Typing React components in Flow when passing a component as a prop

Question

I want to pass a React component as input prop to another React component. I tried to reference it as React.Component<*, *, *> but when I use the passed component in the render method I get an error. This is how I wrote out my flow code.

/* @flow */

import React, { Component } from 'react';
import ReactDOM from 'react-dom';

const Input = props => <div>Yo</div>

type DefaultProps = {
  InputComponent: Input
};

type Props = {
  InputComponent: React.Component<*, *, *>
};

class App extends Component<DefaultProps, Props, void> {
  static defaultProps = {
    InputComponent: Input
  };

  props: Props;

  render() {
    const { InputComponent } = this.props

    return (
      <div>
        <InputComponent />
      </div>
    )
  }
}

ReactDOM.render(
  <App />,
  document.getElementById('root')
)

However in the App render method I get the error

React element `InputComponent` (Expected React component instead of React$Component)

How should I properly type input components?

Answer 1

Since v0.59.0, you should use React.Component. For example:

/* @flow */

import React from 'react';

const Input = props => <div>Yo</div>

type Props = {
  InputComponent: React.Component<*, *>
};

class App extends React.Component<Props, void> {
  static defaultProps = {
    InputComponent: Input
  };

  render() {
    const { InputComponent } = this.props

    return (
      <div>
        <InputComponent />
      </div>
    )
  }
}

Here is a working example for 0.59.0. As mentioned in the comments, there is a description of the changes here.

:: Before v0.59.0 ::

You should use ReactClass<*> instead of React.Component.

Here is a working example, and the documentation is here!

/**
 * Type of a React class (not to be confused with the type of instances of a
 * React class, which is the React class itself). A React class is any subclass
 * of React$Component. We make the type of a React class parametric over Config,
 * which is derived from some of the type parameters (DefaultProps, Props) of
 * React$Component, abstracting away others (State); whereas a React$Component
 * type is useful for checking the definition of a React class, a ReactClass
 * type (and the corresponding React$Element type, see below) is useful for
 * checking the uses of a React class. The required constraints are set up using
 * a "helper" type alias, that takes an additional type parameter C representing
 * the React class, which is then abstracted with an existential type (*). The *
 * can be thought of as an "auto" instruction to the typechecker, telling it to
 * fill in the type from context.
 */
type ReactClass<Config> = _ReactClass<*, *, Config, *>;
type _ReactClass<DefaultProps, Props, Config: $Diff<Props, DefaultProps>, C: React$Component<DefaultProps, Props, any>> = Class<C>;