Difficult to use React components with Highcharts formatters.

[jon-a-nygaard]

I have received feedback from a user asking how they can render React components in a Highcharts formatter function.
This proved to be quite difficult and we should try to somehow make it more user friendly.

I made one example where I am rendering a component with a react router in xAxis.labels.formatter using a helper function named formatter: Gist
The solution was complicated by a bug in Highcharts.fireEvent, and that the Highcharts formatters expects a string in return.

One way I believe this can perhaps be simplified is that the Highcharts formatters can be modified to handle dom elements as return values.
Still this will not solve the full issue, as the Highcharts formatters will still not be able to handle a React component. So in my opinion there will likely be a need for some sort of helper as middleware.

[Anwardo]

Any update on this? Being able to render dom nodes inside formatters would make a huge difference. Right now it's really frustrating to properly add event handlers to elements inside a formatter function.

[ppotaczek]

Hello,

Unfortunately, there is currently no progress in this topic. As the autor of this issue rightly noticed, the implementation would be complicated and would require some changes in the Highcharts core.

However, I think that I can suggest a slightly different approach. React v16 provided portals:

Portals provide a first-class way to render children into a DOM node that exists outside the DOM hierarchy of the parent component.

which allow us to add React components for example to xAxis labels. Please check the following example:

Live demo: https://codesandbox.io/s/1o5y7r31k3
Docs: https://reactjs.org/docs/portals.html

Best regards!

[Anwardo]

Hi, thanks for your detailed response, provided examples and insights! I considered using Portals but didn't figure out how to actually bring them into the chart yet. Very interesting solution.

I managed to utilize renderToString while binding a listener to a generated id for my use case for now, but might look into using your provided solution at a later stage.

[jon-a-nygaard]

Related issue in highcharts repository highcharts/highcharts#7755

[ksdelacruz]

I want to +1 on this feature. Currently, I'm trying to add React Router Links on my heatmap labels in order to load more detailed charts though since strings are the only accepted returns for formatters, I can't get to make router links work. Mimicking links using the <a> tags on labels would make the page reload which is different from the intended SPA behavior.

[ppotaczek]

Hi @ksdelacruz, Did you try to use the solution with portals?

[ksdelacruz]

@ppotaczek I can't get to work the solution (or at least I can see how to incorporate it) on my development, because unlike the given example that access the ticks/label of x-Axis, I want to access the actual labels (points) of the series. Anyway, I just utilized the "onClick" event of the chart to save the point/label and just re-render a button with <Link> tag outside the heatmap.

[ppotaczek]

@ksdelacruz,

By portals you can add React components to all HTML chart's elements. Please check the example with data labels: https://codesandbox.io/s/highcharts-react-demo-v9dns

Best regards!

[ksdelacruz]

@ppotaczek Thank you very much for your help!

[stovmascript]

Don't know if this is any help, but we're currently using renderToStaticMarkup to enable using JSX in the formatting function:

import { renderToStaticMarkup } from 'react-dom/server'

// ...
  return (
    <HighchartsReact
      options={{
        tooltip: {
          formatter() {
            return renderToStaticMarkup(
              <span style={{ color: 'red' }}>
                {/* ... */}

[ksdelacruz]

@ppotaczek I would like to ask for additional help. I tried converting the implementation of your given solution into React Hooks but there's a problem and I tried looking for solution but can't find any. The portals do work but only on the first row of the heatmap. Hovering on the other rows would release an error

Uncaught TypeError: b.onMouseOver is not a function
at HTMLDivElement.e

Upon further checking/printing, it seems that the dataLabel attributes of points belonging to second row onward are missing.

P.S. Printing the points using chart.series[0].points logs 50 points but expanding the array on the console would show only 10 points.

[ppotaczek]

Hi @ksdelacruz,

Could you reproduce that issue in some online code editor? You can edit the live example that I provided previously.

[ksdelacruz]

@ppotaczek Here's the example of the code that I've been talking to. https://codesandbox.io/s/highcharts-react-demo-w4fix

Kindly refer to the console for further clarifications. Thank you very much.

[ppotaczek]

Hi @ksdelacruz, Thank you for the live demo!

The problem is that the chart re-renders after adding components from the portal, please check the order of functions in this example: https://codesandbox.io/s/highcharts-react-demo-tqzrr

You can prevent re-rendering, for example by setting allowChartUpdate option to false:

<HighchartsReact
    ...
    allowChartUpdate={false}
/>

Live example: https://codesandbox.io/s/highcharts-react-demo-nvve6

Best regards!

[ksdelacruz]

@ppotaczek Again, thank you very much for assisting me!

[cstoddart]

I tried both portals and jsx to string solutions. I decided to go with a jsx to string solution similar to @stovmascript 's suggestion. This works with either renderToString() or renderToStaticMarkup().

import { renderToString } from 'react-dom/server';
import { Tooltip } from './CustomTooltip';

// ...
  return (
    <HighchartsReact
      options={{
        tooltip: {
          formatter: function() { // you can't use an arrow function here if you want to access the tooltip data off of 'this'
            const { x, y, point, series } = this;
            return renderToString(<Tooltip {...{ x, y, point, series }} />);
          },
          {/* ... */}

[dankremniov]

Both renderToString and renderToStaticMarkup work quite well. Obviously, they strip out all event handlers from components, and, thus, for tooltips with actions - usage of event bubbling is the only option.

However, since Highcharts v9.0.0, rendering of React components in the tooltip can be quite straightforward using React portals (thank you for the idea, @ppotaczek). In the previous version, tooltip DOM content was completely rerendered on each refresh regardless of whether it has changed or not (which was making the implementation using portals quite complicated).

I published POC for v9.0.0 using React portals here: https://gist.github.com/dankremniov/a9a6b969e63dfc4f0f83e6f82b82eb4f. @ppotaczek, I would love to hear your feedback and any suggestions.

[ppotaczek]

Hi @dankremniov,

Thanks for your comments.

Your code looks really well! The only thing I can see to improve is chart updating. You don't need to merge options, it is enough to apply only the new ones:

  chart.update(
    tooltip: {
      formatter,
      useHTML: true
    }
  );

Best regards!

[dankremniov]

@ppotaczek, thank you 👍 I can add the link to the codesandbox to the corresponding FAQ section of the readme if you think it is worth it.

[ppotaczek]

Yes, it is worth it 👍 good idea!

[plotka]

I was trying to add custom React component on x-axis labels, but I noticed the example sandbox (https://github.com/highcharts/highcharts-react#how-to-add-react-component-to-a-charts-element) is using highcharts-react v2 and does not work with v3. Does someone know how could I make it work with v3?

(I've checked @dankremniov's solution but it looks a lot more complex and I am not sure how to adapt it to labels instead of tooltips.)

[ppotaczek]

Hi @plotka,

I just checked the example and it also works for version 3.0.0, maybe you didn't update React version?

Live example: https://codesandbox.io/s/highcharts-react-demo-forked-qk6cb?file=/demo.jsx

[plotka]

Hi @ppotaczek. You are right, the React version needed to be updated. However, I tried to convert it into a functional component and for some reason, the labels are not being rendered. Do you think you could help? Thanks.

Live example: https://codesandbox.io/s/highcharts-react-demo-forked-sh3qt?file=/demo.jsx

[ppotaczek]

Hello @plotka, I converted the example into a functional component with small improvements here:
https://codesandbox.io/s/highcharts-react-demo-forked-e1v82?file=/demo.jsx

[maciej-gurban]

Should I be seeing those custom labels in the above demo @ppotaczek? This is what renders for me in the linked code sandbox. Can't see the "React" word being rendered anywhere

Edit: Ah, I misunderstood. I was under the impression that this will render inside the tooltip shown when you hover over some data point. Is that possible to achieve?

[ppotaczek]

Hello @maciej-gurban, I recommend you to check the example from @dankremniov
Please let me know in case of any questions.

[ashleyryan]

Does anyone have an example of a tooltip using a portal? I see the label example, but there's no tooltip dom element available at render time as far as I'm aware. I would prefer not to use renderToStaticMarkup since it's not part of react-dom

[alvarotrigo]

I would prefer not to use renderToStaticMarkup since it's not part of react-dom

It increases bundle size?

[ashleyryan]

I would prefer not to use renderToStaticMarkup since it's not part of react-dom

It increases bundle size?

It's a separate package so ... yeah, I'm sure it will, though I haven't investigated by how much. I'm also building this as a reusable component and so don't want to lose events, which you'll lose when rendering to plain old html

[ashleyryan]

I got something half working for clicking a point, built on top of the example above and using one of the demos from the documentation

It's a really bad frankenstein of portal code plus rendering using the renderer - I need to be able to resize the tooltip I'm trying to render content into.

https://codesandbox.io/s/highcharts-react-demo-forked-f83ci?file=/demo.jsx

[arnav-dt]

renderToString works for simple dom nodes like divs and spans. However button + onclick handler fails inside tooltip useHTML formatter. Any idea how to get around this ? All onclicks fail

Sidenote: Researched a lot on this and found https://codesandbox.io/s/highcharts-react-demo-gwk4k however this does not work with typescript as this is implicity any and I would need change tsconfig for the entire app.
Also http://jsfiddle.net/BlackLabel/L6hygs35/ used to work but now fails @ppotaczek

[Anwardo]

renderToString works for simple dom nodes like divs and spans. However button + onclick handler fails inside tooltip useHTML formatter. Any idea how to get around this ? All onclicks fail

Sidenote: Researched a lot on this and found https://codesandbox.io/s/highcharts-react-demo-gwk4k however this does not work with typescript as this is implicity any and I would need change tsconfig for the entire app. Like http://jsfiddle.net/BlackLabel/L6hygs35/ used to work but now fails @ppotaczek

Indeed, assigning an event handler does not work with renderToString. The workaround I'm using is assigning an ID, class or data attribute to the button and adding an event handler to the selector in useEffect. Not 'react-y' but it works.

[ppotaczek]

Hi @arnav-dt,
To add the onclick attribute, you need to add it to allowed attributes first:
Highcharts.AST.allowedAttributes.push('onclick')
Example: http://jsfiddle.net/BlackLabel/9w1za65g/

It will work with React and TypeScript in the same way, only type this in the formatter function to Highcharts.TooltipFormatterContextObject
API: https://api.highcharts.com/class-reference/Highcharts#.TooltipFormatterCallbackFunction

You can also think about portals: https://github.com/highcharts/highcharts-react#how-to-add-react-component-to-a-charts-element

[arnav-dt]

Thank you @ppotaczek and @Anwardo for your inputs I am able to fire an event using buttons onclick and listen to it in my react code. This will work well as a workaround for my usecase (button inside tooltip).

I tried using portals/ReactDOM.render() but the issue with them is that I need an HTML element to latch onto as the second parameter. For tooltips the tooltip HTML DOM nodes are created only after mouse hovers over any of the points/bars. Until then there is no DOM node for react render code inside of.

[ppotaczek]

I am glad to hear that. According to portals, please check a comment and code example in a comment from this thread: #23 (comment)

[MaheshMohan3856]

Hi @arnav-dt, To add the onclick attribute, you need to add it to allowed attributes first: Highcharts.AST.allowedAttributes.push('onclick') Example: http://jsfiddle.net/BlackLabel/9w1za65g/

It will work with React and TypeScript in the same way, only type this in the formatter function to Highcharts.TooltipFormatterContextObject API: https://api.highcharts.com/class-reference/Highcharts#.TooltipFormatterCallbackFunction

You can also think about portals: https://github.com/highcharts/highcharts-react#how-to-add-react-component-to-a-charts-element

Can you attach a example code for onclick triggering a function in React js. Thank you in advance

[arnav-dt]

Writing some rough code(react + typescript) which worked for me. I don't have the exact code with me right now.
Add onclick to Highcharts

Highcharts.AST.allowedAttributes.push('onclick');

In Highcharts options use the tooltip property like so:

tooltip: {
    borderColor: 'transparent',
    borderRadius: 0,
    borderWidth: 0,
    className: 'charts-tooltip',
    outside: true,
    shadow: false,
    shape: 'square',
    shared: true,
    useHTML: true,
    formatter(): string {
      const scope = this as any;
      const tooltipInner = scope.points.reduce(
        (
          s: string,
          point: {
            x: string;
            y: number;
          },
        ) => {
          const pointerStyle = 'style="cursor: pointer"';
          const onClickAction = `onclick="document.dispatchEvent(new CustomEvent('my-event-${point.series.options.chartId}', { 'detail': { 'xVal': '${point.x}'}' } }));"`;
          const divAttributes = `${pointerStyle} ${onClickAction}`;
          return `${s}
                  <div class="charts-tooltip-inner"  ${divAttributes}>
                    <span>
                      Your other tooltip content goes here
                    </span>
                  </div>`;
        },
        `<div class="charts-tooltip-header">${scope.x}</div>`,
      );
      return `<div class="charts-tooltip-wrap">${tooltipInner}</div>`;
    },
  },

And an event listener in your react code to listen to the onclick

  useEffect(() => {
    const handleClick = ({
      detail: { xVal },
    }: any) => {
      console.log(xVal);
    };

    document.addEventListener(
      `my-event-${chartId}`,
      handleClick,
    );

    return () => {
      document.removeEventListener(
        `my-event-${chartId}`,
        handleClick,
      );
    };
  }, []);

@MaheshMohan3856 However I highly recommend you go by the portal way since the code becomes much more maintainable #23 (comment)

[aAntak]

Did anyone had a chance to make tooltip size dynamic & adjust to the content size when using portals? Seems like the size is fixed after the tooltip initial render.

https://codesandbox.io/s/highcharts-react-tooltip-forked-5rc5xz

[arnav-dt]

Hello @aAntak You can render any custom react component using portals. The size can dynamically adjust based on the css of the custom react tooltip container used

[boris773]

@aAntak I do not think it's possible. As far as I'm aware CSS will not help here. If we would have FIXED content on every point of the chart, we could specify width, but currently, if the content might be larger/smaller on every point, the tooltip will not resize.

[dankremniov]

@aAntak, there is a possible solution above in the thread.

[aAntak]

@arnav-dt @boris773 @dankremniov thanks for quick reply!

I used that forked solution in my first question. If you hover on first point, and then on the second one you will see that the content overflows the tooltip container. https://codesandbox.io/s/highcharts-react-tooltip-forked-5rc5xz

[ppotaczek]

@aAntak, You need to adjust dimensions of the box SVG element. Please check this thread: https://www.highcharts.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=49412

[aAntak]

@ppotaczek thanks for reply,

Unfortunately, this does have "blinking & "jumping" effect. As far as I understand this happens because we are correcting tooltip size on the next render. https://codesandbox.io/s/highcharts-custom-tooltip-forked-9ji67s?file=/features/HighchartsTooltip.ts .

I think I will try to think of any other solutions viable for me without portals :/ .

[ppotaczek]

@aAntak, Yes, it is really problematic to use portals with tooltip due to it's under the hood SVG logic. Another solution may be to build your own custom HTML tooltip, bound with the mouseOver point's event. Please check the below example.

Live example: https://codesandbox.io/s/highcharts-react-demo-fork-2tdxbb?file=/demo.jsx
API Reference: https://api.highcharts.com/highcharts/plotOptions.line.point.events.mouseOver

[Angusross111]

I found the last solution using the custom HTML tooltip bound with the mouseOver event has serious performance issues with large amounts of data due to the whole chart rerendering each time the mouseOver event fires due to the setState.
https://codesandbox.io/s/highcharts-react-demo-fork-forked-bwtmm3?file=/demo.jsx

I found a solution by using reacts useImperativeHandle to move the Tooltip setState to its own component, so it is the only thing that needs rerendering, not the whole chart.
https://codesandbox.io/s/highcharts-react-demo-fork-forked-29pvvi?file=/demo.jsx

[vivekd005]

Hello @plotka, I converted the example into a functional component with small improvements here: https://codesandbox.io/s/highcharts-react-demo-forked-e1v82?file=/demo.jsx

Hi @ppotaczek, was there any specific reason for not using callback for chart context as in other class-based examples? Even if we are using the useRef, do we need to get the ticks from the event render method as that can be accessed through chartComponent. as well.
I used the callback method and faced the same issue as @plotka. I was able to console everything but for some reason, labels were not rendering. Seems like reflow is not working as expected in the Functional Based Component as it did in the Class-Based Component.
Can you please explain the changes you made for the Functional Counterpart as I'm getting errors with the Improvements you made.

[ppotaczek]

Hi @vivekd005, There is no any reason, both ways should work fine. Maybe you could reproduce your current implementation in codesandbox? This way I could easily test what might be wrong.