React.js onClick event: TypeError: Cannot read property of undefined

Question

Currently having tough times learning React and JavaScript.

I've got two components, Navigation:

import React from 'react';
import ReactDOM from 'react-dom';
import Nav from './houses/Nav.js';

// set data
var navbar = {};
navbar.brand = {linkTo: "#hero", text: "text"};
navbar.links = [
      {linkTo: "#", event:"es", spanClassName: "flag-icon flag-icon-es"},
      {linkTo: "#", event:"en", spanClassName: "flag-icon flag-icon-gb"},
      {linkTo: "#about", text: "about", spanClassName: "btnicon icon-user"},
      {linkTo: "#contacts", text: "contacts", spanClassName: "btnicon icon-envelope-open"}
  ];

class Navigation extends React.Component {

  render() {
    return (
    <header>         
      <Nav {...navbar} />        
    </header>
    )
  }
}

module.exports = Navigation;

and Nav:

import React from 'react';
import ReactDOM from 'react-dom';

class Nav extends React.Component {    

  render() {

    const changeLanguage = (lng) => {
      i18n.changeLanguage(lng);
    } 

      return(
        <nav className="navbar navbar-inverse navbar-fixed-top" role="navigation">
          <div className="container">
            <div className="navbar-header">
              <button type="button" className="navbar-toggle" data-toggle="collapse" data-target=".navbar-collapse" aria-expanded="false">
                <span className="sr-only" lang="lt">Toggle nav</span> 
                <span className="icon-bar"></span>
                <span className="icon-bar"></span>
                <span className="icon-bar"></span>
              </button>
              <NavBrand linkTo={this.props.brand.linkTo} text={this.props.brand.text} />
            </div>
            <div className="collapse navbar-collapse">
              <NavMenu links={this.props.links} />
            </div>
          </div>
        </nav>
      );
    }
  };

  class NavBrand extends React.Component{
    render() {
      return (
        <a className="navbar-brand" alt="back to home" href={this.props.linkTo}>{this.props.text}
            <span className="brandicon"></span> 
            <span className="brandname"></span>   
        </a>
      ); 
    }
  };

  class NavMenu extends React.Component{
    render() {
      var links = this.props.links.map(function(link){       
          return (
            <NavLink linkTo={link.linkTo} text={link.text} active={link.active} event={link.event} spanClassName={link.spanClassName} />
          );

      });
      return (
        <ul className="nav navbar-nav navbar-right">
          {links}
        </ul>
      );
    }
  };

  class NavLink extends React.Component{
   render() {        

    if (this.props.event){
      return(
        <li><button onClick={() => changeLanguage(this.props.event)}>{this.props.event}<span className={(this.props.spanClassName)}></span></button></li>
      )
    }
    return(        
      <li className={(this.props.active ? "active" : "")}><a href={this.props.linkTo}>{this.props.text} <span className={(this.props.spanClassName)}></span></a></li>
    );
  }
};


  module.exports = Nav;

Currently I want to add a custom onClick event only to a certain <li>elements with language attribute. It should render this:

The working onClick event inside other component's render() looks like this: onClick={() => changeLanguage('lang_attribute')} So I should get the same result but through the navigation render

Pressing rendered button I get the error message: Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property 'changeLanguage' of undefined

Need some help with working sample

UPDATE It seems that my question is related mostly to 18next. I was studying the i18n documents (cause additionally I must make a translation for a menu items) and made some tries, but as I understand the problem is with HOC and i18n functions. They are out of scope, because here are several classes. So I getting two errors: t is not a function and i18n is undefined.

import React from 'react';
import ReactDOM from 'react-dom';
import {translate} from 'react-i18next';


class Nav extends React.Component {

  render() {

      return(
        <nav className="navbar navbar-inverse navbar-fixed-top" role="navigation">
          <div className="container">
            <div className="navbar-header">
              <button type="button" className="navbar-toggle" data-toggle="collapse" data-target=".navbar-collapse" aria-expanded="false">
                <span className="sr-only">Toggle</span> 
                <span className="icon-bar"></span>
                <span className="icon-bar"></span>
                <span className="icon-bar"></span>
              </button>              
              <NavBrand linkTo={this.props.brand.linkTo} text={this.props.brand.text} />
            </div>
            <div className="collapse navbar-collapse">
              <NavMenu links={this.props.links} />
            </div>
          </div>
        </nav>
      );
    }
  };

  class NavBrand extends React.Component{
    render() {

      return (
        <a className="navbar-brand" alt="back to home" href={this.props.linkTo}>{this.props.text}
            <span className="brandicon"></span> 
            <span className="brandname"></span>   
        </a>
      ); 
    }
  };

  class NavMenu extends React.Component{
    render() {

      const { t, i18n } = this.props;

      var links = this.props.links.map(function(link, index){         
          return (
            <PureNavLink  linkTo={link.linkTo} text={t(link.text)} active={link.active} event={link.event} spanClassName={link.spanClassName} />
            /*text={t(link.text)}*/  

          );

      });
      return (
        <ul className="nav navbar-nav navbar-right">
          {links}
        </ul>
      );
    }
  };

  class PureNavLink  extends React.Component{

    render() {        
      const { t, i18n } = this.props;
      const toggle = lng => i18n.changeLanguage(lng);       

      if (this.props.event){        

        return(  
          <div>               

          <button onClick={() => toggle(this.props.event)}>{t(this.props.event)}</button>          
          </div>        
        )
      }

      return(        
        <li className={(this.props.active ? "active" : "")}><a href={this.props.linkTo}>{this.props.text} <span className={(this.props.spanClassName)}></span></a></li>        
      );
    }
  };

  const NavLink = translate()(PureNavLink);
  module.exports = translate()(Nav);

Answer 1

The answer of Parker is correct

a) move changeLanguage like in the code above - but also import i18n from '../i18n'; or where you defined your i18n instance.

import i18n from 'i18n';

// define the function outside of component scope
const changeLanguage = (lng) => {
  i18n.changeLanguage(lng);
};

// function is now available for use in any component in
// this module - just export it to use it in other modules
class Nav extends React.Component {

  render() {
    // your code and other components
  }
}

Or b) pass changeLanguage down via props.

// ...
<NavMenu links={this.props.links} changeLanguage={changeLanguage} />

// ...
<NavLink changeLanguage={changeLanguage} linkTo={link.linkTo} text={link.text} active={link.active} event={link.event} spanClassName={link.spanClassName} />

Or c) decorate your NavLink with the translate hoc

class PureNavLink extends React.Component{

    render() {        
      const { t, i18n } = this.props;
      const toggle = lng => i18n.changeLanguage(lng); 

      if (this.props.event){        

        return(  
          <div>               

          <button onClick={() => toggle(this.props.event)}>{t(this.props.event)}</button>
          </div>        
        )
      }

      return(        
        <li className={(this.props.active ? "active" : "")}><a href={this.props.linkTo}>{this.props.text} <span className={(this.props.spanClassName)}></span></a></li>        
      );
    }
  };

const NavLink = translate()(PureNavLink);

https://react.i18next.com/components/translate-hoc.html.

Or d) use the render prop I18n https://react.i18next.com/components/i18n-render-prop.html