Create React component from string

Support react >= v16.8.0

• Installation
• Basic Example
• Using Unknown Elements
• props
  • data
  • babelOptions
• Caveats
• Test
• License

$ npm install string-to-react-component --save

or

$ yarn add string-to-react-component

string-to-react-component has a peer dependency of @babel/standalone, then you should install @babel/standalone package :

$ npm install @babel/standalone --save

<script src="https://unpkg.com/@babel/standalone/babel.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://unpkg.com/string-to-react-component@3.0.4/dist/stringToReactComponent.umd.min.js"></script>

import StringToReactComponent from 'string-to-react-component';
function App() {
  return (
    <StringToReactComponent>
      {`(props)=>{
         const {useState}=React;
         const [counter,setCounter]=useState(0);
         const increase=()=>{
           setCounter(counter+1);
         };
         return (<>
           <button onClick={increase}>+</button>
           <span>{'counter : '+ counter}</span>
           </>);
       }`}
    </StringToReactComponent>
  );
}

• The given code inside the string should be a function.

• The code inside the string is executed in the global scope, so imported objects from react package including useState, useEffect, ... are not accessible inside it and you should get them from React global variable :

import {useState} from 'react';
import StringToReactComponent from 'string-to-react-component';
function App() {
  return (
    <StringToReactComponent>
      {`()=>{
         console.log(typeof useState); // undefined
         console.log(typeof React.useState); // function

         ...

       }`}
    </StringToReactComponent>
  );
}

import StringToReactComponent from 'string-to-react-component';
import MyFirstComponent from 'path to MyFirstComponent';
import MySecondComponent from 'path to MySecondComponent';
function App() {
  return (
    <StringToReactComponent data={{MyFirstComponent, MySecondComponent}}>
      {`(props)=>{
         const {MyFirstComponent, MySecondComponent}=props;
         return (<>
          <MyFirstComponent/>
          <MySecondComponent/>
         </>);
       }`}
    </StringToReactComponent>
  );
}

• type : object
• not required
• data object is passed to the component(which is generated from the string) as props

• type : object
• not required
• See the full option list here
• examples :
  • using source map :

    <StringToReactComponent babelOptions={{filename: 'counter.js', sourceMaps: 'inline'}}>
      {`(props)=>{
         const {useState}=React;
         const [counter,setCounter]=useState(0);
         const increase=()=>{
           setCounter(counter+1);
         };
         return (<>
           <button onClick={increase}>+</button>
           <span>{'counter : '+ counter}</span>
           </>);
       }`}
    </StringToReactComponent>

  • using typescript :

    <StringToReactComponent
      babelOptions={{filename: 'counter.ts', presets: [['typescript', {allExtensions: true, isTSX: true}]]}}>
      {`()=>{
         const [counter,setCounter]=React.useState<number>(0);
         const increase=()=>{
           setCounter(counter+1);
         };
         return (<>
           <button onClick={increase}>+</button>
           <span>{'counter : '+ counter}</span>
           </>);
        }`}
    </StringToReactComponent>

This plugin does not use eval function, however, suffers from security and might expose you to XSS attacks

To prevent XSS attacks, You should sanitize user input before storing it.

$ npm run test

MIT