import {Note} from '../_component/note.server.js'
export const info = {
  author: [
    {name: 'Chris Biscardi', github: 'christopherbiscardi', twitter: 'chrisbiscardi'}
  ],
  published: new Date('2019-03-11'),
  modified: new Date('2021-11-01')
}

<Note type="legacy">
  **Note**: This is an old blog post.
  The steps described in it are no longer performed by MDX.
  It now uses an JavaScript AST first rather than generating a string of JSX.
  It is also no longer required for extra glue code, that combines MDX with a
  specific framework, to be used on the client.
  See [§ How MDX works](/docs/using-mdx/#how-mdx-works)
  and [¶ Architecture](/packages/mdx/#architecture) for more info.
  The below is kept as is for historical purposes.
</Note>

# Custom pragma

`MDXTag`, for those that aren’t aware, is a critical piece in the way
MDX replaces HTML primitives like `<pre>` and `<h1>` with custom React
Components.
[I’ve previously
written](https://www.christopherbiscardi.com/post/codeblocks-mdx-and-mdx-utils)
about the way `MDXTag` works when trying to replace the `<pre>` tag
with a custom code component.
[mdx-utils](https://github.com/ChristopherBiscardi/gatsby-mdx/blob/00769a1b72455f40843cd2f09ee34fd63b009fb2/packages/mdx-utils/index.js)
contains the methodology for pulling the props around appropriately
through the `MDXTag` elements that are inbetween `pre` and `code`.

{/* more */}

```js
exports.preToCodeBlock = preProps => {
  if (
    // children is MDXTag
    preProps.children &&
    // MDXTag props
    preProps.children.props &&
    // if MDXTag is going to render a <code>
    preProps.children.props.name === 'code'
  ) {
    // we have a <pre><code> situation
    const {
      children: codeString,
      props: {className, ...props}
    } = preProps.children.props

    return {
      codeString: codeString.trim(),
      language: className && className.split('-')[1],
      ...props
    }
  }
  return undefined
}
```

So `MDXTag` is a real Component in the middle of all of the other MDX
rendered elements.
All of the code is included here for reference.

```js
import React, {Component} from 'react'

import {withMDXComponents} from './mdx-provider'

const defaults = {
  inlineCode: 'code',
  wrapper: 'div'
}

class MDXTag extends Component {
  render() {
    const {
      name,
      parentName,
      props: childProps = {},
      children,
      components = {},
      Layout,
      layoutProps
    } = this.props

    const Component =
      components[`${parentName}.${name}`] ||
      components[name] ||
      defaults[name] ||
      name

    if (Layout) {
      return (
        <Layout components={components} {...layoutProps}>
          <Component {...childProps}>{children}</Component>
        </Layout>
      )
    }

    return <Component {...childProps}>{children}</Component>
  }
}

export default withMDXComponents(MDXTag)
```

`MDXTag` is used in the hast to estree conversion,
which is the final step in the MDX AST pipeline.
Every renderable element is wrapped in an `MDXTag`, and `MDXTag` handles
rendering the element later.

```js
return `<MDXTag name="${node.tagName}" components={components}${
  parentNode.tagName ? ` parentName="${parentNode.tagName}"` : ''
}${props ? ` props={${props}}` : ''}>${children}</MDXTag>`
```

## A concrete example

The following MDX

```mdx
# a title

    and such

testing
```

turns into the following React code

```js
export default ({components, ...props}) => (
  <MDXTag name="wrapper" components={components}>
    <MDXTag name="h1" components={components}>{`a title`}</MDXTag>{' '}
    <MDXTag name="pre" components={components}>
      <MDXTag
        name="code"
        components={components}
        parentName="pre"
        props={{metaString: null}}
      >{`and such `}</MDXTag>
    </MDXTag>{' '}
    <MDXTag name="p" components={components}>{`testing`}</MDXTag>
  </MDXTag>
)
```

resulting in the following HTML

```html
<div>
  <h1>a title</h1>
  <pre>
    <code>and such</code>
  </pre>
  <p>testing</p>
</div>
```

## createElement

With the new approach, the above MDX transforms into this new React code

```js
const layoutProps = {}
export default function MDXContent({components, ...props}) {
  return (
    <MDXLayout
      {...layoutProps}
      {...props}
      components={components}
      mdxType="MDXLayout"
    >
      <h1>{`a title`}</h1>
      <pre>
        <code parentName="pre" {...{}}>{`and such
`}</code>
      </pre>
      <p>{`testing`}</p>
    </MDXLayout>
  )
}

MDXContent.isMDXComponent = true
```

Notice how now the React elements are plainly readable without
wrapping `MDXTag`.

Now that we’ve cleaned up the intermediary representation, we need to
make sure that we have the same functionality as the old `MDXTag`.
This is done through a custom `createElement` implementation.
Typically when using React, we use `React.createElement` to render the elements
on screen.
This is even true if you’re using JSX because JSX tags such as `<div>` compile
to `createElement` calls.
So this time instead of using `React.createElement` we’ll be using our own.

Reproduced here is our `createElement` function and the logic for how
we decide whether or not MDX should take over the rendering of the
`createElement` call.

```js
export default function (type, props) {
  const args = arguments
  const mdxType = props && props.mdxType

  if (typeof type === 'string' || mdxType) {
    const argsLength = args.length

    const createElementArgArray = new Array(argsLength)
    createElementArgArray[0] = MDXCreateElement

    const newProps = {}
    for (let key in props) {
      if (hasOwnProperty.call(props, key)) {
        newProps[key] = props[key]
      }
    }
    newProps.originalType = type
    newProps[TYPE_PROP_NAME] = typeof type === 'string' ? type : mdxType

    createElementArgArray[1] = newProps

    for (let i = 2; i < argsLength; i++) {
      createElementArgArray[i] = args[i]
    }

    return React.createElement.apply(null, createElementArgArray)
  }

  return React.createElement.apply(null, args)
}
```

## Vue

One really cool application of the new output format using a custom
`createElement` is that we can now write versions of it for Vue and other
frameworks.
Since the pragma insertion is the responsibility of the webpack (or other
bundlers) loader, swapping the pragma can be an option in mdx-loader as long as
we have a Vue `createElement` to point to.
