Nested Render Trees

[sebmarkbage]

The way we implement portals is through a nested React.render in componentDidMount/Update. This is also how react-art can switch render mode in the middle of the tree.

This comes with a few problems.

1. We can't reason about the depth of a component. Which is why we had to implement mountOrder.
2. We can't reason about its position in the tree for debugging purposes (react-devtools).
3. We can't pass the context through to the next subtree.

We should have a first-class concept of nested render trees, that can optionally use a different render mode.

[sophiebits]

Would be nice to figure out how event bubbling works as well (cf. #1696).

[jimfb]

for reference: see ReactWithAddons.renderSubtreeIntoContainer

[slorber]

I use renderSubtreeIntoContainer with success in conjunction with Tether

Will it change in the future?

[sophiebits]

Probably sometime, but no new proposal at the moment.

[gaearon]

We have portals now.

They're not cross-renderer yet but I think the use cases in this thread are fixed.