reactjs - How do I type this 'as' JSX attribute in TypeScript?

Question

I'm describing a React library that takes a component or HTML tag name through an attribute called as. When given the as attribute, it creates an element from that component/tag name, and passes any other given attributes along.

Here are some examples:

<Foo as="a" href="https://example.com" />
<Foo as={FancyButton} fancyButtonAttr="hello!" />

I know that Semantic UI does something similar with augmentations. How would I go about typing this in TypeScript?

Answer 1

I'll give an example of the most basic requirements given here. You can try to generalize to something that does something more sophisticated.

First, here's our magic component!

import * as React from "react";

function Foo<Tag extends AnyTag>(props: { as: Tag } & PropsOf<Tag>): JSX.Element;

Note two things:

• A type called AnyTag
• A utility type called PropsOf

That was our public signature. We might be able to implement this in a type-safe way using that signature, but we can "cheat" a little here in the implementation signature. This is up to you as the implementer.

function Foo(props: any) {
    return <div>Implementation goes here!</div>
}

Let's go back to those two types we mentioned. AnyTag is anything that a JSX tag can be.

type AnyTag = string
            | React.FunctionComponent<never>
            | (new (props: never) => React.Component);

PropsOf tries to get the expected properties for a given HTML tag name or component.

type PropsOf<Tag> =
    Tag extends keyof JSX.IntrinsicElements ? JSX.IntrinsicElements[Tag] :
    Tag extends React.ComponentType<infer Props> ? Props & JSX.IntrinsicAttributes :
    never
;

Let's now define a few components taking the same props - one function and one class.

interface SomeProps {
  x: boolean; y: boolean; z: boolean;
}

function Bar(props: SomeProps) {
    return <div>{props.x} {props.y} {props.z}</div>;
}

class Baz extends React.Component<SomeProps> {
    render() {
        const { x, y, z } = this.props;
        return <div>{x} {y} {z}</div>;
    }
}

Now here's some usage!

let a1 = <Foo as="a" href="https://kthxb.ai" />;         // good!
let a2 = <Foo as="div" href="https://kthxb.ai" />;       // error!
let a3 = <Foo as="a" href={100} />;                      // error!

let b1 = <Foo as={Bar} x y z />;                         // good!
let b2 = <Foo as={Bar} x y z asdsadsada />;              // error!
let b3 = <Foo as={Bar} x={1} y={2} z={3} asdsadsada />;  // error!

let c1 = <Foo as={Baz} x y z />;                         // good!
let c2 = <Foo as={Baz} x y z asdsadsada />;              // error!
let c3 = <Foo as={Baz} x={1} y={2} z={3} asdsadsada />;  // error!

Altogether

import * as React from "react";

// Here's our magic component!
// Note two things:
//   - A type called AnyTag
//   - A utility type called PropsOf
function Foo<Tag extends AnyTag>(props: { as: Tag } & PropsOf<Tag>): JSX.Element;

// That was our public signature. We might be able to implement this in a type-safe way using that signature,
// but we can "cheat" a little here in the implementation signature. This is up to you as the implementer.
function Foo(props: any) {
    return <div>Implementation goes here!</div>
}

// AnyTag is anything that a JSX tag can be.
type AnyTag = string
            | React.FunctionComponent<never>
            | (new (props: never) => React.Component);

// PropsOf tries to get the expected properties for a given HTML tag name or component.
type PropsOf<Tag> =
    Tag extends keyof JSX.IntrinsicElements ? JSX.IntrinsicElements[Tag] :
    Tag extends React.ComponentType<infer Props> ? Props & JSX.IntrinsicAttributes :
    never
;

// Let's now define a few components taking the same props - one function and one class.

interface SomeProps {
  x: boolean; y: boolean; z: boolean;
}

function Bar(props: SomeProps) {
    return <div>{props.x} {props.y} {props.z}</div>;
}

class Baz extends React.Component<SomeProps> {
    render() {
        const { x, y, z } = this.props;
        return <div>{x} {y} {z}</div>;
    }
}

// Now here's some usage!

let a1 = <Foo as="a" href="https://kthxb.ai" />;         // good!
let a2 = <Foo as="div" href="https://kthxb.ai" />;       // error!
let a3 = <Foo as="a" href={100} />;                      // error!

let b1 = <Foo as={Bar} x y z />;                         // good!
let b2 = <Foo as={Bar} x y z asdsadsada />;              // error!
let b3 = <Foo as={Bar} x={1} y={2} z={3} asdsadsada />;  // error!

let c1 = <Foo as={Baz} x y z />;                         // good!
let c2 = <Foo as={Baz} x y z asdsadsada />;              // error!
let c3 = <Foo as={Baz} x={1} y={2} z={3} asdsadsada />;  // error!