react-json-table

A simple but flexible table react component to display JSON data.

As simple as feeding it with an array of objects.

var items = [
  { name: 'Louise', age: 27, color: 'red' },
  { name: 'Margaret', age: 15, color: 'blue'},
  { name: 'Lisa', age:34, color: 'yellow'}
];

React.render(<JsonTable rows={ items } />, document.body);

See the example working

Features:

• No dependencies and in a UMD format.
• Customizable cell contents to show your data the way you need.
• Callbacks for clicks on headers, rows or cells.
• Allows to add custom columns.
• Enough className attributes to let you style it your own way.
• Pure rendering, no internal state, everything comes from the props.

Motivation

Creating tables in react is a repetitive work:

• Create the table wrapper
• Create a wrapper also for every item
• For every row print all the cells
• Add some classes to let styling
• I also want to listen to clicks in the header of every column in order to sorting.
• Hey, I forgot to add <tbody> tags so it is not working! Add them!
• ...

I don't want to do it ever again, JsonTable component will do that ugly stuff so on.

Installation

Using node package manager:

npm install react-json-table --save

You can also use the built UMD files react-json-table.js(6KB) and react-json-table.min.js(3KB) if you want JsonTable globally or as an AMD package.

Half of the built version size is the code to create the UMD module. NPM version is really lightweight.

Usage

You can see the simplest example of use at the top of this page, but probably you would like to customize a bit the behaviour of the table to adapt it to your needs. Have a look at the accepted component props.

props

Prop name | Values | Description ---|---|--- rows | Array[Object] | The data you want to display in the table. columns | Array[String|Object] | The columns and their order for the table. If it is a string the value attribute of the current row that matches it will be shown as cell content. But also it is possible to use an object to customize the column, see column definition. className | string | Class to use for the <table> element. settings | Object | Further customization of the table, see table settings. onClickCell | Function | Callback triggered when a cell is clicked: fn( event, columnName, rowData ). onClickRow | Function | Callback triggered when a row is clicked: fn( event, rowData ) onClickHeader | Function | Callback triggered when a column header is clicked: fn( event, columnName )

Column definition

Using column definitions you can change the behaviour of the column easily. To do so you need to pass an array of the column definitions as the columns prop to the JsonTable:

var items = [
  { name: 'Louise', age: 27, color: 'red' },
  { name: 'Margaret', age: 15, color: 'blue'},
  { name: 'Lisa', age:34, color: 'yellow'}
];

var columns = [
    'name',
    {key: 'age', label: 'Age'},
    {key: 'color', label: 'Colourful', cell: function( item, columnKey ){
        return <span style={{color: item.color}}>{ item.color }</span>;
    }}
];

React.render(<JsonTable rows={ items } columns={ columns } />, document.body);

http://codepen.io/arqex/pen/waJREq?editors=011

As you can see in the example, a column definition can be just a string with the name of the field to display or an object. But if an object is passed the customization can be much more. A column definition can be an object with the following properties:

• key: It is the internal name use for the column by JsonTable. It is added to the className of the cells and headers to apply styles to the column. It is also passed as an argument for the click callbacks. If the column definition has no cell property, it also represent the property of the current row to be shown as cell content.
• label: It is the content of the column header. You can use a string or a ReactComponent to show inside the header cell.
• cell: What is going to be displayed inside the column cells. It can be a string or ReactComponent to show static contents, but tipically it is a function( rowData, columnKey ) that return the contents for the cell. This way different contents are shown in the column for different rows.

Table settings

Using the prop settings we can customize some details that are not related to columns. It is an object with the following properties:

Setting name | Values | Description ---|---|--- cellClass | function | It is possible to add custom classes to the cells if you pass a function fn( currentClass, columnKey, rowData ) in this setting. classPrefix | string | JsonTable uses class attributes for its markup like jsonRow or jsonCell. The default prefix is json but you can use this setting to change it in the case it is conflicting with other classes in your app. header | boolean | If false, no header will be shown for the table. Default true. headerClass | function | It is possible to add custom classes to the column headers if you pass a function fn( currentClass, columnKey ) in this setting. keyField | string | React components that have a list of children need to give to every children a different key prop in order to make the diff algorithm check if something has change. You can define here what field of your rows will be used as a row key. JsonTable uses the id or _id property of your rows automatically if you don't give this setting, but you must be sure that there is a keyField for your rows if you don't want strange behaviours on update. More info. noRowsMessage | string, ReactComponent | Message shown when the table has no rows. Default "No items". rowClass | function | It is possible to add custom classes to the rows if you pass a function fn( currentClass, rowData ) in this setting. cellRenderer | function(item,field) | If provided, this function will be used to render all the cells' content, so it is a way of programatically customize every cell. If no provided, the cell contents will just be item[field], the value of the item for that field.

You can play with the table settings here.

Reacting to clicks

It is always useful binding some callbacks when the user clicks on the table. Click callbacks can be added using the props onClickCell, onClickHeader and onClickRow. In the next example we create a component using JsonTable where rows and cells are selected on click, and columns are sorted when the column header is clicked:

var SelectTable = React.createClass({
  getInitialState: function(){
    // We will store the selected cell and row, also the sorted column
    return {row: false, cell: false, sort: false};
  },  

  render: function(){
    var me = this,
        // clone the rows
        items = this.props.rows.slice()
    ;
    // Sort the table
    if( this.state.sort ){
      items.sort( function( a, b ){
         return a[ me.state.sort ] > b[ me.state.sort ] ? 1 : -1;
      });
    }

    return <JsonTable
      rows={items}
      settings={ this.getSettings() }
      onClickCell={ this.onClickCell }
      onClickHeader={ this.onClickHeader }
      onClickRow={ this.onClickRow } />;
  },

  getSettings: function(){
      var me = this;
      // We will add some classes to the selected rows and cells
      return {
        keyField: 'name',
        cellClass: function( current, key, item){
          if( me.state.cell == key && me.state.row == item.name )
            return current + ' cellSelected';
          return current;
        },
        headerClass: function( current, key ){
            if( me.state.sort == key )
              return current + ' headerSelected';
            return current;
        },
        rowClass: function( current, item ){
          if( me.state.row == item.name )
            return current + ' rowSelected';
          return current;
        }
      };
  },

  onClickCell: function( e, column, item ){
    this.setState( {cell: column} );
  },

  onClickHeader: function( e, column ){
    this.setState( {sort: column} );
  },

  onClickRow: function( e, item ){
    this.setState( {row: item.name} );
  }  
});

http://codepen.io/arqex/pen/pJPzox?editors=011

What's next?

Tests, tests, tests... I need to add tests for the different settings in order to continue the developing of new features.

Of course, issues reports, feature and pull requests are welcome. If JsonTable can make you not to code a react table again I will be happy to help.

MIT Licensed