react-omit

tl;dr: This package lets you omit the second argument (props) when using React.createElement() instead of JSX.

JSX (and XML in general) looks messy due closing tags and the attributes all being on one line. You can use React without JSX but React.createElement() hasn't been made very user-friendly.

After trying hyperscript, r-dom, and even trying to implement pug, I concluded that a shorthand for React.createElement is indeed the simplest, but that when no attributes are passed you're forced to put an empty object as the second argument. This little function removes that need.

As a bonus, combined with the new Coffeescript 2, you can omit the closing tags altogether. The result is the same syntax for all JS and JSX in a file, with easy to type code and clearer oversight.

It allows code like this:

import React from 'react'
import o from 'react-omit'
import { Grid, Row, Col } from 'react-flexbox-grid'

const Home = () =>
  o(Grid,
    o(Row,
      o(Col, {xs: 6},
        o('h2', 'All Users'),
        o('ul', props.users.map((user, key) =>
          o('li', {key: key},
            o('b', 'Name: '),
            user.name,
            o('br'),
            o('b', 'Email: '),
            user.email
          )
        ))
      ),
      o(Col, {xs: 6},
        o('h2', 'All Projects'),
        o('ul', props.projects.map((project, key) =>
          o('li', {key: key},
            o('b', 'Title: '),
            project.title,
            o('br'),
            o('b', 'Owner: '),
            project.owner
          )
        ))
      )
    )
  )

export default Home

Or, using Coffeescript 2, allows you to write without closing tags, which looks very much like HAML or jade / pug:

import React from 'react'
import o from 'react-omit'
import { Grid, Row, Col } from 'react-flexbox-grid'

const Home = () ->
  o Grid,
    o Row,
      o Col, {xs: 6},
        o 'h2', 'All Users'
        o 'ul', props.users.map (user, key) ->
          o 'li', {key: key},
            o 'b', 'Name: '
            user.name
            o 'br'
            o 'b', 'Email: '
            user.email
      o Col, {xs: 6},
        o 'h2', 'All Projects'
        o 'ul', props.projects.map (project, key) ->
          o 'li', {key: key},
            o 'b', 'Title: '
            project.title
            o 'br'
            o 'b', 'Owner: '
            project.owner

export default Home

Even better, since Coffeescript allows for objects to look like YML, you can do this:

import React from 'react'
import o from 'react-omit'

Loading = () ->
  o 'svg',
    width: 38
    height: 38
    viewBox: '0 0 38 38'
    xmlns: 'http://www.w3.org/2000/svg'
    stroke: '#00AA11'
    o 'g',
      fill: 'none'
      fillRule: 'evenodd'
      o 'g',
        transform: 'translate(1 1)'
        strokeWidth: 2
        o 'circle',
          strokeOpacity: '.5'
          cx: 18
          cy: 18
          r: 18
        o 'path',
          d: 'M36 18c0-9.94-8.06-18-18-18'
          o 'animateTransform',
            attributeName: 'transform'
            type: 'rotate'
            from: '0 18 18'
            to: '360 18 18'
            dur: '1s'
            repeatCount: 'indefinite'

export default Loading

To generate this:

<svg width="38" height="38" viewBox="0 0 38 38" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" stroke="#00AA11">
  <g fill="none" fill-rule="evenodd">
    <g transform="translate(1 1)" stroke-width="2">
      <circle stroke-opacity=".5" cx="18" cy="18" r="18"></circle>
      <path d="M36 18c0-9.94-8.06-18-18-18" transform="rotate(187.894 18 18)">
        <animateTransform attributeName="transform" type="rotate" from="0 18 18" to="360 18 18" dur="1s" repeatCount="indefinite"></animateTransform>
      </path>
    </g>
  </g>
</svg>

This code is super naive and would love your feedback and PR's 🤠