@mui/lab

What is @mui/lab?

The @mui/lab package is a collection of experimental components that are considered 'lab' because they are still in the experimental phase. These components are built on top of the core Material-UI library and provide additional, more complex components that are not yet ready for the stable release. The components in the lab package can be used to enhance the user interface with more advanced features while still maintaining the design consistency of Material-UI.

What are @mui/lab's main functionalities?

Date and Time Pickers

Provides components for picking dates and times, such as DatePicker, TimePicker, and DateTimePicker. These components allow users to easily select dates and times within their applications.

import { LocalizationProvider, DateTimePicker } from '@mui/lab';
import AdapterDateFns from '@mui/lab/AdapterDateFns';

function MyComponent() {
  const [selectedDate, handleDateChange] = useState(new Date());

  return (
    <LocalizationProvider dateAdapter={AdapterDateFns}>
      <DateTimePicker
        label="DateTimePicker"
        value={selectedDate}
        onChange={handleDateChange}
      />
    </LocalizationProvider>
  );
}

Timeline

The Timeline component is used to display a list of events in chronological order. It is useful for creating visual timelines of events or processes.

import { Timeline, TimelineItem, TimelineSeparator, TimelineConnector, TimelineContent, TimelineDot } from '@mui/lab';

function MyTimeline() {
  return (
    <Timeline>
      <TimelineItem>
        <TimelineSeparator>
          <TimelineDot />
          <TimelineConnector />
        </TimelineSeparator>
        <TimelineContent>Step 1</TimelineContent>
      </TimelineItem>
      <TimelineItem>
        <TimelineSeparator>
          <TimelineDot />
          <TimelineConnector />
        </TimelineSeparator>
        <TimelineContent>Step 2</TimelineContent>
      </TimelineItem>
    </Timeline>
  );
}

Rating

The Rating component allows users to provide feedback in the form of a star rating. It can be used for product reviews, user feedback, or other rating systems.

import { Rating } from '@mui/lab';

function MyRating() {
  const [value, setValue] = useState(2);

  return (
    <Rating
      name="simple-controlled"
      value={value}
      onChange={(event, newValue) => {
        setValue(newValue);
      }}
    />
  );
}

Other packages similar to @mui/lab

antd

Ant Design (antd) is a design system with a set of high-quality React components. It offers similar functionalities to @mui/lab, such as date pickers and timelines, but with a different design philosophy inspired by Ant Design.

react-bootstrap

React Bootstrap provides Bootstrap components built with React. While it does not offer as many experimental components as @mui/lab, it does provide a set of stable, well-tested components that can be used to build complex UIs.

blueprintjs

Blueprint is a React-based UI toolkit for the web. It is similar to @mui/lab in that it offers a range of components, including date and time pickers, but it is designed primarily for building complex data-dense interfaces for desktop applications.

README

@mui/lab

This package hosts the incubator components that are not yet ready to move to core.

Installation

Install the package in your project directory with:

npm install @mui/lab@next

The lab has peer dependencies on the Material Design components and on the Emotion library. If you are not already using them in your project, you can install with:

npm install @mui/material@next @emotion/react @emotion/styled

Documentation

Visit https://next.mui.com/material-ui/about-the-lab/ to view the full documentation.