A React hook for capturing outside click events. The useOutsideClick hook allows you to detect when a user clicks outside of a specific element on your website. It returns a reference to the element, which you can attach to a DOM node using the ref attribute, and a boolean indicating whether the user has clicked outside of the element.

npm install use-outside-click-hook

import useOutsideClick from "use-outside-click-hook";

function MyComponent() {
  const [isOpen, setIsOpen] = useState(false);
  const ref =
    useOutsideClick < HTMLDivElement > (() => setIsOpen(false), isOpen);

  return (
    <div>
      <button onClick={() => setIsOpen(!isOpen)}>Toggle</button>
      {isOpen && <div ref={ref}>Click outside of this box to close</div>}
    </div>
  );
}

Note that, the isOpen parameter is optional and you can use it to conditionally render the elements based on whether it's open or closed. If you don't pass this parameter, the hook will assume that the element is always open and will call the callback function whenever a click outside of the element occurs.

Also, the return is the ref variable that should be attached to the DOM element that you want to detect clicks outside of, you can use this variable to attach to the DOM element using ref attribute.

import useOutsideClick from "use-outside-click-hook";

function MyModal() {
  const [isOpen, setIsOpen] = useState(false);
  const ref =
    useOutsideClick < HTMLDivElement > (() => setIsOpen(false), isOpen);

  return (
    <div>
      <button onClick={() => setIsOpen(!isOpen)}>Open Modal</button>
      {isOpen && (
        <div className="modal" ref={ref}>
          <div className="modal-content">
            <p>Modal Content</p>
            <button onClick={() => setIsOpen(false)}>Close</button>
          </div>
        </div>
      )}
    </div>
  );
}

Q: How do I attach the returned ref to a DOM element? A: You can attach the ref to a DOM element using the ref attribute. For example, if your component has a div that you want to detect clicks outside of, you can do something like this:

const ref = useOutsideClick(myCallback);
return <div ref={ref}>Content goes here</div>

Q: What is the second parameter for? A: The second parameter is an optional boolean that indicates whether the element is open or closed. If you pass true, the hook will call the callback function when a click outside of the element occurs. If you pass false, the hook will do nothing. If you don't pass this parameter, the hook will assume that the element is always open.

Q: Can I use this hook with a class component? A: No, this hook can only be used in functional components.