react-from-object

Create a React element from a description

This tool transforms a "description" of a React element into a React element, for example:

import reactFromObject from 'react-from-object'

const element = reactFromObject(
  {
    type: 'canvas',
    props: {
      width: '42px',
      height: '42px',
    },
    children: 'foo',
  },
);

// Now element is the same as this:
// <canvas width="42px" height="42px">foo</canvas>

This is useful for passing something to a React app from the server without render to HTML and use dangerouslySetInnerHTML. Instead you can pass a description of a React element and build it on the client side.

It's basically replacing this:

<div dangerouslySetInnerHTML={{ __html: markup }} />

with that:

<div>{reactFromObject(data)}</div>

Format

The element can be either a primitive value or an object. The object is expected to have these properties:

type

This is the name of the element to render. It can be everything that is accepted by React.createElement.

Example:

{
  type: 'div',
}

props (optional)

If present, it has to be an object containing props of the element.

Example:

{
  type: 'img',
  props: {
    src: 'foo',
    alt: 'bar',
  },
}

Warning: the children inside the props object are not processed - either pass them in children or process them beforehand.

children (optional)

This should be either an element or an array of elements.

Example:

{
  type: 'div',
  children: [
    'foo',
    {
      type: 'p',
      children: 'bar',
    },
    'baz',
  ],
}

Performance

I don't really have any measurements, but this should be roughly as performant as handwritten JSX.

License

Copyright (c) 2017 Rafał Ruciński. Licensed under the MIT license.