Show added posts without refreshing page in React - node.js

Question

I have been working on a personal project outside university, developing a blog.
Right now I'm trying to implement a "home page" where after a succesfull login, the user can post text, and right after that it appears under the Create post div you can see in the pic
This is what I have managed to accomplish so far:
This is the home page after login
Right now I can login, and post a new post which saves it in the database.
This is the home.js functional componenet which the user sees after a login:
import '../App.css';
import { useHistory } from "react-router-dom";
import React , {useState, useEffect} from 'react';
import jwt_decode from 'jwt-decode'
import logo from '../images/home-logo.png';
import {Col,Form,Input,Button,Card,CardTitle,Navbar,Nav,NavbarBrand} from 'reactstrap'
import { createPost,getUserPosts } from '../fucntions/user_functions'
function Home(){
var _decoded;
var _email;
let history = useHistory();
const[post_text,setPost] = useState('');
const handleChangePost = e =>{ setPost(e.target.value);};
function handlePost(e){
e.preventDefault();
const toPost = {
post :post_text, email :_email
}
createPost(toPost).then(res =>{
setPost('')
})
}
function getPosts() {
const container ={
email:_email
}
getUserPosts(container).then(res=>{
})
}
function handleLogout (e) {
e.preventDefault();
localStorage.removeItem('usertoken')
history.push(`/login`)
}
useEffect(() =>{
if (localStorage.getItem("usertoken") === null) {
history.push('/login')
} else {
const token = localStorage.usertoken
const user_email = localStorage.useremail
const decoded = jwt_decode(token)
_decoded = decoded;
_email = decoded.email
getPosts()
};
});
return (
<div className = "box">
<div>
<Navbar color="light" light expand="md">
<Nav>
<NavbarBrand type = "button" onClick = {handleLogout}>Logout</NavbarBrand>
</Nav>
</Navbar>
<div className = "wrapper">
<Card body outline color="secondary" className = "card-home " >
<CardTitle><img src={logo} alt="logo"></img>Create post</CardTitle>
<Form onSubmit = {handlePost}>
<Input id = "tx" name = "input1" type = "textarea" value = {post_text} placeholder="Enter your post here" onChange= {handleChangePost}></Input>
<br></br>
<Col sm={{ span: 10, offset: 5 }}>
<Button outline color="primary" type="submit">Post!</Button>
</Col>
</Form>
</Card>
</div>
</div>
</div>
)
}
export default Home;
I have implemented a getPosts method in the backend which gives back an array of the posts
router.post("/getPosts",
async (req, res) => {
const {email,} = req.body;
try {
let user = await User.findOne({email:email});
allPosts = user.posts
res.render('/home',{posts : hello})
} catch (e) {
console.error(e);
res.json("Error")
}
}
);
As you can see above, in the function getPosts(), the response is an Array of all the post's ids the user has posted, they are stored in the mongodb collection called "posts"
And after calling that function, I can iterate over them:
function getPosts() {
const container ={
email:_email
}
getUserPosts(container).then(res=>{
forEach(res.posts) {
}
})
}
I want to render all those posts live, so each time the user posts a new post, it will show right after the Create post div you can see in the picture, What's the best way?
Thanks

Answer 1

First define your posts collection state:
const [allPosts, setAllPosts] = useState([]);
Then every time you successfully save a post in the database, append it to that state:
function handlePost(e){
e.preventDefault();
const toPost = {
post :post_text, email :_email
}
createPost(toPost).then(res =>{
setPost('')
setAllPosts(allPosts.concat(toPost);
})
}
The same goes for getPosts:
function getPosts() {
const container ={
email:_email
}
getUserPosts(container).then(res=>{
setAllPosts(res.data); // <-- if the data is the same structure as the created before
})
}
Then you can render them in an example way:
return (
<div className = "box">
<div>
<Navbar color="light" light expand="md">
<Nav>
<NavbarBrand type = "button" onClick = {handleLogout}>Logout</NavbarBrand>
</Nav>
</Navbar>
<div className = "wrapper">
<Card body outline color="secondary" className = "card-home " >
<CardTitle><img src={logo} alt="logo"></img>Create post</CardTitle>
<Form onSubmit = {handlePost}>
<Input id = "tx" name = "input1" type = "textarea" value = {post_text} placeholder="Enter your post here" onChange= {handleChangePost}></Input>
<br></br>
<Col sm={{ span: 10, offset: 5 }}>
<Button outline color="primary" type="submit">Post!</Button>
</Col>
</Form>
<div>
{
allPosts.map(post => {
return <div><div>email: {post.email}</div><div>post: post.post</div></div>
})
}
</div>
</Card>
</div>
</div>
</div>
)
Feel free to change the HTML structure, so it matches your design