[Bug]: [tests] within(canvasElement) cannot find elements rendered via portal to the document.body

[csantos1113]

Describe the bug

https://github.com/storybookjs/storybook/tree/next/code/lib/test says I should be using within(canvasElement) in my play functions, instead of screen. but it doesn't work for portal elements rendered to the document.body

To Reproduce

• Go to https://stackblitz.com/edit/github-t5ssay?file=src%2Fstories%2FPage.stories.ts
• Notice that screen.getByText works, but shows a warning in the console saying that I should use within(canvasElement) instead
• Notice that canvas.getByText fails because the element is rendered via portal to the document.body

System

Storybook Environment Info:

  System:
    OS: Linux 5.0 undefined
    CPU: (8) x64 Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-9880H CPU @ 2.30GHz
    Shell: 1.0 - /bin/jsh
  Binaries:
    Node: 18.18.0 - /usr/local/bin/node
    Yarn: 1.22.19 - /usr/local/bin/yarn
    npm: 10.2.3 - /usr/local/bin/npm <----- active
    pnpm: 8.15.6 - /usr/local/bin/pnpm
  npmPackages:
    @storybook/addon-essentials: ^8.1.0-alpha.7 => 8.1.0-alpha.7 
    @storybook/addon-interactions: ^8.1.0-alpha.7 => 8.1.0-alpha.7 
    @storybook/addon-links: ^8.1.0-alpha.7 => 8.1.0-alpha.7 
    @storybook/addon-onboarding: ^8.1.0-alpha.7 => 8.1.0-alpha.7 
    @storybook/addon-webpack5-compiler-swc: ^1.0.2 => 1.0.2 
    @storybook/blocks: ^8.1.0-alpha.7 => 8.1.0-alpha.7 
    @storybook/react: ^8.1.0-alpha.7 => 8.1.0-alpha.7 
    @storybook/react-webpack5: ^8.1.0-alpha.7 => 8.1.0-alpha.7 
    @storybook/test: ^8.1.0-alpha.7 => 8.1.0-alpha.7 
    storybook: ^8.1.0-alpha.7 => 8.1.0-alpha.7 

Additional context

Real live case: I'm opening a Dialog/Drawer which is rendered via portals.

Any recommendation on how to reach elements rendered via portals to the document.body that adheres to the expected behavior defined by Storybook?

[valentinpalkovic]

Instead of within(canvasElement) you could use within(canvasElement.parentNode) to target the body and therefore to assert your dialog.

[csantos1113]

Instead of within(canvasElement) you could use within(canvasElement.parentNode) to target the body and therefore to assert your dialog.

Thanks for the response, but TypeScript doesn't seem to like it :(

UPDATE: ah, I'm using storybook 7.6.17 locally, which seems to have the type issue

And also, in 8.x I need to do within(canvasElement.parentElement) instead

[csantos1113]

I actually seems my types issue are not related to Storybook version. when I use canvastElement.parentElement I get HTMLElement | null. But not sure where those wrong types are coming from.

I'm using:

    "typescript": "5.4.2",
    "@types/react": "17.0.50",
    "@types/react-dom": "17.0.17",

[csantos1113]

UPDATE:

@valentinpalkovic - Okay, I'm not sure where did I get that other stackblitz example from; but here is an up-to-date as of today: https://stackblitz.com/edit/github-yrt7dh?file=src%2Fstories%2FPage.stories.ts&preset=node

Which is failing the same TypeScript error I'm experiencing locally

[przemyslaw-wlodek]

@csantos1113 the error isn't coming from any of the libraries you mentioned but from the nature of DOM being untyped. TypeScript can't guarantee that your HTMLElement (canvasElement) has a parentNode.

I see 2 possible options here:

1. Quick and a little bit dirty non-null type assertion (within(canvasElement.parentNode!)) since it's only test + you are sure that there's always some body above your element.
2. Create a custom Page decorator that renders the element that could be used as a portal container (it will be a part of canvas then). When you have a ref to your custom portal container, then you can easily pass it to your Portal component (which defaults to document.body).

I had a very similar problem when testing Radix components that use portals. You may find some inspiration in this PR.

[valentinpalkovic]

I will close this issue since a solution was provided and the Typescript issue was elaborated above