Integration with React
You should be familiar with the basic concepts and patterns of React to use this documentation. To refresh your knowledge, please refer to the React documentation.
DHTMLX Diagram Editor is compatible with React. We have prepared code examples of how to use DHTMLX Diagram Editor with React. For more information, refer to the corresponding Example on GitHub.
Creating a project
You can create a basic React project (this project) or use React with Vite. Let's name the project as my-react-diagram-app:
npx create-react-app my-react-diagram-app
Installation of dependencies
Go to the new created app directory:
cd my-react-diagram-app
Install dependencies and start the dev server. For this, use a package manager:
- if you use yarn, run the following commands:
yarn
yarn start
- if you use npm, run the following commands:
npm install
npm run dev
The app should run on a localhost (for instance http://localhost:3000).
Creating Diagram Editor
Now you should get the DHTMLX Diagram Editor source code. First of all, stop the app and proceed with installing the Diagram Editor package.
Step 1. Package installation
Download the trial Diagram Editor package and follow steps mentioned in the README file. Note that trial Diagram Editor is available 30 days only.
Step 2. Component creation
Now you need to create a React component, to add Diagram Editor into the application. Create a new file in the src/ directory and name it DiagramEditor.jsx.
Import source files
Open the DiagramEditor.jsx file and import Diagram Editor source files. Note that:
- if you use PRO version and install the Diagram Editor package from a local folder, the import paths look like this:
import { DiagramEditor } from 'dhx-diagram-package';
import 'dhx-diagram-package/codebase/diagram.css';
Note that depending on the used package, the source files can be minified. In this case make sure that you are importing the CSS file as diagram.min.css.
- if you use the trial version of Diagram, specify the following paths:
import { DiagramEditor } from '@dhx/trial-diagram';
import '@dhx/trial-diagram/codebase/diagram.min.css';
In this tutorial you can see how to configure the trial version of Diagram.
Set the container and initialize Diagram Editor
To display Diagram Editor on the page, you need to create the container for Diagram Editor, and initialize this component using the corresponding constructor:
import { useEffect, useRef } from "react";
import { DiagramEditor } from "@dhx/trial-diagram";
import "@dhx/trial-diagram/codebase/diagram.min.css"; // include Diagram Editor styles
export default function DiagramEditorComponent(props) {
let container = useRef(); // initialize container for Diagram Editor
useEffect(() => {
// initialize the Diagram Editor component
const diagram_editor = new DiagramEditor(container.current, {});
return () => {
diagram_editor.destructor(); // destruct Diagram Editor
}
});
return <div ref={container} className="widget"></div>;
}
Adding styles
To display Diagram Editor correctly, you need to specify important styles for Diagram Editor and its container in the CSS file of the project:
/* specify styles for initial page */
html,
body,
#root {
height: 100%;
padding: 0;
margin: 0;
}
/* specify styles for the Diagram Editor container */
.widget {
height: 100%;
width: 100%;
}
Loading data
To add data into the Diagram Editor, you need to provide a data set. Let's create the data.js file in the src/ directory and add some data into it:
export function getData() {
return [
{ id: 1, x: 880, y: 105, text: "Does user remember his password?", type: "process", lineHeight: 18, fontColor: "#fff", fill: "#3DA0E3", stroke: "#3DA0E3" },
{ id: 2, x: 1080, y: 125, width: 50, "height": 50, text: "XOR", type: "circle", lineHeight: 18, fontColor: "#fff", fill: "#7D8495", stroke: "#7D8495" },
{ id: 3, x: 1160, y: 40, text: "User forgets his password", type: "preparation", lineHeight: 18, fontColor: "#fff", fill: "#33B579", stroke: "#33B579" },
{ id: 3.1, x: 1340, y: 40, text: "Send an E-mail with new password", type: "process", lineHeight: 18, fontColor: "#fff", fill: "#3DA0E3", stroke: "#3DA0E3" },
{ id: 3.2, x: 1520, y: 40, text: "E-mail sent", type: "preparation", fontColor: "#fff", lineHeight: 18, fill: "#33B579", stroke: "#33B579" },
{ id: 4, x: 1160, y: 180, text: "User remembers his password", type: "preparation", lineHeight: 18, fontColor: "#fff", fill: "#33B579", stroke: "#33B579" },
{ id: 5, x: 1340, y: 180, text: "User types in login and password", type: "process", lineHeight: 18, fontColor: "#fff", fill: "#3DA0E3", stroke: "#3DA0E3" },
// other data
{ from: 1, to: 2, type: "dash", forwardArrow: "filled", stroke: "#7D8495" },
{ from: 2, to: 3, type: "dash", toSide: "bottom", forwardArrow: "filled", stroke: "#7D8495" },
{ from: 2, to: 7.5, type: "dash", fromSide: "bottom", toSide: "top", backArrow: "filled", stroke: "#7D8495" },
{ from: 2, to: 3.2, type: "dash", fromSide: "top", toSide: "top", stroke: "#7D8495" },
{ from: 3, to: 3.1, type: "line", forwardArrow: "filled", stroke: "#7D8495" },
{ from: 3.1, to: 3.2, type: "line", forwardArrow: "filled", stroke: "#7D8495" },
{ from: 2, to: 4, type: "dash", toSide: "top", forwardArrow: "filled", stroke: "#7D8495" },
{ from: 4, to: 5, type: "dash", forwardArrow: "filled", stroke: "#7D8495" },
{ from: 5, to: 6, type: "dash", forwardArrow: "filled", stroke: "#7D8495" },
// other data
]
}
Then open the App.js file and import data. After this you can pass data into the new created <DiagramEditor/> components as props:
import DiagramEditor from "./DiagramEditor";
import { getData } from "./data";
function App() {
let data = getData();
return <DiagramEditor data={data} />;
}
export default App;
Go to the DiagramEditor.jsx file and apply the passed props to the Diagram Editor via the parse() method:
import { useEffect, useRef } from "react";
import { DiagramEditor } from "@dhx/trial-diagram";
import "@dhx/trial-diagram/codebase/diagram.min.css";
export default function DiagramEditorComponent(props) {
let container = useRef();
useEffect(() => {
const diagram_editor = new DiagramEditor(container.current, {});
diagram_editor.parse(props.data);
return () => {
diagram_editor.destructor();
}
});
return <div ref={container} className="widget"></div>;
}
Now the Diagram Editor component is ready to use. When the element will be added to the page, it will initialize the Diagram Editor with data. You can provide necessary configuration settings as well. Visit our Diagram Editor API docs to check the full list of available properties.
Handling events
When a user makes some action in the Diagram Editor, it invokes an event. You can use these events to detect the action and run the desired code for it. See the full list of events.
Open DiagramEditor.jsx and complete the useEffect() method in the following way:
// ...
useEffect(() => {
const diagram_editor = new DiagramEditor(container.current, {});
diagram_editor.events.on("zoomIn", (step) => {
console.log("The diagram in the editor is zoomed in. The step is" + step);
});
return () => {
diagram_editor.destructor();
}
}, []);
// ...
After that, you can start the app to see Diagram Editor loaded with data on a page.
Now you know how to integrate DHTMLX Diagram Editor with React. You can customize the code according to your specific requirements. The final example you can find on GitHub.