Port InstantSearch Widgets Across Flavors

Variant widgets

Some widgets reuse another widget's connector with different defaults or UI. For example, menuSelect uses connectMenu/useMenu (not a dedicated connectMenuSelect). The audit will show no for connector and hook rows — this is expected. The $$widgetType still differs (ais.menuSelect vs ais.menu). When porting a variant widget, skip connector/hook creation and reuse the existing hook directly in the widget file.

Known variants: menuSelect → connectMenu/useMenu.

Workflow

1. Decide the scope.
   • Existing connector, missing wrapper: keep the connector API unchanged and port only the wrapper plus wrapper tests.
   • Variant widget (shared connector, different UI): skip connector/hook creation; reuse the existing hook and set a distinct $$widgetType.
   • Missing connector or changed render state: start in instantsearch.js, then update every flavor and both common test suites.
   • Vue port for a newer recommendation, chat, or filter-suggestions feature: inspect Hits.js, Highlighter.js, DynamicWidgets.js, and util/vue-compat.js before designing the wrapper.
2. Match a real precedent.
   • Pick one close widget in the target flavor and one close widget in another flavor.
   • Reuse the same prop names, slot or component escape hatches, $$widgetType, and test style.
3. Build from the bottom up.
   • Connector exports belong in packages/instantsearch.js/src/connectors/index.ts.
   • JS widget exports belong in packages/instantsearch.js/src/widgets/index.ts.
   • React hook exports belong in packages/react-instantsearch-core/src/index.ts.
   • React widget exports belong in packages/react-instantsearch/src/widgets/index.ts; packages/react-instantsearch/src/index.ts already re-exports widgets.
   • Vue exports belong in packages/vue-instantsearch/src/widgets.js; src/instantsearch.js and the plugin re-export and register from there automatically.
4. Choose the right sharing model.
   • JS and React: prefer instantsearch-ui-components when the markup can be shared.
   • React: create src/ui/<Pascal>.tsx whenever the widget has no shared factory in instantsearch-ui-components. This includes simple widgets like MenuSelect (a plain <select>) — src/ui/ is for all React-rendered markup, not only complex cases.
   • Vue: use .vue SFCs for slot-heavy markup and .js render functions with renderCompat when reusing instantsearch-ui-components.
5. Wire tests before finishing.
   • Update tests/common/widgets/<widget>/ whenever the wrapper behavior changes.
   • Update tests/common/connectors/<widget>/ whenever connector params or render state change.
   • Register the suite in each flavor's common-widgets.test.* and common-connectors.test.*.
   • Replace any throw new Error('X is not supported in ...') placeholder with real setup code in the target flavor's common-widgets.test.*.
   • Remove the corresponding skippedTests entry in testOptions for that widget.
   • For React: always add the widget to the switch in packages/react-instantsearch/src/widgets/__tests__/__utils__/all-widgets.tsx with the required minimum props.
6. Check examples only when the widget is user-facing.
   • Search existing examples first. Recommendation, chat, and query-suggestion widgets already live in getting-started or query-suggestions examples, not only the e-commerce apps.
   • Add to examples/*/e-commerce only when the widget fits the shared storefront UX or existing Playwright coverage.

Reminders

• Keep $$widgetType aligned across flavors.
• Do not invent new Vue patterns; match createWidgetMixin, createSuitMixin, scoped slots, and renderCompat.
• Do not add memoization hooks in React unless an adjacent widget uses them for the same reason.
• chat is now available in UMD; no special exclusions apply.

References

• JS wrappers: references/js-flavor.md
• React wrappers: references/react-flavor.md
• Vue wrappers: references/vue-flavor.md
• Testing and examples: references/testing.md