How To Pass Props To {This.Props.Children}

How To Pass Props To {This.Props.Children}
8 min read
11 October 2022

React is one of the popular and renowned platforms for building intuitive and interactive user interfaces. Because of this, multiple companies hire React developers from BOSC Tech Labs to design user-friendly and engaging designs.

The React programming is quite simplified and functional, yet the developers confront certain challenges with the React props and elements. React attains the advanced competency for components to render and receive the child elements.

React's feature helps to create certain components reusable for several other functions. Further in this article, we will discuss the methods to pass props to {This.Props.Children} with their condition, challenges and strategies. The article also defines the basic details of React programming and its associated accessibility. Let us start:

React Programming:

React programming and framework depend upon four basic details which play a major role in smooth programming. Below are the details:

  1. Parent-child relationship.
  2. Passing props to children through props.children with component accessibility.
  3. The practical usefulness of passing the props by props.children.
  4. Methods to pass props to props.children.

Let us discuss all the above details briefly:

1. Parent-Child Relationship In React: 

The parent-children relation in React programming defines the placement of React components within each other. It means one React component is placed inside the other, which denotes the wrapping component as the parent to the component placed inside it. Hence the inside component is considered a child. Discussing through an example, the inner component is placed inside the outercomponent, which makes the outer component a parent as it is the wrapping React component of the innercomponent which is eventually the child. The coding for this is as follows:

function Wrapper() {
return (
    <div>
      <OuterComponent>
 <InnerComponent />
 </OuterComponent>
    </div>
 );
}function OuterComponent(props) {
   return props.children;
}function InnerComponent() {
  return <div>Hi! I'm in inner component!</div>;
}export default Wrapper;

The code, as mentioned earlier, defines the parent component rendering the child component in the React programming. In case when the outer component or parent needs to call the children component, they must access through the props.children for expressly rendering the children. 

Except for this command, there is no other method to render the children placed inside the parent or outer component. The relationship between children and parents must be stable and simple for the direct rendering of components. If there is a lead of any confusion with existing forms of nesting components, it can be a challenge in rendering. 

2. Passing Props To Children Through Props.Children With Component Accessibility

After getting a brief idea about the parent and children relationship in React, it's time to know about passing the props to children through the parent. It is a simple process when the named components are passed, which does not require the reference of props.children. 

Below is the coding mentioned to explain the passing of name prop is passed in the outer component for further passing to the inner component. The wrapper component returns the props.children, which enables the rendering of the name prop by the inner component. Below is the coding described: 

function Wrapper() {
const myName = "Naina"
      return (
      <div>
     <OuterComponent>
     <InnerComponent name={myName} />
</OuterComponent>
     </div>
 );
}function OuterComponent(props) {
   return props.children
}function InnerComponent(props) {
   return <div>{props.name}</div>;
}export default Wrapper;

The above coding is the standard coding used for passing props from parent to children in React. There are certain conditions in React when the myname component is available only in outercomponent and not in wrapper. In this passing the prop in innnercomponent of react is next to impossible. Although the coding in such situation appears like this: 

import React from "react";function Wrapper() {
    return (
    <div>
   <OuterComponent>
    <InnerComponent />
    </OuterComponent> 
 </div>
);
}function OuterComponent(props) {
  const myName="Naina"
  return (props.children props={myName});  // not gonna work ;<
}function InnerComponent(props) {
return <div>{props.name}</div>;
}export default Wrapper;

It is a major issue in passing props by {This.Props.Children} need a standard solution. Companies hire React developers to solve this issue and ensure the smooth transfer between parents and children. 

3. Practical Usefulness Of Passing The Props By Props.Children

There are multiple examples of getting the idea from practical examples of React components. Accordion is an ideal example of the transition of props from parent to child. When the Accordion is a parent component of React that functions with the logic of opening and closing, with such arrangement of Accordion, Item 0, Item 1, Item 2 and so on are considered as the inner components or children in React. The coding with such parent-children arrangement takes place with flexible and reusable Accordion and non-usable Accordion with hardcoded children. Let us go through both the coding. 

  • Reusable Accordian coding 
// Nice, reusable Accordion definitionconst Accordion: FunctionComponent<{}> = ({
   Children
}) => (
   {children}
);<Accordion>
   <InnerComponentTypeOne />
   <AnotherInnerComponent />
   <YetAnother />
</Accordion><Accordion>
   <OhAnotherComponent />
   <AndOneMore />
</Accordion>
  • Non-Reusable Accordian With Hardcoded Children 
// Hardcoding hardconst AccordionOne: FunctionComponent<{}> = () => (
    <InnerComponentTypeOne />
   <AnotherInnerComponent /> 
       <YetAnother />
);const AccordionTwo: FunctionComponent<{}> = () => (
      <OhAnotherComponent />
      <AndOneMore />
);<AccordionOne />
<AccordionTwo />

4. Methods To Pass Props To Props.Children

There are two standard methods to pass props by the parent through the {This.Props.Children} without disturbing the programming and functionality. So let us start: 

  • React Clone Elements 

In React, it is impossible to change the props.children directly. Hence the basic solution is to clone them for transition and change them during the final procedure. In this method React element is cloned to be returned to the initial point for the process. The new React element consists of props of the original React component with the novel props merged smoothly. These newly cloned children further replace the existing children with the following mentioned process:

  • Use React.Children.map for iteration of children without props
  • Clone each child by React.cloneElement, provide the props and return it.
  • Render the children returned in the previous stage, which are new children with props.

Let us analyse this process with code:

const ParentComponent: FunctionComponent<IParentComponentProps> = ({
   children,
}) => {
  const [activeIndex, setActiveIndex] = useState(0);  const childrenWithProps =
 React.Children.map(children, (child, index) => {
   return React.cloneElement(child, {
     someFunction: () => {
 setActiveIndex(activeIndex + 1);
     },
    index,
    isActive: index === activeIndex,
         });
     });
            return <div>{childrenWithProps}</div>; 
};
  • React Prop Pattern

This method for passing props to the children through the prop.children is quite complex. In this method, the render prop functions to share the code with the React components with a specific value using the prop in the function. Below is the coding to implement this logic for transferring the props: 

const renderFunction = (parentRenderProps: IParentRenderProps) => {
return (
<>
<Child parentRenderProps={parentRenderProps} index={0} />
<Child parentRenderProps={parentRenderProps} index={1} />
<Child parentRenderProps={parentRenderProps} index={2} />
</>
)
};

Conclusion

These are the brief details of passing the props to the children from the parent in the React programming process. Apart from the above-listed methods, there are multiple methods like calling children into functions, cloning the children, manipulating children etc. All the methods have distinct coding and limitations. Web development companies hire React developers to deal with this transition with the best method. Hope this information will help you with your requirements. 

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Pankaj Das 12
I am Digital Marketer by Profession and Writer by Passion. I have 6 years of experience in Digital Marketing, Website Optimization, Conversion Optimization, Lin...
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