[reactjs] React - How to pass HTML tags in props?

I want to be able to pass text with HTML tags, like so:

<MyComponent text="This is <strong>not</strong> working." />

But inside of MyComponent's render method, when I print out this.props.text, it literally prints out everything:

This is <strong>not</strong> working.

Is there some way to make React parse HTML and dump it out properly?

This question is related to reactjs

The answer is


For me It worked by passing html tag in props children

<MyComponent>This is <strong>not</strong> working.</MyComponent>


var MyComponent = React.createClass({

   render: function() {
    return (
      <div>this.props.children</div>
    );
   },

Set the text prop type to any and do this:

<MyComponent text={
    <React.Fragment>
        <div> Hello, World!</div>
    </React.Fragment>
    } 
/>

Example


This question has already a lot of answers, but I had was doing something wrong related to this and I think is worth sharing:

I had something like this:

export default function Features() {
  return (
    <Section message={<p>This is <strong>working</strong>.</p>} />
  }
}

but the massage was longer than that, so I tried using something like this:

const message = () => <p>This longer message is <strong>not</strong> working.</p>;

export default function Features() {
  return (
    <Section message={message} />
  }
}

It took me a while to realize that I was missing the () in the function call.

Not working

<Section message={message} />

Working

<Section message={message()} />

maybe this helps you, as it did to me!


Have appended the html in componentDidMount using jQuery append. This should solve the problem.

 var MyComponent = React.createClass({
    render: function() {

        return (
           <div>

           </div>
        );
    },
    componentDidMount() {
        $(ReactDOM.findDOMNode(this)).append(this.props.text);
    }
});

In my project I had to pass dynamic html snippet from variable and render it inside component. So i did the following.

defaultSelection : {
    innerHtml: {__html: '<strong>some text</strong>'}
}

defaultSelection object is passed to component from .js file

<HtmlSnippet innerHtml={defaultSelection.innerHtml} />

HtmlSnippet component

var HtmlSnippet = React.createClass({
  render: function() {
    return (
      <span dangerouslySetInnerHTML={this.props.innerHtml}></span>
    );
  }
});

Plunkr example

react doc for dangerouslySetInnerHTML


Actually, there are multiple ways to go with that.

You want to use JSX inside your props

You can simply use {} to cause JSX to parse the parameter. The only limitation is the same as for every JSX element: It must return only one root element.

myProp={<div><SomeComponent>Some String</div>}

The best readable way to go for this is to create a function renderMyProp that will return JSX components (just like the standard render function) and then simply call myProp={ this.renderMyProp() }

You want to pass only HTML as a string

By default, JSX doesn't let you render raw HTML from string values. However, there is a way to make it do that:

myProp="<div>This is some html</div>"

Then in your component you can use it like that:

<div dangerouslySetInnerHTML=myProp={{ __html: this.renderMyProp() }}></div>

Beware that this solution 'can' open on cross-site scripting forgeries attacks. Also beware that you can only render simple HTML, no JSX tag or component or other fancy things.

The array way

In react, you can pass an array of JSX elements. That means:

myProp={["This is html", <span>Some other</span>, "and again some other"]}

I wouldn't recommend this method because:

  • It will create a warning (missing keys)
  • It's not readable
  • It's not really the JSX way, it's more a hack than an intended design.

The children way

Adding it for the sake of completeness but in react, you can also get all children that are 'inside' your component.

So if I take the following code:

<SomeComponent>
    <div>Some content</div>
    <div>Some content</div>
</SomeComponent>

Then the two divs will be available as this.props.children in SomeComponent and can be rendered with the standard {} syntax.

This solution is perfect when you have only one HTML content to pass to your Component (Imagine a Popin component that only takes the content of the Popin as children).

However, if you have multiple contents, you can't use children (or you need at least to combine it with another solution here)


Parser from html-react-parser is a good solution. You just have to

  • install it with npm or yarn
  • import Parser from 'html-react-parser';
  • call it with :

    <MyComponent text=Parser("This is <strong>not</strong> working.") />
    

    and it works well.


You can successfully utilize React fragments for this task. Depending on the React version you use, you can use short syntax: <> or the full tag: <React.Fragment>. Works especially well if you don't want to wrap entire string within HTML tags.

<MyComponent text={<>Hello World. <u>Don't be so ruthless</u>.</>} />

You could also use a function on the component to pass along jsx to through props. like:

 var MyComponent = React.createClass({

   render: function() {
    return (
      <OtherComponent
        body={this.body}
      />
    );
   },

   body() {
     return(
       <p>This is <strong>now</strong> working.<p>
     );
   }

});

var OtherComponent = React.createClass({

  propTypes: {
    body: React.PropTypes.func
  },

  render: function() {
     return (
        <section>
          {this.props.body()}
        </section>
     );
  },

});

We can do the same thing in such a way.

const Child = () => {
  return (
     write your whole HTML here.
  )
}

now you want to send this HTML inside another component which name is Parent component.

Calling :-

<Parent child={<child/>} >
</Parent> 

Use Of Child:-

 const Parent = (props) => {
   const { child } = props; 
   return (
       {child}
    )
}

this work perfect for me.


Adding to the answer: If you intend to parse and you are already in JSX but have an object with nested properties, a very elegant way is to use parentheses in order to force JSX parsing:

const TestPage = () => (
  <Fragment>
    <MyComponent property={
    {
      html: (
        <p>This is a <a href='#'>test</a> text!</p>
      )
    }}>
    </MyComponent>
  </Fragment>
);

<MyComponent text={<span>This is <strong>not</strong> working.</span>} />

and then in your component you can do prop checking like so:

import React from 'react';
export default class MyComponent extends React.Component {
  static get propTypes() {
    return {
      text: React.PropTypes.object, // if you always want react components
      text: React.PropTypes.any, // if you want both text or react components
    }
  }
}

Make sure you choose only one prop type.


@matagus answer is fine for me, Hope below snippet is helped those who wish to use a variable inside.

const myVar = 'not';
<MyComponent text={["This is ", <strong>{`${myVar}`}</strong>,  "working."]} />

From React v16.02 you can use a Fragment.

<MyComponent text={<Fragment>This is an <strong>HTML</strong> string.</Fragment>} />

More info: https://reactjs.org/blog/2017/11/28/react-v16.2.0-fragment-support.html


You can use dangerouslySetInnerHTML

Just send the html as a normal string

<MyComponent text="This is <strong>not</strong> working." />

And render in in the JSX code like this:

<h2 className="header-title-right wow fadeInRight"
    dangerouslySetInnerHTML={{__html: props.text}} />

Just be careful if you are rendering data entered by the user. You can be victim of a XSS attack

Here's the documentation: https://facebook.github.io/react/tips/dangerously-set-inner-html.html


Here is a solution that doesn't use the dangerouslySetInnerHTML which is dangerous as the name says.

import { IntlProvider, FormattedMessage } from "react-intl";

<FormattedMessage
          id="app.greeting"
          description="Bold text example"
          defaultMessage="Look here, I can include HTML tags in plain string and render them as HTML: <b>Bold</b>, <i>Italics</i> and <a>links too</a>."
          values={{
            b: (chunks) => <b>{chunks}</b>,
            i: (chunks) => <i>{chunks}</i>,
            a: (chunks) => (
              <a class="external_link" target="_blank" href="https://jiga.dev/">
                {chunks}
              </a>
            )
          }}
        />

This should be rendered as:

react jiga.dev

Full example in https://jiga.dev/react-render-string-with-html-tags-from-props/


Yes, you can it by using mix array with strings and JSX elements. reference

<MyComponent text={["This is ", <strong>not</strong>,  "working."]} />

You can do it in 2 ways that I am aware of.

1- <MyComponent text={<p>This is <strong>not</strong> working.</p>} />

And then do this

class MyComponent extends React.Component {
   render () {
     return (<div>{this.props.text}</div>)
   }
}

Or second approach do it like this

2- <MyComponent><p>This is <strong>not</strong> working.</p><MyComponent/>

And then do this

class MyComponent extends React.Component {
   render () {
     return (<div>{this.props.children}</div>)
   }
}

On a client-side react application, there are a couple of ways of rendering a prop as a string with some html. One safer than the other...

1 - Define the prop as jsx (my preference)

const someProps = {
  greeting: {<div>Hello<a href="/${name_profile}">${name_profile}</a></div>}
}


const GreetingComopnent = props => (
  <p>{props.someProps.greeting}</p>
)

• The only requirement here is that whatever file is generating this prop needs to include React as a dependency (in case you're generating the prop's jsx in a helper file etc).

2 - Dangerously set the innerHtml

const someProps = {
  greeting: '<React.Fragment>Hello<a href="/${name_profile}">${name_profile}</a></React.Fragment>'
}

const GreetingComponent = props => {
  const innerHtml = { __html: props.someProps.greeting }
  return <p dangerouslySetInnerHtml={innerHtml}></p>
}

• This second approach is discouraged. Imagine an input field whose input value is rendered as a prop in this component. A user could enter a script tag in the input and the component that renders this input would execute this potentially malicious code. As such, this approach has the potential to introduce cross-site scripting vulnerabilities. For more information, refer to the official React docs