jsx-native-events

This module adds a custom JSX pragma enabling native DOM events to be handled declaratively in JSX. In traditional JSX, events need to be handled by passing down props to elements such as onClick or onChange that will be attached to the compiled DOM element at some point during the application's lifecycle. For standard events, this works great; however, for events that aren't as common or for constructed events or instances of CustomEvent, the prop API falls short.

This JSX pragma allows users to declaratively attach event listeners to elements using the onEvent<EventName> syntax where <EventName> would be replaced by a camelCase version of the event's name. So, a 'click' event would use the prop onEventClick or a custom event with a name of accordion-toggle would use the onEventAccordionToggle prop.

Why onEvent?

The use of onEvent<EventName>, though a bit verbose, was intentional to minimize conflicts with existing code in the React ecosystem while still keeping the syntax familiar. Using on<EventName> would require double checking for the native JSX events. Likewise, using syntax such as on-accordion-toggle would feel foreign to existing JSX codebases. The onEvent prefix seemed like the best option in the short term.

Installing

The recommended installation method of this package is through npm. If you are unfamiliar with the npm ecosystem, there is some great documentation available on the npm website.

If you are familiar with npm, you can install this package using the command

npm i -D jsx-native-events

Usage

See this example on StackBlitz

Because the primary output of this package is a JSX pragma, you will first need to include the /** @jsx <PRAGMA_NAME> */ syntax in your file.

Or add pragma: "nativeEvents" to your @babel/preset-react or @babel/plugin-transform-react-jsx babel config.

/** @jsx nativeEvents */
import React, { useState } from 'react'
import nativeEvents from 'jsx-native-events'

export default function SomeComponent (props) {
    const [ name, setName ] = useState('')
    
    return <div>
        <p>My name is {name}</p>

        <web-component onEventCustomEvent={ e => setName(e.detail) }></web-component>
    </div>
}

In the above example, <web-component> is an example of a custom element that dispatches an event called custom-event. In our React application, we want to listen for that custom event and set the name every time the event is emitted.

Using the /** @jsx nativeEvents */ pragma at the top of the file lets JSX know that we want to use the function imported in line 3 (import nativeEvents from 'jsx-native-events') as an addition to React's built-in JSX engine.

The new props will only work for implementations of EventTarget, so the new props are not ignored on React components, but should work on all DOM elements represented by React's JSX.