react-native-controlled-mentions

react-native-controlled-mentions

Add to your TextInput ability to highlight mentions, hashtags or other custom patterns. It can:

• Gracefully render formatted text directly in React Native TextInput component
• Support for different mention types (@user mentions, #hashtags, etc)
• Completely typed (written on TypeScript)
• No need for native libraries

In addition, you can add custom styling for a regex pattern (like URLs).

Contents

• Demo
• Installation
• Getting Started
• API
• Migration Guide
• Parsing Mention's Value
• Rendering Mention's Value
• To Do
• Known Issues
• Support Me

Demo

Try it on Expo Snack: https://snack.expo.dev/@dabakovich/mentionsappv3?platform=ios

Installation

// with npm
npm install --save react-native-controlled-mentions

// with yarn
yarn add react-native-controlled-mentions

Getting Started

For instance, you have next controlled TextInput:

import { TextInput } from 'react-native';

const Mentions = () => {
  const [textValue, setTextValue] = useState('');

  return <TextInput value={textValue} onChangeText={setTextValue} />;
};

Now you need few simple steps:

• Add hook useMentions from the react-native-controlled-mentions
• Move textValue and setTextValue from TextInput to the just added hook as you see below
• Use returned textInputProps as new props for the TextInput component now

See code

import { TextInput } from 'react-native';
import { useMentions } from 'react-native-controlled-mentions';

const Mentions = () => {
  const [textValue, setTextValue] = useState('');

  const { textInputProps } = useMentions({
    value: textValue,
    onChange: setTextValue,
  });

  return <TextInput {...textInputProps} />;
};

Add the triggersConfig property where you can define what trigger types you want to support.

Important. Create the constant once out of functional component body, or memoize it using useMemo to avoid unnecessary re-renders.

See code

import { TextInput } from 'react-native';
import { useMentions, TriggersConfig } from 'react-native-controlled-mentions';

// Create config as static object out of function component
// Or memoize it inside FC using `useMemo`
const triggersConfig: TriggersConfig<'mention'> = {
  mention: {
    // Symbol that will trigger keyword change
    trigger: '@',

    // Style which mention will be highlighted in the `TextInput`
    textStyle: { fontWeight: 'bold', color: 'blue' },
  },
};

const Mentions = () => {
  const [textValue, setTextValue] = useState('');

  const { textInputProps } = useMentions({
    value: textValue,
    onChange: setTextValue,

    // Add the config here
    triggersConfig,
  });

  return <TextInput {...textInputProps} />;
};

Define your Suggestions functional component that receives SuggestionsProvidedProps:

See code

import { Pressable, View } from 'react-native';

const suggestions = [
  {
    id: '1',
    name: 'David',
  },
  {
    id: '2',
    name: 'Mary',
  },
  // ...
];

const Suggestions: FC<SuggestionsProvidedProps> = ({ keyword, onSelect }) => {
  if (keyword == null) {
    return null;
  }

  return (
    <View>
      {suggestions
        .filter((one) => one.name.toLocaleLowerCase().includes(keyword.toLocaleLowerCase()))
        .map((one) => (
          <Pressable key={one.id} onPress={() => onSelect(one)} style={{ padding: 12 }}>
            <Text>{one.name}</Text>
          </Pressable>
        ))}
    </View>
  );
};

export { Suggestions };

useMentions hook returns also triggers value that you can use as provided props for rendering suggestions.

See code

import { TextInput } from 'react-native';
import { useMentions, TriggersConfig } from 'react-native-controlled-mentions';
import { Suggestions } from './suggestions';

const triggersConfig: TriggersConfig<'mention'> = {
  mention: {
    // Symbol that will trigger keyword change
    trigger: '@',

    // Style which mention will be highlighted in the `TextInput`
    textStyle: { fontWeight: 'bold', color: 'blue' },
  },
};

const Mentions = () => {
  const [textValue, setTextValue] = useState('');

  const { textInputProps, triggers } = useMentions({
    value: textValue,
    onChange: setTextValue,

    triggersConfig,
  });

  return (
    <>
      <Suggestions {...triggers.mention} />

      <TextInput {...textInputProps} />
    </>
  );
};

You're done!

The whole example is in the /example folder. You can find also class variant of using mentions, without hooks.

API

Hook useMentions

Receives as parameter UseMentionsConfig<TriggerName> config. Returns an object with two keys:

textInputProps

Props that should be provided to the TextInput components.

Be careful and don't override three required props in the TextInput – onChangeText, onSelectionChange, children.

Also, don't provide value to the TextInput directly. Now it's fully controlling by the useMentions hook.

triggers

Object with same keys that has provided triggersConfig object. Values of the triggers has SuggestionsProvidedProps type and can be used in your custom component for rendering suggestions.

Type UseMentionsConfig<TriggerName>

An object with next keys:

value: string

Resulting mention value that should be controlled externally.

onChange: (value: string) => void

Callback that will trigger external value update.

triggersConfig: TriggersConfig<TriggerName>

Config that allows you to define you what trigger types will handle your input (mentions, hashtags, etc.).
It presents an object with TriggerName union type keys (for instance 'mention' | 'hashtag') and TriggerConfig values.

Example

const triggersConfig: TriggersConfig<'mention' | 'hashtag'> = {
  mention: {
    trigger: '@',
  },
  hashtag: {
    trigger: '#',
    allowedSpacesCount: 0,
    isInsertSpaceAfterMention: true,
    textStyle: {
      fontWeight: 'bold',
      color: 'grey',
    },
  },
};

patternsConfig: PatternsConfig

Config that allows to define what other highlights should support your input (like urls, bold, italic text, etc.).
It presents an object with pattern name keys (for instance url, bold) and PatternConfig values.

Example

const patternsConfig: PatternsConfig = {
  doubleAt: {
    pattern: /(@@)/gi, // ✅ Correct: wrapped in capturing group
    textStyle: { color: 'blue' },
  },
  url: {
    pattern: /(https?:\/\/[^\s]+)/gi, // ✅ Correct: wrapped in capturing group
    textStyle: { color: 'blue' },
  },
};

Type Config

TriggerConfig | PatternConfig

Type TriggerConfig

Property name	Description	Type	Required	Default
trigger	Character that will trigger current mention type	string	true
pattern	Custom trigger pattern	RegExp	false
getTriggerData	Callback for getting TriggerData, is required when we have custom pattern	(match: string) => TriggerData	true, when pattern exists
getTriggerValue	Callback for getting trigger value, is required when we have custom pattern	(triggerData: TriggerData) => string	true, when pattern exists
allowedSpacesCount	How much spaces are allowed for mention keyword	number	false
isInsertSpaceAfterMention	Should we add a space after selected mentions if the mention is at the end of row	boolean	false	false
textStyle	Text style for mentions in TextInput	StyleProp<TextStyle> | (mention: TriggerData) => StyleProp<TextStyle>	false
getPlainString	Function for generating custom mention text in text input	(mention: TriggerData) => string	false

Type PatternConfig

Property name	Description	Type	Required	Default
pattern	RegExp for parsing a pattern, should include global flag	RegExp	true
textStyle	Text style for pattern in TextInput	StyleProp<TextStyle> | (mention: TriggerData) => StyleProp<TextStyle>	false

⚠️ Important: The pattern regex must include capturing groups for the library to work correctly. The library uses String.split() internally which requires capturing groups to preserve the matched text.

✅ Correct: /(@@)/gi, /(https?:\/\/[^\s]+)/gi, /(#\w+)/gi

❌ Incorrect: /@@/gi, /https?:\/\/[^\s]+/gi, /#\w+/gi

Example

const patternsConfig: PatternsConfig = {
  doubleAt: {
    pattern: /(@@)/gi, // ✅ Correct: wrapped in capturing group
    textStyle: { color: 'blue' },
  },
  url: {
    pattern: /(https?:\/\/[^\s]+)/gi, // ✅ Correct: wrapped in capturing group
    textStyle: { color: 'blue' },
  },
};

Type SuggestionsProvidedProps

keyword: string | undefined

Keyword that will provide string between trigger character (e.g. '@') and cursor.

If the cursor is not tracking any mention typing the keyword will be undefined.

Examples where @name is just plain text yet, not mention and | is cursor position:

'|abc @name dfg' - keyword is undefined
'abc @| dfg' - keyword is ''
'abc @name| dfg' - keyword is 'name'
'abc @na|me dfg' - keyword is 'na'
'abc @|name dfg' - keyword is against ''
'abc @name |dfg' - keyword is against undefined

onSelect: (suggestion: Suggestion) => void

You should call that callback when user selects any suggestion.

Type Suggestion

id: string

Unique id for each suggestion.

name: string

Name that will be shown in your TextInput when user will select the suggestion.

Type TriggerData

For example, we have that mention value {@}[David Tabaka](123). Then after parsing that string by triggerRegEx we will get next properties:

original: string

The whole mention value string - {@}[David Tabaka](123)

trigger: string

The extracted trigger - @

name: string

The extracted name - David Tabaka

id: string

The extracted id - 123

Default pattern triggerRegEx

/({([^{^}]*)}\[([^[]*)]\(([^(^)]*)\))/i

Deprecated MentionInput component props

If you prefer to use class component without hooks the MentionInput is for you.

Property name	Description	Type	Required	Default
value	The same as in TextInput	string	true
onChange	The same as in TextInput	(value: string) => void	true
triggersConfig	Declare what trigger configs you want to support (mentions, hashtags)	TriggerConfig]	false	{}
patternsConfig	Declare what pattern configs you want to support (urls, bold, italic)	PatternConfig]	false	{}
...textInputProps	Other text input props	Partial	false

Migration Guide

From v2 to v3

For detailed migration instructions from v2 to v3, please see MIGRATION.md.

Parsing Mention's Value

You can import RegEx that is using in the component and then extract all mentions from textValue using your own logic.

import { triggerRegEx } from 'react-native-controlled-mentions';

Or you can use replaceTriggerValues helper to replace all mentions from textValue using your replacer function that receives TriggerData type and returns string.

import { replaceTriggerValues } from 'react-native-controlled-mentions';

const value = 'Hello {@}[David Tabaka](5)! How are you?';

console.log(replaceTriggerValues(value, ({ id }) => `@${id}`)); // Hello @5! How are you?
console.log(replaceTriggerValues(value, ({ name }) => `@${name}`)); // Hello @David Tabaka! How are you?

Rendering Mention's Value

If you want to parse and render your value somewhere else you can use parseValue tool which gives you array of parts and then use your own part renderer to resolve this issue.

Here is an example:

import { Part, Config, parseValue, isTriggerConfig } from 'react-native-controlled-mentions';

/**
 * Part renderer
 *
 * @param part
 * @param index
 */
const renderPart = (part: Part, index: number) => {
  // Just plain text
  if (!part.config) {
    return <Text key={index}>{part.text}</Text>;
  }

  // Mention type part
  if (isTriggerConfig(part.config)) {
    return (
      <Text
        key={`${index}-${part.data?.trigger}`}
        style={part.config.textStyle}
        onPress={() => console.log('Pressed', part.data)}
      >
        {part.text}
      </Text>
    );
  }

  // Other styled part types
  return (
    <Text key={`${index}-pattern`} style={part.config.textStyle}>
      {part.text}
    </Text>
  );
};

/**
 * Value renderer. Parsing value to parts array and then mapping the array using 'renderPart'
 *
 * @param value - `textValue` that you're getting from the `useState` hook
 * @param configs - configs array that you providing to the `useMentions` hook
 */
const renderValue: FC = (value: string, configs: Config[]) => {
  const { parts } = parseValue(value, configs);

  return <Text>{parts.map(renderPart)}</Text>;
};

To Do

• Add ability to have dynamic text style (#134, #135)
• Add ability to remove whole mention by backspace (#88, #129, #133)
• Add support for different text formatting (e.g. URLs)
• Add more customizations DONE
• Add ability to handle few mention types ("#", "@" etc) DONE

Known Issues

• Lags with very long text (#92)
• Could remove mention when two triggers are together (#137)
• Could merge mention with text on some Samsung devices (#118)
• Mention name regex accepts white spaces (e.g. {name: ' ', value: 1}) FIXED
• Keyboard auto-correction not working if suggested word has the same length FIXED
• Text becomes transparent when setting custom font size in TextInput FIXED

Support Me

Unfortunately, common donation platforms (like GitHub Sponsors, Buy Me a Coffee, PayPal, and Stripe) are currently not available in Ukraine.

However, you can still support me and this library in other meaningful ways:

• ⭐ Star the project on GitHub to help increase its visibility
• 🔗 Link back to this project in your own projects and documentation
• 🤝 Contribute with your great ideas, bug reports, or code improvements
• 📢 Share the project with others who might find it useful

Your support in any of these forms is greatly appreciated and helps keep this project alive and growing!