How do I access Material-ui's theme in Styled Component

Question

I'm using CRA with Material-ui and Styled Components type of styling. When building my CSS I want to access Material-ui's default theme.

part of package.json:

  "dependencies": {
    "react": "^16.8.6",
    "react-dom": "^16.8.6",
    "react-scripts": "3.0.1",
    "@material-ui/core": "^4.2.1",
    "@material-ui/icons": "^4.2.1",
    "@material-ui/styles": "^4.2.1",
    "styled-components": "^4.3.2"
  }

When I try the below theme exists on props but is an empty object.

StyledApp.js:

import styled from "styled-components";
import Button from "@material-ui/core/Button";

export const StyledButtonUsingTheme = styled(Button)`
  //Below will give "Cannot read property 'error' of undefined" 
  background-color: ${props => props.theme.palette.error.light};
`;

App.js:

import React from "react";
import "./App.css";

import { StylesProvider, ThemeProvider } from "@material-ui/styles";
import { createMuiTheme } from "@material-ui/core/styles";

import { StyledButtonUsingTheme } from "./StyledApp";

function App() {
  const defaultTheme = createMuiTheme();

  window.console.log("Default theme passing to ThemeProvider", defaultTheme);

  return (
    <StylesProvider injectFirst>
      <ThemeProvider theme={defaultTheme}>
        <div className="App">
          <StyledButtonUsingTheme variant="outlined">
            Styled Button Using Theme
          </StyledButtonUsingTheme>
        </div>
      </ThemeProvider>
    </StylesProvider>
  );
}

export default App;

The console.log in App.js shows the whole theme object, and that's what I pass to ThemesProvider. Interestingly props.theme is there! but sadly with no values.

Answer 1

You could use withTheme :

App.js

import React from "react"
import { ThemeProvider, createMuiTheme } from "@material-ui/core/styles"
import { StyledButton } from "./StyledButton"

const App = () => {

    const theme = createMuiTheme();

    return (
        <ThemeProvider theme={theme}>
            <StyledButton />
        </ThemeProvider>
    )
}

export default App

StyledButton.js

import { styled, withTheme } from "@material-ui/core/styles"
import Button from "@material-ui/core/Button"

export const StyledButton= styled(withTheme(Button))(props => ({
  background: props.theme.palette.background.paper,
}))