summaryrefslogtreecommitdiffstats
path: root/devtools/docs/frontend/react-guidelines.md
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
Diffstat (limited to 'devtools/docs/frontend/react-guidelines.md')
-rw-r--r--devtools/docs/frontend/react-guidelines.md73
1 files changed, 73 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/devtools/docs/frontend/react-guidelines.md b/devtools/docs/frontend/react-guidelines.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..b6fe32fb89
--- /dev/null
+++ b/devtools/docs/frontend/react-guidelines.md
@@ -0,0 +1,73 @@
+
+# Guidelines for Writing React
+
+These are soft rules for writing react devtools code. Try to stick to
+these for consistency, and if you disagree, file a bug to change these
+docs and we can talk about it.
+
+**Please also read** the [coding
+ standards](https://wiki.mozilla.org/DevTools/CodingStandards#React_.26_Redux)
+for react and redux code. The guidelines here are more general
+patterns not specific to code style.
+
+### Why no JSX?
+
+You probably already noticed we don't use JSX. The answer isn't
+complicated: we don't build our JS code, and we write directly for our
+JS engine, SpiderMonkey. It already supports much of ES6, but it does
+not support JSX (which is not a standard).
+
+This may change if we ever adopt a build step. Even so, the author is
+not convinced that JSX helps enough to warrant all the syntax. It is
+clearer sometimes, but it can be noisy switching between JSX and JS a
+lot.
+
+It's not as bad as you may think! If you are used to JSX it may be an
+adjustment, but you won't miss it too much.
+
+### One component per file
+
+Try to only put one component in a file. This helps avoid large files
+full of components, but it's also technically required for how we wrap
+components with factories. See the next rule.
+
+It also makes it easier to write tests because you might not export
+some components, so tests can't access them.
+
+You can include small helper components in the same file if you really
+want to, but note that they won't be directly tested and you will have
+to use `React.createElement` or immediately wrap them in factories to
+use them.
+
+### Export the component directly and create factory on import
+
+Modules are the way components interact. Ideally every component lives
+in a separate file and they require whatever they need. This allows
+tests to access all components and use module boundaries to wrap
+components.
+
+For example, we don't use JSX, so we need to create factories for
+components to use them as functions. A simple way to do this is on
+import:
+
+```js
+const Thing1 = React.createFactory(require('./thing1'));
+const Thing2 = React.createFactory(require('./thing2'));
+```
+
+It adds a little noise, but then you can do `Thing1({ ... })` instead
+of `React.createElement(Thing1, { ... })`. Definitely worth it.
+
+Additionally, make sure to export the component class directly:
+
+```js
+const Thing1 = React.createClass({ ... });
+module.exports = Thing1;
+```
+
+Do not export `{ Thing1 }` or anything like that. This is required for
+the factory wrapping as well as hot reloading.
+
+### More to Come
+
+This is just a start. We will add more to this document. \ No newline at end of file