Why guard against unmount when connecting to a backend?
Because if a component unmounts while a fetch is in flight, setting state on it warns and can cause leaks. Use a cleanup flag or AbortController to cancel the request on unmount, so this never happens.
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More FAQs in Roadmap: Connecting a React UI to a Live Backend
Connecting the UI to a live backend: set up API configuration, attach auth tokens with an interceptor, replace stubs with real fetches, guard against unmount, handle loading and error states, read response shapes carefully, and consider React Query.
So the UI can call localhost in development and the production URL in production without code changes. Setting this up first means the rest of the integration works across both environments.
So you add it in one place and it attaches automatically to every request, instead of repeating the header on every call. An interceptor also lets you handle 401 responses globally by redirecting to login.
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