react-tabs

What is react-tabs?

The react-tabs package is a simple and flexible tab component for React applications. It allows developers to create tabbed interfaces with ease, providing a straightforward API and customizable components.

What are react-tabs's main functionalities?

Basic Tabs

This feature allows you to create a basic tabbed interface with multiple tabs and corresponding content panels.

import { Tabs, TabList, Tab, TabPanel } from 'react-tabs';
import 'react-tabs/style/react-tabs.css';

function App() {
  return (
    <Tabs>
      <TabList>
        <Tab>Tab 1</Tab>
        <Tab>Tab 2</Tab>
        <Tab>Tab 3</Tab>
      </TabList>

      <TabPanel>
        <h2>Content for Tab 1</h2>
      </TabPanel>
      <TabPanel>
        <h2>Content for Tab 2</h2>
      </TabPanel>
      <TabPanel>
        <h2>Content for Tab 3</h2>
      </TabPanel>
    </Tabs>
  );
}

Custom Styling

This feature demonstrates how to apply custom styling to the tabs by using a custom CSS file.

import { Tabs, TabList, Tab, TabPanel } from 'react-tabs';
import './custom-tabs.css';

function App() {
  return (
    <Tabs>
      <TabList>
        <Tab className="custom-tab">Tab 1</Tab>
        <Tab className="custom-tab">Tab 2</Tab>
        <Tab className="custom-tab">Tab 3</Tab>
      </TabList>

      <TabPanel>
        <h2>Content for Tab 1</h2>
      </TabPanel>
      <TabPanel>
        <h2>Content for Tab 2</h2>
      </TabPanel>
      <TabPanel>
        <h2>Content for Tab 3</h2>
      </TabPanel>
    </Tabs>
  );
}

Dynamic Tabs

This feature shows how to create dynamic tabs that can be added or removed at runtime.

import { useState } from 'react';
import { Tabs, TabList, Tab, TabPanel } from 'react-tabs';

function App() {
  const [tabs, setTabs] = useState([
    { title: 'Tab 1', content: 'Content for Tab 1' },
    { title: 'Tab 2', content: 'Content for Tab 2' }
  ]);

  const addTab = () => {
    setTabs([...tabs, { title: `Tab ${tabs.length + 1}`, content: `Content for Tab ${tabs.length + 1}` }]);
  };

  return (
    <div>
      <button onClick={addTab}>Add Tab</button>
      <Tabs>
        <TabList>
          {tabs.map((tab, index) => (
            <Tab key={index}>{tab.title}</Tab>
          ))}
        </TabList>

        {tabs.map((tab, index) => (
          <TabPanel key={index}>
            <h2>{tab.content}</h2>
          </TabPanel>
        ))}
      </Tabs>
    </div>
  );
}

Other packages similar to react-tabs

react-bootstrap

React-Bootstrap is a popular library that provides Bootstrap components as React components. It includes a Tabs component that offers similar functionality to react-tabs but with the added benefit of Bootstrap's styling and theming capabilities.

material-ui

Material-UI is a comprehensive library of React components that implement Google's Material Design. It includes a Tabs component that provides similar functionality to react-tabs, along with a wide range of other UI components and customization options.

semantic-ui-react

Semantic UI React is the official React integration for Semantic UI. It includes a Tab component that offers similar functionality to react-tabs, with the added benefit of Semantic UI's declarative syntax and extensive theming options.

README

react-tabs

An accessible and easy tab component for ReactJS.

https://reactcommunity.org/react-tabs/

Version 5 or newer of react-tabs needs react version 18 or newer

Version 4 of react-tabs needs react version 16.8 or newer

react-tabs was tested on real mobile devices and browsers with

Installing

yarn add react-tabs

or

npm install --save react-tabs

Basic Example

import { Tab, Tabs, TabList, TabPanel } from 'react-tabs';
import 'react-tabs/style/react-tabs.css';

export default () => (
  <Tabs>
    <TabList>
      <Tab>Title 1</Tab>
      <Tab>Title 2</Tab>
    </TabList>

    <TabPanel>
      <h2>Any content 1</h2>
    </TabPanel>
    <TabPanel>
      <h2>Any content 2</h2>
    </TabPanel>
  </Tabs>
);

API

Components

react-tabs consists of 4 components which all need to be used together.

<Tabs />

If you specify additional props on the <Tabs /> component they will be forwarded to the rendered <div />.

className: string | Array<string> | { [string]: boolean }

default: "react-tabs"

Provide a custom class name for the outer <div /> of the tabs.

You can also supply an array of class names or an object where the class names are the key and the value is a boolean indicating if the name should be added. See the docs of classnames on how to supply different class names.

defaultFocus: boolean

default: false

If set to true the tabs will be focused on initial render. This allows immediate use of keyboard keys to switch tabs after the first render.

defaultIndex: number

default: 0

This allows changing the tab that should be open on initial render. This is a zero-based index, so first tab is 0, second tab is 1, ...

This can only be used in uncontrolled mode when react-tabs handles the current selected tab internally and for this reason cannot be used together with selectedIndex. See here for more info on modes.

direction: string

default: "ltr"

Provide the direction of the component, can be either rtl or ltr.

disabledTabClassName: string

default: "react-tabs__tab--disabled"

Provide a custom class name for disabled tabs.

This option can also be set directly at the <Tab /> component.

disableUpDownKeys: bool

default: false

Disable up & down arrow keys to change tabs.

domRef: (node: ?HTMLElement) => void

default: null

Register a callback that will receive the underlying DOM node for every mount. It will also receive null on unmount.

environment: Window

If you're rendering react-tabs within a different window context than the default one; for example, an iframe.

focusTabOnClick: boolean

default: true

By default the tab that is clicked will also be focused in the DOM. If set to false the tab will not be focused anymore.

Be aware that keyboard navigation will not work after click if set to false. Though one can still focus the tabs by pressing tab and then keyboard navigation will work.

forceRenderTabPanel: boolean

default: false

By default only the current active tab will be rendered to DOM. If set to true all tabs will be rendered to the DOM always.

This can also be enabled for each individual <TabPanel /> component with its prop forceRender.

onSelect: (index: number, lastIndex: number, event: Event) => ?boolean

default: undefined

This event handler is called every time a tab is about to change. It will be called with the index that it will be changed to, the lastIndex which was selected before and the underlying event which is usually either a keydown or click event. When index and lastIndex are equal it means the user clicked on the currently active tab.

The callback can optionally return false to cancel the change to the new tab.

Returning false when the change to the new tab should be canceled is also important in controlled mode, as react-tabs still internally handles the focus of the tabs.

In controlled mode the onSelect handler is a required prop.

selectedIndex: number

default: null

Set the currently selected tab. This is a zero-based index, so first tab is 0, second tab is 1, ...

This enables controlled mode, which also requires onSelect to be set. See here for more info on modes.

selectedTabClassName: string

default: "react-tabs__tab--selected"

Provide a custom class name for the active tab.

This option can also be set directly at the <Tab /> component.

selectedTabPanelClassName: string

default: "react-tabs__tab-panel--selected"

Provide a custom class name for the active tab panel.

This option can also be set directly at the <TabPanel /> component.

<TabList />

If you specify additional props on the <TabList /> component they will be forwarded to the rendered <ul />.

className: string | Array<string> | { [string]: boolean }

default: "react-tabs__tab-list"

Provide a custom class name for the <ul />.

You can also supply an array of class names or an object where the class names are the key and the value is a boolean indicating if the name should be added. See the docs of classnames on how to supply different class names.

<Tab />

If you specify additional props on the <Tab /> component they will be forwarded to the rendered <li />.

className: string | Array<string> | { [string]: boolean }

default: "react-tabs__tab"

Provide a custom class name for the <li />.

You can also supply an array of class names or an object where the class names are the key and the value is a boolean indicating if the name should be added. See the docs of classnames on how to supply different class names.

disabled: boolean

default: false

Disable this tab which will make it not do anything when clicked. Also a disabled class name will be added (see disabledClassName)

disabledClassName: string

default: "react-tabs__tab--disabled"

Provide a custom class name for disabled tabs.

This option can also be set for all <Tab /> components with the prop disabledTabClassName on <Tabs />.

selectedClassName: string

default: "react-tabs__tab--selected"

Provide a custom class name for the active tab.

This option can also be set for all <Tab /> components with the prop selectedTabClassName on <Tabs />.

tabIndex: string

default: if selected "0" otherwise null

Overrides the tabIndex to enabled tabbing between tabs.

<TabPanel />

If you specify additional props on the <TabPanel /> component they will be forwarded to the rendered <div />.

className: string | Array<string> | { [string]: boolean }

default: "react-tabs__tab-panel"

Provide a custom class name for the <div /> containing the tab content.

You can also supply an array of class names or an object where the class names are the key and the value is a boolean indicating if the name should be added. See the docs of classnames on how to supply different class names.

forceRender: boolean

default: false

By default the tab content will only be rendered when the tab is active. If set to true the tab will also be rendered if inactive.

This can also be enabled for all <TabPanel /> components with the prop forceRenderTabPanel on <Tabs />.

selectedClassName: string

default: "react-tabs__tab-panel--selected"

Provide a custom class name for the active tab panel.

This option can also be set for all <TabPanel /> components with the prop selectedTabPanelClassName on <Tabs />.

Controlled vs Uncontrolled mode

React tabs has two different modes it can operate in, which change the way how much you need to take care about the state yourself.

Uncontrolled mode

This is the default mode of react-tabs and makes the react-tabs components handle its state internally. You can change the starting tab with defaultIndex and you can listen for changes with onSelect.

In this mode you cannot force a tab change during runtime.

<Tabs defaultIndex={1} onSelect={(index) => console.log(index)}>
  <TabList>
    <Tab>Title 1</Tab>
    <Tab>Title 2</Tab>
  </TabList>
  <TabPanel></TabPanel>
  <TabPanel></TabPanel>
</Tabs>

Controlled mode

This mode has to be enabled by supplying selectedIndex to the <Tabs /> component.

In this mode react-tabs does not handle any tab selection state internally and leaves all the state management up to the outer application.

This mode also enforces you to set a handler for onSelect. defaultIndex does not have any effect and will therefore throw an error.

const App = () => {
  const [tabIndex, setTabIndex] = useState(0);

  return (
    <Tabs selectedIndex={tabIndex} onSelect={(index) => setTabIndex(index)}>
      <TabList>
        <Tab>Title 1</Tab>
        <Tab>Title 2</Tab>
      </TabList>
      <TabPanel></TabPanel>
      <TabPanel></TabPanel>
    </Tabs>
  );
};

Styling

react-tabs does not include any style loading by default. Default stylesheets are provided and can be included in your application if desired.

Webpack

When using webpack and an appropriate loader (css-loader, sass-loader, less-loader or style-loader) you can simply import the default stylesheet.

import 'react-tabs/style/react-tabs.css';
// or
import 'react-tabs/style/react-tabs.scss';
// or
import 'react-tabs/style/react-tabs.less';

SASS

When using SASS you can easily import the default styles

@import '../../path/to/node_modules/react-tabs/style/react-tabs.scss';

LESS

When using LESS you can easily import the default styles

@import '../../path/to/node_modules/react-tabs/style/react-tabs.less';

Custom Style

You can also always just simply copy the default style to your own css/scss/less and modify it to your own needs. The changelog will always tell you when classes change and we also consider changes that break the styling as semver major.

Custom Components

Set tabsRole

In case you want to create your own component wrapping the ones that the library provides, you have to set its tabsRole. This value is used inside react-tabs to check the role of a component inside <Tabs />.

Possible values for tabsRole are:

• Tab
• TabPanel
• TabList
• Tabs

Pass through properties

Note: Because of how react-tabs works internally (it uses cloning to opaquely control various parts of the tab state), you need to pass any incoming props to the component you're wrapping. The easiest way to do this is to use the rest and spread operators, e.g. see {...otherProps} below.

import { Tabs, TabList, Tab, TabPanel } from 'react-tabs';
import type { ReactTabsFunctionComponent, TabProps } from 'react-tabs';

// All custom elements should pass through other props
const CustomTab: ReactTabsFunctionComponent<TabProps> = ({
  children,
  ...otherProps
}) => (
  <Tab {...otherProps}>
    <h1>{children}</h1>
  </Tab>
);

CustomTab.tabsRole = 'Tab'; // Required field to use your custom Tab

const App = () => (
  <Tabs>
    <TabList>
      <CustomTab>Custom Tab 1</CustomTab>
      <CustomTab>Custom Tab 2</CustomTab>
    </TabList>
    <TabPanel>Panel 1</TabPanel>
    <TabPanel>Panel 2</TabPanel>
  </Tabs>
);

License

MIT