I've got a component which consists of an object, which contains an array of objects, which in turn has keys and strings
this.state = {
dinosaurs: [
{ era: "jurassic", name: "diplodocus", diet: "herbivore" },
{ era: "cretaceous", name: "velociraptor", diet: "carnivore" },
]
}
When I open up the component in react devtools, I find I can edit the strings such as "jurassic" or "diplodocus" by double clicking on those strings, but I apparently can't make changes to the keys such as "era", or the array of dinosaurs. However, it could be possible to change it with React DevTools but I'm doing it incorrectly.
I'm using React DevTools within Google DevTools.
What can and can't I change in a component's state using React DevTools?
I tried looking at the GitHub readme, and I can see a mention of editing state in the section side pane, but no mention of what can and can't be edited.
I looked at How to set React component state and props from browser but there was a comment telling the user to read the friendly manual for React DevTools, plus answers that didn't address what is or isn't possible using React DevTools.
It appears that React DevTools locks out functionality based on whether the page you're looking at is using the "development build of React" or the "production build of React".
I'm currently trying to debug something between my local (development) version of an app and the deployed (production) version of the same app. To test something in the deployed (production) version, it would be helpful if I could open React DevTools, click into the component, and edit a prop. Alas, as far as I can tell, there is absolutely no way to edit one of the props in that production build version of the website via React DevTools.
Contrast that with my local (development) version. I can click into any component in React DevTools, then edit any props (or state) I want and the component immediately renders with the new prop value. That appears pretty easy and straightforward: just double-click what you want to edit and type away.
TL;DR: Certain prop/state editing features of React DevTools appear to be locked down depending on the React build version. If you're not sure which version you're looking at, see the link above. If you need to edit props on something that's a deployed, production build of React, you (probably*) can't. Aggravating, but I feel your pain.
[*Probably because A) I might be wrong (that would be great, someone please comment how to do it), it's not very clear in the first place about when it's editable vs not editable; B) If you could somehow trick the React DevTools into treating the page like it's a development build, it might be possible (or it might break hideously), but checking that requires more effort than I can spare.]
Some editorializing: I would love for the above to not be true, and it's especially aggravating because I don't see a reason why it's necessary. Perhaps I don't understand enough about the difference between the dev and prod versions, but you can still view props/state on a production version using the React DevTools: it doesn't seem like a big leap to be able to also edit it considering that the functionality is all there when it's a development version. But once again, maybe I don't see the reasons behind this.