react-sortable-hoc vs react-sortable-tree
React Drag-and-Drop Libraries Comparison
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react-sortable-hocreact-sortable-treeSimilar Packages:
What's React Drag-and-Drop Libraries?

React drag-and-drop libraries facilitate the implementation of sortable and draggable interfaces in React applications. They provide developers with the tools to create interactive UI components that can be rearranged or moved, enhancing user experience and engagement. These libraries abstract the complexities of handling mouse events and DOM manipulations, allowing developers to focus on building functional and visually appealing interfaces. By leveraging these libraries, developers can implement features such as sortable lists, tree structures, and customizable drag-and-drop behaviors with minimal effort.

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react-sortable-hoc497,01710,852-2944 years agoMIT
react-sortable-tree54,4964,938-3425 years agoMIT
Feature Comparison: react-sortable-hoc vs react-sortable-tree

Complexity Handling

  • react-sortable-hoc:

    react-sortable-hoc is designed for simplicity and focuses on sortable lists and grids. It abstracts the drag-and-drop logic without overwhelming the developer with complex configurations, making it easy to implement basic sortable functionality.

  • react-sortable-tree:

    react-sortable-tree handles more complex data structures, allowing for nested sorting and tree manipulation. It provides a more comprehensive API to manage hierarchical data, making it suitable for applications that require advanced features like drag-and-drop between different tree nodes.

Customization

  • react-sortable-hoc:

    This library allows for a high degree of customization in terms of styling and behavior. Developers can easily modify the appearance of sortable items and define custom drag-and-drop interactions to fit their application's needs.

  • react-sortable-tree:

    react-sortable-tree offers extensive customization options, including the ability to define custom node renderers and drag previews. This flexibility allows developers to create visually distinct tree structures that align with their application's design.

Performance

  • react-sortable-hoc:

    With a focus on performance, react-sortable-hoc is optimized for handling large lists efficiently. It minimizes re-renders and leverages React's reconciliation process to ensure smooth drag-and-drop interactions even with numerous items.

  • react-sortable-tree:

    react-sortable-tree is also performance-oriented but may require more careful management of state updates due to its complexity. Developers need to be mindful of how changes in the tree structure affect rendering, especially with deeply nested items.

Documentation and Community Support

  • react-sortable-hoc:

    react-sortable-hoc has a straightforward documentation that is easy to follow, making it accessible for developers new to drag-and-drop functionality. The community support is decent, with various examples and use cases available online.

  • react-sortable-tree:

    react-sortable-tree boasts comprehensive documentation and a larger community, providing a wealth of resources, tutorials, and examples. This can be beneficial for developers seeking guidance on implementing complex tree structures.

Use Cases

  • react-sortable-hoc:

    Ideal for applications that require simple sortable lists, such as task management apps, to-do lists, or any interface where users need to reorder items easily.

  • react-sortable-tree:

    Best suited for applications that manage hierarchical data, such as file explorers, organizational charts, or any scenario where nested structures need to be visualized and manipulated.

How to Choose: react-sortable-hoc vs react-sortable-tree
  • react-sortable-hoc:

    Choose react-sortable-hoc if you need a lightweight solution for creating sortable lists or grids with minimal setup. It is ideal for projects that require simple drag-and-drop functionality without the need for complex tree structures or additional features.

  • react-sortable-tree:

    Opt for react-sortable-tree if your application requires a more advanced tree structure with nested items. This package offers built-in support for hierarchical data and provides features such as drag-and-drop reordering of tree nodes, making it suitable for applications that need to manage complex data relationships.

README for react-sortable-hoc

React Sortable HOC

A set of higher-order components to turn any list into an animated, accessible and touch-friendly sortable list

npm version npm downloads license Gitter gzip size

Examples available here: http://clauderic.github.io/react-sortable-hoc/

Features

  • Higher Order Components – Integrates with your existing components
  • Drag handle, auto-scrolling, locked axis, events, and more!
  • Suuuper smooth animations – Chasing the 60FPS dream 🌈
  • Works with virtualization libraries: react-virtualized, react-tiny-virtual-list, react-infinite, etc.
  • Horizontal lists, vertical lists, or a grid ↔ ↕ ⤡
  • Touch support 👌
  • Accessible: supports keyboard sorting

Installation

Using npm:

$ npm install react-sortable-hoc --save

Then, using a module bundler that supports either CommonJS or ES2015 modules, such as webpack:

// Using an ES6 transpiler like Babel
import {SortableContainer, SortableElement} from 'react-sortable-hoc';

// Not using an ES6 transpiler
var Sortable = require('react-sortable-hoc');
var SortableContainer = Sortable.SortableContainer;
var SortableElement = Sortable.SortableElement;

Alternatively, an UMD build is also available:

<script src="react-sortable-hoc/dist/react-sortable-hoc.umd.js"></script>

Usage

Basic Example

import React, {Component} from 'react';
import {render} from 'react-dom';
import {SortableContainer, SortableElement} from 'react-sortable-hoc';
import arrayMove from 'array-move';

const SortableItem = SortableElement(({value}) => <li>{value}</li>);

const SortableList = SortableContainer(({items}) => {
  return (
    <ul>
      {items.map((value, index) => (
        <SortableItem key={`item-${value}`} index={index} value={value} />
      ))}
    </ul>
  );
});

class SortableComponent extends Component {
  state = {
    items: ['Item 1', 'Item 2', 'Item 3', 'Item 4', 'Item 5', 'Item 6'],
  };
  onSortEnd = ({oldIndex, newIndex}) => {
    this.setState(({items}) => ({
      items: arrayMove(items, oldIndex, newIndex),
    }));
  };
  render() {
    return <SortableList items={this.state.items} onSortEnd={this.onSortEnd} />;
  }
}

render(<SortableComponent />, document.getElementById('root'));

That's it! React Sortable does not come with any styles by default, since it's meant to enhance your existing components.

More code examples are available here.

Why should I use this?

There are already a number of great Drag & Drop libraries out there (for instance, react-dnd is fantastic). If those libraries fit your needs, you should definitely give them a try first. However, most of those libraries rely on the HTML5 Drag & Drop API, which has some severe limitations. For instance, things rapidly become tricky if you need to support touch devices, if you need to lock dragging to an axis, or want to animate the nodes as they're being sorted. React Sortable HOC aims to provide a simple set of higher-order components to fill those gaps. If you're looking for a dead-simple, mobile-friendly way to add sortable functionality to your lists, then you're in the right place.

Prop Types

SortableContainer HOC

| Property | Type | Default | Description | | :-------------------------------- | :-------------------------------------------------------- | :------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | :--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | axis | String | y | Items can be sorted horizontally, vertically or in a grid. Possible values: x, y or xy | | lockAxis | String | | If you'd like, you can lock movement to an axis while sorting. This is not something that is possible with HTML5 Drag & Drop. Possible values: x or y. | | helperClass | String | | You can provide a class you'd like to add to the sortable helper to add some styles to it | | transitionDuration | Number | 300 | The duration of the transition when elements shift positions. Set this to 0 if you'd like to disable transitions | | keyboardSortingTransitionDuration | Number | transitionDuration | The duration of the transition when the helper is shifted during keyboard sorting. Set this to 0 if you'd like to disable transitions for the keyboard sorting helper. Defaults to the value set for transitionDuration if undefined | | keyCodes | Array | {
  lift: [32],
  drop: [32],
  cancel: [27],
  up: [38, 37],
  down: [40, 39]
} | An object containing an array of keycodes for each keyboard-accessible action. | | pressDelay | Number | 0 | If you'd like elements to only become sortable after being pressed for a certain time, change this property. A good sensible default value for mobile is 200. Cannot be used in conjunction with the distance prop. | | pressThreshold | Number | 5 | Number of pixels of movement to tolerate before ignoring a press event. | | distance | Number | 0 | If you'd like elements to only become sortable after being dragged a certain number of pixels. Cannot be used in conjunction with the pressDelay prop. | | shouldCancelStart | Function | Function | This function is invoked before sorting begins, and can be used to programatically cancel sorting before it begins. By default, it will cancel sorting if the event target is either an input, textarea, select, option, or button. | | updateBeforeSortStart | Function | | This function is invoked before sorting begins. It can return a promise, allowing you to run asynchronous updates (such as setState) before sorting begins. function({node, index, collection, isKeySorting}, event) | | onSortStart | Function | | Callback that is invoked when sorting begins. function({node, index, collection, isKeySorting}, event) | | onSortMove | Function | | Callback that is invoked during sorting as the cursor moves. function(event) | | onSortOver | Function | | Callback that is invoked when moving over an item. function({index, oldIndex, newIndex, collection, isKeySorting}, e) | | onSortEnd | Function | | Callback that is invoked when sorting ends. function({oldIndex, newIndex, collection, isKeySorting}, e) | | useDragHandle | Boolean | false | If you're using the SortableHandle HOC, set this to true | | useWindowAsScrollContainer | Boolean | false | If you want, you can set the window as the scrolling container | | hideSortableGhost | Boolean | true | Whether to auto-hide the ghost element. By default, as a convenience, React Sortable List will automatically hide the element that is currently being sorted. Set this to false if you would like to apply your own styling. | | lockToContainerEdges | Boolean | false | You can lock movement of the sortable element to it's parent SortableContainer | | lockOffset | OffsetValue* | [OffsetValue*, OffsetValue*] | "50%" | WhenlockToContainerEdgesis set totrue, this controls the offset distance between the sortable helper and the top/bottom edges of it's parentSortableContainer. Percentage values are relative to the height of the item currently being sorted. If you wish to specify different behaviours for locking to the top of the container vs the bottom, you may also pass in anarray(For example:["0%", "100%"]). | | getContainer | Function | | Optional function to return the scrollable container element. This property defaults to the SortableContainer element itself or (if useWindowAsScrollContainer is true) the window. Use this function to specify a custom container object (eg this is useful for integrating with certain 3rd party components such as FlexTable). This function is passed a single parameter (the wrappedInstance React element) and it is expected to return a DOM element. | | getHelperDimensions | Function | Function | Optional function({node, index, collection}) that should return the computed dimensions of the SortableHelper. See default implementation for more details | | helperContainer | HTMLElement | Function | document.body | By default, the cloned sortable helper is appended to the document body. Use this prop to specify a different container for the sortable clone to be appended to. Accepts an HTMLElement or a function returning an HTMLElement that will be invoked before right before sorting begins | | disableAutoscroll | Boolean | false | Disables autoscrolling while dragging |

* OffsetValue can either be a finite Number or a String made up of a number and a unit (px or %). Examples: 10 (which is the same as "10px"), "50%"

SortableElement HOC

| Property | Type | Default | Required? | Description | | :--------- | :--------------- | :------ | :-------: | :---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | index | Number | | ✓ | This is the element's sortableIndex within it's collection. This prop is required. | | collection | Number or String | 0 | | The collection the element is part of. This is useful if you have multiple groups of sortable elements within the same SortableContainer. Example | | disabled | Boolean | false | | Whether the element should be sortable or not |

FAQ

Running Examples

In root folder, run the following commands to launch React Storybook:

$ npm install
$ npm start

Accessibility

React Sortable HOC supports keyboard sorting out of the box. To enable it, make sure your SortableElement or SortableHandle is focusable. This can be done by setting tabIndex={0} on the outermost HTML node rendered by the component you're enhancing with SortableElement or SortableHandle.

Once an item is focused/tabbed to, pressing SPACE picks it up, ArrowUp or ArrowLeft moves it one place backward in the list, ArrowDown or ArrowRight moves items one place forward in the list, pressing SPACE again drops the item in its new position. Pressing ESC before the item is dropped will cancel the sort operations.

Grid support

Need to sort items in a grid? We've got you covered! Just set the axis prop to xy. Grid support is currently limited to a setup where all the cells in the grid have the same width and height, though we're working hard to get variable width support in the near future.

Item disappearing when sorting / CSS issues

Upon sorting, react-sortable-hoc creates a clone of the element you are sorting (the sortable-helper) and appends it to the end of the <body> tag. The original element will still be in-place to preserve its position in the DOM until the end of the drag (with inline-styling to make it invisible). If the sortable-helper gets messed up from a CSS standpoint, consider that maybe your selectors to the draggable item are dependent on a parent element which isn't present anymore (again, since the sortable-helper is at the end of the <body>). This can also be a z-index issue, for example, when using react-sortable-hoc within a Bootstrap modal, you'll need to increase the z-index of the SortableHelper so it is displayed on top of the modal (see #87 for more details).

Click events being swallowed

By default, react-sortable-hoc is triggered immediately on mousedown. If you'd like to prevent this behaviour, there are a number of strategies readily available. You can use the distance prop to set a minimum distance (in pixels) to be dragged before sorting is enabled. You can also use the pressDelay prop to add a delay before sorting is enabled. Alternatively, you can also use the SortableHandle HOC.

Wrapper props not passed down to wrapped Component

All props for SortableContainer and SortableElement listed above are intentionally consumed by the wrapper component and are not passed down to the wrapped component. To make them available pass down the desired prop again with a different name. E.g.:

const SortableItem = SortableElement(({value, sortIndex}) => (
  <li>
    {value} - #{sortIndex}
  </li>
));

const SortableList = SortableContainer(({items}) => {
  return (
    <ul>
      {items.map((value, index) => (
        <SortableItem
          key={`item-${index}`}
          index={index}
          sortIndex={index}
          value={value}
        />
      ))}
    </ul>
  );
});

Dependencies

React Sortable HOC only depends on invariant. It has the following peerDependencies: react, react-dom

Reporting Issues

If believe you've found an issue, please report it along with any relevant details to reproduce it. The easiest way to do so is to fork the react-sortable-hoc basic setup sandbox on CodeSandbox:

Edit on CodeSandbox

Asking for help

Please do not use the issue tracker for personal support requests. Instead, use Gitter or StackOverflow.

Contributions

Yes please! Feature requests / pull requests are welcome.