React Hook Combobox

Turn any text field and list into a WAI-ARIA compliant combobox

A combobox is a widget made up of the combination of two distinct elements: 1) a single-line textbox, and 2) an associated pop-up element for helping users set the value of the textbox. – w3.org

React Hook Combobox is built to the WAI-ARIA specification for comboboxes. It follows a bring-your-own principle, which gives consumers full ownership of:

• markup: render any UI you want
• data: use any data structure you want
• filter: use any function to filter your data

This approach offers ultimate flexibility with a tiny footprint (3.4kB).

Quickstart

Install:

npm i react-hook-combobox

Usage:

import React from "react";
import useCombobox from "react-hook-combobox";

const items = ["London", "Paris", "Rome"];

const Example = () => {
  const { primitives, value, activeIndex, isOpen } = useCombobox({
    name: "city",
    optionToString: index => items[index],
    onChange: value => console.log(value)
  });

  return (
    <div {...primitives.container}>
      <label {...primitives.label}>City</label>
      <input type="text" {...primitives.input} />

      {isOpen && (
        <ul {...primitives.listbox}>
          {items
            .filter(item => item.startsWith(value))
            .map((item, index) => (
              <li
                {...primitives.listboxOption(index)}
                key={index}
                style={index === activeIndex ? { background: "#D8E2EB" } : {}}
              >
                {item}
              </li>
            ))}
        </ul>
      )}
    </div>
  );
};

API

The useCombobox hook accepts a single argument containing the fields:

{
  name,
  optionToString,
  onChange,
  initialValue
}

name

string, required

A unique to the page identifier.

optionToString

function(index), required

Function that returns the display name of the selected listbox option.

onChange

function(value, index), required

Function called when the selected listbox option changes.

The index argument is undefined when the input primitive looses focus before a listbox option is selected. The value the user typed becomes the value of the input primitive.

initialValue

string, optional

Initial value of the input primitive.

---

The useCombobox hook returns an object containing the fields:

{
  primitives,
  value,
  activeIndex,
  isOpen,
  handleOpen,
  handleClear
}

primitives

object, { container, label, input, listbox, listboxOption }

Object containing primitives used to build a combobox:

• container, object Top level primitive that contains or owns the other primitives.
• label, object Primitive used to label the combobox.
• input, object Primitive that serves as the textbox.
• listbox, object Menu primitive allowing users to choose an option.
• listboxOption, function(index) Primitive for a single option rendered in the menu.

value

string, defaults to an empty string or the value passed to initialValue

Value of the input primitive.

activeIndex

number, defaults to -1

Index of the active listbox option.

isOpen

boolean, defaults to false

Reflects whether the listbox menu primitive should be visible or not.

handleOpen

function

Function to programmatically set isOpen to true.

handleClear

function

Function to clear the textbox value.

Homage

React Hook Combobox started as a gist to explore patterns for building a) flexible and b) accessible comboboxes.

Three-quarters of the way into the implementation a friend showed me Downshift, which achieves both a, b and more. However I couldn't stop returning to the remaining quarter and found myself finishing it!

Whilst Downshift offers way more features I still think React Hook Search is useful to those wanting:

• a simpler API (less can sometimes be more)
• a smaller bundle size (3.4kB vs 40.8kB)