Comprehensive Guide to Tooltips in ReactJS

Tooltips are small messages appearing when someone hovers over or taps an element. They provide important information to help users, especially those who are new. Tooltips are beneficial if you have built a complex application, as new users may have difficulty understanding certain elements or functionalities. In addition to providing useful information, they do not clutter the desktop of the user.

With the new version 5 of the react-tooltip library, there have been some big improvements. We have covered all the details regarding react-tooltip v5, including installation, basic usage, customization, examples, and more.

So let's get started.

Why Use Tooltips?

When users hover over an element in our web app, tooltips appear, providing them with a short helpful message and making it easier for them to use. Below we've listed three reasons why you should consider using them.

Enhanced User Experience: Tooltips provide additional information without overwhelming the user interface.

Accessibility: Tooltips can make your app easier to use by providing explanations and context for different parts of the interface.

Interactive Guidance: They help users move around the app better by giving hints and tips to navigate and understand it.

Ensure you have a working React application set up. If not, create a new project using this command: npx create-react-app my-app.

Basic understanding of React components and JSX.

Make sure Node.js and a package manager like npm or Yarn are installed in your development environment.

First, install the react-tooltip library using npm or yarn:

// For npm
npm install react-tooltip@latest

// For yarn
yarn add react-tooltip@latest

Basic Usage:

Import the Tooltip component from the react-tooltip package.

import React from 'react';
import { Tooltip } from 'react-tooltip';

Add the necessary data-tooltip-* attributes to the element you want to display the tooltip on.

<button
  type="button"
  data-tooltip-id="my-tooltip"
  data-tooltip-content="Hello world!"
  data-tooltip-variant="error"
>
  Hover over me
</button>

Ensure that the Tooltip component is rendered in your component tree with a matching id.

<Tooltip id="my-tooltip" />

Combining all the steps, here is a complete example:

import React from 'react';
import { Tooltip } from 'react-tooltip';

const App = () => {
  return (
    <>
      <button
        type="button"
        data-tooltip-id="my-tooltip"
        data-tooltip-content="Hello world!"
      >
        Hover over me
      </button>
      <Tooltip id="my-tooltip" />
    </>
  );
};

export default App;

We import Tooltip from react-tooltip.

We use the data-tooltip-id to specify the tooltip's ID and data-tooltip-content to specify the tooltip's content.

We add the <Tooltip id="my-tooltip" /> component to enable the tooltip functionality.

Customizing Tooltips

React-tooltip v5 offers numerous options to customize the appearance and behavior of your tooltips, such as positioning, styling, and animations.

positioning

The place prop and data-tooltip-place attribute accept these values for positioning: 'top', 'top-start', 'top-end', 'right', 'right-start', 'right-end', 'bottom', 'bottom-start', 'bottom-end', 'left', 'left-start', 'left-end'.

Example of using the place prop:

import React from 'react';
import { Tooltip } from 'react-tooltip';

const App = () => {

  return (
    <>
      <button
        type="button"
        data-tooltip-id="my-tooltip"
        data-tooltip-content="Hello world!"
      >Hover over me</button>

      <Tooltip id="my-tooltip" place='bottom' />
    </>
  );
};

export default App;

Example of using the data-tooltip-place attribute:

import React from 'react';
import { Tooltip } from 'react-tooltip';

const App = () => {

  return (
    <>
      <button
        type="button"
        data-tooltip-id="my-tooltip"
        data-tooltip-content="Hello world!"
        data-tooltip-place="right-start"
      > Hover over me</button>

      <Tooltip id="my-tooltip" />

    </>
  );
};

export default App;

Styling

You can make the tooltip look the way you want by adding a CSS class or using inline styles with the style prop. For instance, you can style the tooltip like this:

Example of using the style prop:

<Tooltip
  id="my-tooltip"
  style={{ backgroundColor: "rgb(0, 255, 30)", color: "#222" }}
/>

Example of using a class name for styling:

<Tooltip
  id="my-tooltip"
  className="custom-tooltip"
/>

CSS code

.custom-tooltip {
  padding: 10px !important;
  border-radius: 10px !important;
}

Important: You need to mention !important because it ensures that your custom styles take precedence over any other styles that are applied to the tooltip.

Animation

If you want to change how quickly the tooltip appears or disappears, you can do that by adjusting some settings. By default, the tooltip fades in and out over 150 milliseconds. If you want to make it faster or slower, you can change these settings using the delayShow or delayHide props.

<Tooltip
  id="my-tooltip"
  delayShow={1000}
  delayHide={1000}
/>

Advanced Customization

React tooltips let you customize how tooltips look when someone hovers over certain parts of your app. We've explained each one with examples to demonstrate how it's done.

Events

The events prop helps us choose how the tooltip shows up based on what the user does. For example, we can decide whether the tooltip should appear when the user hovers over an element or when they click on it.

By default, the tooltip will appear when the user hovers over the element.

<Tooltip
  id="my-tooltip"
  events={['click']} // default events={['hover']} 
/>

In this example, we've configured the tooltip to appear when the user clicks on the associated elements. To dismiss the tooltip, the user simply needs to click on the tooltip message itself.

Children as content

When you want to show more content in a tooltip when a user hovers over associated elements, you can use children as content. It means you can put what you want to show right inside the component's tag. This makes it easy to set what shows up inside the tooltip.

Example:

import React from 'react';
import { Tooltip } from 'react-tooltip';

const App = () => {
  return (
    <>
      <button data-tooltip-id="my-tooltip" >Hover over me</button>
      <Tooltip id="my-tooltip" >
        <div>
          <h3>Welcome to codemafias</h3>
          <p>Here's some useful information:</p>
          <ul>
            <li>Learn</li>
            <li>Explore</li>
            <li>Create</li>
          </ul>
        </div>
      </Tooltip>
    </>
  );
};

export default App;

Data tooltip variant

The data-tooltip-variant attribute in React Toolkit lets you set the style or theme of a tooltip, like "info", "warning", or "error". This makes it easy to change the tooltip's look without writing extra CSS.

This attribute can be set to one of these styles: 'dark' (default), 'light', 'success', 'warning', 'error', or 'info'.

Example:

import React from 'react';
import { Tooltip } from 'react-tooltip';

const App = () => {
  return (
    <>
      <button data-tooltip-id="dark-tooltip" data-tooltip-variant="dark">Dark</button>
      <button data-tooltip-id="success-tooltip" data-tooltip-variant="success">Success</button>
      <button data-tooltip-id="light-tooltip" data-tooltip-variant="light">Light</button>
      <button data-tooltip-id="info-tooltip" data-tooltip-variant="info">Info</button>
      <button data-tooltip-id="warning-tooltip" data-tooltip-variant="warning">Warning</button>
      <button data-tooltip-id="error-tooltip" data-tooltip-variant="error">Error</button>

      <Tooltip id="dark-tooltip"> <div>Dark tooltip</div></Tooltip>
      <Tooltip id="success-tooltip"> <div>Success tooltip</div></Tooltip>
      <Tooltip id="light-tooltip"> <div>Light tooltip</div></Tooltip>
      <Tooltip id="info-tooltip"> <div>Information tooltip</div></Tooltip>
      <Tooltip id="warning-tooltip"> <div>Warning tooltip</div> </Tooltip>
      <Tooltip id="error-tooltip"><div>Error tooltip</div></Tooltip>
    </>
  );
};

export default App;

Data-tooltip-offset

The data-tooltip-offset attribute in the React Toolkit is used to set the distance between the tooltip and the element it is attached to. This allows you to control how far the tooltip appears from the element.

Example:

 <button data-tooltip-id="my-tooltip" data-tooltip-offset="10" >Hover over me</button>
 <button data-tooltip-id="my-tooltip" data-tooltip-offset="20">Hover over me</button>
 <button data-tooltip-id="my-tooltip" data-tooltip-offset="30">Hover over me</button>
 <button data-tooltip-id="my-tooltip" data-tooltip-offset="40">Hover over me</button>
 <button data-tooltip-id="my-tooltip" data-tooltip-offset="50">Hover over me</button>

Opacity control

The opacity prop in the React Toolkit's Tooltip component controls how transparent the tooltip is. Setting opacity={1} makes the tooltip fully visible without any transparency. This is useful when you want the tooltip to be easy to read and stand out clearly.

The opacity prop in the React Toolkit's Tooltip component accepts a value between 0 and 1. A value of 0 makes the tooltip fully transparent, 1 makes it fully opaque, and 0.5 makes it 50% transparent.

<Tooltip
  id="my-tooltip"
  opacity={0.5}
/>

Border

The border property in React Tooltip lets you style the tooltip's border. You can adjust its color, width, and style to match your design preferences.

Example:

<Tooltip
  id="my-tooltip"
  border="2px solid blue"
/>

Troubleshooting

With the new version 5 of the React-Tooltip library, there are some major improvements. So you need to remember some things, otherwise, you may face some errors.

Updating React-Tooltip: To get the latest version of the React-Tooltip library, don't just use "npm i react-tooltip". Instead, use "npm install react-tooltip@latest". If you're using Yarn, use "yarn add react-tooltip@latest". This ensures you download the newest version.

Updated Import Statement: Instead of importing ReactTooltip from react-tooltip, you should import Tooltip from react-tooltip. This is because the latest version of the library has updated its API to use Tooltip for better clarity and consistency.

Resolving Tooltip Closing Issue: Sometimes, the tooltip might not close properly. This often occurs when you attempt to adjust the tooltip's opacity using CSS. Since opacity is internally managed to control the tooltip's behavior, changing it directly can cause issues. To fix this, either use the opacity prop provided by the library or modify the --rt-opacity CSS variable. This ensures the tooltip functions as expected without any glitches.

Styling Tooltip Arrow: Just using CSS to set a border for the tooltip won't affect its arrow. Instead, you should use the border prop to style the tooltip, including its arrow.

Provide Context: Tooltips should always provide proper information about the relevant element, avoid using just emojis or icons without any content, so users can easily understand why it popped up.

Keep it Concise: When you write tooltip content, keep it short and clear to avoid confusing the user.

Use Clear Language: Always keep your tooltip language simple and easy to understand, so users can quickly grasp the information you're providing.

Mind Placement: Place tooltips in strategic positions to prevent them from covering important content and to ensure a user-friendly and intuitive interface.

Avoid Overuse: Use tooltips only when truly needed and avoid using them too frequently. Use tooltips only when truly needed and avoid using them too frequently. Using tooltips too much can confuse users.

Consider Accessibility: Make sure tooltips are accessible to everyone, including those using assistive technologies. Offer different ways to get to the tooltip info, and think about how it works on touchscreens for mobile users.

Avoid Overuse of Tooltip Components: Try not to use too many <Tooltip /> components unnecessarily. Usually, one tooltip component for your whole app is okay. But if you need different styles for tooltips, it's alright to add a few more.

F&Q

Here are some questions and answers that many developers think about. Reading through them can help clear up any doubts you have.

1. How do I create a basic tooltip in ReactJS?

Ans: First, import Tooltip from React-Tooltip in your component. Then add data-tooltip-id attribute to the element where you want to show the tooltip. Lastly, add <tooltip id="your-id-here" /> component in your code to define the tooltip, but remember that the id should be the same as we have written in the data-tooltip-id attribute of the element.

2. How can I control the position of a tooltip in ReactJS?

Ans: Use the data-tooltip-place attribute or the location prop in the <Tooltip /> component to set the position of the tooltip. We can choose positions such as 'top', 'top-start', 'top-end', 'right', 'right-start', 'right-end', 'bottom', 'bottom-start', 'bottom-end', 'left', 'left-start', and 'left-end'.

3. Can I use multiple tooltip components in a ReactJS application?

Ans: Yes, but try to avoid using too many <Tooltip /> components unnecessarily. Typically, one tooltip component for the whole application is sufficient, unless different styles are needed.

4. How do I style the tooltip arrow?

Ans: You can use the border prop in the <Tooltip /> component to style the tooltip and its arrow. You can't style the tooltip arrow directly with CSS.

5. How do I ensure that tooltips do not block important content on the page?

Ans: Strategically position tooltips using the place prop or data-tooltip-place attribute to ensure they do not obstruct important content. You can also use CSS to adjust the z-index of tooltips if necessary.

6. How do I handle tooltips on mobile devices?

Ans: For mobile devices, consider touch interactions. Use the event prop to specify click instead of hover for better usability on touchscreens.

7. How do I add interactive elements within a tooltip?

Ans: You can keep interactive elements like buttons or links inside a tooltip by adding them to the content of the Tooltip component.

Example:

<Tooltip id="my-tooltip">
  <div>
    <h3>Interactive Tooltip</h3>
    <button onClick={() => alert('Button clicked!')}>Click Me</button>
  </div>
</Tooltip>

8. How do I add a delay to tooltip visibility?

Ans: You can add delays to tooltip visibility using the delayShow={value} and delayHide={value} props. This helps prevent tooltips from appearing or disappearing too quickly.

9. How do I handle tooltips for dynamically added elements?

Ans: Ensure that tooltips are initialized or updated for dynamically added elements. You may need to re-render or manually update the tooltip using the React state or lifecycle methods.

Example:

import React, { useState } from 'react';
import { Tooltip } from 'react-tooltip';

const App = () => {
  const [items, setItems] = useState(['Item 1', 'Item 2']);

  const addItem = () => {
    setItems([...items, `Item ${items.length + 1}`]);
  };

  return (
    <>
      <button onClick={addItem}>Add Item</button>
      {items.map((item, index) => (
        <div key={index} data-tooltip-id={`tooltip-${index}`} data-tooltip-place='bottom-start' data-tooltip-content={`Tooltip for ${item}`}>
          {item}
          <Tooltip key={item} id={`tooltip-${index}`} />
        </div>
      ))}
    </>
  );
};

export default App;

Conclusion

The react-tooltip library is very useful to give small information on hovering over any important element. As we have learned everything about this library. After understanding this article, you will be able to easily integrate and customize react-tooltip in your React project.

You can also create dynamic content using the useState hook in React. By combining react-tooltip with useState, you can show tooltips that change instantly based on what users do or changes in the app. This library is especially useful when developing complex apps because it makes it easier for new users to navigate the application.

If you have any questions about this article or related to web development, you can ask them in the question box given below, and you will get the answer soon.

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