Highcharts React

Official minimal Highcharts wrapper for React.

Table of Contents

1. Getting started
   1. General prerequisites
   2. Installing
   3. Using
      1. Basic usage example
      2. Highcharts with NextJS
      3. Highcharts with TypeScript
      4. Optimal way to update
2. Options details
3. Example with custom chart component
4. Get repository
5. Examples
6. Tests
7. Changelog
8. FAQ
   1. Where to look for help?
   2. Why highcharts-react-official and not highcharts-react is used?
   3. How to get a chart instance?
   4. How to add a module?
   5. How to add React component to a chart's element?
   6. Why Highcharts mutates my data?

Getting Started

General prerequisites

Make sure you have node, NPM and React up to date. Tested and required versions:

• node 8.11.3+
• npm 6.4.1+ or similar package manager

This wrapper also requires highcharts and react packages with the following versions installed in your project:

For version 2.x.x :

• react 16.4+
• highcharts 5.0.0+

For version 3.x.x :

• react 16.8+
• highcharts 6.0.0+

Installing

Get the package from NPM in your React app:

npm install highcharts-react-official

If Highcharts is not already installed, get the package with Highcharts:

npm install highcharts highcharts-react-official

Using

Basic usage example

Import into your React project and render a chart:

import React from 'react'
import { render } from 'react-dom'
import Highcharts from 'highcharts'
import HighchartsReact from 'highcharts-react-official'

const options = {
  title: {
    text: 'My chart'
  },
  series: [{
    data: [1, 2, 3]
  }]
}

const App = () => <div>
  <HighchartsReact
    highcharts={Highcharts}
    options={options}
  />
</div>

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

Highcharts with TypeScript

Live example: https://stackblitz.com/edit/react-starter-typescript-cfcznt

import React, { useRef } from 'react';
import * as Highcharts from 'highcharts';
import HighchartsReact from 'highcharts-react-official';

// The wrapper exports only a default component that at the same time is a
// namespace for the related Props interface (HighchartsReact.Props) and
// RefObject interface (HighchartsReact.RefObject). All other interfaces
// like Options come from the Highcharts module itself.

const options: Highcharts.Options = {
    title: {
        text: 'My chart'
    },
    series: [{
        type: 'line',
        data: [1, 2, 3]
    }]
};

const App = (props: HighchartsReact.Props) => {
  const chartComponentRef = useRef<HighchartsReact.RefObject>(null);

  return (
    <HighchartsReact
      highcharts={Highcharts}
      options={options}
      ref={chartComponentRef}
      {...props}
    />
  );
};
// Render your App component into the #root element of the document.
ReactDOM.render(<App />, document.getElementById('root'));

Since version 3.2.1 it is also possible to import types for props and ref independently:

import HighchartsReact, { HighchartsReactRefObject, HighchartsReactProps } from 'highcharts-react-official';

Highcharts with NextJS

Next.js executes code twice - on server-side and then client-side. First run is done in an environment that lacks window and causes Highcharts to be loaded, but not initialized. Easy fix is to place all modules inits in a if checking if Highcharts is an object or a function. It should be an object for modules initialization to work without any errors, so code like below is an easy fix:

import React from 'react'
import Highcharts from 'highcharts'
import HighchartsExporting from 'highcharts/modules/exporting'
import HighchartsReact from 'highcharts-react-official'

if (typeof Highcharts === 'object') {
    HighchartsExporting(Highcharts)
}

...

This is a know issue with NextJS and is covered here: https://github.com/vercel/next.js/issues/5354

Optimal way to update

A good practice is to keep all chart options in the state. When setState is called, the options are overwritten and only the new ones are passed to the chart.update method.

Live example: https://stackblitz.com/edit/react-hketvd?file=index.js

Optimal way to update with React Hooks: https://stackblitz.com/edit/react-nwseym?file=index.js

import React, { Component } from 'react';
import { render } from 'react-dom';
import HighchartsReact from 'highcharts-react-official';
import Highcharts from 'highcharts';

class LineChart extends Component {
  constructor(props) {
    super(props);

    this.state = {
      // To avoid unnecessary update keep all options in the state.
      chartOptions: {
        xAxis: {
          categories: ['A', 'B', 'C'],
        },
        series: [
          { data: [1, 2, 3] }
        ],
        plotOptions: {
          series: {
            point: {
              events: {
                mouseOver: this.setHoverData.bind(this)
              }
            }
          }
        }
      },
      hoverData: null
    };
  }

  setHoverData = (e) => {
    // The chart is not updated because `chartOptions` has not changed.
    this.setState({ hoverData: e.target.category })
  }

  updateSeries = () => {
    // The chart is updated only with new options.
    this.setState({
      chartOptions: {
        series: [
          { data: [Math.random() * 5, 2, 1]}
        ]
      }
    });
  }

  render() {
    const { chartOptions, hoverData } = this.state;

    return (
      <div>
        <HighchartsReact
          highcharts={Highcharts}
          options={chartOptions}
        />
      <h3>Hovering over {hoverData}</h3>
      <button onClick={this.updateSeries.bind(this)}>Update Series</button>
      </div>
    )
  }
}

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

Options details

Available options with example values:

  <HighchartsReact
    options = { this.state.chartOptions }
    highcharts = { Highcharts }
    constructorType = { 'mapChart' }
    allowChartUpdate = { true }
    immutable = { false }
    updateArgs = { [true, true, true] }
    containerProps = {{ className: 'chartContainer' }}
    callback = { this.chartCallback }
  />

| Parameter | Type | Required | Defaults | Description | | --------- | :----: | :--------: | :--------: | ----------- | | options | Object | yes | - | Highcharts chart configuration object. Please refer to the Highcharts API documentation. | | highcharts | Object | yes | - | Used to pass the Highcharts instance after modules are initialized. If not set the component will try to get the Highcharts from window. | | constructorType | String | no | 'chart' | String for constructor method. Official constructors: - 'chart' for Highcharts charts - 'stockChart' for Highstock charts - 'mapChart' for Highmaps charts - 'ganttChart' for Gantt charts| | allowChartUpdate | Boolean | no | true | This wrapper uses chart.update() method to apply new options to the chart when changing the parent component. This option allow to turn off the updating. | | immutable | Boolean | no | false | Reinitialises the chart on prop update (as oppose to chart.update()) - useful in some cases but slower than a regular update.| | updateArgs | Array | no | [true, true, true] | Array of update()'s function optional arguments. Parameters should be defined in the same order like in native Highcharts function: [redraw, oneToOne, animation]. Here is a more specific description of the parameters.| | containerProps | Object | no | - | The props object passed to the chart container in React.createElement method. Useful for adding styles or class.| | callback | Function | no | - | A callback function for the created chart. First argument for the function will hold the created chart. Default this in the function points to the chart. This option is optional. |

Example with custom chart component

Create custom component ./components/MyStockChart.jsx:

import React from 'react'
import Highcharts from 'highcharts/highstock'
import HighchartsReact from 'highcharts-react-official'

const options = {
  title: {
    text: 'My stock chart'
  },
  series: [{
    data: [1, 2, 3]
  }]
}

const MyStockChart = () => <HighchartsReact
  highcharts={Highcharts}
  constructorType={'stockChart'}
  options={options}
/>

export default MyStockChart

Render your custom chart component like below:

import React from 'react'
import { render } from 'react-dom'
import MyStockChart from './components/MyStockChart.jsx'

const App = () => <div>
  <MyStockChart />
</div>

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

Get repository

Clone github repository and install dependencies:

git clone https://github.com/highcharts/highcharts-react
cd highcharts-react
npm install

Examples and tests require Highcharts library, don't forget to:

npm install highcharts

Examples

There are several interesting examples in the demo folder that use all available constructors and several modules.

Bundle these with:

npm run build-demo

Demo is located under demo/index.html

Live example: https://stackblitz.com/edit/react-4ded5d?file=index.js

Tests

This wrapper contains tests for: testing environment, chart rendering and passing down container props. To run tests, type:

npm run test

Changelog

The changelog is available here.

FAQ

Where to look for help?

Technical support will help you with Highcharts and with the wrapper.

If you have a bug to report or an enhancement suggestion please submit Issues in this repository.

Why highcharts-react-official and not highcharts-react is used?

The NPM package is registered as highcharts-react-official because highcharts-react was already taken.

How to get a chart instance?

For class components and version prior to 3.0.0 use React.createRef:

constructor(props) {
  super(props)
  this.chartRef = React.createRef();
}

render() {
  return (
    <HighchartsReact
      highcharts={ Highcharts }
      options={ options }
      ref={ this.chartRef }
    />
  );
}

For functional components and version 3.0.0 and later use useRef hook:

  const chartComponent = useRef(null);
  const [options] = useState({...});

  useEffect(() => {
    const chart = chartComponent.current.chart;
    ...
  }, []);

  return <HighchartsReact ref={chartComponent} highcharts={Highcharts} options={options} />;

Alternatively store a chart reference in a callback function:

afterChartCreated = (chart) => {
  // Highcharts creates a separate chart instance during export
  if (!chart.options.chart.forExport) {
    this.internalChart = chart;
  }
}

componentDidMount() {
  // example of use
  this.internalChart.addSeries({ data: [1, 2, 3] })
}

render() {
  return (
    <div>
      <h2>Highcharts</h2>
      <HighchartsReact
        highcharts={ Highcharts }
        options={ options }
        callback={ this.afterChartCreated }
      />
    </div>
  );
}

How to add a module?

To add a module, import and initialize it:

import Highcharts from 'highcharts'
import highchartsGantt from "highcharts/modules/gantt";
import HighchartsReact from 'highcharts-react-official'

// init the module
highchartsGantt(Highcharts);

alternative with require:

import Highcharts from 'highcharts'
import HighchartsReact from 'highcharts-react-official'

require("highcharts/modules/variwide")(Highcharts);

How to add React component to a chart's element?

By using Portals it is possible to add a component to every HTML chart element.

Live example: https://codesandbox.io/s/1o5y7r31k3

Why Highcharts mutates my data?

It can be confusing, since React props are read-only, but Highcharts for performance reasons mutates the original data array. This behaviour is NOT changed by our wrapper. You need to pass a copy of your data to the wrapper if you want to prevent mutations.

Issue: https://github.com/highcharts/highcharts-react/issues/326 More discussion here: https://github.com/highcharts/highcharts/issues/4259