React Error: Target Container is not a DOM Element

Asked 17/10, 2014 at 1:3 Answered 8/11, 2022 at 15:6

112

I just got started using React, so this is probably a very simple mistake, but here we go. My html code is very simple:

<!-- base.html -->
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Note Cards</title>
    <script src="http://<url>/react-0.11.2.js"></script>
<!--     <script src="http://<url>/JSXTransformer-0.11.2.js"></script> -->
    <script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.10.0.min.js"></script>
    {% load staticfiles %}
    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="{% static "css/style.css" %}">
    <script src="{% static "build/react.js" %}"></script>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h1 id="content">Note Cards</h1>
    <div class="gotcha"></div>
  </body>
</html>

Note that I am using Django's load static files here. (My JavaScript is a bit more complex, so I won't post it all here unless someone requests it.) This is the line with the error:

React.renderComponent(
  CardBox({url: "/cards/?format=json", pollInterval: 2000}),
  document.getElementById("content")
);

After which I get the 'target container is not a DOM element error' yet it seems that document.getElementById("content") is almost certainly a DOM element.

I looked at this stackoverflow post, but it didn't seem to help in my situation.

Anyone have any idea why I'd be getting that error?

Hourigan answered 17/10, 2014 at 1:3 Comment(1)

Anyone who's stuck with Meteor Tutorial with this error? Here's the solution https://mcmap.net/q/195934/-meteor-react-tutorial-step-2-did-not-work – Lorusso 3/7, 2018 at 8:3

127

I figured it out!

After reading this blog post I realized that the placement of this line:

<script src="{% static "build/react.js" %}"></script>

was wrong. That line needs to be the last line in the <body> section, right before the </body> tag. Moving the line down solves the problem.

My explanation for this is that react was looking for the id in between the <head> tags, instead of in the <body> tags. Because of this it couldn't find the content id, and thus it wasn't a real DOM element.

Hourigan answered 17/10, 2014 at 1:12 Comment(3)

Alternatively (and probably a good idea), is to wrap the React.render call in an onload/ready listener. Then it won't matter where you put the script tag as the node will exist. – Rozele 18/10, 2014 at 18:22

@PaulO'Shannessy Ahhh that makes sense! I'll do that as well. – Hourigan 22/10, 2014 at 18:35

Your "My explanation for this" with the <head> tags does not makes sense for me. Its more so that React (js file) tried to initialize your app (container with the react id), but your app container was not rendered yet. So putting the <script>.. right after your app container should already solve the problem, it solved it in my place. For such cases its only a best-practice to put all js resources right before </body>. – Nedry 24/7, 2018 at 11:27

Also make sure id set in index.html is same as the one you referring to in index.js

index.html:

<body> 
    <div id="root"></div>
    <script src="/bundle.js"></script>
</body>

index.js:

ReactDOM.render(<App/>,document.getElementById('root'));

Carouse answered 7/12, 2018 at 7:44 Comment(1)

Thanks, I was trying to use a class) – Carlow 26/10, 2022 at 22:1

webpack solution

If you got this error while working in React with webpack and HMR.

You need to create template index.html and save it in src folder:

<html>
    <body>
       <div id="root"></div>
    </body>
</html>

Now when we have template with id="root" we need to tell webpack to generate index.html which will mirror our index.html file.

To do that:

plugins: [
    new HtmlWebpackPlugin({
        title: "Application name",
        template: './src/index.html'
    })
],

template property will tell webpack how to build index.html file.

Piranha answered 2/8, 2020 at 13:50 Comment(1)

Why do I need to do this? Is there some background magic with templates or is this because you expect them to generate a random UI.hash filename? – Westerly 24/7, 2022 at 0:12

Just to give an alternative solution, because it isn't mentioned.

It's perfectly fine to use the HTML attribute defer here. So when loading the DOM, a regular <script> will load when the DOM hits the script. But if we use defer, then the DOM and the script will load in parallel. The cool thing is the script gets evaluated in the end - when the DOM has loaded (source).

<script src="{% static "build/react.js" %}" defer></script>

Sextain answered 23/1, 2019 at 9:10 Comment(0)

Also, the best practice of moving your <script></script> to the bottom of the html file fixes this too.

Pernod answered 5/2, 2016 at 22:6 Comment(1)

yep, using React 16.2 and that was my problem – Gilbertina 16/2, 2018 at 14:30

For those that implemented react js in some part of the website and encounter this issue. Just add a condition to check if the element exist on that page before you render the react component.

<div id="element"></div>

...

const someElement = document.getElementById("element")
    
if(someElement) {
  ReactDOM.render(<Yourcomponent />, someElement)
}

Babysit answered 29/1, 2021 at 1:58 Comment(1)

This can be the case with a Drupal behavior when they are called multiple times and the context variable does not include the root element. – Urticaceous 2/12, 2021 at 14:9

I had encountered the same error with React version 16. This error comes when the Javascript that tries to render the React component is included before the static parent dom element in the html. Fix is same as the accepted answer, i.e. the JavaScript should get included only after the static parent dom element has been defined in the html.

Analeptic answered 9/4, 2019 at 10:52 Comment(0)

Also you can do something like that:

document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function(event) {
  React.renderComponent(
    CardBox({url: "/cards/?format=json", pollInterval: 2000}),
    document.getElementById("content")
  );
})

The DOMContentLoaded event fires when the initial HTML document has been completely loaded and parsed, without waiting for stylesheets, images, and subframes to finish loading.

Jiles answered 12/5, 2020 at 3:51 Comment(0)

One of the case I encountered the same error in a simple project. I hope the solution helps someone.

Below code snippets are sufficient to understand the solution :

index.html

  <body>
    <noscript>You need to enable JavaScript to run this app.</noscript>
    <div id="root"></div>
  </body>

someFile.js : Notice the line const portalElement = document.getElementById("overlays"); below :

const portalElement = document.getElementById("overlays");

const Modal = (props) => {
  return (
    <Fragment>
            {ReactDOM.createPortal(<Backdrop />, portalElement)}
            
      {ReactDOM.createPortal(
        <ModalOverlay>{props.children}</ModalOverlay>,
        portalElement
      )}
          
    </Fragment>
  );
};

I didn't have any element with id = "overlays" in my index.html file, so the highlighted line above was outputting null and so React wasn't able to find inside which element it should create the portal i.e {ReactDOM.createPortal(<Backdrop />, portalElement)} so I got below error

I added the div in index.html file and the error was gone.

 <body>
    <noscript>You need to enable JavaScript to run this app.</noscript>
    <div id="overlays"></div>
    <div id="root"></div>
  </body>

Negative answered 28/6, 2021 at 14:14 Comment(0)

I got the same error i created the app with create-react-app but in /public/index.html also added matrialize script but there was to connection with "root" so i added

<div id="root"></div>

just before

<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/materialize/1.0.0/js/ materialize.min.js"></script>

And it worked for me .

Blindworm answered 2/8, 2020 at 6:37 Comment(1)

This was my problem. I accidentally deleted root from the index.html. Re-adding solved the problem. – Eggett 11/1, 2021 at 23:27

Target container is not a DOM element.

I achieved this error with a simple starter app also.

// index.js

ReactDOM.render(
  <Router>
      <App />,
  document.getElementById('root')
  </Router>
);

Solution:

Syntax errors can cause this error. I checked my syntax and wrapped my <App /> properly.

ReactDOM.render(
  <Router>
      <App />
  </Router>,
  document.getElementById('root')
);

Stentor answered 26/8, 2021 at 6:10 Comment(0)

In my case, I forget to add this line to the index.js file

document.getElementById('root')

and I forget to import react-dom import ReactDOM from 'react-dom'; so you can use ReactDOM later in the same file

Hope this will be helpful for you

Terceira answered 8/11, 2022 at 15:6 Comment(0)

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