React Tooltip Components and Uses

What is React Tooltip?

React Tooltip is a powerful and flexible way to add tooltips to your React application. A tooltip is a small, floating text box that appears when a user hovers over a specific element or component on a webpage. The text in the tooltip usually provides additional information or context about the element or component that the user is interacting with.

In React, tooltips are typically implemented as a separate component that can be rendered anywhere in the application. The component takes props, such as the text for the tooltip and the element or component that it should be associated with. This allows for easy reuse of the tooltip component throughout the application, making it a powerful and flexible feature.

One of the most popular libraries for adding tooltips to a React application is react-tooltip. This library provides a simple and flexible API for creating and managing tooltips, and it is widely used by developers around the world. The library is open-source, which means it is free to use and can be easily customized to meet the specific needs of your application.

To get started with react-tooltip, you first need to install the library using npm or yarn. Once it is installed, you can import the Tooltip component and use it in your application. To create a tooltip, you need to wrap the element or component that you want the tooltip to be associated with in a Tooltip component, and then pass the text for the tooltip as a prop.

In addition to the basic functionality of showing a tooltip when a user hovers over an element, react-tooltip also offers a wide range of advanced features such as positioning the tooltip relative to the element, setting the delay before and after the tooltip appears, and customizing the appearance of the tooltip.

Installation

Using NPM

To install the react-tooltip library, you will first need to have a React application set up. If you do not already have a React application, you can create one by running the following command in your terminal:

npx create-react-app my-app

This will create a new directory called "my-app" with all the necessary files for a basic React application.

Once you have a React application set up, you can install the react-tooltip library by running the following command in your terminal:

npm install react-tooltip

or

yarn add react-tooltip

This will add the react-tooltip library to your application's dependencies.

Next, you will need to import the react-tooltip library into your application. You can do this by adding the following line at the top of the file where you want to use the tooltip:

That's it! You have successfully installed and set up the react-tooltip library in your React application.

Standalone

To install react-tooltip as a standalone library, add node_modules/react-tooltip/dist/react-tooltip.[mode].js to your page. Do confirm that react and react-dom have been imported into your page.

Import the styles from node_modules/react-tooltip/dist/react-tooltip.css if you wish to utilize the default ReactTooltip styles.

It's worth noting that if you are using the library as a standalone, you need to add the tooltip somewhere in your HTML or JSX, the library itself doesn't provide any way of rendering the tooltip.

Keep in mind that using this method makes it harder to manage updates and dependencies, and you will need to manually download and update the library to the latest version. It's also important to note that if you are using any external dependency that is used by the library, you will have to include that as well in your HTML file.

Customization

CSS Variables

The react-tooltip library allows for customization of the CSS variables to change the appearance of the tooltips. You can override the default CSS variables to change the colors, fonts, and other styling options.

To customize the CSS variables, you will first need to import the react-tooltip/dist/index.css file into your project. Then you can create a new CSS file, and import the react-tooltip/dist/index.css file.

You can then override the default CSS variables by defining them before the import statement. , For example,, to change the background color of the tooltip, you can add the following line in your CSS file:

This will change the background colour of the tooltip to red.

Here are some of the variables you can customize:

--react-tooltip-background: sets the background colour of the tooltip --react-tooltip-colour: sets the text colour of the tooltip --react-tooltip-font-size: sets the font size of the tooltip text --react-tooltip-max-width: sets the maximum width of the tooltip --react-tooltip-z-index: sets the z-index of the tooltip

You can customize the variables accordingly to your needs.
It's worth noting that the library uses :root as the default scope for the variables, so you should use it too or change the scope accordingly.

Sass Variables

It's possible to customize the react-tooltip library using SASS variables by converting the CSS file to SASS and then importing it into your project.

First, you will need to install node-sass, a library that allows you to convert CSS files to SASS. You can do this by running the following command:

npm install node-sass

Then you can convert the CSS file to SASS by running the following command:

node-sass node_modules/react-tooltip/dist/index.css -o src/sass

This command will convert the index.css file from the react-tooltip library and put it in the src/sass folder as an index.scss file.

Now you can import the index.scss file into your project's SASS file and customize the variables as needed.

You can also create a _variables.scss file and import it into the index.scss file and customize the variables.

This way you can easily manage the variables, and use them throughout the project.

It's worth noting that this method requires some setup and extra steps, but it gives you more control over the styling of the tooltip and makes it easier to manage and update the styles in the future.

Characteristics of React Tooltip

Basic tooltips

A Basic Tooltip in React Tooltip can be created using the Tooltip component provided by the library. Here is an example of how you might create a basic tooltip in React Tooltip:

• Import the Tooltip component from the React Tooltip library.
• Wrap the element that you want to have a tooltip on with the Tooltip component.
• Pass the text or JSX element that you want to show in the tooltip as the value of the content prop.
• By default the tooltip will be displayed on top, you can change the placement by bypassing the place prop.

In the above example, when the user hovers over the "Hover me" text, the tooltip will appear with the text passed as a content prop.

Positioned Tooltip

A Positioned Tooltip in React Tooltip can be created by using the place prop. The place prop allows you to specify the position of the tooltip relative to the trigger element. The possible values for the place prop are: top, bottom, left, right and centre.

Here is an example of how you might create a positioned tooltip in React Tooltip:

In the above example, the tooltip will appear on top of the "Hover me" text when the user hovers over it.

Arrow Tooltip

In React Tooltip, the arrow refers to the small triangle that points to the element that the tooltip is associated with. The arrow is automatically added to the tooltip by default, but its appearance and position can be customized.

Custom Child Element

In React Tooltip, you can customize the child elements of the tooltip by passing in custom render functions or JSX elements.

An example of using a custom render function:

In this example, we're passing a custom render function to the children prop of the tooltip component. This render function takes in the props passed to the tooltip and returns JSX elements.

Triggers

In React Tooltip, the trigger refers to the event that causes the tooltip to appear or disappear. By default, the trigger is set to "mouseenter" (when the mouse pointer hovers over the associated element), but it can be customized to be triggered by other events such as "click" or "focus".

You can change the trigger event by passing in the data-event prop to the element that the tooltip is associated with.

Variable Width

In React Tooltip, the width of the tooltip can be set to be variable (i.e. the width of the tooltip will be determined by its content) or fixed (i.e. the width of the tooltip will be a fixed value regardless of its content).

By default, the width of the tooltip is variable, meaning it will be determined by its content. However, you can set a fixed width by using the data-width prop.

For example, to set the width of the tooltip to 200px use the below code:

Interactive

In React Tooltip, the "interactive" feature allows the user to interact with the tooltip, such as by clicking on links or buttons within the tooltip. By default, the tooltip is not interactive, meaning the user cannot interact with the content inside the tooltip.

To make the tooltip interactive, you can use the data-interactive prop on the associated element and set it to true.

For example:

This allows the user to interact with the content inside the tooltip, such as by clicking on links or buttons.

Transitions

In React, you can use the transition library to add transitions to a tooltip. The transition library is a popular library that provides a simple way to add transitions to elements in React.

Here is an example of how you can use the transition library to add a fade-in and fade-out transition to a tooltip:

You need to add styles to the classNames used in the CSSTransition and it will handle the transition for you.

Follow Cursor

Setting followCursor=true will cause the tooltip to follow the cursor.

Showing and Hiding

Normally, the tooltip appears as soon as the user's mouse hovers over the element and disappears as soon as the user's mouse moves away. The enterDelay and leaveDelay properties, as demonstrated in the Controlled Tooltips demo above, can be used to add a delay to the tooltip's showing or hiding.

When a user long presses an element on a mobile device, the tooltip(React native tooltip) appears and disappears after 1500 milliseconds. With the disableTouchListener prop, you can turn off this function.

Accessibility

Accessibility is an important consideration when building React components, and tooltips are no exception. Here are a few tips for making tooltips accessible in React:

• Use aria-label or aria-labelledby: The aria-label or aria-labelledby attribute can be used to provide an accessible name for the tooltip. This helps screen readers understand the purpose of the tooltip.
• Use role="tooltip": The role attribute can be used to specify that the tooltip is a tooltip. This helps screen readers understand the context of the tooltip.
• Show and hide the tooltip using aria-hidden: The aria-hidden attribute can be used to hide the tooltip from screen readers when it is not visible.

Important Libraries of React Tooltip

There are several libraries available for creating tooltips in React, each with its own set of features and functionality. Here are a few popular libraries for creating tooltips in React:

• react-tooltip: This is a widely used library for creating tooltips in React. It allows you to create custom tooltips with a variety of options for positioning, styling, and triggering. It also has support for handling complex HTML and rich text within the tooltip.
• react-popper: This library provides a powerful way to position and align tooltips, popovers, and other similar components. It uses the Popper.js library under the hood, which provides advanced positioning capabilities.
• react-tippy: This library is built on top of Tippy.js, a popular JavaScript library for creating tooltips. It offers a wide range of customization options, such as animations, themes, and triggers. It also provides a way to create tooltips that follow the cursor.
• react-sticky-tooltip: This library provides a simple way to create sticky tooltips that remain visible even when the user scrolls or interacts with other elements on the page.
• react-beautiful-dnd: This library is not just for tooltips but it is for creating beautiful and accessible drag-and-drop interfaces in React. It provides a set of higher-order components and utilities for building powerful drag-and-drop interfaces. It's a great library if you are creating complex UI components like Kanban, Trello, etc.
• react-overlays: This is a set of components for building overlay components such as dialogs, tooltips, and popovers in react.

It's important to note that these are just a few examples of the many libraries available for creating tooltips in React. It's always a good idea to evaluate multiple options and choose the one that best fits your specific use case.

How to Use React Tooltip?

To use a tooltip in React, you first need to choose a library or implement your tooltip component. For this example, I will use the react-tooltip library. Here is an example of how you can use react-tooltip to create a tooltip in a React component:

• First, you need to install the react-tooltip package by running the following command: npm install react-tooltip

• Next, you need to import the ReactTooltip component from the library in your React component file:

• Then, you can use the ReactTooltip component to create a tooltip in your JSX. , For example,, you can add a tooltip to a button by wrapping the button in the ReactTooltip component and specifying the data-tip attribute.

• You can also customize the tooltip by passing props to the ReactTooltip component. , For example,, you can change the position of the tooltip by setting the place prop.

• Also you can use the event prop to set the trigger event for the tooltip to show.

• Finally, you will also need to add some CSS styles to position the tooltip correctly. You can use the .__react_component_tooltip class to target the tooltip element in your CSS.

Here is the full example of creating a tooltip on a button using react-tooltip:

This is a basic example of how you can use the react-tooltip library to create a tooltip in React. The react-tooltip library provides many other options and customization options that you can use to create more complex tooltips. It is important to test the accessibility of the tooltips you create and make sure it works well with assistive technologies.

Some Tips while Using React Tooltip

Here are some tips to keep in mind while using React Tooltip in your applications:

• Positioning: When positioning the tooltip, make sure it is always visible and not obscured by other elements on the page.
• Delay: Set an appropriate delay time for the tooltip to appear, so it doesn't appear too early or too late when the user hovers over the associated element or component.
• Content: Keep the content of the tooltip short and to the point. Avoid using too much technical jargon or complex language.
• Customization: Customize the appearance of the tooltip to match the overall design of your application. This will help it blend in and not stand out too much.
• Accessibility: Make sure the tooltip is accessible to users with disabilities by providing alternative text or an ARIA label for the associated element or component.
• Test: Test the tooltip on different devices, browsers, and screen sizes to ensure it works as expected.
• Triggers: Be mindful of the events that trigger the tooltip to appear, such as hover, click, or focus.
• Reusability: Use the React Tooltip component in a way that it can be reused. This makes it easier to maintain and update the code.
• Performance: Keep in mind the performance impact of using tooltips, especially if there are many of them on the page or if they are being used frequently.
• Use cases: Decide when to use tooltips and when to use other forms of help or feedback, such as modal dialogs or popovers.
• Update: Make sure to update the library to the latest version, as this can help fix bugs and improve performance.

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