Using material components in react

Question

I've been following the guide for Material UI Beta for react and want to make a simple component using the Drawer. Below is the code from the official documentation specifying how to create a Component.

import React from 'react';
import PropTypes from 'prop-types';
import { withStyles } from 'material-ui/styles';
import Drawer from 'material-ui/Drawer';
import AppBar from 'material-ui/AppBar';
import Toolbar from 'material-ui/Toolbar';
import List from 'material-ui/List';
import Typography from 'material-ui/Typography';
import IconButton from 'material-ui/IconButton';
import Hidden from 'material-ui/Hidden';
import Divider from 'material-ui/Divider';
import MenuIcon from 'material-ui-icons/Menu';
import { mailFolderListItems, otherMailFolderListItems } from './tileData';

const drawerWidth = 240;

const styles = theme => ({
  root: {
    width: '100%',
    height: 430,
    marginTop: theme.spacing.unit * 3,
    zIndex: 1,
    overflow: 'hidden',
  },
  appFrame: {
    position: 'relative',
    display: 'flex',
    width: '100%',
    height: '100%',
  },
  appBar: {
    position: 'absolute',
    marginLeft: drawerWidth,
    [theme.breakpoints.up('md')]: {
      width: `calc(100% - ${drawerWidth}px)`,
    },
  },
  navIconHide: {
    [theme.breakpoints.up('md')]: {
      display: 'none',
    },
  },
  drawerHeader: theme.mixins.toolbar,
  drawerPaper: {
    width: 250,
    [theme.breakpoints.up('md')]: {
      width: drawerWidth,
      position: 'relative',
      height: '100%',
    },
  },
  content: {
    backgroundColor: theme.palette.background.default,
    width: '100%',
    padding: theme.spacing.unit * 3,
    height: 'calc(100% - 56px)',
    marginTop: 56,
    [theme.breakpoints.up('sm')]: {
      height: 'calc(100% - 64px)',
      marginTop: 64,
    },
  },
});

export class ResponsiveDrawer extends React.Component {
  state = {
    mobileOpen: false,
  };

  handleDrawerToggle = () => {
    this.setState({ mobileOpen: !this.state.mobileOpen });
  };

  render() {
    const { classes } = this.props;

    const drawer = (
      <div>
        <div className={classes.drawerHeader} />
        <Divider />
        <List>{mailFolderListItems}</List>
        <Divider />
        <List>{otherMailFolderListItems}</List>
      </div>
    );

    return (
      <div className={classes.root}>
        <div className={classes.appFrame}>
          <AppBar className={classes.appBar}>
            <Toolbar>
              <IconButton
                color="contrast"
                aria-label="open drawer"
                onClick={this.handleDrawerToggle}
                className={classes.navIconHide}
              >
                <MenuIcon />
              </IconButton>
              <Typography type="title" color="inherit" noWrap>
                Responsive drawer
              </Typography>
            </Toolbar>
          </AppBar>
          <Hidden mdUp>
            <Drawer
              type="temporary"
              open={this.state.mobileOpen}
              classes={{
                paper: classes.drawerPaper,
              }}
              onRequestClose={this.handleDrawerToggle}
              ModalProps={{
                keepMounted: true, // Better open performance on mobile.
              }}
            >
              {drawer}
            </Drawer>
          </Hidden>
          <Hidden mdDown implementation="css">
            <Drawer
              type="permanent"
              open
              classes={{
                paper: classes.drawerPaper,
              }}
            >
              {drawer}
            </Drawer>
          </Hidden>
          <main className={classes.content}>
            <Typography type="body1" noWrap>
              {'You think water moves fast? You should see ice.'}
            </Typography>
          </main>
        </div>
      </div>
    );
  }
}

ResponsiveDrawer.propTypes = {
  classes: PropTypes.object.isRequired,
};

export default withStyles(styles)(ResponsiveDrawer);

What is the best practice for specifying the props in the parent component? Should I simply specify the className for each class in the parent component directly? And what if I don't need a class name for a particular class?

class App extends Component {
  render() {
    const classes = {
      root: "bullet",
      appFrame: "card",
      ...
    };
    return (
      <div className="App">
        <ResponsiveDrawer classes={classes} />



      </div>
    );
  }
}

Answer 1

To customize styles of a material-ui react component you should follow the conventions described in they API for overrides.

For example, let's imagine you need need to change the color of a Button, you could override the root and label classes.

Quick example:

const styles = {
  root: {
    background: 'linear-gradient(45deg, #FE6B8B 30%, #FF8E53 90%)',
    borderRadius: 3,
    border: 0,
    color: 'white',
    height: 48,
    padding: '0 30px',
    boxShadow: '0 3px 5px 2px rgba(255, 105, 135, .30)',
  },
  label: {
    textTransform: 'capitalize',
  },
};

So for customizing a component you should use style directly on the component it self. If instead you need adjust its positioning, for example, you could consider using a style in a parent component. This have the advantage to make your components more reusable.