Version: v4.2

Using JSX

Stencil components are rendered using JSX, a popular, declarative template syntax. Each component has a render function that returns a tree of components that are rendered to the DOM at runtime.

Basics

The render function is used to output a tree of components that will be drawn to the screen.

class MyComponent {
  render() {
    return (
      <div>
        <h1>Hello World</h1>
        <p>This is JSX!</p>
      </div>
    );
  }
}

In this example we're returning the JSX representation of a div, with two child elements: an h1 and a p.

Host Element

If you want to modify the host element itself, such as adding a class or an attribute to the component itself, use the <Host> functional component. Check for more details here

Data Binding

Components often need to render dynamic data. To do this in JSX, use { } around a variable:

render() {
  return (
    <div>Hello {this.name}</div>
  )
}

note

If you're familiar with ES6 template variables, JSX variables are very similar, just without the $:

//ES6
`Hello ${this.name}`

//JSX
Hello {this.name}

Conditionals

If we want to conditionally render different content, we can use JavaScript if/else statements: Here, if name is not defined, we can just render a different element.

render() {
  if (this.name) {
    return ( <div>Hello {this.name}</div> )
  } else {
    return ( <div>Hello, World</div> )
  }
}

Additionally, inline conditionals can be created using the JavaScript ternary operator:

render() {
  return (
    <div>
    {this.name
      ? <p>Hello {this.name}</p>
      : <p>Hello World</p>
    }
    </div>
  );
}

Please note: Stencil reuses DOM elements for better performance. Consider the following code:

{someCondition
  ? <my-counter initialValue={2} />
  : <my-counter initialValue={5} />
}

The above code behaves exactly the same as the following code:

<my-counter initialValue={someCondition ? 2 : 5} />

Thus, if someCondition changes, the internal state of <my-counter> won't be reset and its lifecycle methods such as componentWillLoad() won't fire. Instead, the conditional merely triggers an update to the very same component.

If you want to destroy and recreate a component in a conditional, you can assign the key attribute. This tells Stencil that the components are actually different siblings:

{someCondition
  ? <my-counter key="a" initialValue={2} />
  : <my-counter key="b" initialValue={5} />
}

This way, if someCondition changes, you get a new <my-counter> component with fresh internal state that also runs the lifecycle methods componentWillLoad() and componentDidLoad().

Slots

Components often need to render dynamic children in specific locations in their component tree, allowing a developer to supply child content when using our component, with our component placing that child component in the proper location.

To do this, you can use the Slot tag inside of your my-component.

// my-component.tsx

render() {
  return (
    <div>
      <h2>A Component</h2>
      <div><slot /></div>
    </div>
  );
}

Then, if a user passes child components when creating our component my-component, then my-component will place that component inside of the second <div> above:

render(){
  return(
    <my-component>
      <p>Child Element</p>
    </my-component>
  )
}

Slots can also have names to allow for specifying slot output location:

// my-component.tsx

render(){
  return [
    <slot name="item-start" />,
    <h1>Here is my main content</h1>,
    <slot name="item-end" />
  ]
}

render(){
  return(
    <my-component>
      <p slot="item-start">I'll be placed before the h1</p>
      <p slot="item-end">I'll be placed after the h1</p>
    </my-component>
  )
}

Dealing with Children

The children of a node in JSX correspond at runtime to an array of nodes, whether they are created by mapping across an array with Array.prototype.map or simply declared as siblings directly in JSX. This means that at runtime the children of the two top-level divs below (.todo-one and .todo-two) will be represented the same way:

render() {
  return (
    <>
      <div class="todo-one">
        {this.todos.map((todo) => (
          <span>{ todo.taskName }</span>
        )}
      </div>
      <div class="todo-two">
        <span>{ todos[0].taskName }</span>
        <span>{ todos[1].taskName }</span>
      </div>
    </>
  )
}

If this array of children is dynamic, i.e., if any nodes may be added, removed, or reordered, then it's a good idea to set a unique key attribute on each element like so:

render() {
  return (
    <div>
      {this.todos.map((todo) => (
        <div key={todo.uid}>
          <div>{todo.taskName}</div>
        </div>
      ))}
    </div>
  )
}

When nodes in a children array are rearranged Stencil makes an effort to preserve DOM nodes across renders but it isn't able to do so in all cases. Setting a key attribute lets Stencil ensure it can match up new and old children across renders and thereby avoid recreating DOM nodes unnecessarily.

caution

Do not use an array index or some other non-unique value as a key. Try to ensure that each child has a key which does not change and which is unique among all its siblings.

Handling User Input

Stencil uses native DOM events.

Here's an example of handling a button click. Note the use of the Arrow function.

...
export class MyComponent {
  private handleClick = () => {
    alert('Received the button click!');
  }

  render() {
    return (
      <button onClick={this.handleClick}>Click Me!</button>
    );
  }
}

Here's another example of listening to input change. Note the use of the Arrow function.

...
export class MyComponent {
  private inputChanged = (event: Event) => {
    console.log('input changed: ', (event.target as HTMLInputElement).value);
  }

  render() {
    return (
      <input onChange={this.inputChanged}/>
    );
  }
}

Complex Template Content

So far we've seen examples of how to return only a single root element. We can also nest elements inside our root element

In the case where a component has multiple "top level" elements, the render function can return an array. Note the comma in between the <div> elements.

render() {
  return ([
  // first top level element
  <div class="container">
    <ul>
      <li>Item 1</li>
      <li>Item 2</li>
      <li>Item 3</li>
    </ul>
  </div>,

  // second top level element, note the , above
  <div class="another-container">
    ... more html content ...
  </div>
  ]);
}

Alternatively you can use the Fragment functional component, in which case you won't need to add commas:

import { Fragment } from '@stencil/core';
...
render() {
  return (<Fragment>
    // first top level element
    <div class="container">
      <ul>
        <li>Item 1</li>
        <li>Item 2</li>
        <li>Item 3</li>
      </ul>
    </div>

    <div class="another-container">
      ... more html content ...
    </div>
  </Fragment>);
}

It is also possible to use innerHTML to inline content straight into an element. This can be helpful when, for example, loading an svg dynamically and then wanting to render that inside of a div. This works just like it does in normal HTML:

<div innerHTML={svgContent}></div>

Getting a reference to a DOM element

In cases where you need to get a direct reference to an element, like you would normally do with document.querySelector, you might want to use a ref in JSX. Lets look at an example of using a ref in a form:

@Component({
  tag: 'app-home',
})
export class AppHome {

  textInput!: HTMLInputElement;

  handleSubmit = (event: Event) => {
    event.preventDefault();
    console.log(this.textInput.value);
  }

  render() {
    return (
      <form onSubmit={this.handleSubmit}>
        <label>
          Name:
          <input type="text" ref={(el) => this.textInput = el as HTMLInputElement} />
        </label>
        <input type="submit" value="Submit" />
      </form>
    );
  }
}

In this example we are using ref to get a reference to our input ref={(el) => this.textInput = el as HTMLInputElement}. We can then use that ref to do things such as grab the value from the text input directly this.textInput.value.

Avoid Shared JSX Nodes

The renderer caches element lookups in order to improve performance. However, a side effect from this is that the exact same JSX node should not be shared within the same renderer.

In the example below, the sharedNode variable is reused multiple times within the render() function. The renderer is able to optimize its DOM element lookups by caching the reference, however, this causes issues when nodes are reused. Instead, it's recommended to always generate unique nodes like the changed example below.

@Component({
  tag: 'my-cmp',
})
export class MyCmp {

  render() {
-    const sharedNode = <div>Text</div>;
    return (
      <div>
-        {sharedNode}
-        {sharedNode}
+        <div>Text</div>
+        <div>Text</div>
      </div>
    );
  }
}

Alternatively, creating a factory function to return a common JSX node could be used instead since the returned value would be a unique instance. For example:

@Component({
  tag: 'my-cmp',
})
export class MyCmp {

  getText() {
    return <div>Text</div>;
  }

  render() {
    return (
      <div>
        {this.getText()}
        {this.getText()}
      </div>
    );
  }
}

Other Resources

Understanding JSX for StencilJS Applications

Using JSX

Basics​

Host Element​

Data Binding​

Conditionals​

Slots​

Dealing with Children​

Handling User Input​

Complex Template Content​

Getting a reference to a DOM element​

Avoid Shared JSX Nodes​

Other Resources​