Is there a way to access a React component's sub-components? - reactjs

Question

So I know that you can access a component's children with this.props.children:
<MyComponent>
<span>Bob</span>
<span>Sally</span>
</MyComponent>
Which is great if I'm interested in Bob and Sally, but what if I want to interact with the components that make up MyComponent (i.e. Subcomp1 and Subcomp2 shown below)?
render: function() {
return (
<div className="my-comp">
<Subcomp1 />
<Subcomp2 />
</div>
);
},
Use Case
I'm trying to create a higher order component that manages the tab index (roving tab index: https://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria-practices/#kbd_roving_tabindex) of the wrapped component's sub-components, so it would be great if I could get a ref to the wrapped component and filter it's subcomponents by type.
So far the only approach that seems possible is to have each component store a ref for each of it's subcomponents, but this is tedious and kind of defeats the purpose of an HOC. Is there a generic way to access these sub-components?
A rough example of what I'm trying to do:
var HOC = (ComposedComponent) => {
return React.createClass({
componentDidMount: function() {
const subComponents = this.composedComponent.subComponents; // Something like this would be nice
const menuItems = subComponents.filter(() => {
// figure out a way to identify components of a certain type
});
this.applyRovingTabIndex(menuItems);
},
render: function() {
return (
<ComposedComponent
ref={(c) => { this.composedComponent = c }}
{...this.props} />
);
}
});
};

Answer 1

The tabIndex manipulation need not be done in the HOC, rather it can be done in the Parent component that renders all the HOCs. Because all you need is to determine which sub component is clicked and adjust the selected state on the Parent component. This selected state can then be propagated back to the sub components who compare their index with selected index and assign tabIndex accordingly.
You can send the respective props to determine whether the current ComposedComponent is selected or not by passing an onClick event handler all the way. Then in your sub component you can access tabIndex using this.props.tabIndex and render your parent div as
<div tabIndex={this.props.tabIndex}> </div>
The code below is almost like pseudo code to give an idea. If you feel that this does not solve your requirement you can try out a Tab example worked out by an awesome developer at this link CODEPEN EXAMPLE
const HOC = (ComposedComponent) => {
return class extends React.Component {
render (
<ComposedComponent
tabIndex={this.props.selected === this.props.index ? "0" : "-1"}
{...this.props}
/>
)
}
}
class Parent extends React.Component {
state = {
selected: 0
}
// Set the current selection based on the currentSelection argument
// that is bound to the function as it is sent along to Props
adjustTabIndices = (currentSelection) => (event) => {
this.setState({selection: currentSelection})
}
render {
return (
<div>
{
// These are your various MenuItem components that
// you want to compose using HOC
[MenuItem1, MenuItem2, MenuItem3].map(index => {
const MenuItem = HOC(MenuItem1);
return (
<MenuItem
key={index}
onClick={this.adjustTabIndices(index)}
selection={this.state.selected}
index={index}
/>
)
})
}
</div>
)
}
}