react-intersection-observer

What is react-intersection-observer?

The react-intersection-observer package is a React implementation of the Intersection Observer API, making it easier to perform actions based on how an element intersects with the viewport. It's useful for lazy loading, infinite scroll, or triggering animations when the user scrolls.

What are react-intersection-observer's main functionalities?

Observing visibility of an element

This feature allows you to track the visibility of a component or element. The `useInView` hook returns a `ref` that you attach to the element you want to observe. It also returns a state `inView` that tells you whether the element is in the viewport or not.

import { useInView } from 'react-intersection-observer';

function Component() {
  const { ref, inView } = useInView();

  return (
    <div ref={ref}>
      {inView ? 'In view!' : 'Not in view!'}
    </div>
  );
}

Triggering animations when entering the viewport

This code sample demonstrates how to use the `useInView` hook to trigger animations or add classes to an element once it enters the viewport. The `threshold` option specifies how much of the element should be visible before `inView` becomes true.

import { useInView } from 'react-intersection-observer';
import { useEffect } from 'react';

function AnimatedComponent() {
  const { ref, inView } = useInView({ threshold: 0.1 });

  useEffect(() => {
    if (inView) {
      // Trigger animation or add class
    }
  }, [inView]);

  return <div ref={ref}>Animate me!</div>;
}

Other packages similar to react-intersection-observer

react-lazy-load-image-component

This package is designed specifically for lazy loading images in React applications. It provides components like `LazyLoadImage` for easy integration. While it's focused on images, react-intersection-observer offers a more general approach for observing any element's visibility.

react-waypoint

React Waypoint is another package for handling the visibility of elements during scroll. It triggers a function when you scroll to an element. Compared to react-intersection-observer, it's less flexible with the observer options but still a solid choice for simple use cases.

README

react-intersection-observer

React component that triggers a function when the component enters or leaves the viewport. No complex configuration needed, just wrap your views and it handles the events.

import Observer from 'react-intersection-observer'

const Component = () => (
  <Observer>
    {inView => <h2>{`Header inside viewport ${inView}.`}</h2>}
  </Observer>
)

export default Component

Demo

See https://thebuilder.github.io/react-intersection-observer/ for a demo.

Scroll monitor

This module is used in react-scroll-percentage to monitor the scroll position of elements in view. This module is also a great example of using react-intersection-observer as the basis for more complex needs.

Installation

Install using Yarn:

yarn add react-intersection-observer

or NPM:

npm install react-intersection-observer --save

Props

The <Observer /> accepts the following props:

Name	Type	Default	Required	Description
children	Func/Node		false	Children should be either a function or a node
render	({inView, ref}) => Node		false	Render prop allowing you to control the view.
root	HTMLElement		false	The HTMLElement that is used as the viewport for checking visibility of the target. Defaults to the browser viewport if not specified or if null.
rootId	String		false	Unique identifier for the root element - This is used to identify the IntersectionObserver instance, so it can be reused. If you defined a root element, without adding an id, it will create a new instance for all components.
rootMargin	String	'0px'	false	Margin around the root. Can have values similar to the CSS margin property, e.g. "10px 20px 30px 40px" (top, right, bottom, left).
tag	String	'div'	false	Element tag to use for the wrapping element when rendering using 'children'. Defaults to 'div'
threshold	Number	0	false	Number between 0 and 1 indicating the the percentage that should be visible before triggering. Can also be an array of numbers, to create multiple trigger points.
triggerOnce	Bool	false	false	Only trigger this method once
onChange	Func		false	Call this function whenever the in view state changes

Usage

Child as function

The easiest way to use the Observer, is to pass a function as the child. It will be called whenever the state changes, with the new value of inView. By default it will render inside a <div>, but you can change the element by setting tag to the HTMLElement you need.

import Observer from 'react-intersection-observer'

const Component = () => (
  <Observer>
    {inView => <h2>{`Header inside viewport ${inView}.`}</h2>}
  </Observer>
)

export default Component

Render prop

Using the render prop you can get full control over the output. In addition to the inView prop, the render also receives a ref that should be set on the containing DOM element.

import Observer from 'react-intersection-observer'

const Component = () => (
  <Observer
    render={({ inView, ref }) => (
      <div ref={ref}>
        <h2>{`Header inside viewport ${inView}.`}</h2>
      </div>
    )}
  />
)

export default Component

OnChange callback

You can monitor the onChange method, and control the state in your own component.

import Observer from 'react-intersection-observer'

const Component = () => (
  <Observer onChange={inView => console.log('Inview:', inView)}>
    <h2>Plain children are always rendered. Use onChange to monitor state.</h2>
  </Observer>
)

export default Component

Polyfill for intersection-observer

The component requires the intersection-observer API to be available on the global namespace. At the moment you should include a polyfill to ensure support in all browsers.

You can import the polyfill directly or use a service like polyfill.io that can add it when needed.

yarn add intersection-observer

Then import it in your app:

import 'intersection-observer'

If you are using Webpack (or similar) you could use dynamic imports, to load the Polyfill only if needed. A basic implementation could look something like this:

loadPolyfills()
  .then(() => /* Render React application now that your Polyfills are ready */)

/**
* Do feature detection, to figure out which polyfills needs to be imported.
**/
function loadPolyfills() {
  const polyfills = []

  if (!supportsIntersectionObserver()) {
    polyfills.push(import('intersection-observer'))
  }

  return Promise.all(polyfills)
}

function supportsIntersectionObserver() {
  return (
    'IntersectionObserver' in global &&
    'IntersectionObserverEntry' in global &&
    'intersectionRatio' in IntersectionObserverEntry.prototype
  )
}