# Updating Shadcn UI Components to React 19

> In React 19, the 'forwardRef' function was deprecated. This post will show you how to update your Shadcn UI components to work with React 19 and ensure future compatibility.

*Published: 2024-12-25*
*Canonical: https://makerkit.dev/blog/tutorials/update-shadcn-react-19*

---

In React 19, [the `forwardRef` function was deprecated](https://react.dev/blog/2024/04/25/react-19-upgrade-guide#deprecated-element-ref).

This post will show you how to update your Shadcn UI components, so that they work with React 19, but also to simplify the code to pass references to components.

## How did Shadcn UI components work before?

Shadcn UI is one of the most popular UI libraries for React. Based on the incredible work of [Radix UI](https://www.radix-ui.com/), Shadcn UI introduced a set of "open" components styled with [Tailwind CSS](https://tailwindcss.com/) that took the React ecosystem by storm.

Shadcn UI uses the `forwardRef` function to pass references to components. This is a common pattern in React, and it's how we can pass a reference to a component to a child component.

As of React 19, the `forwardRef` function is deprecated. Instead, `ref` is now a prop that can be passed to a component.

```tsx
function SuperButton({id, ref}) {
  return <button id={id} ref={ref} />
}

//...
<SuperButton ref={ref} />
```

The new approach simplifies component composition by removing the need for `forwardRef`. Components can now directly accept and pass refs as props, making the code more straightforward and maintainable.

## How to update Shadcn UI components to work with React 19

To update your Shadcn UI components to work with React 19, you need to update the `forwardRef` function to `ref` and pass the ref as a prop to the component.

Here's an example of how to update the `Input` component. Before, it used `forwardRef` to pass a reference to the component to the `Label` component:

```tsx
import * as React from 'react';

import { cn } from '../lib/utils';

export type InputProps = React.InputHTMLAttributes<HTMLInputElement>;

const Input = React.forwardRef<HTMLInputElement, InputProps>(
  ({ className, type = 'text', ...props }, ref) => {
    return (
      <input
        type={type}
        className={cn(
          'flex h-9 w-full rounded-md border border-input bg-transparent px-3 py-1 text-sm shadow-sm transition-colors file:border-0 file:bg-transparent file:text-sm file:font-medium placeholder:text-muted-foreground focus-visible:outline-none focus-visible:ring-1 focus-visible:ring-ring disabled:cursor-not-allowed disabled:opacity-50',
          className,
        )}
        ref={ref}
        {...props}
      />
    );
  },
);

Input.displayName = 'Input';

export { Input };
```

After updating the `Input` component to use `ref` instead of `forwardRef`, you can pass the ref as a prop to the `Label` component:

```tsx
import * as React from 'react';

import { cn } from '../lib/utils';

export type InputProps = React.InputHTMLAttributes<HTMLInputElement>;

const Input: React.FC<InputProps> = ({
  className,
  type = 'text',
  ...props
}) => {
  return (
    <input
      type={type}
      className={cn(
        'flex h-9 w-full rounded-md border border-input bg-transparent px-3 py-1 text-sm shadow-sm transition-colors file:border-0 file:bg-transparent file:text-sm file:font-medium placeholder:text-muted-foreground focus-visible:outline-none focus-visible:ring-1 focus-visible:ring-ring disabled:cursor-not-allowed disabled:opacity-50',
        className,
      )}
      {...props}
    />
  );
};

Input.displayName = 'Input';

export { Input };
```

In the above code, we've updated the `Input` component to use `ref` instead of `forwardRef`. We've also updated the `Input` component to accept a `type` prop and pass it to the input element.

Because `ref` is already a prop, we don't need to specify it because we spread the `props` object, and `ref` is already a property of `props`.

## Updating a more complex component in Shadcn UI

Let's take a look at an example of how to update a more complex component in Shadcn UI.

The `Popover` component is an example of a component that uses `forwardRef` to pass a reference to the component to a child component and extends the `PopoverPrimitive.Root` component from Radix UI.

```tsx
'use client';

import * as React from 'react';

import * as PopoverPrimitive from '@radix-ui/react-popover';

import { cn } from '../lib/utils';

const Popover = PopoverPrimitive.Root;

const PopoverTrigger = PopoverPrimitive.Trigger;

const PopoverAnchor = PopoverPrimitive.Anchor;

const PopoverContent = React.forwardRef<
  React.ElementRef<typeof PopoverPrimitive.Content>,
  React.ComponentPropsWithoutRef<typeof PopoverPrimitive.Content>
>(({ className, align = 'center', sideOffset = 4, ...props }, ref) => (
const PopoverContent: React.FC<
  React.ComponentProps<typeof PopoverPrimitive.Content>
> = ({ className, align = 'center', sideOffset = 4, ...props }) => (
  <PopoverPrimitive.Portal>
    <PopoverPrimitive.Content
      ref={ref}
      align={align}
      sideOffset={sideOffset}
      className={cn(
        'z-50 w-72 rounded-md border bg-popover p-4 text-popover-foreground shadow-md outline-none data-[state=open]:animate-in data-[state=closed]:animate-out data-[state=closed]:fade-out-0 data-[state=open]:fade-in-0 data-[state=closed]:zoom-out-95 data-[state=open]:zoom-in-95 data-[side=bottom]:slide-in-from-top-2 data-[side=left]:slide-in-from-right-2 data-[side=right]:slide-in-from-left-2 data-[side=top]:slide-in-from-bottom-2',
        className,
      )}
      {...props}
    />
  </PopoverPrimitive.Portal>
));
);

PopoverContent.displayName = PopoverPrimitive.Content.displayName;

export { Popover, PopoverTrigger, PopoverContent, PopoverAnchor };
```

Insead of using `forwardRef`, we can use `ref` directly in the `PopoverContent` component:

```tsx
'use client';

import * as React from 'react';

import * as PopoverPrimitive from '@radix-ui/react-popover';

import { cn } from '../lib/utils';

const Popover = PopoverPrimitive.Root;

const PopoverTrigger = PopoverPrimitive.Trigger;

const PopoverAnchor = PopoverPrimitive.Anchor;

const PopoverContent: React.FC<
  React.ComponentProps<typeof PopoverPrimitive.Content>
> = ({ className, align = 'center', sideOffset = 4, ...props }) => (
  <PopoverPrimitive.Portal>
    <PopoverPrimitive.Content
      align={align}
      sideOffset={sideOffset}
      className={cn(
        'z-50 w-72 rounded-md border bg-popover p-4 text-popover-foreground shadow-md outline-none data-[state=open]:animate-in data-[state=closed]:animate-out data-[state=closed]:fade-out-0 data-[state=open]:fade-in-0 data-[state=closed]:zoom-out-95 data-[state=open]:zoom-in-95 data-[side=bottom]:slide-in-from-top-2 data-[side=left]:slide-in-from-right-2 data-[side=right]:slide-in-from-left-2 data-[side=top]:slide-in-from-bottom-2',
        className,
      )}
      {...props}
    />
  </PopoverPrimitive.Portal>
);

PopoverContent.displayName = PopoverPrimitive.Content.displayName;

export { Popover, PopoverTrigger, PopoverContent, PopoverAnchor };
```

As you can see from the above snippet, we have updated the component to use `ref` instead of `forwardRef`. We have also updated the `PopoverContent` component to accept a `ref` as a prop and pass it to the `PopoverPrimitive.Content` component.

To extend a Radix UI Primitive, use the pattern below:

```tsx
type Props = React.ComponentProps<typeof RadixPrimitive>;

const NewComponent = React.FC<Props> = // Your component code...
```

Where `NewComponent` is the name of your component and `RadixPrimitive` is the name of the Radix UI Primitive you want to extend.

## Conclusion

In this post, we've seen how to update Shadcn UI components to work with React 19, while also writing less code to achieve the same result.

Makerkit, the **best Next.js SaaS Starter Kit for building SaaS products**, uses Shadcn UI components extensively. We've already updated our components to work with React 19 and ensure compatibility with future versions of React.