How to contatenate React JSX objects

Question

I would like to add <p> tag in ExtendedComponent by calling super.render() , Problem is I don't know whether it is possible to modify already defined jsx object. Ideal would be to just write parentTemplate + <p>Some paragraph</p> , but that doesn't work.

class BaseComponent extends React.Component {
  get title() {
    return 'I am base component';
  }

  render() {
    return <h1>Hello {this.title}</h1>;
  }
}

class ExtendedComponent extends BaseComponent {
  get title() {
    return 'I am extended component';
  }

  render() {
    var parentTemplate = super.render();
    // append <p>Some paragraph</p> to parentTemplate
    return parentTemplate;
  }
}

ReactDOM.render(
  <ExtendedComponent />,       
  document.getElementById('test')
);

Answer 1

Like azium mentioned in the comments, this is not common to do with react. However, if you need to do it, it can be accomplished like this:

render() {
  var parentTemplate = super.render();
  // append <p>Some paragraph</p> to parentTemplate 
  return <div>{parentTemplate}<p>Some paragraph</p></div>;
}

You have to wrap it inside a div since a react element only can return one element, not a list of them. parentTemplate is just like any other jsx, but it's in a variable. You use the {variableName} syntax to add variables into the JSX.

Another way to do this, which is more "react"-like:

class BaseComponent extends React.Component {
  render() {
    return <h1>Hello {this.props.title}</h1>;
  }
}
BaseComponent.propTypes = {
  title: React.PropTypes.string
};
BaseComponent.defaultProps = {
  title: 'I am base component'
};

class ExtendedComponent extends React.Component {
  render() {
    return (
      <div>
        <BaseComponent title="I am extended component"/>
        <p>Some paragraph</p>
      </div>
    );
  }
}

ReactDOM.render(
  <ExtendedComponent />,       
  document.getElementById('test')
);

JSFiddle

Here ExtendedComponent is a higher-order component rather than one that inherits from BaseComponent. Most of the time this is a seperation of concerns that is easier to reason about, and most react apps are built this way rather than on inheritation.

Hope this helps!