Higher-order Components

A popular pattern in React is the higher-order component pattern, so it's important that we can provide effective types for higher-order components in Flow. If you don't already know what a higher-order component is then make sure to read the React documentation on higher-order components before continuing.

You can make use of the Component Types to annotate your higher order components.

The Trivial HOC​

Let's start with the simplest HOC:

import * as React from 'react';


function trivialHOC<Config extends {...}>(
  Component: component(...Config),
): component(...Config) {
  return Component;
}

This is a basic template for what your HOCs might look like. At runtime, this HOC doesn't do anything at all. Let's take a look at some more complex examples.

Injecting Props​

A common use case for higher-order components is to inject a prop. The HOC automatically sets a prop and returns a component which no longer requires that prop. For example, consider a navigation prop. How would one type this?

To remove a prop from the config, we can take a component that includes the prop and return a component that does not. It's best to construct these types using object type spread.

import * as React from 'react';


type InjectedProps = {foo: number}


function injectProp<Config extends {...}>(
  Component: component(...{...Config, ...InjectedProps, ...})
): component(...Config) {
  return function WrapperComponent(
    props: Config,
  ) {
    return <Component {...props} foo={42} />;
  };
}


function MyComponent(props: {
  a: number,
  b: number,
  ...InjectedProps,
  ...
}): React.Node {}


const MyEnhancedComponent = injectProp(MyComponent);


// We don't need to pass in `foo` even though `MyComponent` requires it:
<MyEnhancedComponent a={1} b={2} />; // OK


// We still require `a` and `b`:
<MyEnhancedComponent a={1} />; // ERROR

Exporting Wrapped Components​

If you try to export a wrapped component, chances are that you'll run into a missing annotation error:

import * as React from 'react';


function trivialHOC<Config extends {...}>(
  Component: component(...Config),
): component(...Config) {
  return Component;
}


type Props = Readonly<{bar: number, foo?: number}>;


function MyComponent({bar, foo = 3}: Props): React.Node {}


export const MyEnhancedComponent = trivialHOC(MyComponent); // ERROR

You can add an annotation to your exported component using component types:

import * as React from 'react';


function trivialHOC<Config extends {...}>(
  Component: component(...Config),
): component(...Config) {
  return Component;
}


type Props = Readonly<{bar: number, foo?: number}>;


function MyComponent({bar, foo = 3}: Props): React.Node {}


export const MyEnhancedComponent: component(...Props) = trivialHOC(MyComponent); // OK

See Also​

• Generics — HOC patterns make heavy use of generic type parameters
• Functions — HOCs are functions that take and return components
• Annotation Requirement — HOC exports typically require type annotations