conditional css in create-react-app - css

Question

I have default css file and separate css file that should be applied (to owerride default) only when certain conditions are met.
I am using create-react-app wit default import 'file.css' syntax.
What is the best way forward to decide whether to load or not load particular css file dynamically?

Answer 1

The require method only worked in development (as all the CSS is bundled upon build), and the import method did not work at all (using CRA version 3.3).
In our case, we have multiple themes, which cannot be bundled - so we solved this using React.lazy and React.Suspense.
We have the ThemeSelector, which loads the correct css conditionally.
import React from 'react';
/**
* The theme components only imports it's theme CSS-file. These components are lazy
* loaded, to enable "code splitting" (in order to avoid the themes being bundled together)
*/
const Theme1 = React.lazy(() => import('./Theme1'));
const Theme2 = React.lazy(() => import('./Theme2'));
const ThemeSelector: React.FC = ({ children }) => (
<>
{/* Conditionally render theme, based on the current client context */}
<React.Suspense fallback={() => null}>
{shouldRenderTheme1 && <Theme1 />}
{shouldRenderTheme2 && <Theme2 />}
</React.Suspense>
{/* Render children immediately! */}
{children}
</>
);
export default ThemeSelector;
The Theme component's only job, is to import the correct css file:
import * as React from 'react';
// 👇 Only important line - as this component should be lazy-loaded,
// to enable code - splitting for this CSS.
import 'theme1.css';
const Theme1: React.FC = () => <></>;
export default Theme1;
The ThemeSelector should wrap the App component, in the src/index.tsx:
import React from 'react';
import ReactDOM from 'react-dom';
import ThemeSelector from 'themes/ThemeSelector';
ReactDOM.render(
<ThemeSelector>
<App />
</ThemeSelector>,
document.getElementById('root')
);
As I understand, this forces each Theme to be split into separate bundles (effectively also splitting CSS).
As mentioned in the comments, this solution does not present an easy way of switching themes runtime. This solution focuses on splitting themes into separate bundles.
If you already got themes split into separate CSS files, and you want to swap themes runtime, you might want to look at a solution using ReactHelmet (illustrated by #Alexander Ladonin's answer below)

Answer 2

You can use require('file.css') syntax instead. This will allow you to put it inside of a conditional.
e.g.
if(someCondition) {
require('file.css');
}

Answer 3

Use React Helmet. It adds links, meta tags etc into document header dynamically.
Add it into any render method.
import {Component} from 'react';
import ReactHelmet from 'react-helmet';
class Example extends Component{
render(
<ReactHelmet link={
[{"rel": "stylesheet", type:"text/css", "href": "/style.css"}]
}/>);
}
}
You can rewrite it on next <ReactHelmet/> rendering.

Answer 4

One simple solution that I found that works in production is to use vercel's styled-jsx. First, install styled-jsx:
npm install --save styled-jsx
Or if you use Yarn:
yarn add styled-jsx
Now create strings from your css file, so for instance:
const style1 = `
div {
display: flex;
flex-direction: column;
align-items: center;
}
`
const style2 = `
div {
display: flex;
flex-direction: column;
align-items: center;
}
`
And then in your React Component, you can do something like this:
const MyComponent = () => {
return (
<div className='my-component'>
<style jsx>
{
conditionA ? style1: style2
}
</style>
</div>
)
}
Simply add <style jsx>{your_css_string}</style> to the component which you wish to add styling to and you can then to implement conditions just use different strings to import different css styling.

Answer 5

If you are here you most likely are trying to condition a CSS or SCSS import, probably to make some light/dark mode theme or something. The accepted answer works just on mount, after the second css is loaded they are both loaded and you dont have a way to unload them, or actually you have, keep reading...
The use of React lazy and suspense is awesome but in this case we need to help our selves from webpack, because is actually the guy that bundles stuff and can also unbundle stuff, which is what you need, a toggle of css imports basically
Adding webpack lazyStyleTag
Go to your webpack config file and add the following rules
module.exports = {
module: {
rules: [
{
test: /\.css$/i,
// Probly you already have this rule, add this line
exclude: /\.lazy\.css$/i,
use: ["style-loader", "css-loader"],
},
// And add this rule
{
test: /\.lazy\.css$/i,
use: [
{ loader: "style-loader", options: { injectType: "lazyStyleTag" } },
"css-loader",
],
},
],
},
};
Now take your CSS files and change their name to the lazy named convention
You probably have this
styles.css
// or
styles.min.css
Now will be this:
styles.lazy.css
Then create your React theme Provider in a simple React context, this context will wrap your App so it will load the conditioned CSS everytime the context state changes. This context state is going to be availabe anywhere inside your app as well as the setter via a custom hook we will export from the same file, check this out:
import React, {
useEffect, createContext, useState, useContext,
} from 'react';
import { Nullable } from 'types';
// Import both files here like this:
// Import of CSS file number 1
import LightMode from './theme/styles.lazy.css';
// Import of CSS file number 2
import DarkMode from './theme/styles.lazy.css';
interface IContext {
theme: Nullable<string>
toggleTheme: () => void
}
const Context = createContext<IContext>({
theme: null,
toggleTheme: () => { },
});
// Your Provider component that returns the Context.Provider
// Let's also play with the sessionStorage, so this state doesn't
// brake with browser refresh or logouts
const ThemeProvider: React.FC = ({ children }) => {
// Im initialazing here the state with any existing value in the
//sessionStorage, or not...
const [theme, setTheme] = useState<Nullable<string>>(sessionStorage.getItem('themeMode') || 'dark');
// this setter Fn we can pass down to anywhere
const toggleTheme = () => {
const newThemeValue = theme === 'dark' ? 'light' : 'dark';
setTheme(newThemeValue);
sessionStorage.setItem('themeMode', newThemeValue);
};
// Now the magic, this lazy css files you can use or unuse
// This is exactly what you need, import the CSS but also unimport
// the one you had imported before. An actual toggle of import in a
// dynamic way.. brought to you by webpack
useEffect(() => {
if (theme === 'light') {
DarkMode.unuse();
LightMode.use();
} else if (theme == 'dark') {
LightMode.unuse();
DarkMode.use();
}
}, [theme]);
return (
<Context.Provider value={{ theme, toggleTheme }}>
{children}
</Context.Provider>
);
};
export default ThemeProvider;
// This useTheme hook will give you the context anywhere to set the state of // theme and this will toggle the styles imported
export const useTheme = () => useContext(Context);
Remember to put this state on the sessionStorage like in this example so your user has the state available every time it comes back or refreshes the page
Don't forget to wrap the friking App with the Provider:
import ThemeProvider from './ThemeProvider'
const App = () => {
return (
<ThemeProvider>
<App />
</ThemeProvider>
)
}
Now just toggle the CSS imports of your application using your cool useTheme hook
import { useTheme } from './yourContextFile';
// inside your component
const AnyComponentDownTheTree = () => {
const { theme, toggleTheme } = useTheme()
// use the toggleTheme function to toggle and the theme actual value
// for your components, you might need disable something or set active a
// switch, etc, etc
}

Answer 6

Other solution does not work for me. After one day of the search, I obtain bellow solution. In my issue, I have two CSS files for RTL or LTR like app.rtl.css or app.ltr.css
Create a functional component Style like this:
import React, { useState } from "react";
export default function Style(props) {
const [stylePath, setStylePath] = useState(props.path);
return (
<div>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href={stylePath} />
</div>
);
}
And then you can call it, for example in App.js:
function App() {
...
return (
<Style path={`/css/app.${direction}.css`} />
)}
direction param contains rtl or ltr and determine which file should be loaded.

Answer 7

I tested some alternatives available in some tutorials and the best for me was to use only classes in css.
One of the problems I encountered when using
require: did not override on some occasions
import: delay generated to load css
The best way for me was to actually put a class switch
.default-sidebar {
--side-text-icon:rgba(255,255,255,.9) !important;
--side-text-section: rgb(255,255,255,.8) !important;
--side-separator-section:#ff944d !important;
}
.dark-sidebar {
--side-text-icon:rgba(255,255,255,.9) !important;
--side-text-section: rgb(255,255,255,.8) !important;
--side-separator-section:#262626 !important;
}
'
<div className={`root-sidebar ${condition?'default-sidebar':'dark-sidebar'}`}></div>