Build regular DOM elements using JSX

With dom-chef, you can use Babel or TypeScript to transform JSX into plain old DOM elements, without using the unsafe innerHTML or clumsy document.createElement calls.

It supports everything you expect from JSX, including:

• SVG elements
• Event listeners
• Inline CSS
• Nested elements
• Function elements

If something isn't supported (or doesn't work as well as it does in React) please open an issue!

Install

$ npm install dom-chef

Usage

Make sure to use a JSX transpiler (e.g. Babel, TypeScript compiler, esbuild, you only need one of them).

import {h} from 'dom-chef';

const handleClick = e => {
	// <button> was clicked
};

const el = (
	<div className="header">
		<button className="btn-link" onClick={handleClick}>
			Download
		</button>
	</div>
);

document.body.appendChild(el);

Babel

pragma and pragmaFrag must be configured this way. More information on Babel’s documentation.

// babel.config.js

const plugins = [
	[
		'@babel/plugin-transform-react-jsx',
		{
			pragma: 'h',
			pragmaFrag: 'DocumentFragment',
		},
	],
];

// ...

TypeScript compiler

jsxFactory and jsxFragmentFactory must be configured this way. More information on TypeScripts’s documentation.

// tsconfig.json

{
	"compilerOptions": {
		"jsxFactory": "h",
		"jsxFragmentFactory": "DocumentFragment"
	}
}

Alternative usage

You can avoid configuring your JSX compiler by just letting it default to React and exporting the React object:

import React from 'dom-chef';

Recipes

Set classes

const el = <span class="a b c">Text</span>;

// or use `className` alias
const el = <span className="a b c">Text</span>;

Inline styles

const el = <div style={{padding: 10, background: '#000'}} />;

Inline event listeners

const handleClick = e => {
	// <span> was clicked
};

const el = <span onClick={handleClick}>Text</span>;

This is equivalent to: span.addEventListener('click', handleClick)

Nested elements

const title = <h1>Hello World</h1>;
const body = <p>Post body</p>;

const post = (
	<div class="post">
		{title}
		{body}
	</div>
);

Set innerHTML

const dangerousHTML = '<script>alert();</script>';

const wannaCry = <div dangerouslySetInnerHTML={{__html: dangerousHTML}} />;

Render SVG

Note: Due to the way dom-chef works, tags <a>, <audio>, <canvas>, <iframe>, <script> and <video> aren't supported inside <svg> tag.

const el = (
	<svg width={400} height={400}>
		<text x={100} y={100}>
			Wow
		</text>
	</svg>
);

ref attribute

In React, the ref prop can receive a callback function that will be executed when the element is mounted.

dom-chef has no concept of mounting, so the callback will be executed immediately after the element is created:

const el = <div ref={el => console.log(el)} />;
// Immediately logs <div></div>

Use functions

If element names start with an uppercase letter, dom-chef will consider them as element-returning functions:

function Title() {
	const title = document.createElement('h1');
	title.classList.add('Heading');
	return title;
}

const el = <Title className="red">La Divina Commedia</Title>;
// <h1 class="Heading red">La Divina Commedia</h1>

This makes JSX also a great way to apply multiple attributes and content at once:

const BaseIcon = () => document.querySelector('svg.icon').cloneNode(true);

document.body.append(
	<BaseIcon width="16" title="Starry Day" className="margin-0" />
);

To improve compatibility with React components, dom-chef will pass the function's defaultProps property to itself (if present). Note that specifying attributes won't override those defaults, but instead set them on the resulting element:

function AlertIcon(props) {
	return <svg width={props.size} className={props.className} />
}

AlertIcon.defaultProps = {
	className: 'icon icon-alert'
	size: 16,
}

const el = <AlertIcon className="margin-0" size={32} />;
// <svg width="16" class="icon icon-alert margin-0" size="32" />

License

MIT © Vadim Demedes