{"id":38,"date":"2016-09-27T08:50:32","date_gmt":"2016-09-27T08:50:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/iamakulov.com\/notes2\/?p=38"},"modified":"2017-05-09T22:09:02","modified_gmt":"2017-05-09T19:09:02","slug":"react-antipattern-dont-make-li-your-components-root","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iamakulov.com\/notes\/react-antipattern-dont-make-li-your-components-root\/","title":{"rendered":"React anti-pattern: don\u2019t make <li> your component\u2019s root"},"content":{"rendered":"

Noticed a React anti-pattern while mentoring a younger front-end developer on our project.<\/p>\n

Imagine you have a component that represents a list of articles. At one point, you realize that each article in the list is too complex:<\/p>\n

const ArticleList = (props) => {\r\n  return <div class="articles">\r\n    <ul class="article-list">\r\n      { props.articles.map(article => \r\n        <li class="article">\r\n          <h2 class="article__title">{ article.title }<\/h2>\r\n          { \/* 25 other tags *\/ }\r\n        <\/li>\r\n      ) }\r\n    <\/ul>\r\n    { \/* ... *\/ }\r\n  <\/div>;\r\n}\r\n<\/code><\/pre>\n
So you decide to move the item to a separate component. You take that code inside map()<\/em>, extract it into <Article><\/em> and get something like this:<\/p>\n
const Article = (props) => {\r\n  return <li class="article">\r\n    <h2 class="article__title">{ props.title }<\/h2>\r\n    { \/* 25 other tags *\/ }\r\n  <\/li>;\r\n}\r\n\r\nconst ArticleList = (props) => {\r\n  return <div class="articles">\r\n    <ul class="article-list">\r\n      { props.articles.map(article => \r\n        <Article title={article.title} { \/* other props *\/ } \/>\r\n      ) }\r\n    <\/ul>\r\n    { \/* ... *\/ }\r\n  <\/div>;\r\n}\r\n<\/code><\/pre>\n
Don\u2019t do it this way.<\/strong> This approach is wrong. The problem is that by taking a <li><\/em> and making it a root of the component, you\u2019ve just made your component non-reusable<\/em>. This means that if you\u2019d like to reuse <Article><\/em> in another place, you\u2019ll only be able to apply it somewhere inside a list \u2013 because of this <li><\/em>. If you decide to render <Article><\/em> into e.g. a <div><\/em>, not only will this be non-semantic (<li><\/em> can only appear inside of <ul><\/em>s), but will also add unnecessary list item styling which is super weird.<\/p>\n
Solution#<\/a><\/h1>\n
The solution is simple: move the <li><\/em> back into the <ArticleList><\/em> component and make the <Article><\/em>\u2019s root element a <div><\/em> or something else. This will probably require some refactoring in your styles, but will make the component reusable. Look how cool:<\/p>\n
const Article = (props) => {\r\n  \/\/ Notice: <li>s are gone\r\n  return <div class="article">\r\n    <h2 class="article__title">{ props.title }<\/h2>\r\n    { \/* ... *\/ }\r\n  <\/div>;\r\n}\r\n\r\nconst ArticleList = (props) => {\r\n  return <div class="articles">\r\n    <ul class="article-list">\r\n      { props.articles.map(article => \r\n        <li class="article-list__item">\r\n          <Article title={article.title} { \/* other props *\/ } \/>\r\n        <\/li>\r\n      ) }\r\n    <\/ul>\r\n    { \/* ... *\/ }\r\n  <\/div>;\r\n}\r\n\r\n\/\/ And now you can easily render an article inside of a sidebar \u2013 have no idea why though\r\nconst Sidebar = (props) => {\r\n  return <div class="sidebar">\r\n    <div class="sidebar__article">\r\n      <Article title="Look ma" { \/* other props *\/ } \/>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    { \/* ... *\/ }\r\n  <\/div>;\r\n}\r\n<\/code><\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Noticed a React anti-pattern while mentoring a younger front-end developer on our project. Imagine you have a component that represents a list of articles. At one point, you realize that each article in the list is too complex: So you decide to move the item to a separate component. You take that code inside map(), … Continue reading “React anti-pattern: don\u2019t make <li> your component\u2019s root”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[6,7],"yoast_head":"\nReact anti-pattern: don\u2019t make <li> your component\u2019s root - Ivan Akulov\u2019s blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/iamakulov.com\/notes\/react-antipattern-dont-make-li-your-components-root\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"React anti-pattern: don\u2019t make <li> your component\u2019s root - Ivan Akulov\u2019s blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Noticed a React anti-pattern while mentoring a younger front-end developer on our project. 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