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# react-simple-code-editor [![Build Status][build-badge]][build] [![MIT License][license-badge]][license] [![Version][version-badge]][package] [![Bundle size (minified + gzip)][bundle-size-badge]][bundle-size] Simple no-frills code editor with syntax highlighting. <a href="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/react-simple-code-editor/react-simple-code-editor/main/demo/demo.gif"><img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/react-simple-code-editor/react-simple-code-editor/main/demo/demo.gif" width="400"></a> ## Why Several browser based code editors such as Ace, CodeMirror, Monaco etc. provide the ability to embed a full-featured code editor in your web page. However, if you just need a simple editor with syntax highlighting without any of the extra features, they can be overkill as they don't usually have a small bundle size footprint. This library aims to provide a simple code editor with syntax highlighting support without any of the extra features, perfect for simple embeds and forms where users can submit code. ## Features - Modular syntax highlighting with third party library - Indent line or selected text by pressing tab key, with customizable indentation - Automatic indent on new lines - Wrap selected text in parens, brackets, or quotes - Undo whole words instead of letter by letter - Accessible, use `Ctrl+Shift+M` (Mac) / `Ctrl+M` to toggle capturing tab key ## Installation ```sh npm install react-simple-code-editor ``` or ```sh yarn add react-simple-code-editor ``` ## Usage You need to use the editor with a third party library which provides syntax highlighting. For example, it'll look like following with [`prismjs`](https://prismjs.com): ```js import React from 'react'; import Editor from 'react-simple-code-editor'; import { highlight, languages } from 'prismjs/components/prism-core'; import 'prismjs/components/prism-clike'; import 'prismjs/components/prism-javascript'; import 'prismjs/themes/prism.css'; //Example style, you can use another function App() { const [code, setCode] = React.useState( `function add(a, b) {\n return a + b;\n}` ); return ( <Editor value={code} onValueChange={code => setCode(code)} highlight={code => highlight(code, languages.js)} padding={10} style={{ fontFamily: '"Fira code", "Fira Mono", monospace', fontSize: 12, }} /> ); } ``` Note that depending on your syntax highlighter, you might have to include additional CSS for syntax highlighting to work. ## Props The editor accepts all the props accepted by `textarea`. In addition, you can pass the following props: - `value` (`string`): Current value of the editor i.e. the code to display. This must be a [controlled prop](https://reactjs.org/docs/forms.html#controlled-components). - `onValueChange` (`string => mixed`): Callback which is called when the value of the editor changes. You'll need to update the value prop when this is called. - `highlight` (`string => string | React.Node`): Callback which will receive text to highlight. You'll need to return an HTML string or a React element with syntax highlighting using a library such as [`prismjs`](https://prismjs.com). - `tabSize` (`number`): The number of characters to insert when pressing tab key. For example, for 4 space indentation, `tabSize` will be `4` and `insertSpaces` will be `true`. Default: `2`. - `insertSpaces` (`boolean`): Whether to use spaces for indentation. Default: `true`. If you set it to `false`, you might also want to set `tabSize` to `1`. - `ignoreTabKey` (`boolean`): Whether the editor should ignore tab key presses so that keyboard users can tab past the editor. Users can toggle this behaviour using `Ctrl+Shift+M` (Mac) / `Ctrl+M` manually when this is `false`. Default: `false`. - `padding` (`number`): Optional padding for code. Default: `0`. - `textareaId` (`string`): An ID for the underlying `textarea`, can be useful for setting a `label`. - `textareaClassName` (`string`): A className for the underlying `textarea`, can be useful for more precise control of its styles. - `preClassName` (`string`): A className for the underlying `pre`, can be useful for more precise control of its styles. ## Demo [react-simple-code-editor.github.io/react-simple-code-editor](https://react-simple-code-editor.github.io/react-simple-code-editor/) ## How it works It works by overlaying a syntax highlighted `<pre>` block over a `<textarea>`. When you type, select, copy text etc., you interact with the underlying `<textarea>`, so the experience feels native. This is a very simple approach compared to other editors which re-implement the behaviour. The syntax highlighting can be done by any third party library as long as it returns HTML and is fully controllable by the user. The vanilla `<textarea>` doesn't support inserting tab characters for indentation, so we re-implement it by listening to `keydown` events and programmatically updating the text. One caveat with programmatically updating the text is that we lose the undo stack, so we need to maintain our own undo stack. As a result, we can also implement improved undo behaviour such as undoing whole words similar to editors like VSCode. ## Limitations Due to the way it works, it has certain limitations: - The syntax highlighted code cannot have different font family, font weight, font style, line height etc. for its content. Since the editor works by aligning the highlighted code over a `<textarea>`, changing anything that affects the layout can misalign it. - The custom undo stack is incompatible with undo/redo items browser's context menu. However, other full featured editors don't support browser's undo/redo menu items either. - The editor is not optimized for performance and large documents can affect the typing speed. - We hide text in the textarea using `-webkit-text-fill-color: transparent`, which works in all modern browsers (even non-webkit ones such as Firefox and Edge). On IE 10+, we use `color: transparent` which doesn't hide the cursor. Text may appear bolder in unsupported browsers. ## Contributing While developing, you can run the example app to test your changes: ```sh yarn example ``` Make sure your code passes TypeScript and ESLint. Run the following to verify: ```sh yarn typescript yarn lint ``` To fix formatting errors, run the following: ```sh yarn lint -- --fix ``` <!-- badges --> [build-badge]: https://img.shields.io/circleci/project/github/react-simple-code-editor/react-simple-code-editor/main.svg?style=flat-square [build]: https://circleci.com/gh/react-simple-code-editor/react-simple-code-editor [license-badge]: https://img.shields.io/npm/l/react-simple-code-editor.svg?style=flat-square [license]: https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT [version-badge]: https://img.shields.io/npm/v/react-simple-code-editor.svg?style=flat-square [package]: https://www.npmjs.com/package/react-simple-code-editor [bundle-size-badge]: https://img.shields.io/bundlephobia/minzip/react-simple-code-editor.svg?style=flat-square [bundle-size]: https://bundlephobia.com/result?p=react-simple-code-editor

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