This is an example to illustrate how you can use the ref feature in React to read the DOM node dimensions after a component renders (width in this example).
The goal is to have a component called MyComponent print out its own width when it renders.
As the MyComponent initially renders, a component property this.element will be set using the ref feature, but this does not trigger any of the React component lifecycle methods since neither props nor state is changed. The componentDidMount lifecycle method does trigger after the initial render as normal though, and at this point the component property this.element is set so we can use this method to update to the component state offsetWidth value, thus triggering a re-render.
Additionally, we trigger the updateWidth method if the window resize event is triggered to keep the MyComponent output up to date.
$ yarn
OR
$ npm install
$ yarn dev
OR
$ npm run dev