Shoelace offers a React version of every component to provide an idiomatic experience for React users. You can easily toggle between HTML and React examples throughout the documentation.
Next, [include a theme](/getting-started/themes) and set the [base path](/getting-started/installation#setting-the-base-path) for icons and other assets. In this example, we'll import the light theme and use the CDN as a base path.
?> If you'd rather not use the CDN for assets, you can create a [build task](https://webpack.js.org/plugins/copy-webpack-plugin/) that copies `node_modules/@shoelace-style/shoelace/dist/assets` into your app's `public` directory. Then you can point the base path to that folder instead.
Every Shoelace component is available to import as a React component. Note that we're importing the `<SlButton>`_React component_ instead of the `<sl-button>`_custom element_ in the example below.
```jsx
import { SlButton } from '@shoelace-style/shoelace/dist/react';
Many Shoelace components emit [custom events](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/CustomEvent). For example, the [input component](/components/input) emits the `sl-input` event when it receives input. In React, you can listen for the event using `onSlInput`.
Here's how you can bind the input's value to a state variable.
```jsx
import { useState } from 'react';
import { SlInput } from '@shoelace-style/shoelace/dist/react';
If you're using TypeScript, it's important to note that `event.target` will be a reference to the underlying custom element. You can use `(event.target as any).value` as a quick fix, or you can strongly type the event target as shown below.
```tsx
import { useState } from 'react';
import { SlInput } from '@shoelace-style/shoelace/dist/react';
import type SlInputElement from '@shoelace-style/shoelace/dist/components/input/input';
Testing with web components can be challenging if your test environment runs in a Node environment (i.e. it doesn't run in a real browser). Fortunately, [Jest](https://jestjs.io/) has made a number of strides to support web components and provide additional browser APIs. However, it's still not a complete replication of a browser environment.
Here are some tips that will help smooth things over if you're having trouble with Jest + Shoelace.
?> If you're looking for a fast, modern testing alternative, consider [Web Test Runner](https://modern-web.dev/docs/test-runner/overview/).
### Upgrade Jest
Jest underwent a major revamp and received support for web components in [version 26.5.0](https://github.com/facebook/jest/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md#2650) when it introduced [JSDOM 16.2.0](https://github.com/jsdom/jsdom/blob/master/Changelog.md#1620). This release also included a number of mocks for built-in browser functions such as `MutationObserver`, `document.createRange`, and others.
If you're using [Create React App](https://reactjs.org/docs/create-a-new-react-app.html#create-react-app), you can update `react-scripts` which will also update Jest.
```
npm install react-scripts@latest
```
### Mock Missing APIs
Some components use `window.matchMedia`, but this function isn't supported by JSDOM so you'll need to mock it yourself.
For more details, refer to Jest's [manual mocking](https://jestjs.io/docs/manual-mocks#mocking-methods-which-are-not-implemented-in-jsdom) documentation.
### Transform ES Modules
ES Modules are a [well-supported browser standard](https://hacks.mozilla.org/2018/03/es-modules-a-cartoon-deep-dive/). This is how Shoelace is distributed, but most React apps expect CommonJS. As a result, you'll probably run into the following error.
```
Error: Unable to import outside of a module
```
To fix this, add the following to your `package.json` which tells the transpiler to process Shoelace modules.
These instructions are for apps created via Create React App. If you're using Jest directly, you can add `transformIgnorePatterns` directly into `jest.config.js`.
For more details, refer to Jest's [`transformIgnorePatterns` customization](https://jestjs.io/docs/tutorial-react-native#transformignorepatterns-customization) documentation.