react-checkbox-tree vs react-checkbox-group
React Checkbox Libraries Comparison
1 Year
react-checkbox-treereact-checkbox-group
What's React Checkbox Libraries?

Checkbox libraries in React provide developers with tools to create interactive and user-friendly checkbox components that can handle multiple selections and hierarchical data structures. These libraries simplify the process of managing checkbox states and enhance user experience by offering customizable options for selection and organization. They are particularly useful in forms, settings, and any interface where users need to make multiple selections or navigate through nested options.

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react-checkbox-tree85,737715233 kB100-MIT
react-checkbox-group11,8321075.41 kB6-MIT
Feature Comparison: react-checkbox-tree vs react-checkbox-group

Data Structure

  • react-checkbox-tree:

    This package supports a tree structure, enabling users to select parent and child nodes. It is ideal for representing nested data and allows for easy expansion and collapse of tree nodes, making it suitable for complex data representations.

  • react-checkbox-group:

    This package manages a flat list of checkboxes, allowing users to select multiple options without any inherent hierarchy. It is best suited for simple use cases where the relationships between options do not need to be represented.

State Management

  • react-checkbox-tree:

    State is also managed externally, but it includes built-in support for tracking the expanded and checked states of tree nodes. This makes it easier to manage complex selections and provides a more intuitive user experience.

  • react-checkbox-group:

    State is managed externally, meaning that the parent component is responsible for handling the selected values. This allows for greater control over the checkbox states and facilitates integration with form libraries or custom validation logic.

Customization

  • react-checkbox-tree:

    Highly customizable with options for rendering custom checkboxes, labels, and icons. It also supports various features like checkable, selectable, and expandable nodes, allowing developers to tailor the component to their specific needs.

  • react-checkbox-group:

    Offers basic customization options, such as styling and event handling, but does not provide advanced features for checkbox appearance or behavior. Developers may need to implement additional logic for more complex use cases.

User Experience

  • react-checkbox-tree:

    Enhances user experience by providing a visual representation of hierarchical data, allowing users to easily navigate and select options. The tree structure helps users understand relationships between items, making it more intuitive for complex selections.

  • react-checkbox-group:

    Provides a straightforward user experience for selecting multiple options without any additional complexity. It is easy to implement and understand, making it suitable for simple forms.

Use Cases

  • react-checkbox-tree:

    Ideal for applications that require a hierarchical selection of items, such as file explorers, category management systems, or any scenario where data is organized in a tree structure.

  • react-checkbox-group:

    Best suited for forms where users need to select multiple items from a flat list, such as preferences, tags, or categories without any hierarchy.

How to Choose: react-checkbox-tree vs react-checkbox-group
  • react-checkbox-tree:

    Choose react-checkbox-tree if your application requires a hierarchical structure for checkboxes, allowing users to select multiple items in a tree-like format. This package is perfect for scenarios where you need to represent nested data, such as file systems or categories.

  • react-checkbox-group:

    Choose react-checkbox-group if you need a simple, straightforward solution for managing a group of checkboxes where the state is controlled externally. This package is ideal for forms where you want to handle multiple selections without complex structures.

README for react-checkbox-tree

react-checkbox-tree

npm Build Status GitHub license

A simple and elegant checkbox tree for React.

Demo

Usage

Installation

Install the library using your favorite dependency manager:

yarn add react-checkbox-tree

Using npm:

npm install react-checkbox-tree --save

Note – This library makes use of Font Awesome styles and expects them to be loaded in the browser.

Note – Although React 18 should work, our unit tests run against React 17 due to incompatibility with the unit testing tool (Enzyme).

Include CSS

For your convenience, the library's styles can be consumed utilizing one of the following files:

  • node_modules/react-checkbox-tree/lib/react-checkbox-tree.css
  • node_modules/react-checkbox-tree/src/less/react-checkbox-tree.less
  • node_modules/react-checkbox-tree/src/scss/react-checkbox-tree.scss

Either include one of these files in your stylesheets or utilize a CSS loader:

import 'react-checkbox-tree/lib/react-checkbox-tree.css';

Render Component

A quick usage example is included below. Note that the react-checkbox-tree component is controlled. In other words, you must update its checked and expanded properties whenever a change occurs.

import React from 'react';
import CheckboxTree from 'react-checkbox-tree';

const nodes = [{
    value: 'mars',
    label: 'Mars',
    children: [
        { value: 'phobos', label: 'Phobos' },
        { value: 'deimos', label: 'Deimos' },
    ],
}];

class Widget extends React.Component {
    state = {
        checked: [],
        expanded: [],
    };

    render() {
        return (
            <CheckboxTree
                nodes={nodes}
                checked={this.state.checked}
                expanded={this.state.expanded}
                onCheck={checked => this.setState({ checked })}
                onExpand={expanded => this.setState({ expanded })}
            />
        );
    }
}

All node objects must have a unique value. This value is serialized into the checked and expanded arrays and is also used for performance optimizations.

Changing the Default Icons

By default, react-checkbox-tree uses Font Awesome 4 for the various icons that appear in the tree. To utilize Font Awesome 5 icons, simply pass in iconsClass="fa5":

<CheckboxTree
    ...
    iconsClass="fa5"
/>

To change the rendered icons entirely, simply pass in the icons property and override the defaults. Note that you can override as many or as little icons as you like:

<CheckboxTree
    ...
    icons={{
        check: <span className="rct-icon rct-icon-check" />,
        uncheck: <span className="rct-icon rct-icon-uncheck" />,
        halfCheck: <span className="rct-icon rct-icon-half-check" />,
        expandClose: <span className="rct-icon rct-icon-expand-close" />,
        expandOpen: <span className="rct-icon rct-icon-expand-open" />,
        expandAll: <span className="rct-icon rct-icon-expand-all" />,
        collapseAll: <span className="rct-icon rct-icon-collapse-all" />,
        parentClose: <span className="rct-icon rct-icon-parent-close" />,
        parentOpen: <span className="rct-icon rct-icon-parent-open" />,
        leaf: <span className="rct-icon rct-icon-leaf" />,
    }}
/>

If you are using the react-fontawesome library, you can also directly substitute those icons:

import { FontAwesomeIcon } from '@fortawesome/react-fontawesome'

...

<CheckboxTree
    ...
    icons={{
        check: <FontAwesomeIcon className="rct-icon rct-icon-check" icon="check-square" />,
        uncheck: <FontAwesomeIcon className="rct-icon rct-icon-uncheck" icon={['fas', 'square']} />,
        halfCheck: <FontAwesomeIcon className="rct-icon rct-icon-half-check" icon="check-square" />,
        expandClose: <FontAwesomeIcon className="rct-icon rct-icon-expand-close" icon="chevron-right" />,
        expandOpen: <FontAwesomeIcon className="rct-icon rct-icon-expand-open" icon="chevron-down" />,
        expandAll: <FontAwesomeIcon className="rct-icon rct-icon-expand-all" icon="plus-square" />,
        collapseAll: <FontAwesomeIcon className="rct-icon rct-icon-collapse-all" icon="minus-square" />,
        parentClose: <FontAwesomeIcon className="rct-icon rct-icon-parent-close" icon="folder" />,
        parentOpen: <FontAwesomeIcon className="rct-icon rct-icon-parent-open" icon="folder-open" />,
        leaf: <FontAwesomeIcon className="rct-icon rct-icon-leaf-close" icon="file" />
    }}
/>

Utility Functions

In addition to the CheckboxTree component, additional utility functions are available to set the initial state of the tree.

expandNodesToLevel(nodes, targetLevel)

Creates a list of all parent node keys until targetLevel.

Arguments:

  • nodes (Array): The same array of nodes passed into the main CheckboxTree component
  • targetLevel (number): The maximum expansion depth. Use Infinity for maximum depth.

Returns:

  • Array: A list of node keys.

Properties

| Property | Type | Description | Default | | -------------------- | -------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------- | | nodes | array | Required. Specifies the tree nodes and their children. | | | checkModel | string | Specifies which checked nodes should be stored in the checked array. Accepts 'leaf' or 'all'. | 'leaf' | | checked | array | An array of checked node values. | [] | | direction | string | A string that specify whether the direction of the component is left-to-right ('ltr') or right-to-left ('rtl'). | 'ltr' | | disabled | bool | If true, the component will be disabled and nodes cannot be checked. | false | | expandDisabled | bool | If true, the ability to expand nodes will be disabled. | false | | expandOnClick | bool | If true, nodes will be expanded by clicking on labels. Requires a non-empty onClick function. | false | | expanded | array | An array of expanded node values. | [] | | icons | object | An object containing the mappings for the various icons and their components. See Changing the Default Icons. | { ... } | | iconsClass | string | A string that specifies which icons class to utilize. Currently, 'fa4' and 'fa5' are supported. | 'fa4' | | id | string | A string to be used for the HTML ID of the rendered tree and its nodes. | null | | lang | object | An object containing the language mappings for the various text elements. | { ... } | | name | string | Optional name for the hidden <input> element. | undefined | | nameAsArray | bool | If true, the hidden <input> will encode its values as an array rather than a joined string. | false | | nativeCheckboxes | bool | If true, native browser checkboxes will be used instead of pseudo-checkbox icons. | false | | noCascade | bool | If true, toggling a parent node will not cascade its check state to its children. | false | | onlyLeafCheckboxes | bool | If true, checkboxes will only be shown for leaf nodes. | false | | optimisticToggle | bool | If true, toggling a partially-checked node will select all children. If false, it will deselect. | true | | showExpandAll | bool | If true, buttons for expanding and collapsing all parent nodes will appear in the tree. | false | | showNodeIcon | bool | If true, each node will show a parent or leaf icon. | true | | showNodeTitle | bool | If true, the label of each node will become the title of the resulting DOM node. Overridden by node.title. | false | | onCheck | function | onCheck handler: function(checked, targetNode) {} | () => {} | | onClick | function | onClick handler: function(targetNode) {}. If set, onClick will be called when a node's label has been clicked. | () => {} | | onExpand | function | onExpand handler: function(expanded, targetNode) {} | () => {} |

onCheck and onExpand

Node Properties

Individual nodes within the nodes property can have the following structure:

| Property | Type | Description | Default | | -------------- | ------ | ---------------------------------------- | ------- | | label | mixed | Required. The node's label. | | | value | mixed | Required. The node's value. | | | children | array | An array of child nodes. | null | | className | string | A className to add to the node. | null | | disabled | bool | Whether the node should be disabled. | false | | icon | mixed | A custom icon for the node. | null | | showCheckbox | bool | Whether the node should show a checkbox. | true | | title | string | A custom title attribute for the node. | null |