Module "preact/compat" has no exported member ElementRef

[PratikDev]

• Check if updating to the latest Preact version resolves the issue

Describe the bug
The ElementRef type is not available yet

To Reproduce
Check this Stackblitz demo where i'm importing the ElementRef from preact. In the same line render is also imported. If you hover over render you'll see the type definition of it. But that's not the case for ElementRef. It doesn't show any type definition (idk why Stackblitz isn't showing any error there. but vscode does)

Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Run npm init preact elementRefDemo
2. Check Typescript when asked
3. Try importing ElementRef in src/index.ts from preact or preact/compact

Expected behavior
ElementRef should be available in preact or preact/compact

[PratikDev]

I'm mainly integrating shadcn and finding ts issues in the shadcn provided components. i'll try to keep adding all the issues i find in this comment

KeyboardEvent is also not available.

[rschristian]

I'm fairly certain KeyboardEvent is part of TS's DOM typings, it's not something we'd supply? You might have misconfiguration your tsconfig.json if it's not available.

Edit: Strange, React provides their own, but it seemingly matches the standard event? I guess we can just re-export it.

[PratikDev]

Isn't it like we'll re-export most of the unavailable types from react?

[rschristian]

We don't re-export anything from React, no. We do not rely on React's types for our own.

It just makes little sense to me at this moment why React provides a KeyboardEvent type, it seemingly matches the standard DOM type. See

[PratikDev]

maybe i'm too noob in TS world. but when u say re-export, do u mean to re-export from TS directly?

[rschristian]

Yup, assuming I'm not missing something, I believe that's all we'd do.

I'm admittedly not a big TS user myself though.

[PratikDev]

u said react provides their own KeyboardEvent. it's still unclear to me why they had to do it? and even if they do, why can't we just directly use this KeyboardEvent without importing from anywhere? so that the one from TS gets used (i tried. it throws error).

[rschristian]

u said react provides their own KeyboardEvent. it's still unclear to me why they had to do it?

No clue, feel free to look through the blame: source

why can't we just directly use this KeyboardEvent without importing from anywhere?

You absolutely can (and should) in user code, if it fits your needs. Won't work for libs though if they expect to pull that type from React.

[rschristian]

Do you happen to have an example of a module that relies on the ElementRef type? We'd supply it from preact/compat, rather than preact itself, but I'd like to test that our implementation is correct.

[PratikDev]

yes. as mentioned in my first comment, I was trying to use shadcn with preact. And many components in shadcn like Select and Sheet do use ElementRef

[rschristian]

Thanks, was just looking for a specific component.

[rschristian]

I took a look at this tonight, but looks like it might rely on #4113, which I'm not sure we can address.

Open to PRs, if anyone's got them though.