Migrate from findDOMNode to refs

React team just finally announced deprecating findDOMNode.

https://github.com/facebook/react/pull/13841

Would be good to start providing better refs in each component to get rid from RootRef.

Edit @eps1lon: Hijacking OP to document progress.

If we need the DOM node we still use findDOMNode but we call it with refs. If the refs are attached to host components you won’t get a strict mode warning. Only if they are attached to class components.

Strict-mode ready findDOMNode

• Slider
• ButtonBase
• ClickAwayListener
• MenuList
• Modal
• Popover
• Portal
• ~[ ] RootRef~ compat module
• Slide
• SwipeableDrawer
• TextField

[oliviertassinari]

This is such a big move from React. For a long time, I thought they weren’t going to execute on this. From what I understand, the motivation is around simplifying React internal core. This makes sense. Let’s see how we can fulfill this new constraint.

[eps1lon]

Or do you mean that you don’t want yet another breaking change and for existing class components (that do not correctly forward refs) to work?

Yes. Just reducing the amount of breaking changes.

Is that because findDOMNode(validElementRef) is safe?

At least for now. We’re still waiting for an official confirmation but so far findDOMNode doesn’t throw if called with host instances.