Infinite loop when using fetcher.load in latest Remix releases

[BrycePearce]

What version of Remix are you using?

1.14.0 (also on 1.15)

Are all your remix dependencies & dev-dependencies using the same version?

• Yes

Steps to Reproduce

1.) Create a resource-route (or any loader) that returns anything. In this case I'm returning json({hello: 'world'})
2.) In any route, create a state variable to track to see if it has been invoked. For example

  let fetcher = useFetcher();
  const [shouldCallResourceRoute, setShouldCallResourceRoute] = useState(true);

  useEffect(() => {
    if (shouldCallResourceRoute) {
      setShouldCallResourceRoute(false); // this should cause this fetcher to never load again. But it infinite loops
      fetcher.load("/resource-routes/resource");
    }
  }, [fetcher, shouldCallResourceRoute]);

3.) Note the infinite loop / crash that happens

-Note-

I am upgrading my Remix from an earlier version where my existing code worked fine. This bug only appeared after upgrading and I was able to replicate in a code sandbox here:

https://codesandbox.io/p/sandbox/hopeful-night-z2lsum?file=%2Fapp%2Froutes%2Findex.tsx&selection=%5B%7B%22endColumn%22%3A1%2C%22endLineNumber%22%3A7%2C%22startColumn%22%3A1%2C%22startLineNumber%22%3A7%7D%5D

Expected Behavior

The fetcher should only load once

Actual Behavior

An infinite loop occurs, crashing the page.

[chuanhhoang]

I face this problem too. Any update on this?

[BrycePearce]

I face this problem too. Any update on this?

I believe this is an unlisted bug/change that only affects the latest versions. However there is a work around provided by brocktho in the discord chat

  useEffect(() => {
    if (shouldFetch && fetcher.state === 'idle') {
      fetcher.load('/fetchRoute');
      setShouldFetch(false);
    }
  }, [fetcher, shouldFetch]);

https://stackblitz.com/edit/remix-run-remix-ahjkhw?file=app%2Froutes%2F_index.tsx,app%2Fentry.server.tsx

Here's a summary of why this works from Ryan Florence

If you’re losing input focus something in your tree is unmounting the input or its parent
Fetchers are stable between renders, but change when their state changes, so if it’s loading/submitting in a useEffect you have to guard it by check it fetcher.state and sometimes fetcher.data, but this won’t fix your in mounting problem, that’s not Remix causing that. 
If possible, make your life easier and load/submit in event handlers instead of effects.

---

However as an unlisted change that breaks previously working code, I still believe this is a bug

[pkasarda]

probably dup of #6014 + docs are here https://remix.run/docs/en/main/hooks/use-fetcher#fetcherload

function SomeComponent() {
  const fetcher = useFetcher();

  useEffect(() => {
    if (fetcher.state === "idle" && fetcher.data == null) {
      fetcher.load("/some/route");
    }
  }, [fetcher]);

  fetcher.data; // the data from the loader
}

[kiliman]

Yes, I believe that you should always check fetcher.state and fetcher.data and not rely on a stable fetcher reference.