React.createElement: type is invalid — expected a

Question

Trying to get react-router (v4.0.0) and react-hot-loader (3.0.0-beta.6) to play nicely, but getitng the following error in the browser console:

Warning: React.createElement: type is invalid -- expected a string (for built-in components) or a class/function (for composite components) but got: undefined. You likely forgot to export your component from the file it's defined in.

index.js:

import React from 'react';
import ReactDom from 'react-dom';
import routes from './routes.js';
require('jquery');
import 'bootstrap/dist/css/bootstrap.min.css';
import 'bootstrap/dist/js/bootstrap.min.js';
import './css/main.css';

const renderApp = (appRoutes) => {
    ReactDom.render(appRoutes, document.getElementById('root'));
};

renderApp( routes() );

routes.js:

import React from 'react';
import { AppContainer } from 'react-hot-loader';
import { Router, Route, browserHistory, IndexRoute } from 'react-router';
import store from './store/store.js';
import { Provider } from 'react-redux';
import App from './containers/App.jsx';
import Products from './containers/shop/Products.jsx';
import Basket from './containers/shop/Basket.jsx';

const routes = () => (

    <AppContainer>
        <Provider store={store}>
            <Router history={browserHistory}>
                <Route path="/" component={App}>
                    <IndexRoute component={Products} />
                    <Route path="/basket" component={Basket} />
                </Route>
            </Router>
        </Provider>
    </AppContainer>

);

export default routes;

Answer 1

In simply words, somehow the following is happening:

render() {
    return (
        <MyComponent /> // MyComponent is undefined.
    );
}

It not necessarily has to do with some incorrect import or export:

render() {
    // MyComponent may be undefined here, for example.
    const MyComponent = this.wizards[this.currentStep];

    return (
        <MyComponent />
    );
}

Answer 2

In my case, the order in which you create the component and render, mattered. I was rendering the component before creating it. The best way is to create the child component and then the parent components and then render the parent component. Changing the order fixed the issue for me.

Answer 3

I was getting this error as well.

I was using:

import BrowserRouter from 'react-router-dom';

Fix was doing this, instead:

import { BrowserRouter } from 'react-router-dom';

Answer 4

Try this

npm i react-router-dom@next

in your App.js

import { BrowserRouter as Router, Route } from 'react-router-dom'

const Home = () => <h1>Home</h1>

const App = () =>(
  <Router>
    <Route path="/" component={Home} />
  </Router>
)

export default App;

Answer 5

For future googlers:

My solution to this problem was to upgrade react and react-dom to their latest versions on NPM. Apparently I was importing a Component that was using the new fragment syntax and it was broken in my older version of React.