files that have a "use client"; directive.

Required props

None

Optional props

NameDescription
onError

Optional callback to enable e.g. logging error information to a server. @param error Error that was thrown @param info React "component stack" identifying where the error was thrown

onReset

Optional callback to to be notified when an error boundary is "reset" so React can retry the failed render.

resetKeys

When changed, these keys will reset a triggered error boundary. This can be useful when an error condition may be tied to some specific state (that can be uniquely identified by key). See the the documentation for examples of how to use this prop.

fallback

Static content to render in place of an error if one is thrown.

<ErrorBoundary fallback={<div class="text-red">Something went wrong</div>} />
FallbackComponent

React component responsible for returning a fallback UI based on a thrown value.

<ErrorBoundary FallbackComponent={Fallback} />
fallbackRender

Render prop function responsible for returning a fallback UI based on a thrown value.

<ErrorBoundary fallbackRender={({ error, resetErrorBoundary }) => <div>...</div>} />

FAQ

ErrorBoundary cannot be used as a JSX component

This error can be caused by a version mismatch between react and @types/react. To fix this, ensure that both match exactly, e.g.:

If using NPM:

{
  ...
  "overrides": {
    "@types/react": "17.0.60"
  },
  ...
}

If using Yarn:

{
  ...
  "resolutions": {
    "@types/react": "17.0.60"
  },
  ...
}

This blog post shows more examples of how this package can be used, although it was written for the version 3 API.

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