marmelab/react-admin · error · Error

InPlaceEditor requires either a source prop or children or e

Error message

InPlaceEditor requires either a source prop or children or editor prop

What it means

InPlaceEditor must know what to render and where to write the edited value. It needs either a source prop (edit a record field), children (a react-admin input to edit with), or an explicit editor prop; without any of the three it throws immediately at render because the component cannot function.

Source

Thrown at packages/ra-ui-materialui/src/input/InPlaceEditor/InPlaceEditor.tsx:93

            />
        ) : null,
        editor = source ? (
            <TextInput
                source={source}
                size="small"
                margin="none"
                label={false}
                variant="standard"
                autoFocus
                helperText={false}
            />
        ) : null,
        showButtons,
        notifyOnSuccess,
    } = props;

    if (!source && !children && !editor) {
        throw new Error(
            'InPlaceEditor requires either a source prop or children or editor prop'
        );
    }
    if (mutationMode === 'undoable' && !notifyOnSuccess) {
        throw new Error(
            'InPlaceEditor requires notifyOnSuccess to be true when mutationMode is undoable'
        );
    }

    const submitButtonRef = useRef<HTMLButtonElement>(null);

    const [state, dispatch] = useReducer<
        (
            state: InPlaceEditorValue,
            action: InPlaceEditorAction
        ) => InPlaceEditorValue
    >(
        (_, action) => {

View on GitHub (pinned to 051f511bb0)

Solutions

1. Add a source prop pointing at the record field, e.g. <InPlaceEditor source="title" />
2. Or pass children with an input component, e.g. <InPlaceEditor><TextInput source="title" /></InPlaceEditor>
3. Or pass an explicit editor element via the editor prop

Example fix

// before
<InPlaceEditor />
// after
<InPlaceEditor source="title" />

if (!source && !children && !editor) {
  throw new Error('InPlaceEditor requires source, children or editor');
}

const isInPlaceEditorConfigured = (
  p: InPlaceEditorProps
): p is InPlaceEditorProps & ({ source: string } | { children: React.ReactNode } | { editor: React.ReactElement }) =>
  p.source != null || p.children != null || p.editor != null;

try {
  render(<InPlaceEditor {...props} />);
} catch (e) {
  if (e.message.includes('InPlaceEditor requires')) {
    console.error('InPlaceEditor misconfigured:', e.message);
  }
}

When it happens

Trigger: <InPlaceEditor /> rendered with none of source, children, or editor props defined.

Common situations: Creating an in-place editable field and forgetting to wire it to the record, or refactoring away children/source without adding the replacement prop.

Related errors

• useReferenceFieldController: missing reference prop. You mus
• useShowController requires an id prop or a route with an /:i
• useNextPrevController was called outside of a ResourceContex
• To create a new option, you must pass an onCreate function o
• <InfiniteListBase> requires either a 'render' prop or 'child

AI-assisted analysis of marmelab/react-admin@051f511bb0 (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/335cd25604b677ff. Report an issue: GitHub.