We won’t stop till show you that you can use our Gantt chart library with any technology! And today is the turn of ReactJS, popular JavaScript component-based library. Following the steps of this tutorial, you’ll know how to create React Gantt chart app with some basic features. So, let’s start.
As always, you can find React gantt chart component demo on GitHub.
Creating a Simple React App
The very first thing we need to do is to initialize application structure. For this, we are going to use Create React app tool. It can be installed with following command:
npm install -g create-react-app
You can find some additional information in this article.
Then we create an app:
create-react-app gantt-react
When our app is created, we go to the folder and run it for the first time:
cd gantt-react
npm start
npm start
The first steps are completed, and as a result our app should be started on http://localhost:3000/
Now we need to get dhtmlxGantt code:
npm install dhtmlx-gantt --save
After that we can create react component for gantt chart. Open src folder and create Gantt.js and put following content to it:
/*global gantt*/
import React, { Component } from 'react';
import 'dhtmlx-gantt';
import 'dhtmlx-gantt/codebase/dhtmlxgantt.css';
export default class Gantt extends Component {
componentDidMount() {
gantt.init(this.ganttContainer);
gantt.parse(this.props.tasks);
}
render() {
return (
<div
ref={(input) => { this.ganttContainer = input }}
style={{width: '100%', height: '100%'}}
></div>
);
}
}
import React, { Component } from 'react';
import 'dhtmlx-gantt';
import 'dhtmlx-gantt/codebase/dhtmlxgantt.css';
export default class Gantt extends Component {
componentDidMount() {
gantt.init(this.ganttContainer);
gantt.parse(this.props.tasks);
}
render() {
return (
<div
ref={(input) => { this.ganttContainer = input }}
style={{width: '100%', height: '100%'}}
></div>
);
}
}
What we have done here – we’ve initialized dhx gantt once the component is mounted to DOM and populated it with the data from props.
A `gantt` variable we use here is defined globally in the dhtmlx-gantt module and not in the app code, so the compiler knows nothing about it. If we leave it as is, the default ESLint settings will give you a ‘gantt is undefined’ error when you try to compile the app.
In order to prevent it, we’ll declare it using a special comment that will tell the linter that everything is under control:
/*global gantt*/
You can find some more details of it here.
Note, that since dhtmlxGantt has no destructor, we do not define componentWillUnmount. That also means that if we remove a component from react at some point, the instance of dhtmlxGantt will stay in memory and will be reused next time when the component is mounted again.
Now let’s add gantt to our App component. Note that we use hard-coded data for this sample:
import React, { Component } from 'react';
import Gantt from './Gantt';
import './App.css';
var data = {
data: [
{id: 1, text: 'Task #1', start_date: '15-04-2017', duration: 3, progress: 0.6},
{id: 2, text: 'Task #2', start_date: '18-04-2017', duration: 3, progress: 0.4}
],
links: [
{id: 1, source: 1, target: 2, type: '0'}
]
};
class App extends Component {
render() {
return (
<div>
<div className="gantt-container">
<Gantt tasks={data}/>
</div>
</div>
);
}
}
export default App;
import Gantt from './Gantt';
import './App.css';
var data = {
data: [
{id: 1, text: 'Task #1', start_date: '15-04-2017', duration: 3, progress: 0.6},
{id: 2, text: 'Task #2', start_date: '18-04-2017', duration: 3, progress: 0.4}
],
links: [
{id: 1, source: 1, target: 2, type: '0'}
]
};
class App extends Component {
render() {
return (
<div>
<div className="gantt-container">
<Gantt tasks={data}/>
</div>
</div>
);
}
}
export default App;
If we run the app now, we should see gantt chart with initial tasks on a page.
Configuring Gantt chart
Let’s explore API of the component a bit more. If you implement an app with the gantt chart, at some moment the client will ask you to add the ability to zoom the time scale of the gantt chart.
How it’s usually done:
- the time scale of dhtmlxGantt is defined by a number of settings, such as number of rows, time step of each row, format of labels, etc.
- these settings can be changed dynamically
So you need to define several configuration presets for different zoom levels (minutes/hours/days/months/…) and give a user some kind of UI, usually a toggle or a slider, to switch between them.
Let’s try to implement it in React. Firstly, let’s go to the Gantt component and implement a couple of presets for time scale configuration.
Open Gantt.js. to add the following function to it:
setZoom(value){
switch (value){
case 'Hours':
gantt.config.scale_unit = 'day';
gantt.config.date_scale = '%d %M';
gantt.config.scale_height = 60;
gantt.config.min_column_width = 30;
gantt.config.subscales = [
{unit:'hour', step:1, date:'%H'}
];
break;
case 'Days':
gantt.config.min_column_width = 70;
gantt.config.scale_unit = "week";
gantt.config.date_scale = "#%W";
gantt.config.subscales = [
{unit: "day", step: 1, date: "%d %M"}
];
gantt.config.scale_height = 60;
break;
case 'Months':
gantt.config.min_column_width = 70;
gantt.config.scale_unit = "month";
gantt.config.date_scale = "%F";
gantt.config.scale_height = 60;
gantt.config.subscales = [
{unit:"week", step:1, date:"#%W"}
];
break;
default:
break;
}
}
shouldComponentUpdate(nextProps ){
return this.props.zoom !== nextProps.zoom;
}
componentDidUpdate() {
gantt.render();
}
switch (value){
case 'Hours':
gantt.config.scale_unit = 'day';
gantt.config.date_scale = '%d %M';
gantt.config.scale_height = 60;
gantt.config.min_column_width = 30;
gantt.config.subscales = [
{unit:'hour', step:1, date:'%H'}
];
break;
case 'Days':
gantt.config.min_column_width = 70;
gantt.config.scale_unit = "week";
gantt.config.date_scale = "#%W";
gantt.config.subscales = [
{unit: "day", step: 1, date: "%d %M"}
];
gantt.config.scale_height = 60;
break;
case 'Months':
gantt.config.min_column_width = 70;
gantt.config.scale_unit = "month";
gantt.config.date_scale = "%F";
gantt.config.scale_height = 60;
gantt.config.subscales = [
{unit:"week", step:1, date:"#%W"}
];
break;
default:
break;
}
}
shouldComponentUpdate(nextProps ){
return this.props.zoom !== nextProps.zoom;
}
componentDidUpdate() {
gantt.render();
}
Pay your attention to a couple of important things here. When using dhtmlxGantt, it’s expected that the chart will be mounted to DOM using gantt.init, and all further repaints will be called using gantt.render.
Thus, in addition to Component.render which will handle the initial render, we defined componentDidUpdate handler which will repaint gantt on updates.
And since repainting of gantt is quite a costly procedure, we’ll make sure that it’ll be called only when it’s needed by checking whether props have actually changed in shouldComponentUpdate.
Also add a call to render function beginning:
this.setZoom(this.props.zoom);
Now gantt chart scales should be defined by a “zoom” property. If zoom property is changed we should call render function to redraw gantt with new scales.
Now, let’s add UI for selecting a zoom level. We’ll go with a simple toolbar and toggles.
Create Toolbar.js with following code:
import React, { Component } from 'react';
export default class Toolbar extends Component {
constructor(props) {
super(props);
this.handleZoomChange = this.handleZoomChange.bind(this);
}
handleZoomChange(e) {
if(this.props.onZoomChange){
this.props.onZoomChange(e.target.value)
}
}
render() {
let zoomRadios = ['Hours', 'Days', 'Months'].map((value) => {
let isActive = this.props.zoom === value;
return (
<label key={value} className={`radio-label ${isActive ? 'radio-label-active': ''}`}>
<input type='radio'
checked={isActive}
onChange={this.handleZoomChange}
value={value}/>
{value}
</label>
);
});
return (
<div className="zoom-bar">
<b>Zooming: </b>
{zoomRadios}
</div>
);
}
}
export default class Toolbar extends Component {
constructor(props) {
super(props);
this.handleZoomChange = this.handleZoomChange.bind(this);
}
handleZoomChange(e) {
if(this.props.onZoomChange){
this.props.onZoomChange(e.target.value)
}
}
render() {
let zoomRadios = ['Hours', 'Days', 'Months'].map((value) => {
let isActive = this.props.zoom === value;
return (
<label key={value} className={`radio-label ${isActive ? 'radio-label-active': ''}`}>
<input type='radio'
checked={isActive}
onChange={this.handleZoomChange}
value={value}/>
{value}
</label>
);
});
return (
<div className="zoom-bar">
<b>Zooming: </b>
{zoomRadios}
</div>
);
}
}
As you can see it’s pretty straightforward – we add a group of radio buttons and provide onZoomChange handler for a parent component.
Here we add a toolbar to the App component:
import Toolbar from './Toolbar';
and a handler for change event:
handleZoomChange(zoom) {
this.setState({
currentZoom: zoom
});
}
this.setState({
currentZoom: zoom
});
}
JSX:
return (
<div>
<Toolbar
zoom={this.state.currentZoom}
onZoomChange={this.handleZoomChange}
/>
<div className="gantt-container">
<Gantt
tasks={data}
zoom={this.state.currentZoom}
/>
</div>
</div>
);
<div>
<Toolbar
zoom={this.state.currentZoom}
onZoomChange={this.handleZoomChange}
/>
<div className="gantt-container">
<Gantt
tasks={data}
zoom={this.state.currentZoom}
/>
</div>
</div>
);
Now, each time user selects zoom level in a toolbar, changes will be captured by App which will then pass an updated state to Gantt.
Processing Changes Made in Gantt
What else would you need while adding gantt chart to your app? Most probably you’ll need to do something with changes that users make in gantt chart – send changes to the backend or update other components.
In this tutorial we won’t cover saving changes to the db, instead, we’ll show how to capture these changes, and then pass them somewhere in the app.
In order to do so, we’ll capture the related API events of dhtmlxGantt, send them to the parent component, and then show the list of changes somewhere on the page.
Open Gantt.js and add the following code right before gantt initialization:
gantt.attachEvent('onAfterTaskAdd', (id, task) => {
if(this.props.onTaskUpdated) {
this.props.onTaskUpdated(id, 'inserted', task);
}
});
gantt.attachEvent('onAfterTaskUpdate', (id, task) => {
if(this.props.onTaskUpdated) {
this.props.onTaskUpdated(id, 'updated', task);
}
});
gantt.attachEvent('onAfterTaskDelete', (id) => {
if(this.props.onTaskUpdated) {
this.props.onTaskUpdated(id, 'deleted');
}
});
gantt.attachEvent('onAfterLinkAdd', (id, link) => {
if(this.props.onLinkUpdated) {
this.props.onLinkUpdated(id, 'inserted', link);
}
});
gantt.attachEvent('onAfterLinkUpdate', (id, link) => {
if(this.props.onLinkUpdated) {
this.props.onLinkUpdated(id, 'updated', link);
}
});
gantt.attachEvent('onAfterLinkDelete', (id, link) => {
if(this.props.onLinkUpdated) {
this.props.onLinkUpdated(id, 'deleted');
}
});
if(this.props.onTaskUpdated) {
this.props.onTaskUpdated(id, 'inserted', task);
}
});
gantt.attachEvent('onAfterTaskUpdate', (id, task) => {
if(this.props.onTaskUpdated) {
this.props.onTaskUpdated(id, 'updated', task);
}
});
gantt.attachEvent('onAfterTaskDelete', (id) => {
if(this.props.onTaskUpdated) {
this.props.onTaskUpdated(id, 'deleted');
}
});
gantt.attachEvent('onAfterLinkAdd', (id, link) => {
if(this.props.onLinkUpdated) {
this.props.onLinkUpdated(id, 'inserted', link);
}
});
gantt.attachEvent('onAfterLinkUpdate', (id, link) => {
if(this.props.onLinkUpdated) {
this.props.onLinkUpdated(id, 'updated', link);
}
});
gantt.attachEvent('onAfterLinkDelete', (id, link) => {
if(this.props.onLinkUpdated) {
this.props.onLinkUpdated(id, 'deleted');
}
});
That’s how we can capture all changes made in gantt and send them to the parent component.
Now update App component – what we want to do here is to simply catch events, create descriptive messages for them and put those messages into the local state:
constructor(props) {
super(props);
this.state = {
currentZoom: 'Days',
messages: []
};
this.handleZoomChange = this.handleZoomChange.bind(this);
this.logTaskUpdate = this.logTaskUpdate.bind(this);
this.logLinkUpdate = this.logLinkUpdate.bind(this);
}
addMessage(message) {
var messages = this.state.messages.slice();
var prevKey = messages.length ? messages[0].key: 0;
messages.unshift({key: prevKey + 1, message});
if(messages.length > 40){
messages.pop();
}
this.setState({messages});
}
logTaskUpdate(id, mode, task) {
let text = task && task.text ? ` (${task.text})`: '';
let message = `Task ${mode}: ${id} ${text}`;
this.addMessage(message);
}
logLinkUpdate(id, mode, link) {
let message = `Link ${mode}: ${id}`;
if (link) {
message += ` (source: ${link.source}, target: ${link.target})`;
}
this.addMessage(message)
}
super(props);
this.state = {
currentZoom: 'Days',
messages: []
};
this.handleZoomChange = this.handleZoomChange.bind(this);
this.logTaskUpdate = this.logTaskUpdate.bind(this);
this.logLinkUpdate = this.logLinkUpdate.bind(this);
}
addMessage(message) {
var messages = this.state.messages.slice();
var prevKey = messages.length ? messages[0].key: 0;
messages.unshift({key: prevKey + 1, message});
if(messages.length > 40){
messages.pop();
}
this.setState({messages});
}
logTaskUpdate(id, mode, task) {
let text = task && task.text ? ` (${task.text})`: '';
let message = `Task ${mode}: ${id} ${text}`;
this.addMessage(message);
}
logLinkUpdate(id, mode, link) {
let message = `Link ${mode}: ${id}`;
if (link) {
message += ` (source: ${link.source}, target: ${link.target})`;
}
this.addMessage(message)
}
After that, create a component that will display these messages on a page:
import React, { Component } from 'react';
class MessageArea extends Component {
render() {
let messages = this.props.messages.map(({key, message}) => {
return <li key={key}>{message}</li>
});
return (
<div className="message-area">
<ul>
{messages}
</ul>
</div>
);
}
}
MessageArea.defaultProps = {
messages: []
};
export default MessageArea;
class MessageArea extends Component {
render() {
let messages = this.props.messages.map(({key, message}) => {
return <li key={key}>{message}</li>
});
return (
<div className="message-area">
<ul>
{messages}
</ul>
</div>
);
}
}
MessageArea.defaultProps = {
messages: []
};
export default MessageArea;
And finally connect this component to the App:
imports:
import MessageArea from './MessageArea';
JSX:
return (
<div>
<Toolbar
zoom={this.state.currentZoom}
onZoomChange={this.handleZoomChange}
/>
<div className="gantt-container">
<Gantt
tasks={data}
zoom={this.state.currentZoom}
onTaskUpdated={this.logTaskUpdate}
onLinkUpdated={this.logLinkUpdate}
/>
</div>
<MessageArea
messages={this.state.messages}
/>
</div>
);
<div>
<Toolbar
zoom={this.state.currentZoom}
onZoomChange={this.handleZoomChange}
/>
<div className="gantt-container">
<Gantt
tasks={data}
zoom={this.state.currentZoom}
onTaskUpdated={this.logTaskUpdate}
onLinkUpdated={this.logLinkUpdate}
/>
</div>
<MessageArea
messages={this.state.messages}
/>
</div>
);
How everything works now – each time user changes something in gantt, we capture that action in the App component and update MessageArea which prints action details on a page. It’s exactly what we wanted.
If we run the app now and change some tasks or links, we should see appropriate messages under the gantt chart.
Download React gantt chart component demo from GitHub
Conclusion
Today we have shown you how to add a gantt chart to ReactJS app, how to configure gantt chart and to process changes made by the user. As you can see, dhtmlxGantt allows doing it quite easily.
What would you like to see in our next articles about dhtmlxGantt?
We need your feedback to provide the right integrations at the right time. Please leave your requests here:
Thank you in advance and stay tuned for new tutorials!
Comments
Hello! Thanks for these integration guides about Gantt and different frameworks. Do you plan to make similar tutorials for dhtmlxScheduler?
Hi Nancy,
Thanks for your feedback.
Yes, we do plan to write similar guides for dhtmlxScheduler too, but unfortunately, we can’t say for sure when they will be ready.
Another request for dhtmlxScheduler integration with React. I shall be grateful.
Hi Kashif,
Yes, we have the guide in plans, but still can’t say for sure when it will be ready.
Hi team,
I’ve followed this guide, but still getting errors. Can you please help?
Hi Rohadma,
Can you please provide us more details about the issue?
Please contact me via support@dhtmlx.com or create a topic on our forum: https://forum.dhtmlx.com
I am getting this error :
gantt is undefined
Hi Anshul,
Please make sure that you’ve set the correct path to dhtmlxGantt library.
You can follow this guide: https://docs.dhtmlx.com/gantt/desktop__how_to_start.html
Hi Aras,
Thanks for responding.
I have installed dhtmlxGantt by npm and imported in Gantt.js as given above
Still same error
Same Error for me
Hi Anshul and Mile,
Please create a topic on our forum: https://forum.dhtmlx.com/
We’ve just found out that the error may happen if you skip /*global gantt*/ declaration from Gantt.js code. Since Gantt instance is declared in dhtmlxgantt module and we access it via a global variable, we add a declaration-comment to make eslint: https://eslint.org/docs/rules/no-undef know about it and not throw ‘not defined’ error. We’ve updated the tutorial to avoid this problem.
I was able to implement the component in React (with Meteor, React Router) and it was great. However, I have a big problem: every time I leave the gantt and to go to another module and then return, the events of the tasks (add, modify, delete, etc) are doubled or tripled. Any ideas?
Hi Fede,
Event listeners that are attached on componentDidMount do not disappear when the component is unmounted, so you get a new set of listeners each time you re-mount the component.
The simplest workaround is to set some flag in order to apply events only once:
componentDidMount() {
if(!gantt.$eventsAttached){
gantt.$eventsAttached = true;
gantt.attachEvent(‘onAfterTaskAdd’, (id, task) => {
if(this.props.onTaskUpdated) {
this.props.onTaskUpdated(id, ‘inserted’, task);
}
});
…
}
gantt.init(this.ganttContainer);
gantt.parse(this.props.tasks);
}
But… if i use a React Property i can’t change the it’s value. If i use a state, it doen’t work becouse it is overwritten. If i use a js variable like
constructor(props){ this.flag = false } i have the same problem.
This “gantt.$eventsAttached” is a flag that i should create in some js over the react files? Maybe in a node-modules/dhtmlx-gantt directory?
Ohh thanks!!! thanks!!! thanks!!! I’ve lost two days with this issues!! I’m really gratefull to you Aras!!! This component it’s really great!!! thanks a lot!!!!
Hi there,
I was kind of facing the same issue described by Fede. I was able to solve it with the workaround suggested.
Now… I have another big issue, I am not using the lightbox to create new tasks. Instead, I open a modal and let the user insert all the data in a form. After clicking on “save and close”, I am saving my new task in the database using Axios.
After doing that I set a different value to a state variable, so the component should render again, and retrieve data from my database. I was able to do all that, but the component won’t refresh the new data it is receiving.
Do you think you can help me out?
Hi Arthur,
Can you please provide us a demo so as we can reproduce the problem?
Please create a topic on our forum: https://forum.dhtmlx.com/ or use our official support system: http://support.dhtmlx.com/ if you are a licensed user.
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