Re-rendering with <React.Strict Mode> and fabric's canvas instantiation

Question

I am creating a fabric canvas and buttons that instantiate shapes that should be selectable. I don't understand why my component is being re-rendered twice in the following scenario. Because of this my fabric shapes are not selectable. However when I remove <React.StrictMode> from my index.tsx file, rendering occurs once and my shapes are selectable. I could remove <React.StrictMode> but I don't believe that is the best solution. Demo below:

const { Fragment, StrictMode, useEffect, useRef } = React;
const { createRoot } = ReactDOM;

const styles = {};

const CanvasComponent = ({ id }) => {
    const canvasRef = useRef(null);

    useEffect(() => {
        console.log('init canvas'); // displayed twice with <React.StrictMode>
        canvasRef.current = initCanvas();
    }, []);

    const initCanvas = () => (
        canvasRef.current = new fabric.Canvas(`canvas-${id}`, {
            width: 800,
            height: 400,
        })
    );

    const addShape = (shapeType: string) => {
        let shape: fabric.Object;
        switch (shapeType) {
            case 'circle':
                shape = new fabric.Circle({ radius: 30, fill: 'red', left: 100, top: 100 });
                break;
            case 'rectangle':
                shape = new fabric.Rect({ width: 60, height: 70, fill: 'green', left: 100, top: 100 });
                break;
            default:
                return;
        }
        canvasRef.current.add(shape);
    };

    return (
        <div>
            <button onClick={() => addShape('circle')}>Add Circle</button>
            <button onClick={() => addShape('rectangle')}>Add Rectangle</button>
            <div className={styles.canvasContainer}>
                <canvas id={`canvas-${id}`}></canvas>
            </div>
        </div>
    );
}

function StrictModeEnabled() {
    return <StrictMode><h1>Strict Mode Enabled</h1><CanvasComponent id={1} /></StrictMode>;
}

function StrictModeDisabled() {
    return <Fragment><h1>Strict Mode Disabled</h1><CanvasComponent id={2} /></Fragment>;
}

const strictModeEnabledRoot = createRoot(document.getElementById("strict-mode-enabled"));
strictModeEnabledRoot.render(<StrictModeEnabled />);

const strictModeDisabledRoot = createRoot(document.getElementById("strict-mode-disabled"));
strictModeDisabledRoot.render(<StrictModeDisabled />);

<script crossorigin src="https://www.unpkg.com/[email protected]/dist/fabric.js"></script>
<script crossorigin src="https://unpkg.com/react@18/umd/react.development.js"></script>
<script crossorigin src="https://unpkg.com/react-dom@18/umd/react-dom.development.js"></script>
<div id="strict-mode-enabled"></div>
<div id="strict-mode-disabled"></div>

Answer 1

Problem

Why useEffect running twice and how to handle it well in React? has great answers describing why this is happening and a generalised solution.

Solution

In your case, you need to clean up the instantiated canvas. I'm not familiar with Fabric, however from reading the documentation the dispose method seems suitable:

dispose() → {fabric.Canvas}

Clears a canvas element and removes all event listeners

You'll need to return a function from the useEffect that calls the above method. It is good practice to return a function that does cleanup from useEffects, as elaborated in the linked question. A working demo is also below:

const { Fragment, StrictMode, useEffect, useRef } = React;
const { createRoot } = ReactDOM;

const styles = {};

const CanvasComponent = ({ id }) => {
    const canvasRef = useRef(null);

    useEffect(() => {
        console.log('init canvas'); // displayed twice with <React.StrictMode>
        canvasRef.current = initCanvas();
        
         return () => canvasRef.current.dispose();
    }, []);

    const initCanvas = () => (
        canvasRef.current = new fabric.Canvas(`canvas-${id}`, {
            width: 800,
            height: 400,
        })
    );

    const addShape = (shapeType: string) => {
        let shape: fabric.Object;
        switch (shapeType) {
            case 'circle':
                shape = new fabric.Circle({ radius: 30, fill: 'red', left: 100, top: 100 });
                break;
            case 'rectangle':
                shape = new fabric.Rect({ width: 60, height: 70, fill: 'green', left: 100, top: 100 });
                break;
            default:
                return;
        }
        canvasRef.current.add(shape);
    };

    return (
        <div>
            <button onClick={() => addShape('circle')}>Add Circle</button>
            <button onClick={() => addShape('rectangle')}>Add Rectangle</button>
            <div className={styles.canvasContainer}>
                <canvas id={`canvas-${id}`}></canvas>
            </div>
        </div>
    );
}

function StrictModeEnabled() {
    return <StrictMode><h1>Strict Mode Enabled</h1><CanvasComponent id={1} /></StrictMode>;
}

const strictModeEnabledRoot = createRoot(document.getElementById("strict-mode-enabled"));
strictModeEnabledRoot.render(<StrictModeEnabled />);

<script crossorigin src="https://www.unpkg.com/[email protected]/dist/fabric.js"></script>
<script crossorigin src="https://unpkg.com/react@18/umd/react.development.js"></script>
<script crossorigin src="https://unpkg.com/react-dom@18/umd/react-dom.development.js"></script>
<div id="strict-mode-enabled"></div>