@codesandbox/sandpack-react

What is @codesandbox/sandpack-react?

@codesandbox/sandpack-react is a React component library that allows you to embed and run code sandboxes directly in your React applications. It provides a seamless way to integrate live code editing and previewing experiences, making it ideal for documentation, tutorials, and interactive coding environments.

What are @codesandbox/sandpack-react's main functionalities?

Basic Setup

This code demonstrates the basic setup of a Sandpack component with a simple React template. It includes a single file, `App.js`, which renders a 'Hello, world!' message.

import { Sandpack } from '@codesandbox/sandpack-react';

function App() {
  return (
    <Sandpack
      template="react"
      files={{
        '/App.js': `import React from 'react';
        
        export default function App() {
          return <h1>Hello, world!</h1>;
        }`
      }}
    />
  );
}

Custom Themes

This code demonstrates how to apply a custom theme to the Sandpack component. In this example, the 'dracula' theme is applied to the same basic React template.

import { Sandpack } from '@codesandbox/sandpack-react';
import { dracula } from '@codesandbox/sandpack-themes';

function App() {
  return (
    <Sandpack
      template="react"
      theme={dracula}
      files={{
        '/App.js': `import React from 'react';
        
        export default function App() {
          return <h1>Hello, world!</h1>;
        }`
      }}
    />
  );
}

Multiple Files

This code demonstrates how to include multiple files in a Sandpack component. The `App.js` file imports and uses a `Hello` component defined in `Hello.js`.

import { Sandpack } from '@codesandbox/sandpack-react';

function App() {
  return (
    <Sandpack
      template="react"
      files={{
        '/App.js': `import React from 'react';
        import { Hello } from './Hello';
        
        export default function App() {
          return <Hello />;
        }`,
        '/Hello.js': `import React from 'react';
        
        export function Hello() {
          return <h1>Hello, world!</h1>;
        }`
      }}
    />
  );
}

Other packages similar to @codesandbox/sandpack-react

react-live

react-live is a React component that enables live editing of code with a preview. It is similar to @codesandbox/sandpack-react in that it allows for interactive code examples, but it is more lightweight and does not provide the full sandbox environment that Sandpack offers.

storybook

Storybook is a tool for developing UI components in isolation. It allows you to create and showcase components with different states and interactions. While it does not provide live code editing like @codesandbox/sandpack-react, it is a powerful tool for building and testing UI components.

code-surfer

code-surfer is a React component for creating live code presentations. It allows you to step through code with explanations, making it ideal for presentations and tutorials. Unlike @codesandbox/sandpack-react, it focuses more on the presentation aspect rather than live editing and sandboxing.

README

sandpack-react

React components that give you the power of editable sandboxes that run in the browser. Powered by Sandpack, the online bundler used by CodeSandbox.

Sandpack is an open ecosystem of components and utilities that allow you to compile and run modern frameworks in the browser. You can either use one of our predefined components for embedding the CodeSandbox experience into your projects, or you can build your own version of sandpack, on top of our standard components and utilities. As you walk through this guide, you will get deeper into our ecosystem.

Getting Started

You can install this package by running

npm i @codesandbox/sandpack-react

or

yarn add @codesandbox/sandpack-react

The package contains multiple components, utilities and typings for diving into the sandpack ecosystem.

Using the Sandpack Component

We packed all the components and the bundler inside the <Sandpack> component. There's also a small stylesheet you should bring into your css pipeline.

import { Sandpack } from "@codesandbox/sandpack-react";
import "@codesandbox/sandpack-react/dist/index.css";

<Sandpack />;

This will render a code editor and a preview component with some predefined settings. By default, this loads up a vanilla js sandbox, with no other framework dependency.

Templates, Files and Custom Setup

Your Sandpack can start with a predefined template. A template is a collection of files and dependencies, a basic starter for a project if you want. The react template in this instance, has the starter files of a create-react-app project.

<Sandpack template="react" />

In most of the cases, you will want to pass custom code/files to the sandpack instance. For this, you can use the files prop.

The code you pass should be pre-formatted:

const code = `export default function App() {
  return <h1>Hello World</h1>
}
`;

<Sandpack
  template="react"
  files={{
    "/App.js": code,
  }}
/>;

The key of each file is the relative path of the file in the project folder structure. With this in mind, you can overwrite any of the template/sandbox files (eg: /index.js, /index.css, etc.)

With the customSetup prop, you can also pass instance specific files, dependencies or specify the project entry file. If both template and customSetup are provided, the two are merged, with the customSetup values having higher priority. If you don't want to start from a template, you can specify your entire sandbox structure with the customSetup.

const code = `import ReactMarkdown from 'react-markdown' 

export default function App() {
  return <ReactMarkdown># Hello, *world*!</ReactMarkdown>
}`;

<Sandpack
  template="react"
  files={{
    "/App.js": code,
  }}
  customSetup={{
    dependencies: {
      "react-markdown": "latest",
    },
    entry: "/index.js",
  }}
/>;

Theming

Sandpack comes with some predefined themes:

<Sandpack theme="codesandbox-dark" />
<Sandpack theme="codesandbox-light" />
<Sandpack theme="night-owl" />
<Sandpack theme="monokai-pro" />

You can also pass a partial theme object that overrides properties in the default theme

<Sandpack
  theme={{
    palette: {
      accent: "#fc0e34",
      inactiveText: "#aaa",
    },
    syntax: {
      keyword: "#6700ff",
    },
  }}
/>

Or you can import an existing theme object and change it or compose your own theme from scratch

import { Sandpack, codesandboxDarkTheme } from "@codesandbox/sandpack-react";

<Sandpack
  theme={{
    ...codesandboxDarkTheme,
    typography: {
      fontSize: "16px",
      bodyFont: "Arial",
    },
  }}
/>;

Customizing what is editable

By default, the Sandpack component shows all the files you pass through files. If not files are passed and you use the customSetup, all project files will be visible as tab buttons.

The files prop also accepts an object. When the object is used, the file content is set with the code property. With this notation, additional flags you can use to customize the sandpack experience. For example, you can pass a hidden flag for files that you don't want to show to the user:

<Sandpack
  files={{
    "/App.js": reactCode,
    "/button.js": buttonCode,
    "/link.js": {
      code: linkCode,
      hidden: true,
    },
  }}
  template="react"
/>

You can also specify the active file, which is open in the code editor initially. If no active flag is set, the first file will be visible by default:

<Sandpack
  files={{
    '/App.js': reactCode,
    '/button.js': {
      code: buttonCode,
      active: true,
    }
    '/link.js': {
      code: linkCode,
      hidden: true,
    },
  }}
  template="react"
/>

You can override the entire hidden/active system with two settings inside the options prop, but this requires you to set the relative paths in multiple places and can be error prone, so use this with caution:

<Sandpack
  template="react"
  files={{
    "/App.js": reactButtonCode,
    "/button.js": buttonCode,
  }}
  options={{
    openPaths: ["/App.js", "/button.js", "/index.js"],
    activePath: "/index.js",
  }}
/>

When openPaths or activePath are set, the hidden and active flags on the files prop are ignored.

Customizing the UI Elements

By default, Sandpack will show the file tabs if more than one file is open and will show a small refresh button on top of the Preview. But you can customize some of the parts of the component via flags set on the options prop.

<Sandpack
  options={{
    showNavigator: true, // this will show a top navigator bar instead of the refresh button
    showTabs: false, // you can toggle the tabs on/off manually
    showLineNumbers: true, // this is off by default, but you can show line numbers for the editor
    wrapContent: true, // also off by default, this wraps the code instead of creating horizontal overflow
    editorWidthPercentage: 60, // by default the split is 50/50 between the editor and the preview
  }}
/>

One useful configuration is the height of the component. We recommend fixed heights, to avoid any layout shift while the bundler is running or as you type in the editor or switch the tab. By default, the height is set to 300px, but you can adjust that with the options.editorHeight prop:

<Sandpack
  options={{
    editorHeight: 350,
  }}
/>

Furthermore, we implemented our css classes with a handy utility package called classer.

Execution Options

By default, the bundling process will start as soon as the component is getting closer to the viewport, or when the page loads if the component is already in the viewport. But you can allow users to trigger the process manually.

<Sandpack options={{ autorun: false }} template="react" />

When a sandpack instance is not set on autorun, which is the default setting, it will show a Run button that initializes the process.

The options also allow you to customize the recompile mode, or what happens you type inside the code editor.

<Sandpack options={{ recompileMode: "immediate" }} template="react" />

By default, the mode is set to delayed and there's a 500ms debounce timeout that ensures the bundler doesn't run on each keystroke. You can customize this experience by modifying the recompileDelay value or by setting the recompileMode to immediate.

<Sandpack
  options={{
    recompileMode: "delayed",
    recompileDelay: 300,
  }}
  template="react"
/>

Sandpack Runner

In all the examples above we used Sandpack, which, in our internal kitchen, we call a preset. In other words, it is a fixed configuration of sandpack components and default settings that make up an instance of sandpack.

In case you want to have the bundler running and you don't want the code editing component, you can use a SandpackRunner preset.

The SandpackRunner has some of the props we already described above: template, customSetup and theme. They work exactly the same on this preset.

However, your input will be sent through the code prop. This is a single string that will replace the main file of the project.

import { SandpackRunner } from "@codesandbox/sandpack-react";

<SandpackRunner code={`...`} template="vue" />;

In this example, code will replace the App.vue file, because that is the main file in the vue template. For react, this would be the App.js file.

The main file can be specified in the customSetup. You can use any of your files to override with the code prop.

Getting deeper

If you open a preset file from the sandpack repository, you'll see it is made up of smaller sandpack components and has limited logic for passing props to those smaller components.

If you need a more custom solution, you can opt in to use these smaller components that we export from the main package.

It all starts with the SandpackProvider, which is the central point of our architecture. The provider abstracts the functionality of sandpack and places the relevant state values and functions on a context object. The React components that are exported by the main package (eg: SandpackCodeEditor, SandpackPreview) use that context object to communicate with sandpack.

Build your custom Sandpack

Let's start from the SandpackProvider. This becomes the root node of our new Sandpack component.

import { SandpackProvider, SandpackPreview } from "@codesandbox/sandpack-react";

const CustomSandpack = () => (
  <SandpackProvider>
    <SandpackPreview />
  </SandpackProvider>
);

The SandpackProvider has the same style of parameters for the input: template and customSetup. Additionally you can pass options for the bundler and execution mode. So even if you run this basic snippet above, you will see a default vanilla template preview, because the sandpack logic is running behind the scenes through the context object.

However, you will notice that the buttons on the Preview look off. This is because there is no root node to set the styling and the theme variables.

You can fix that with the SandpackThemeProvider:

import {
  SandpackProvider,
  SandpackThemeProvider,
  SandpackPreview,
} from "@codesandbox/sandpack-react";

const CustomSandpack = () => (
  <SandpackProvider>
    <SandpackThemeProvider>
      <SandpackPreview />
    </SandpackThemeProvider>
  </SandpackProvider>
);

The theme provider component will also render a wrapper div around your sandpack components. That div ensures the theme variables and styling is specific to this instance of sandpack.

SandpackLayout component

Let's add a code editor and introduce the SandpackLayout component.

import {
  SandpackProvider,
  SandpackLayout,
  SandpackCodeEditor,
  SandpackPreview,
} from "@codesandbox/sandpack-react";

const CustomSandpack = () => (
  <SandpackProvider template="react">
    <SandpackLayout>
      <SandpackCodeEditor />
      <SandpackPreview />
    </SandpackLayout>
  </SandpackProvider>
);

And now we have pretty much the same component as the preset, minus the prop passing, which you can decide based on your specific needs.

SandpackLayout gives you the left-right split between two components and also breaks the columns when the component is under 700px wide, so you have some responsiveness built-in. It also renders the SandpackThemeProvider.

You can also bring other components in the mix: SandpackCodeViewer, SandpackTranspiledCode, FileTabs, Navigator and so on.

For example, you can create an editor instance that gives you the transpiled code of your active component instead of the preview page:

import {
  SandpackProvider,
  SandpackLayout,
  SandpackCodeEditor,
  SandpackTranspiledCode,
} from "@codesandbox/sandpack-react";

const CustomSandpack = () => (
  <SandpackProvider template="react">
    <SandpackLayout>
      <SandpackCodeEditor />
      <SandpackTranspiledCode />
    </SandpackLayout>
  </SandpackProvider>
);

You will notice that the theming applies to all components in the same way, as the theme object is also distributed by the context.

Some of the components have configuration props that toggle subparts on/off or that configure behavior/look. All of them comunicate with sandpack through the shared context.

SandpackCodeEditor props

name	type	default	description
showTabs	boolean	computed based on number of files	The FileTabs component is shown on top of the editor based on this flag
showLineNumbers	boolean	false	Adds a column with line numbers on the left side of the code editor
showInlineErrors	boolean	false	Highlights the syntax errors and parse errors from the bundler in the code editor
showRunButton	boolean	true	Shows a Run button when the sandpack is not set to autorun
wrapContent	boolean	false	Wraps the code lines that don't fit horizontally
closableTabs	boolean	false	Adds a close file action to open files

SandpackCodeViewer props

It is a Codemirror instance in a read-only and is used to syntax-highlight code.

name	type	default	description
showTabs	boolean	computed based on number of files	The FileTabs component is shown on top of the editor based on this flag
showLineNumbers	boolean	false	Adds a column with line numbers on the left side of the code editor
code	string	undefined	The code to display in the editor
decorators	type Decorators	undefined	An array of Codemirror decorations to apply to the code

type Decorators = Array<{
  className?: string;
  line: number;
  startColumn?: number;
  endColumn?: number;
  elementAttributes?: Record<string, string>;
}>;

SandpackPreview props

name	type	default	description
showNavigator	boolean	false	Shows the Navigator component on top of the Preview. When this is true, the refresh button is not shown independently on top of the Preview.
showRefreshButton	boolean	true	Shows a refresh button positioned absolutely on top of the Preview (lower right corner)
showOpenInCodeSandbox	boolean	true	Shows a link that creates a new codesandbox based on the current state of the sandpack instance (lower right corner).
showSandpackErrorOverlay	boolean	true	Shows a custom overlay screen covering the preview in case of an error, with relevant information about the error
viewportSize	ViewportSize	"auto"	On auto, the preview will scale to the size of the iframe. You can also pass presets like: "iPhone X", "Pixel 2", "iPad", "Moto G4", "Surface Duo", Or you can pass a custom size { width: number, height: number }
viewportOrientation	"portrait" | "landscape"	"portrait"	When using a preset viewport size, you can flip the width/height with this setting

Create a custom sandpack-aware component

If you want to build a new component or you want to re-implement the code editor, for example, you can still rely on the sandpack state and create your UI from scratch.

We added a set of hooks in the main package, with which you can connect your own components to the sandpack context.

useSandpack

To access the sandpack state in any of your components, you can use the useSandpack hook, as long as the component that uses that hook is mounted inside the <SandpackProvider>.

Let's build a simple code viewer:

import { useSandpack } from "@codesandbox/sandpack-react";

const SimpleCodeViewer = () => {
  const { sandpack } = useSandpack();
  const { files, activePath } = sandpack;

  const code = files[activePath].code;
  return <pre>{code}</pre>;
};

The sandpack object is available in any component and exposes all the internal state:

• the files including all the setup/template files
• the activePath / openPaths fields
• the error object, if any
• multiple functions for changing the state of sandpack: updateCurrentFile, setActiveFile, etc.

In the component above, you get the active code string by calling files[activePath].code, so any change of state will trigger a re-render of the component and an update of the code.

We can test this with the CustomSandpack we implemented at the previous step.

const CustomSandpack = () => (
  <SandpackProvider template="react">
    <SandpackLayout>
      <SandpackCodeEditor />
      <SimpleCodeViewer /> {/* This will render the pre on the right side of your sandpack component */}
    </SandpackLayout>
  </SandpackProvider>
);

useSandpack also exports dispatch and listen, two functions with which you can directly communicate with the bundler. However, at this point, you'd have to understand all the different types of messages and payloads that are passed from the sandpack manager to the iframe and back.

import { useSandpack } from "@codesandbox/sandpack-react";

const CustomRefreshButton = () => {
  const { dispatch, listen } = useSandpack();

  const handleRefresh = () => {
    // listens for any message dispatched between sandpack and the bundler
    const stopListening = listen((message) => console.log(message));

    // sends the refresh message to the bundler, should be logged by the listener
    dispatch({ type: "refresh" });

    // unsubscribe
    stopListening();
  };

  return (
    <button type="button" onClick={handleRefresh}>
      Refresh
    </button>
  );
};

All methods

Plus, useSandpack exposes a bunch of methods that you can use to manage the current state of the Sandpack instance:

Method	Description
closeFile	Close the given path in the editor
deleteFile	Delete the given path in the editor
dispatch	Sends a message to the bundler
listen	Listens for messages from the bundler
openFile	Open the given path in the editor
resetAllFiles	Reset all files for all paths
resetFile	Reset the code for a given path
setActiveFile	Set a specific file as active in a given path
updateFile	Update the content of a file in a given path

useActiveCode, useCodeSandboxLink, useSandpackNavigation

Some of the common functionalities of sandpack are also extracted into specialized hooks. These all use useSandpack under the hood, but abstract away the shape of the state object and the dispatch/listen functions.

The refresh button can be built with the useSandpackNavigation hook:

import { useSandpackNavigation } from "@codesandbox/sandpack-react";

const CustomRefreshButton = () => {
  const { refresh } = useSandpackNavigation();
  return (
    <button type="button" onClick={() => refresh()}>
      Refresh Sandpack
    </button>
  );
};

Similarly, we can build a custom link that opens the sandpack files in a new tab on https://codesandbox.io. Let's the use useCodeSandboxLink for that:

import { useCodeSandboxLink } from "@codesandbox/sandpack-react";

const CustomOpenInCSB = () => {
  const url = useCodeSandboxLink();
  return (
    <a href={url} target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">
      Open in CodeSandbox
    </a>
  );
};

We implemented the SandpackCodeEditor on top of codemirror/next, but it is super easy to switch to your favorite code editor. Let's connect the sandpack state to an instance of AceEditor. We can use the useActiveCode hook, which gives us the code and the updateCode callback.

import { useActiveCode } from "@codesandbox/sandpack-react";
import AceEditor from "react-ace";
import "ace-builds/src-noconflict/mode-javascript";
import "ace-builds/src-noconflict/theme-textmate";

const CustomAceEditor = () => {
  const { code, updateCode } = useActiveCode();

  return (
    <AceEditor
      mode="javascript"
      defaultValue={code}
      onChange={updateCode}
      fontSize={14}
      height="300px"
      width="100%"
    />
  );
};

Now, let's put all of these custom components together:

export const CustomSandpack = () => (
  <SandpackProvider template="react">
    <CustomAceEditor />
    <SandpackPreview showRefreshButton={false} showOpenInCodeSandbox={false} />
    <CustomRefreshButton />
    <CustomOpenInCSB />
  </SandpackProvider>
);

It's not pretty, but with just a few lines of code, you can create a whole new component that uses the power of sandpack, but has all the UI and functionality you need for your specific use case.

Development

If you want to contribute, fork the main repo: https://github.com/codesandbox/sandpack

yarn
cd sandpack-react
yarn storybook