bclinkinbeard / react-json-schema

Configure and build views using JSON schemas mapped to React components

react-json-schema

npm install react-json-schema

This library constructs React elements from JSON by mapping JSON definitions to React components that you expose.

JSX is not a dependency for react-json-schema.

Quick Documentation

Full Documentation

• Schema
• Dynamic Children and Keys
• Component Mapping
• Rendering
• Complete Example

Schema

The primary resource needed is a defined schema in JSON or a JavaScript object literal. It's recommended that schema attributes mainly define React component props. The parser explicitly handles the following attributes:

• component: MUST exist and be defined by a string or React component (must be a string if describing a native HTML tag)
• children: MAY exist to define sub-components
• text: MAY exist to as a string to define inner HTML text (overrides children)
• key: MAY exist to define a key for dynamic children

Example JSON schema (ES6)

const schema = {
  "component": "CommentList",
  "children": [
    {
      "component": "Comment",
      "author": "Pete Hunt",
      "children": "This is one comment"
    },
    {
      "component": "Comment",
      "author": "Jordan Walke",
      "children": "This is *another* comment"
    },
    {
      "component": "a",
      "href": "#help",
      "text": "I need help"
    }
  ]
};

Example JS literal (ES6)

...
  {
    "component": Comment, // literal
    "author": "Pete Hunt",
    "children": "This is one comment"
  },
...

Dynamic Children and Keys

When arrays of components exist (like children), react-json-schema will resolve a key for the element, which follows the rules for dynamic children. It will either use a custom key if defined, or resolve a numeric key based on the array index.

Example of defining child keys (ES6)

...
  {
    "component": "Comment",
    "key": "0ab19f8e", // defined key
    "author": "Pete Hunt",
    "children": "This is one comment"
  },
...

Component Mapping

React components need to be exposed to the react-json-schema so that the parser can create React elements. If the schema contains object literals with component references, the schema is exposing the React components and no additional configuration is needed. If the schema does not contain references to components, the components can be exposed via setComponentMap.

Example for exposing non-exposed components (ES6)

/* es6 object literal shorthand: { ContactForm } == { ContactForm: ContactForm } */
contactForm.setComponentMap({ ContactForm, StringField });

Parsing

Use parseSchema to render React elements. It returns the root node. Note that if your schema's root is an array, you'll have to wrap the schema in an element.

Example (ES6)

ReactDOM.render(contactForm.parseSchema(schema),
  document.getElementById('contact-form'));

Rendering

Since react-json-schema does not perform any rendering, the method in which you want to render is up to you. For example, you can use ReactDOMServer.render, ReactDOM.renderToString, etc. if you'd like.

Complete Example

import ReactDOM from 'react-dom';
import ReactJsonSchema from 'react-json-schema';

import FormStore from 'FormStore';
import CommentList from 'CommentList';
import Comment from 'Comment';

// For this example, let's pretend I already have data and am ignorant of actions
const schema = FormStore.getFormSchema();
const view = new ReactJsonSchema();

view.setComponentMap({ CommentList, Comment });

ReactDOM.render(view.parseSchema(schema),
  document.getElementById('content'));

Try the Demo

To run the demo

• npm install
• npm run demo
• The app will be served at http://localhost:8080

Contribution and Code of Conduct

Please use a linter that recognizes eslint rules

• npm install
• npm test
• npm run build

Roadmap

• Possibility of react-native-json-schema