Automatically binds methods defined within a component's Class to the current object's lexical this instance (similarly to the default behavior of React.createClass).

React 0.13 introduced the possibility to define components using plain JavaScript ES6 classes. But differently from the traditional React.createClass, user defined methods in a ES6 class are not automatically bound.

Autobind is an utility function that can be called from the class constructor to bind the class methods to the component instance.

To install the stable version:

npm install --save react-autobind

Then import it:

import autoBind from 'react-autobind';

You will generally call autoBind from the class constructor, passing the 'this' context:

constructor(props) {
  super(props);
  autoBind(this);
}

Autobind is smart enough to avoid binding React related methods (such as render and lifecycle hooks).

You can also explicitly specify certain methods to exclude from binding:

constructor(props) {
  super(props);
  autoBind(this, {
    wontBind: ['leaveAlone1', 'leaveAlone2']
  });
}

Or specify the only methods that should be auto-bound:

constructor(props) {
  super(props);
  autoBind(this, {
    bindOnly: ['myMethod1', 'myMethod2']
  });
}

Naturally, wontBind and bindOnly cannot be used together.

import React from 'react';
import {render} from 'react-dom';
import autoBind from 'react-autobind';

class App extends React.Component {

  constructor(props) {
    super(props);
    this.state = {
      clickCounter: 0
    }
    autoBind(this);
  }

  increment() {
    this.setState({
      clickCounter: this.state.clickCounter + 1
    });
  }

  // React's render and lifecycle hooks aren't bound

  componentDidMount() {
    console.log("Component is mounted.");
  }

  render(){
    return (
      <div>
        <h1>Number of clicks: {this.state.clickCounter}</h1>
        <button onClick={this.increment}>Increment Counter</button>
      </div>
    );
  }
}

render(<App />, document.getElementById('root'));

React-autobind is similar (and forks some code from) Autobind Decorator, with two main differences:

1. React-autobind is focused on React, and avoids binding React's Component methods such as render and lifecycle hooks.

2. React-autobind is a plain function call, while Autobind Decorator uses a more elegant but still not standardized JavaScript syntax that is subject to change in the future.