preact.render does not return component instance

The return value doesn’t appear to be documented for either ReactDOM.render or preact.render, but with ReactDOM an instance of the component can be returned.

Example code via StackOverflow comment:

var Hello = React.createClass({
  render: function() {
    return (this.state) ? <div>Hello {this.state.name}</div> : null;
  }
});

var component = ReactDOM.render(<Hello/>, document.getElementById('container'));
component.setState({name: "World"});
setTimeout(function(){
  component.setState({name: "StackOverFlow"});
}, 1000);

This does not work with Preact; the return value of preact.render appears to be the real DOM rather than the virtual one. Is this intentional?

[I’ll note that using React in this way appears to be frowned upon, at least in that StackOverflow thread I found. But imo it could be handy to have outside access to components, especially with small/store-less apps.]

[developit]

ah - you should use a ref on the root. That will work in both libs:

let instance;  // holds our component instance
let ref = c => {
  // c is the component instance
  instance = c;
};
render(<Foo ref={ref} />, parent)

console.log(instance)

[natevw]

@developit D’oh! I had checked preact-compat for this, and even found that method, but somehow completely missed the obvious && out._component part that must have been right under my nose 😦

+1 for wontfixing this — <del>I’m content doing my own ._component lookup even if it’s a small maintenance concern should preact ever change its internals there</del> ☝︎☝︎☝︎ ref thing above 💯 .