How to access component methods from “outside” in ReactJS?

Question

Why can’t I access the component methods from “outside” in ReactJS? Why is it not possible and is there any way to solve it?

Consider the code:

var Parent = React.createClass({
    render: function() {
        var child = <Child />;
        return (
            <div>
                {child.someMethod()} // expect "bar", got a "not a function" error.
            </div>
        );
    }
});

var Child = React.createClass({
    render: function() {
        return (
            <div>
                foo
            </div>
        );
    },
    someMethod: function() {
        return 'bar';
    }
});

React.renderComponent(<Parent />, document.body);

Answer 1

React provides an interface for what you are trying to do via the ref attribute. Assign a component a ref, and its current attribute will be your custom component:

class Parent extends React.Class {
    constructor(props) {
        this._child = React.createRef();
    }

    componentDidMount() {
        console.log(this._child.current.someMethod()); // Prints 'bar'
    }

    render() {
        return (
            <div>
                <Child ref={this._child} />
            </div>
        );
    }
}

Note: This will only work if the child component is declared as a class, as per documentation found here: https://facebook.github.io/react/docs/refs-and-the-dom.html#adding-a-ref-to-a-class-component

Update 2019-04-01: Changed example to use a class and createRef per latest React docs.

Update 2016-09-19: Changed example to use ref callback per guidance from the ref String attribute docs.