how can I dynamically attach sidebar components to multiple instances of sidebar? - reactjs

Question

I'm new to React and building out a design a ran into a problem.
I have a component called SideBar. I am using this component two times, one on each side of the page.
The problem is that I would like to add different components to each instance of the SideBar component. These would be lists of various items and etc. I assumed I could next component tags but the sidebar component doesn't output.
import React, { Component } from "react";
import SideBar from "./WorkspaceComponents/SideBar";
import ScrollerBox from "./WorkspaceComponents/SideBarComponents/ScrollerBox";
class Workspace extends Component {
render() {
return (
<main className="reely-workspace">
<SideBar position="SideBarLeft">
<ScrollerBox />
</SideBar>
<SideBar position="SideBarRight" />
</main>
);
}
}
export default Workspace;

Answer 1

Your sidebar component should receive a children prop and render it out.
Something like this:
class Sidebar extends Component {
render() {
const {children} = this.props;
return (
<div className="sidebar">
<h1>Sidebar</h1>
{children}
</div>
)
}
}
Check out this post on react docs to understand how to compose react components: https://reactjs.org/docs/composition-vs-inheritance.html

Answer 2

You can make your SideBar Component a wrapper component which wraps around the content given in it.
Making SideBar Component a Wrapper Component :
class Sidebar extends Component {
render() {
return (
<div className="sidebar">
// You can add any custom element here //
{this.props.children}
</div>
)
}
}
All your element passed inside the SideBar Component will now be rendered as a part of SideBar along with what it contains.
Way to consume the wrapper component:
<SideBar>
<Content1></Content1>
<Content2></Content2>
<Content3></Content3>
</SideBar>