React SVG component as background-image to div

Question

I am trying to get styled-components to take an SVG that is a react component and set it as a background-image but I get the error:

TypeError: Cannot convert a Symbol value to a string

SVG component code:

import React from "react";

const testSVG = props => {
  return (
    <svg version="1.1" id="Layer_1" x="0px" y="0px" viewBox="0 0 193.3 129.7">
      <g>
        <g>
          <g>
            <path
              fill="#434343"
              class="st0"
              d="M162.4,116c-4.6,7.5-15.6,13.6-24.4,13.6H16c-8.8,0-12.3-6.2-7.7-13.7c0,0,4.6-7.7,11.1-18.4
                c4.4-7.4,8.9-14.7,13.3-22.1c1.1-1.8,6.1-7.7,6.1-10.1c0-7.3-15-24.9-18.5-30.7C13.5,23.6,8.3,14.9,8.3,14.9
                C3.7,7.4,7.2,1.2,16,1.2c0,0,65.9,0,106.8,0c10,0,25.9-4.5,33.5,3.8c8.7,9.3,15.5,25.4,22.5,36.8c2.6,4.2,14.5,18.3,14.5,23.8
                c-0.1,7.6-16,26.1-19.6,32C167.1,108.3,162.4,116,162.4,116z"
            />
          </g>
        </g>
      </g>
    </svg>
  );
};

export default testSVG;

Container component code:

import React, { Component } from "react";
import StepSVG from "../../components/UI/SVGs/Test";

class StepBar extends Component {
  render() {
    const { steps } = this.props;

    return (
      <div>
        {steps
          ? steps.map(step => {
              return (
                <Wrap key={step._id} bg={StepSVG}>
                  <P>
                    {" "}
                    <Link to={"/step/" + step._id}>{step.title} </Link>
                  </P>
                </Wrap>
              );
            })
          : null}
      </div>
    );
  }
}

export default StepBar;

const Wrap = styled.div`
  padding: 30px 30px 0 0;
  display: inline-block;
  background-image: url(${props => props.bg});
`;

I am using create-react-app out of the box.

I also tried without using styled components and used inline styles in place to no success.

Is it possible to use an SVG as a background-image in this context with the SVG being a component?

Answer 1

Unfortunately, what you're trying to achieve is not possible. You'll have to keep your SVG as an actual .svg file (and link to that), or do some CSS trickery to place SVG component behind your foreground-component.

In other words:

<!-- step.svg -->
<svg version="1.1" id="Layer_1" x="0px" y="0px" viewBox="0 0 193.3 129.7">
  <!-- copy paste your svg here -->
</svg>

And in your component:

import stepSvgUrl from "../../components/UI/SVGs/step.
// ...
<Wrap key={step._id} bg={stepSvgUrl}>

When you import an SVG file like that, create-react-app applies a Webpack loader that includes the generated URL to the SVG you're importing - which is fine to pass into the background-image css property.

Hope this helps!