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Can I call HOC directly from within JSX / TSX in React?


I have a React HOC in TypeScript, but it doesn't seem to work when I call it from within a TSX Component render method. Here's an example:

export class HelloWorldComponent extends React.Component<{}, {}> {
    public render(): JSX.Element {
        return <div>Hello, world!</div>;
    }
}

export const withRedText = (Component) => {
    return class WithRedComponent extends React.Component<{}, {}> {
        public render(): JSX.Element {                
            return (
                <div style={{color: "red"}}>
                    <Component {...this.props} />
                </div>
            );
        }
    };
}; 

export const HelloWorldComponentWithRedText = withRedText(HelloWorldComponent);

I'm calling this from a parent JSX file like this:

public render(): JSX.Element {
    return (
       <div>
           Test #1: <HelloWorldComponent/>
           Test #2: <HelloWorldComponentWithRedText />
           Test #3: { withRedText(<HelloWorldComponent />) }
       </div>
    )
}

The first and second tests work as expected---the text is red in the second one. But the third line renders nothing. I expected the second and third lines to be the same.

When I step through it with the debugger, the argument to Test #2 is a Component of type HelloWorldComponent, but Test #3 is seeing a Component = Object {$$typeof: Symbol(react.element), ...}.

Is there a way to dynamically wrap a Component with syntax like { withRedText(<HelloWorldComponent />) } from within the JSX/TSX file?

(TypeScript 2.1.4 & React 15.4.0)

Here it is on CodePen


Solution

  • I don't think that you can invoke a HOC directly / implicitly from JSX. Thinking about the implementation of JSX and how HOCs work, I don't think it would be good for performance: every time the component re-renders, it calls the HOC function again, re-creates the wrapped component class, then invokes it.

    You can often get a similar effect, though, by creating a component that takes another component as a parameter:

    const WithRedText = ({component: Component, children, ...props}) => (
        <div style={{color: "red"}}>
          <Component {...props}>{children}</Component>
        </div>
    );
    

    (I'm passing component as lowercase, because that seems to be the convention for props, but within WithRedText, I uppercase it, because that's how JSX identifies custom components as opposed to HTML tags.)

    Then, to use it:

    ReactDOM.render(
        <div className="container">
            <WithRedText component={HelloWorldComponent} />
        </div>,
    );
    

    See http://codepen.io/joshkel/pen/MJGLOQ.