react-datocms

A set of components and utilities to work faster with DatoCMS in React environments. Integrates seamlessy with DatoCMS's GraphQL Content Delivery API and Real-time Updates API.

Table of Contents

• Demos
• Installation
• Live real-time updates
  • Reference
  • Initialization options
  • Connection status
  • Error object
  • Example
• Progressive/responsive image
  • Out-of-the-box features
  • Intersection Observer
  • Usage
  • Example
  • Props
    • Layout mode
    • The ResponsiveImage object
• Social share, SEO and Favicon meta tags
  • renderMetaTags()
  • renderMetaTagsToString()
  • toRemixMeta()
• Structured text
  • Basic usage
  • Custom renderers for inline records, blocks, and links
  • Override default rendering of nodes
  • Props
• Development

Demos

For fully working examples take a look at our examples directory.

Live demo: https://react-datocms-example.netlify.com/

Installation

npm install react-datocms

Live real-time updates

useQuerySubscription is a React hook that you can use to implement client-side updates of the page as soon as the content changes. It uses DatoCMS's Real-time Updates API to receive the updated query results in real-time, and is able to reconnect in case of network failures.

Live updates are great both to get instant previews of your content while editing it inside DatoCMS, or to offer real-time updates of content to your visitors (ie. news site).

• TypeScript ready;
• Compatible with vanilla React, Next.js and pretty much any other React-based solution;

Reference

Import useQuerySubscription from react-datocms and use it inside your components like this:

const {
  data: QueryResult | undefined,
  error: ChannelErrorData | null,
  status: ConnectionStatus,
} = useQuerySubscription(options: Options);

Initialization options

prop	type	required	description	default
enabled	boolean	:x:	Whether the subscription has to be performed or not	true
query	string	:white_check_mark:	The GraphQL query to subscribe
token	string	:white_check_mark:	DatoCMS API token to use
variables	Object	:x:	GraphQL variables for the query
preview	boolean	:x:	If true, the Content Delivery API with draft content will be used	false
environment	string	:x:	The name of the DatoCMS environment where to perform the query	defaults to primary environment
initialData	Object	:x:	The initial data to use on the first render
reconnectionPeriod	number	:x:	In case of network errors, the period (in ms) to wait to reconnect	1000
fetcher	a fetch-like function	:x:	The fetch function to use to perform the registration query	window.fetch
eventSourceClass	an EventSource-like class	:x:	The EventSource class to use to open up the SSE connection	window.EventSource
baseUrl	string	:x:	The base URL to use to perform the query	https://graphql-listen.datocms.com

Connection status

The status property represents the state of the server-sent events connection. It can be one of the following:

• connecting: the subscription channel is trying to connect
• connected: the channel is open, we're receiving live updates
• closed: the channel has been permanently closed due to a fatal error (ie. an invalid query)

Error object

prop	type	description
code	string	The code of the error (ie. INVALID_QUERY)
message	string	An human friendly message explaining the error
response	Object	The raw response returned by the endpoint, if available

Example

import React from 'react';
import { useQuerySubscription } from 'react-datocms';

const App: React.FC = () => {
  const { status, error, data } = useQuerySubscription({
    enabled: true,
    query: `
      query AppQuery($first: IntType) {
        allBlogPosts {
          slug
          title
        }
      }`,
    variables: { first: 10 },
    token: 'YOUR_API_TOKEN',
  });

  const statusMessage = {
    connecting: 'Connecting to DatoCMS...',
    connected: 'Connected to DatoCMS, receiving live updates!',
    closed: 'Connection closed',
  };

  return (
    <div>
      <p>Connection status: {statusMessage[status]}</p>
      {error && (
        <div>
          <h1>Error: {error.code}</h1>
          <div>{error.message}</div>
          {error.response && (
            <pre>{JSON.stringify(error.response, null, 2)}</pre>
          )}
        </div>
      )}
      {data && (
        <ul>
          {data.allBlogPosts.map((blogPost) => (
            <li key={blogPost.slug}>{blogPost.title}</li>
          ))}
        </ul>
      )}
    </div>
  );
};

Progressive/responsive image

<Image /> is a React component specially designed to work seamlessly with DatoCMS’s responsiveImage GraphQL query that optimizes image loading for your sites.

• TypeScript ready;
• CSS-in-JS ready;
• Usable both client and server side;
• Compatible with vanilla React, Next.js and pretty much any other React-based solution;

Out-of-the-box features

• Offers WebP version of images for browsers that support the format
• Generates multiple smaller images so smartphones and tablets don’t download desktop-sized images
• Efficiently lazy loads images to speed initial page load and save bandwidth
• Holds the image position so your page doesn’t jump while images load
• Uses either blur-up or background color techniques to show a preview of the image while it loads

Intersection Observer

Intersection Observer is the API used to determine if the image is inside the viewport or not. Browser support is really good - With Safari adding support in 12.1, all major browsers now support Intersection Observers natively.

If the IntersectionObserver object is not available, the component treats the image as it's always visible in the viewport. Feel free to add a polyfill so that it will also 100% work on older versions of iOS and IE11.

Usage

1. Import Image from react-datocms and use it in place of the regular <img /> tag
2. Write a GraphQL query to your DatoCMS project using the responsiveImage query

The GraphQL query returns multiple thumbnails with optimized compression. The Image component automatically sets up the “blur-up” effect as well as lazy loading of images further down the screen.

Example

For a fully working example take a look at our examples directory.

import React from 'react';
import { Image } from 'react-datocms';

const Page = ({ data }) => (
  <div>
    <h1>{data.blogPost.title}</h1>
    <Image data={data.blogPost.cover.responsiveImage} />
  </div>
);

const query = gql`
  query {
    blogPost {
      title
      cover {
        responsiveImage(
          imgixParams: { fit: crop, w: 300, h: 300, auto: format }
        ) {
          # HTML5 src/srcset/sizes attributes
          srcSet
          webpSrcSet
          sizes
          src

          # size information (post-transformations)
          width
          height
          aspectRatio

          # SEO attributes
          alt
          title

          # background color placeholder or...
          bgColor

          # blur-up placeholder, JPEG format, base64-encoded
          base64
        }
      }
    }
  }
`;

export default withQuery(query)(Page);

Props

prop	type	required	description	default
data	ResponsiveImage object	:white_check_mark:	The actual response you get from a DatoCMS responsiveImage GraphQL query
layout	'intrinsic' | 'fixed' | 'responsive' | 'fill'	:x:	The layout behavior of the image as the viewport changes size	"intrinsic"
className	string	:x:	Additional CSS className for root node	null
style	CSS properties	:x:	Additional CSS rules to add to the root node	null
pictureClassName	string	:x:	Additional CSS class for the image inside the inner <picture /> tag	null
pictureStyle	CSS properties	:x:	Additional CSS rules to add to the image inside the inner <picture /> tag	null
fadeInDuration	integer	:x:	Duration (in ms) of the fade-in transition effect upoad image loading	500
intersectionThreshold	float	:x:	Indicate at what percentage of the placeholder visibility the loading of the image should be triggered. A value of 0 means that as soon as even one pixel is visible, the callback will be run. A value of 1.0 means that the threshold isn't considered passed until every pixel is visible.	0
intersectionMargin	string	:x:	Margin around the placeholder. Can have values similar to the CSS margin property (top, right, bottom, left). The values can be percentages. This set of values serves to grow or shrink each side of the placeholder element's bounding box before computing intersections.	"0px 0px 0px 0px"
lazyLoad	Boolean	:x:	Whether enable lazy loading or not	true
onLoad	() => void	:x:	Function triggered when the image has finished loading	undefined
usePlaceholder	Boolean	:x:	Whether the component should use a blurred image placeholder	true

Layout mode

With the layout property, you can configure the behavior of the image as the viewport changes size:

• When intrinsic (default behaviour), the image will scale the dimensions down for smaller viewports, but maintain the original dimensions for larger viewports.
• When fixed, the image dimensions will not change as the viewport changes (no responsiveness) similar to the native img element.
• When responsive, the image will scale the dimensions down for smaller viewports and scale up for larger viewports.
• When fill, the image will stretch both width and height to the dimensions of the parent element, provided the parent element is relative.
  • This is usually paired with the objectFit and objectPosition properties.
  • Ensure the parent element has position: relative in their stylesheet.

Example for layout="fill" (useful also for background images):

<div style={{ position: 'relative', width: 200, height: 500 }}>
  <Image
    data={imageData}
    layout="fill"
    objectFit="cover"
    objectPosition="50% 50%"
  />
</div>

The ResponsiveImage object

The data prop expects an object with the same shape as the one returned by responsiveImage GraphQL call. It's up to you to make a GraphQL query that will return the properties you need for a specific use of the <Image> component.

• The minimum required properties for data are: aspectRatio, width, sizes, srcSet and src;
• alt and title, while not mandatory, are all highly suggested, so remember to use them!
• You either want to add the webpSrcSet field or specify { auto: format } in your imgixParams, to automatically use WebP images in browsers that support the format;
• If you provide both the bgColor and base64 property, the latter will take precedence, so just avoiding querying both fields at the same time, it will only make the response bigger :wink:

Here's a complete recap of what responsiveImage offers:

property	type	required	description
aspectRatio	float	:white_check_mark:	The aspect ratio (width/height) of the image
width	integer	:white_check_mark:	The width of the image
height	integer	:white_check_mark:	The height of the image
sizes	string	:white_check_mark:	The HTML5 sizes attribute for the image
srcSet	string	:white_check_mark:	The HTML5 srcSet attribute for the image
src	string	:white_check_mark:	The fallback src attribute for the image
webpSrcSet	string	:x:	The HTML5 srcSet attribute for the image in WebP format, for browsers that support the format
alt	string	:x:	Alternate text (alt) for the image
title	string	:x:	Title attribute (title) for the image
bgColor	string	:x:	The background color for the image placeholder
base64	string	:x:	A base64-encoded thumbnail to offer during image loading

Social share, SEO and Favicon meta tags

Just like for the image component this package offers a number of utilities designed to work seamlessly with DatoCMS’s _seoMetaTags and faviconMetaTags GraphQL queries so that you can easily handle SEO, social shares and favicons in your pages.

All the utilities take an array of SeoOrFaviconTags in the exact form they're returned by the following DatoCMS GraphQL API queries:

• _seoMetaTags (always available on any type of record)
• faviconMetaTags on the global _site object.

query {
  page: homepage {
    title
    seo: _seoMetaTags {
      attributes
      content
      tag
    }
  }

  site: _site {
    favicon: faviconMetaTags {
      attributes
      content
      tag
    }
  }
}

You can then concat those two arrays of tags and pass them togheter to the function, ie:

renderMetaTags([...data.page.seo, ...data.site.favicon]);

renderMetaTags()

This function generates React <meta> and <link /> elements, so it is compatible with React packages like react-helmet.

For a complete example take a look at our examples directory.

import React from 'react';
import { renderMetaTags } from 'react-datocms';

function Page({ data }) {
  return (
    <div>
      <Helmet>
        {renderMetaTags([...data.page.seo, ...data.site.favicon])}
      </Helmet>
    </div>
  );
}

renderMetaTagsToString()

This function generates an HTML string containing <meta> and <link /> tags, so it can be used server-side.

import { renderMetaTagsToString } from 'react-datocms';

const someMoreComplexHtml = `
  <html>
    <head>
      ${renderMetaTagsToString([...data.page.seo, ...data.site.favicon])}
    </head>
  </html>
`;

toRemixMeta()

This function generates a HtmlMetaDescriptor object, compatibile with the meta export of the Remix framework:

import type { MetaFunction } from 'remix';
import { toRemixMeta } from 'react-datocms';

export const meta: MetaFunction = ({ data: { post } }) => {
  return toRemixMeta(post.seo);
};

Please note that the links export doesn't receive any loader data for performance reasons, so you cannot use it to declare favicons meta tags! The best way to render them is using renderMetaTags in your root component:

import { renderMetaTags } from 'react-datocms';

export const loader = () => {
  return request({
    query: `
        {
          site: _site {
            favicon: faviconMetaTags(variants: [icon, msApplication, appleTouchIcon]) {
              ...metaTagsFragment
            }
          }
        }
        ${metaTagsFragment}
      `,
  });
};

export default function App() {
  const { site } = useLoaderData();

  return (
    <html lang="en">
      <head>
        <meta charSet="utf-8" />
        <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width,initial-scale=1" />
        <Meta />
        <Links />
        {renderMetaTags(site.favicon)}
      </head>
      <body>
        <Outlet />
        <ScrollRestoration />
        <Scripts />
        {process.env.NODE_ENV === 'development' && <LiveReload />}
      </body>
    </html>
  );
}

Structured text

<StructuredText /> is a React component that you can use to render the value contained inside a DatoCMS Structured Text field type.

Basic usage

import React from 'react';
import { StructuredText } from 'react-datocms';

const Page = ({ data }) => {
  // data.blogPost.content = {
  //   value: {
  //     schema: "dast",
  //     document: {
  //       type: "root",
  //       children: [
  //         {
  //           type: "heading",
  //           level: 1,
  //           children: [
  //             {
  //               type: "span",
  //               value: "Hello ",
  //             },
  //             {
  //               type: "span",
  //               marks: ["strong"],
  //               value: "world!",
  //             },
  //           ],
  //         },
  //       ],
  //     },
  //   },
  // }

  return (
    <div>
      <h1>{data.blogPost.title}</h1>
      <StructuredText data={data.blogPost.content} />
      {/* -> <h1>Hello <strong>world!</strong></h1> */}
    </div>
  );
};

const query = gql`
  query {
    blogPost {
      title
      content {
        value
      }
    }
  }
`;

export default withQuery(query)(Page);

Custom renderers for inline records, blocks, and links

You can also pass custom renderers for special nodes (inline records, record links and blocks) as an optional parameter like so:

import React from 'react';
import { StructuredText, Image } from 'react-datocms';

const Page = ({ data }) => {
  // data.blogPost.content ->
  // {
  //   value: {
  //     schema: "dast",
  //     document: {
  //       type: "root",
  //       children: [
  //         {
  //           type: "heading",
  //           level: 1,
  //           children: [
  //             { type: "span", value: "Welcome onboard " },
  //             { type: "inlineItem", item: "324321" },
  //           ],
  //         },
  //         {
  //           type: "paragraph",
  //           children: [
  //             { type: "span", value: "So happy to have " },
  //             {
  //               type: "itemLink",
  //               item: "324321",
  //               children: [
  //                 {
  //                   type: "span",
  //                   marks: ["strong"],
  //                   value: "this awesome humang being",
  //                 },
  //               ]
  //             },
  //             { type: "span", value: " in our team!" },
  //           ]
  //         },
  //         { type: "block", item: "1984559" }
  //       ],
  //     },
  //   },
  //   links: [
  //     {
  //       id: "324321",
  //       __typename: "TeamMemberRecord",
  //       firstName: "Mark",
  //       slug: "mark-smith",
  //     },
  //   ],
  //   blocks: [
  //     {
  //       id: "324321",
  //       __typename: "ImageRecord",
  //       image: {
  //         responsiveImage: { ... },
  //       },
  //     },
  //   ],
  // }

  return (
    <div>
      <h1>{data.blogPost.title}</h1>
      <StructuredText
        data={data.blogPost.content}
        renderInlineRecord={({ record }) => {
          switch (record.__typename) {
            case 'TeamMemberRecord':
              return <a href={`/team/${record.slug}`}>{record.firstName}</a>;
            default:
              return null;
          }
        }}
        renderLinkToRecord={({ record, children, transformedMeta }) => {
          switch (record.__typename) {
            case 'TeamMemberRecord':
              return (
                <a {...transformedMeta} href={`/team/${record.slug}`}>
                  {children}
                </a>
              );
            default:
              return null;
          }
        }}
        renderBlock={({ record }) => {
          switch (record.__typename) {
            case 'ImageRecord':
              return <Image data={record.image.responsiveImage} />;
            default:
              return null;
          }
        }}
      />
      {/*
        Final result:

        <h1>Welcome onboard <a href="/team/mark-smith">Mark</a></h1>
        <p>So happy to have <a href="/team/mark-smith">this awesome humang being</a> in our team!</p>
        <img src="https://www.datocms-assets.com/205/1597757278-austin-distel-wd1lrb9oeeo-unsplash.jpg" alt="Our team at work" />
      */}
    </div>
  );
};

const query = gql`
  query {
    blogPost {
      title
      content {
        value
        links {
          __typename
          ... on TeamMemberRecord {
            id
            firstName
            slug
          }
        }
        blocks {
          __typename
          ... on ImageRecord {
            id
            image {
              responsiveImage(
                imgixParams: { fit: crop, w: 300, h: 300, auto: format }
              ) {
                srcSet
                webpSrcSet
                sizes
                src
                width
                height
                aspectRatio
                alt
                title
                base64
              }
            }
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
`;

export default withQuery(query)(Page);

Override default rendering of nodes

This component automatically renders all nodes except for inline_item, item_link and block using a set of default rules, but you might want to customize those. For example:

For example:

• For heading nodes, you might want to add an anchor;

• For code nodes, you might want to use a custom sytax highlighting component like prism-react-renderer;

• Apply different logic/formatting to a node based on what its parent node is (using the ancestors parameter)

• For all possible node types, refer to the list of typeguard functions defined in the main structured-text package. The DAST format documentation has additional details.

In this case, you can easily override default rendering rules with the customNodeRules and customMarkRules props.

import { renderNodeRule, renderMarkRule, StructuredText } from 'react-datocms';
import { isHeading, isCode } from 'datocms-structured-text-utils';
import { render as toPlainText } from 'datocms-structured-text-to-plain-text';
import SyntaxHighlight from 'components/SyntaxHighlight';

<StructuredText
  data={data.blogPost.content}
  customNodeRules={[
    // Add HTML anchors to heading levels for in-page navigation
    renderNodeRule(isHeading, ({ node, children, key }) => {
      const HeadingTag = `h${node.level}`;
      const anchor = toPlainText(node)
        .toLowerCase()
        .replace(/ /g, '-')
        .replace(/[^\w-]+/g, '');

      return (
        <HeadingTag key={key}>
          {children} <a id={anchor} />
          <a href={`#${anchor}`} />
        </HeadingTag>
      );
    }),

    // Use a custom syntax highlighter component for code blocks
    renderNodeRule(isCode, ({ node, key }) => {
      return (
        <SyntaxHighlight
          key={key}
          code={node.code}
          language={node.language}
          linesToBeHighlighted={node.highlight}
        />
      );
    }),

    // Apply different formatting to top-level paragraphs
    renderNodeRule(
      isParagraph,
      ({ adapter: { renderNode }, node, children, key, ancestors }) => {
        if (isRoot(ancestors[0])) {
          // If this paragraph node is a top-level one, give it a special class
          return renderNode(
            'p',
            { key, className: 'top-level-paragraph-container-example' },
            children,
          );
        } else {
          // Proceed with default paragraph rendering...
          // return renderNode('p', { key }, children);

          // Or even completely remove the paragraph and directly render the inner children:
          return children;
        }
      },
    ),
  ]}
  customMarkRules={[
    // convert "strong" marks into <b> tags
    renderMarkRule('strong', ({ mark, children, key }) => {
      return <b key={key}>{children}</b>;
    }),
  ]}
/>;

Note: if you override the rules for inline_item, item_link or block nodes, then the renderInlineRecord, renderLinkToRecord and renderBlock props won't be considered!

Props

prop	type	required	description	default
data	StructuredTextGraphQlResponse \| DastNode	:white_check_mark:	The actual field value you get from DatoCMS
renderInlineRecord	({ record }) => ReactElement \| null	Only required if document contains inlineItem nodes	Convert an inlineItem DAST node into React	[]
renderLinkToRecord	({ record, children }) => ReactElement \| null	Only required if document contains itemLink nodes	Convert an itemLink DAST node into React	null
renderBlock	({ record }) => ReactElement \| null	Only required if document contains block nodes	Convert a block DAST node into React	null
metaTransformer	({ node, meta }) => Object \| null	:x:	Transform link and itemLink meta property into HTML props	See function
customNodeRules	Array<RenderRule>	:x:	Customize how nodes are converted in JSX (use renderNodeRule() to generate rules)	null
customMarkRules	Array<RenderMarkRule>	:x:	Customize how marks are converted in JSX (use renderMarkRule() to generate rules)	null
renderText	(text: string, key: string) => ReactElement \| string \| null	:x:	Convert a simple string text into React	(text) => text

Development

This repository contains a number of demos/examples. You can use them to locally test your changes to the package with npm link:

npm link
cd examples/images-and-seo/vanilla-react
npm link react-datocms
npm run start

Now on another terminal you can run:

npm run watch

This will re-compile the package everytime you make a change, and the example project will pick those changes instantly.