downshift

🏎 A set of primitives to build simple, flexible, WAI-ARIA compliant React autocomplete, combobox or select dropdown components.

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downshift 🏎
downshift logo

Primitives to build simple, flexible, WAI-ARIA compliant React autocomplete, combobox or select dropdown components.

Read the docs |
See the intro blog post
|
Listen to the Episode 79 of the Full Stack Radio podcast


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MIT License

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Supports React and Preact
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module formats: umd, cjs, and es

The problem

You need an autocomplete, a combobox or a select experience in your application
and you want it to be accessible. You also want it to be simple and flexible to
account for your use cases. Finally, it should follow the ARIA design
pattern for a combobox or a
select, depending on your use case.

This solution

The library offers a couple of solutions. The first solution, which is the one
we recommend you to try first, is a set of React hooks. Each hook provides the
stateful logic needed to make the corresponding component functional and
accessible. Navigate to the documentation for each by using the links in the
list below.

  • useSelect for a custom select component.
  • useCombobox for a combobox or autocomplete input.
  • useMultipleSelection for selecting multiple items
    in a select or a combobox, as well as deleting items from selection or
    navigating between the selected items.

The second solution is the Downshift component, which can also be used to
create accessible combobox and select components, providing the logic in the
form of a render prop. It served as inspiration for developing the hooks and it
has been around for a while. It established a successful pattern for making
components accessible and functional while giving developers complete freedom
when building the UI.

Both useSelect and useCombobox support the latest ARIA combobox patterns for
W3C, which Downshift does not. Consequently, we strongly recommend the you use
the hooks. The hooks have been migrated to the ARIA 1.2 combobox pattern in the
version 7 of downshift. There is a Migration Guide that
documents the changes introduced in version 7.

The README on this page covers only the component while each hook has its own
README page. You can navigate to the hooks page or go directly
to the hook you need by using the links in the list above.

For examples on how to use the hooks or the Downshift component, check out our
docsite!

🚨 Use the Downshift hooks 🚨

If you are new to the library, consider the useSelect and useCombobox hooks
as the first option. As mentioned above, the hooks benefit from the updated ARIA
patterns and are actively maintained and improved. If there are use cases that
are supported by the Downshift component and not by the hooks, please create
an issue in our repo. The Downshift component is going to be removed
completely once the hooks become mature.

Downshift

This is a component that controls user interactions and state for you so you can
create autocomplete, combobox or select dropdown components. It uses a render
prop
which gives you maximum flexibility with a minimal API
because you are responsible for the rendering of everything and you simply apply
props to what you’re rendering.

This differs from other solutions which render things for their use case and
then expose many options to allow for extensibility resulting in a bigger API
that is less flexible as well as making the implementation more complicated and
harder to contribute to.

NOTE: The original use case of this component is autocomplete, however the API
is powerful and flexible enough to build things like dropdowns as well.

Table of Contents

Installation

This module is distributed via npm which is bundled with node and
should be installed as one of your project’s dependencies:

npm install --save downshift

This package also depends on react. Please make sure you have it installed
as well.

Note also this library supports preact out of the box. If you are using
preact then use the corresponding module in the preact/dist folder. You
can even import Downshift from 'downshift/preact' 👍

Usage

Try it out in the browser

import * as React from 'react'
import {render} from 'react-dom'
import Downshift from 'downshift'

const items = [
  {value: 'apple'},
  {value: 'pear'},
  {value: 'orange'},
  {value: 'grape'},
  {value: 'banana'},
]

render(
  <Downshift
    onChange={selection =>
      alert(selection ? `You selected ${selection.value}` : 'Selection Cleared')
    }
    itemToString={item => (item ? item.value : '')}
  >
    {({
      getInputProps,
      getItemProps,
      getLabelProps,
      getMenuProps,
      isOpen,
      inputValue,
      highlightedIndex,
      selectedItem,
      getRootProps,
    }) => (
      <div>
        <label {...getLabelProps()}>Enter a fruit</label>
        <div
          style={{display: 'inline-block'}}
          {...getRootProps({}, {suppressRefError: true})}
        >
          <input {...getInputProps()} />
        </div>
        <ul {...getMenuProps()}>
          {isOpen
            ? items
                .filter(item => !inputValue || item.value.includes(inputValue))
                .map((item, index) => (
                  <li
                    {...getItemProps({
                      key: item.value,
                      index,
                      item,
                      style: {
                        backgroundColor:
                          highlightedIndex === index ? 'lightgray' : 'white',
                        fontWeight: selectedItem === item ? 'bold' : 'normal',
                      },
                    })}
                  >
                    {item.value}
                  </li>
                ))
            : null}
        </ul>
      </div>
    )}
  </Downshift>,
  document.getElementById('root'),
)

There is also an example without getRootProps.

Warning: The example without getRootProps is not fully accessible with
screen readers as it’s not possible to achieve the HTML structure suggested by
ARIA. We recommend following the example with getRootProps. Examples on how
to use Downshift component with and without getRootProps are on the
docsite.

Downshift is the only component exposed by this package. It doesn’t render
anything itself, it just calls the render function and renders that. “Use a
render prop!”
!
<Downshift>{downshift => <div>/* your JSX here! */</div>}</Downshift>.

Basic Props

This is the list of props that you should probably know about. There are some
advanced props below as well.

children

function({}) | required

This is called with an object. Read more about the properties of this object in
the section “Children Function”.

itemToString

function(item: any) | defaults to: item => (item ? String(item) : '')

If your items are stored as, say, objects instead of strings, downshift still
needs a string representation for each one (e.g., to set inputValue).

Note: This callback must include a null check: it is invoked with null
whenever the user abandons input via <Esc>.

onChange

function(selectedItem: any, stateAndHelpers: object) | optional, no useful
default

Called when the selected item changes, either by the user selecting an item or
the user clearing the selection. Called with the item that was selected or
null and the new state of downshift. (see onStateChange for more info on
stateAndHelpers).

  • selectedItem: The item that was just selected. null if the selection was
    cleared.
  • stateAndHelpers: This is the same thing your children function is called
    with (see Children Function)

stateReducer

function(state: object, changes: object) | optional

🚨 This is a really handy power feature 🚨

This function will be called each time downshift sets its internal state (or
calls your onStateChange handler for control props). It allows you to modify
the state change that will take place which can give you fine grain control over
how the component interacts with user updates without having to use
Control Props. It gives you the current state and the state
that will be set, and you return the state that you want to set.

  • state: The full current state of downshift.
  • changes: These are the properties that are about to change. This also has a
    type property which you can learn more about in the
    stateChangeTypes section.
const ui = (
  <Downshift stateReducer={stateReducer}>{/* your callback */}</Downshift>
)

function stateReducer(state, changes) {
  // this prevents the menu from being closed when the user
  // selects an item with a keyboard or mouse
  switch (changes.type) {
    case Downshift.stateChangeTypes.keyDownEnter:
    case Downshift.stateChangeTypes.clickItem:
      return {
        ...changes,
        isOpen: state.isOpen,
        highlightedIndex: state.highlightedIndex,
      }
    default:
      return changes
  }
}

NOTE: This is only called when state actually changes. You should not attempt
to use this to handle events. If you wish to handle events, put your event
handlers directly on the elements (make sure to use the prop getters though!
For example: <input onBlur={handleBlur} /> should be
<input {...getInputProps({onBlur: handleBlur})} />). Also, your reducer
function should be “pure.” This means it should do nothing other than return
the state changes you want to have happen.

Advanced Props

initialSelectedItem

any | defaults to null

Pass an item or an array of items that should be selected when downshift is
initialized.

initialInputValue

string | defaults to ''

This is the initial input value when downshift is initialized.

initialHighlightedIndex

number/null | defaults to defaultHighlightedIndex

This is the initial value to set the highlighted index to when downshift is
initialized.

initialIsOpen

boolean | defaults to defaultIsOpen

This is the initial isOpen value when downshift is initialized.

defaultHighlightedIndex

number/null | defaults to null

This is the value to set the highlightedIndex to anytime downshift is reset,
when the selection is cleared, when an item is selected or when the inputValue
is changed.

defaultIsOpen

boolean | defaults to false

This is the value to set the isOpen to anytime downshift is reset, when the
the selection is cleared, or when an item is selected.

selectedItemChanged

function(prevItem: any, item: any) | defaults to:
(prevItem, item) => (prevItem !== item)

Used to determine if the new selectedItem has changed compared to the previous
selectedItem and properly update Downshift’s internal state.

getA11yStatusMessage

function({/* see below */}) | default messages provided in English

This function is passed as props to a Status component nested within and
allows you to create your own assertive ARIA statuses.

A default getA11yStatusMessage function is provided that will check
resultCount and return “No results are available.” or if there are results ,
resultCount results are available, use up and down arrow keys to navigate.
Press Enter key to select.”

The object you are passed to generate your status message has the following
properties:

property type description
highlightedIndex number/null The currently highlighted index
highlightedItem any The value of the highlighted item
inputValue string The current input value
isOpen boolean The isOpen state
itemToString function(any) The itemToString function (see props) for getting the string value from one of the options
previousResultCount number The total items showing in the dropdown the last time the status was updated
resultCount number The total items showing in the dropdown
selectedItem any The value of the currently selected item

onSelect

function(selectedItem: any, stateAndHelpers: object) | optional, no useful
default

Called when the user selects an item, regardless of the previous selected item.
Called with the item that was selected and the new state of downshift. (see
onStateChange for more info on stateAndHelpers).

  • selectedItem: The item that was just selected
  • stateAndHelpers: This is the same thing your children function is called
    with (see Children Function)

onStateChange

function(changes: object, stateAndHelpers: object) | optional, no useful
default

This function is called anytime the internal state changes. This can be useful
if you’re using downshift as a “controlled” component, where you manage some or
all of the state (e.g., isOpen, selectedItem, highlightedIndex, etc) and then
pass it as props, rather than letting downshift control all its state itself.
The parameters both take the shape of internal state
({highlightedIndex: number, inputValue: string, isOpen: boolean, selectedItem: any})
but differ slightly.

  • changes: These are the properties that actually have changed since the last
    state change. This also has a type property which you can learn more about
    in the stateChangeTypes section.
  • stateAndHelpers: This is the exact same thing your children function is
    called with (see Children Function)

Tip: This function will be called any time any state is changed. The best
way to determine whether any particular state was changed, you can use
changes.hasOwnProperty('propName').

NOTE: This is only called when state actually changes. You should not attempt
to use this to handle events. If you wish to handle events, put your event
handlers directly on the elements (make sure to use the prop getters though!
For example: <input onBlur={handleBlur} /> should be
<input {...getInputProps({onBlur: handleBlur})} />).

onInputValueChange

function(inputValue: string, stateAndHelpers: object) | optional, no useful
default

Called whenever the input value changes. Useful to use instead or in combination
of onStateChange when inputValue is a controlled prop to
avoid issues with cursor positions.

  • inputValue: The current value of the input
  • stateAndHelpers: This is the same thing your children function is called
    with (see Children Function)

itemCount

number | optional, defaults the number of times you call getItemProps

This is useful if you’re using some kind of virtual listing component for
“windowing” (like
react-virtualized).

highlightedIndex

number | control prop (read more about this in
the Control Props section)

The index that should be highlighted

inputValue

string | control prop (read more about this in
the Control Props section)

The value the input should have

isOpen

boolean | control prop (read more about this in
the Control Props section)

Whether the menu should be considered open or closed. Some aspects of the
downshift component respond differently based on this value (for example, if
isOpen is true when the user hits “Enter” on the input field, then the item at
the highlightedIndex item is selected).

selectedItem

any/Array(any) | control prop (read more about this in
the Control Props section)

The currently selected item.

id

string | defaults to a generated ID

You should not normally need to set this prop. It’s only useful if you’re server
rendering items (which each have an id prop generated based on the downshift
id). For more information see the FAQ below.

inputId

string | defaults to a generated ID

Used for aria attributes and the id prop of the element (input) you use
getInputProps with.

labelId

string | defaults to a generated ID

Used for aria attributes and the id prop of the element (label) you use
getLabelProps with.

menuId

string | defaults to a generated ID

Used for aria attributes and the id prop of the element (ul) you use
getMenuProps with.

getItemId

function(index) | defaults to a function that generates an ID based on the
index

Used for aria attributes and the id prop of the element (li) you use
getInputProps with.

environment

window | defaults to window

This prop is only useful if you’re rendering downshift within a different
window context from where your JavaScript is running; for example, an iframe
or a shadow-root. If the given context is lacking document and/or
add|removeEventListener on its prototype (as is the case for a shadow-root)
then you will need to pass in a custom object that is able to provide
access to these properties
for downshift.

onOuterClick

function(stateAndHelpers: object) | optional

A helper callback to help control internal state of downshift like isOpen as
mentioned in this issue.
The same behavior can be achieved using onStateChange, but this prop is
provided as a helper because it’s a fairly common use-case if you’re controlling
the isOpen state:

const ui = (
  <Downshift
    isOpen={this.state.menuIsOpen}
    onOuterClick={() => this.setState({menuIsOpen: false})}
  >
    {/* your callback */}
  </Downshift>
)

This callback will only be called if isOpen is true.

scrollIntoView

function(node: HTMLElement, menuNode: HTMLElement) | defaults to internal
implementation

This allows you to customize how the scrolling works when the highlighted index
changes. It receives the node to be scrolled to and the root node (the root node
you render in downshift). Internally we use
compute-scroll-into-view
so if you use that package then you wont be adding any additional bytes to your
bundle 😃

stateChangeTypes

There are a few props that expose changes to state
(onStateChange and stateReducer). For you
to make the most of these APIs, it’s important for you to understand why state
is being changed. To accomplish this, there’s a type property on the changes
object you get. This type corresponds to a Downshift.stateChangeTypes
property.

The list of all possible values this type property can take is defined in
this file
and is as follows:

  • Downshift.stateChangeTypes.unknown
  • Downshift.stateChangeTypes.mouseUp
  • Downshift.stateChangeTypes.itemMouseEnter
  • Downshift.stateChangeTypes.keyDownArrowUp
  • Downshift.stateChangeTypes.keyDownArrowDown
  • Downshift.stateChangeTypes.keyDownEscape
  • Downshift.stateChangeTypes.keyDownEnter
  • Downshift.stateChangeTypes.keyDownHome
  • Downshift.stateChangeTypes.keyDownEnd
  • Downshift.stateChangeTypes.clickItem
  • Downshift.stateChangeTypes.blurInput
  • Downshift.stateChangeTypes.changeInput
  • Downshift.stateChangeTypes.keyDownSpaceButton
  • Downshift.stateChangeTypes.clickButton
  • Downshift.stateChangeTypes.blurButton
  • Downshift.stateChangeTypes.controlledPropUpdatedSelectedItem
  • Downshift.stateChangeTypes.touchEnd

See stateReducer for a concrete example on how to use the
type property.

Control Props

downshift manages its own state internally and calls your onChange and
onStateChange handlers with any relevant changes. The state that downshift
manages includes: isOpen, selectedItem, inputValue, and
highlightedIndex. Your Children function (read more below) can be used to
manipulate this state and can likely support many of your use cases.

However, if more control is needed, you can pass any of these pieces of state as
a prop (as indicated above) and that state becomes controlled. As soon as
this.props[statePropKey] !== undefined, internally, downshift will determine
its state based on your prop’s value rather than its own internal state. You
will be required to keep the state up to date (this is where onStateChange
comes in really handy), but you can also control the state from anywhere, be
that state from other components, redux, react-router, or anywhere else.

Note: This is very similar to how normal controlled components work elsewhere
in react (like <input />). If you want to learn more about this concept, you
can learn about that from this the
Advanced React Component Patterns course

Children Function

This is where you render whatever you want to based on the state of downshift.
You use it like so:

const ui = (
  <Downshift>
    {downshift => (
      // use downshift utilities and state here, like downshift.isOpen,
      // downshift.getInputProps, etc.
      <div>{/* more jsx here */}</div>
    )}
  </Downshift>
)

The properties of this downshift object can be split into three categories as
indicated below:

prop getters

See
the blog post about prop getters

NOTE: These prop-getters provide important aria- attributes which are very
important to your component being accessible. It’s recommended that you
utilize these functions and apply the props they give you to your components.

These functions are used to apply props to the elements that you render. This
gives you maximum flexibility to render what, when, and wherever you like. You
call these on the element in question (for example:
<input {...getInputProps()})). It’s advisable to pass all your props to that
function rather than applying them on the element yourself to avoid your props
being overridden (or overriding the props returned). For example:
getInputProps({onKeyUp(event) {console.log(event)}}).

property type description
getToggleButtonProps function({}) returns the props you should apply to any menu toggle button element you render.
getInputProps function({}) returns the props you should apply to the input element that you render.
getItemProps function({}) returns the props you should apply to any menu item elements you render.
getLabelProps function({}) returns the props you should apply to the label element that you render.
getMenuProps function({},{}) returns the props you should apply to the ul element (or root of your menu) that you render.
getRootProps function({},{}) returns the props you should apply to the root element that you render. It can be optional.

getRootProps

If you cannot render a div as the root element, then read this

Most of the time, you can just render a div yourself and Downshift will
apply the props it needs to do its job (and you don’t need to call this
function). However, if you’re rendering a composite component (custom component)
as the root element, then you’ll need to call getRootProps and apply that to
your root element (downshift will throw an error otherwise).

There are no required properties for this method.

Optional properties:

  • refKey: if you’re rendering a composite component, that component will need
    to accept a prop which it forwards to the root DOM element. Commonly, folks
    call this innerRef. So you’d call: getRootProps({refKey: 'innerRef'}) and
    your composite component would forward like: <div ref={props.innerRef} />.
    It defaults to ref.

If you’re rendering a composite component, Downshift checks that
getRootProps is called and that refKey is a prop of the returned composite
component. This is done to catch common causes of errors but, in some cases, the
check could fail even if the ref is correctly forwarded to the root DOM
component. In these cases, you can provide the object
{suppressRefError : true} as the second argument to getRootProps to
completely bypass the check.
Please use it with extreme care and only if you are absolutely sure that the ref
is correctly forwarded otherwise Downshift will unexpectedly fail.

See #235 for the
discussion that lead to this.

getInputProps

This method should be applied to the input you render. It is recommended that
you pass all props as an object to this method which will compose together any
of the event handlers you need to apply to the input while preserving the ones
that downshift needs to apply to make the input behave.

There are no required properties for this method.

Optional properties:

  • disabled: If this is set to true, then no event handlers will be returned
    from getInputProps and a disabled prop will be returned (effectively
    disabling the input).

  • aria-label: By default the menu will add an aria-labelledby that refers to
    the <label> rendered with getLabelProps. However, if you provide
    aria-label to give a more specific label that describes the options
    available, then aria-labelledby will not be provided and screen readers can
    use your aria-label instead.

getLabelProps

This method should be applied to the label you render. It is useful for
ensuring that the for attribute on the <label> (htmlFor as a react prop)
is the same as the id that appears on the input. If no htmlFor is provided
(the normal case) then an ID will be generated and used for the input and the
label for attribute.

There are no required properties for this method.

Note: For accessibility purposes, calling this method is highly recommended.

getMenuProps

This method should be applied to the element which contains your list of items.
Typically, this will be a <div> or a <ul> that surrounds a map expression.
This handles the proper ARIA roles and attributes.

Optional properties:

  • refKey: if you’re rendering a composite component, that component will need
    to accept a prop which it forwards to the root DOM element. Commonly, folks
    call this innerRef. So you’d call: getMenuProps({refKey: 'innerRef'}) and
    your composite component would forward like: <ul ref={props.innerRef} />.
    However, if you are just rendering a primitive component like <div>, there
    is no need to specify this property. It defaults to ref.

    Please keep in mind that menus, for accessibility purposes, should always be
    rendered, regardless of whether you hide it or not. Otherwise, getMenuProps
    may throw error if you unmount and remount the menu.

  • aria-label: By default the menu will add an aria-labelledby that refers to
    the <label> rendered with getLabelProps. However, if you provide
    aria-label to give a more specific label that describes the options
    available, then aria-labelledby will not be provided and screen readers can
    use your aria-label instead.

In some cases, you might want to completely bypass the refKey check. Then you
can provide the object {suppressRefError : true} as the second argument to
getMenuProps. Please use it with extreme care and only if you are absolutely
sure that the ref is correctly forwarded otherwise Downshift will unexpectedly
fail.

<ul {...getMenuProps()}>
  {!isOpen
    ? null
    : items.map((item, index) => (
        <li {...getItemProps({item, index, key: item.id})}>{item.name}</li>
      ))}
</ul>

Note that for accessibility reasons it’s best if you always render this
element whether or not downshift is in an isOpen state.

getItemProps

The props returned from calling this function should be applied to any menu
items you render.

This is an impure function, so it should only be called when you will
actually be applying the props to an item.

What do you mean by impure function?

Basically just don’t do this:

items.map(item => {
  const props = getItemProps({item}) // we're calling it here
  if (!shouldRenderItem(item)) {
    return null // but we're not using props, and downshift thinks we are...
  }
  return <div {...props} />
})

Instead, you could do this:

items.filter(shouldRenderItem).map(item => <div {...getItemProps({item})} />)

Required properties:

  • item: this is the item data that will be selected when the user selects a
    particular item.

Optional properties:

  • index: This is how downshift keeps track of your item when updating the
    highlightedIndex as the user keys around. By default, downshift will
    assume the index is the order in which you’re calling getItemProps. This
    is often good enough, but if you find odd behavior, try setting this
    explicitly. It’s probably best to be explicit about index when using a
    windowing library like react-virtualized.
  • disabled: If this is set to true, then all of the downshift item event
    handlers will be omitted. Items will not be highlighted when hovered, and
    items will not be selected when clicked.

getToggleButtonProps

Call this and apply the returned props to a button. It allows you to toggle
the Menu component. You can definitely build something like this yourself (all
of the available APIs are exposed to you), but this is nice because it will also
apply all of the proper ARIA attributes.

Optional properties:

  • disabled: If this is set to true, then all of the downshift button event
    handlers will be omitted (it wont toggle the menu when clicked).
  • aria-label: The aria-label prop is in English. You should probably
    override this yourself so you can provide translations:
const myButton = (
  <button
    {...getToggleButtonProps({
      'aria-label': translateWithId(isOpen ? 'close.menu' : 'open.menu'),
    })}
  />
)

actions

These are functions you can call to change the state of the downshift component.

property type description
clearSelection function(cb: Function) clears the selection
clearItems function() Clears downshift’s record of all the items. Only really useful if you render your items asynchronously within downshift. See #186
closeMenu function(cb: Function) closes the menu
openMenu function(cb: Function) opens the menu
selectHighlightedItem function(otherStateToSet: object, cb: Function) selects the item that is currently highlighted
selectItem function(item: any, otherStateToSet: object, cb: Function) selects the given item
selectItemAtIndex function(index: number, otherStateToSet: object, cb: Function) selects the item at the given index
setHighlightedIndex function(index: number, otherStateToSet: object, cb: Function) call to set a new highlighted index
toggleMenu function(otherStateToSet: object, cb: Function) toggle the menu open state
reset function(otherStateToSet: object, cb: Function) this resets downshift’s state to a reasonable default
setItemCount function(count: number) this sets the itemCount. Handy in situations where you’re using windowing and the items are loaded asynchronously from within downshift (so you can’t use the itemCount prop.
unsetItemCount function() this unsets the itemCount which means the item count will be calculated instead by the itemCount prop or based on how many times you call getItemProps.
setState function(stateToSet: object, cb: Function) This is a general setState function. It uses downshift’s internalSetState function which works with control props and calls your onSelect, onChange, etc. (Note, you can specify a type which you can reference in some other APIs like the stateReducer).

otherStateToSet refers to an object to set other internal state. It is
recommended to avoid abusing this, but is available if you need it.

state

These are values that represent the current state of the downshift component.

property type description
highlightedIndex number / null the currently highlighted item
inputValue string / null the current value of the getInputProps input
isOpen boolean the menu open state
selectedItem any the currently selected item input

props

As a convenience, the id and itemToString props which you pass to
<Downshift /> are available here as well.

Event Handlers

Downshift has a few events for which it provides implicit handlers. Several of
these handlers call event.preventDefault(). Their additional functionality is
described below.

default handlers

  • ArrowDown: if menu is closed, opens it and moves the highlighted index to
    defaultHighlightedIndex + 1, if defaultHighlightedIndex is provided, or to
    the top-most item, if not. If menu is open, it moves the highlighted index
    down by 1. If the shift key is held when this event fires, the highlighted
    index will jump down 5 indices instead of 1. NOTE: if the current highlighted
    index is within the bottom 5 indices, the top-most index will be highlighted.)

  • ArrowUp: if menu is closed, opens it and moves the highlighted index to
    defaultHighlightedIndex - 1, if defaultHighlightedIndex is provided, or to
    the bottom-most item, if not. If menu is open, moves the highlighted index up
    by 1. If the shift key is held when this event fires, the highlighted index
    will jump up 5 indices instead of 1. NOTE: if the current highlighted index is
    within the top 5 indices, the bottom-most index will be highlighted.)

  • Home: if menu is closed, it will not add any other behavior. If menu is
    open, the top-most index will get highlighted.

  • End: if menu is closed, it will not add any other behavior. If menu is open,
    the bottom-most index will get highlighted.

  • Enter: if the menu is open, selects the currently highlighted item. If the
    menu is open, the usual ‘Enter’ event is prevented by Downshift’s default
    implicit enter handler; so, for example, a form submission event will not work
    as one might expect (though if the menu is closed the form submission will
    work normally). See below for customizing the handlers.

  • Escape: will clear downshift’s state. This means that highlightedIndex
    will be set to the defaultHighlightedIndex and the isOpen state will be
    set to the defaultIsOpen. If isOpen is already false, the inputValue
    will be set to an empty string and selectedItem will be set to null

customizing handlers

You can provide your own event handlers to Downshift which will be called before
the default handlers:

const ui = (
  <Downshift>
    {({getInputProps}) => (
      <input
        {...getInputProps({
          onKeyDown: event => {
            // your handler code
          },
        })}
      />
    )}
  </Downshift>
)

If you would like to prevent the default handler behavior in some cases, you can
set the event’s preventDownshiftDefault property to true:

const ui = (
  <Downshift>
    {({getInputProps}) => (
      <input
        {...getInputProps({
          onKeyDown: event => {
            if (event.key === 'Enter') {
              // Prevent Downshift's default 'Enter' behavior.
              event.nativeEvent.preventDownshiftDefault = true

              // your handler code
            }
          },
        })}
      />
    )}
  </Downshift>
)

If you would like to completely override Downshift’s behavior for a handler, in
favor of your own, you can bypass prop getters:

const ui = (
  <Downshift>
    {({getInputProps}) => (
      <input
        {...getInputProps()}
        onKeyDown={event => {
          // your handler code
        }}
      />
    )}
  </Downshift>
)

Utilities

resetIdCounter

Allows reseting the internal id counter which is used to generate unique ids for
Downshift component.

This is unnecessary if you are using React 18 or newer

You should never need to use this in the browser. Only if you are running an
universal React app that is rendered on the server you should call
resetIdCounter before every render so that the ids that get
generated on the server match the ids generated in the browser.

import {resetIdCounter} from 'downshift';

resetIdCounter()
ReactDOMServer.renderToString(...);

React Native

Since Downshift renders it’s UI using render props, Downshift supports rendering
on React Native with ease. Use components like <View>, <Text>,
<TouchableOpacity> and others inside of your render method to generate awesome
autocomplete, dropdown, or selection components.

Gotchas

  • Your root view will need to either pass a ref to getRootProps or call
    getRootProps with { suppressRefError: true }. This ref is used to catch a
    common set of errors around composite components.
    Learn more in getRootProps.
  • When using a <FlatList> or <ScrollView>, be sure to supply the
    keyboardShouldPersistTaps
    prop to ensure that your text input stays focus, while allowing for taps on
    the touchables rendered for your items.

Advanced React Component Patterns course

Kent C. Dodds has created learning material
based on the patterns implemented in this component. You can find it on various
platforms:

  1. egghead.io
  2. Frontend Masters
  3. YouTube (for free!):
    Part 1
    and
    Part 2

Examples

🚨 We’re in the process of moving all examples to the
downshift-examples repo
(which you can open, interact with, and contribute back to live on
codesandbox)

🚨 We’re also in the process of updating our examples from the
downshift-docs repo which is
actually used to create our docsite at downshift-js.com). Make sure
to check it out for the most relevant Downshift examples or try out the new
hooks that aim to replace Downshift.

Ordered Examples:

If you’re just learning downshift, review these in order:

  1. basic automplete with getRootProps -
    the same as example #1 but using the correct HTML structure as suggested by
    ARIA-WCAG.
  2. basic autocomplete -
    very bare bones, not styled at all. Good place to start.
  3. styled autocomplete -
    more complete autocomplete solution using emotion for styling and
    match-sorter for filtering the items.
  4. typeahead -
    Shows how to control the selectedItem so the selected item can be one of
    your items or whatever the user types.
  5. multi-select -
    Shows how to create a MultiDownshift component that allows for an array of
    selectedItems for multiple selection using a state reducer

Other Examples:

Check out these examples of more advanced use/edge cases:

  • dropdown with select by key -
    An example of using the render prop pattern to utilize a reusable component to
    provide the downshift dropdown component with the functionality of being able
    to highlight a selection item that starts with the key pressed.
  • using actions -
    An example of using one of downshift’s actions as an event handler.
  • gmail’s composition recipients field -
    An example of a highly complex autocomplete component featuring asynchronously
    loading items, multiple selection, and windowing (with react-virtualized)
  • Downshift HOC and Compound Components -
    An example of how to implementat compound components with
    React.createContext and a downshift higher order component. This is
    generally not recommended because the render prop API exported by downshift is
    generally good enough for everyone, but there’s nothing technically wrong with
    doing something like this.

Old Examples exist on codesandbox.io:

🚨 This is a great contribution opportunity! These are examples that have not
yet been migrated to
downshift-examples.
You’re more than welcome to make PRs to the examples repository to move these
examples over there.
Watch this to learn how to contribute completely in the browser

FAQ

How do I avoid the checksum error when server rendering (SSR)?

The checksum error you’re seeing is most likely due to the automatically
generated id and/or htmlFor prop you get from getInputProps and
getLabelProps (respectively). It could also be from the automatically
generated id prop you get from getItemProps (though this is not likely as
you’re probably not rendering any items when rendering a downshift component on
the server).

To avoid these problems, simply call resetIdCounter before
ReactDOM.renderToString.

Alternatively you could provide your own ids via the id props where you render
<Downshift />:

const ui = (
  <Downshift
    id="autocomplete"
    labelId="autocomplete-label"
    inputId="autocomplete-input"
    menuId="autocomplete-menu"
  >
    {({getInputProps, getLabelProps}) => <div>{/* your UI */}</div>}
  </Downshift>
)

Inspiration

I was heavily inspired by Ryan Florence. Watch his (free) lesson about
“Compound Components”. Initially downshift was a
group of compound components using context to communicate. But then Jared
Forsyth
suggested I expose functions (the prop getters) to get props to
apply to the elements rendered. That bit of inspiration made a big impact on the
flexibility and simplicity of this API.

I also took a few ideas from the code in
react-autocomplete and jQuery UI’s
Autocomplete
.

You can watch me build the first iteration of downshift on YouTube:

You’ll find more recordings of me working on downshift on my livestream
YouTube playlist
.

Other Solutions

You can implement these other solutions using downshift, but if you’d prefer
to use these out of the box solutions, then that’s fine too:

Bindings for ReasonML

If you’re developing some React in ReasonML, check out the
Downshift bindings for
that.

Contributors

Thanks goes to these people (emoji key):

Kent C. Dodds
Kent C. Dodds

💻 📖 🚇 ⚠️ 👀 📝 🐛 💡 🤔 📢
Ryan Florence
Ryan Florence

🤔
Jared Forsyth
Jared Forsyth

🤔 📖
Jack Moore
Jack Moore

💡
Travis Arnold
Travis Arnold

💻 📖
Marcy Sutton
Marcy Sutton

🐛 🤔
Jeremy Gayed
Jeremy Gayed

💡
Haroen Viaene
Haroen Viaene

💡
monssef
monssef

💡
Federico Zivolo
Federico Zivolo

📖
Divyendu Singh
Divyendu Singh

💡 💻 📖 ⚠️
Muhammad Salman
Muhammad Salman

💻
João Alberto
João Alberto

💻
Bernard Lin
Bernard Lin

💻 📖
Geoff Davis
Geoff Davis

💡
Anup
Anup

📖
Ferdinand Salis
Ferdinand Salis

🐛 💻
Kye Hohenberger
Kye Hohenberger

🐛
Julien Goux
Julien Goux

🐛 💻 ⚠️
Joachim Seminck
Joachim Seminck

💻
Jesse Harlin
Jesse Harlin

🐛 💡
Matt Parrish
Matt Parrish

🔧 👀
thom
thom

💻
Vu Tran
Vu Tran

💻
Codie Mullins
Codie Mullins

💻 💡
Mohammad Rajabifard
Mohammad Rajabifard

📖 🤔
Frank Tan
Frank Tan

💻
Kier Borromeo
Kier Borromeo

💡
Paul Veevers
Paul Veevers

💻
Ron Cruz
Ron Cruz

📖
Rick McGavin
Rick McGavin

📖
Jelle Versele
Jelle Versele

💡
Brent Ertz
Brent Ertz

🤔
Justice Mba
Justice Mba

💻 📖 🤔
Mark Ellis
Mark Ellis

🤔
us͡an̸df͘rien͜ds͠
us͡an̸df͘rien͜ds͠

🐛 💻 ⚠️
Robin Drexler
Robin Drexler

🐛 💻
Arturo Romero
Arturo Romero

💡
yp
yp

🐛 💻 ⚠️
Dave Garwacke
Dave Garwacke

📖
Ivan Pazhitnykh
Ivan Pazhitnykh

💻 ⚠️
Luis Merino
Luis Merino

📖
Andrew Hansen
Andrew Hansen

💻 ⚠️ 🤔
John Whiles
John Whiles

💻
Justin Hall
Justin Hall

🚇
Pete Nykänen
Pete Nykänen

👀
Jared Palmer
Jared Palmer

💻
Philip Young
Philip Young

💻 ⚠️ 🤔
Alexander Nanberg
Alexander Nanberg

📖 💻
Pete Redmond
Pete Redmond

🐛
Nick Lavin
Nick Lavin

🐛 💻 ⚠️
James Long
James Long

🐛 💻
Michael Ball
Michael Ball

🐛 💻 ⚠️
CAVALEIRO Julien
CAVALEIRO Julien

💡
Kim Grönqvist
Kim Grönqvist

💻 ⚠️
Sijie
Sijie

🐛 💻
Dony Sukardi
Dony Sukardi

💡 💬 💻 ⚠️
Dillon Mulroy
Dillon Mulroy

📖
Curtis Tate Wilkinson
Curtis Tate Wilkinson

💻
Brice BERNARD
Brice BERNARD

🐛 💻
Tony Xu
Tony Xu

💻
Anthony Ng
Anthony Ng

📖
S S
S S

💬 💻 📖 🤔 ⚠️
Austin Tackaberry
Austin Tackaberry

💬 💻 📖 🐛 💡 🤔 👀 ⚠️
Jean Duthon
Jean Duthon

🐛 💻
Anton Telesh
Anton Telesh

🐛 💻
Eric Edem
Eric Edem

💻 📖 🤔 ⚠️
Austin Wood
Austin Wood

💬 📖 👀
Mark Murray
Mark Murray

🚇
Gianmarco
Gianmarco

🐛 💻
Emmanuel Pastor
Emmanuel Pastor

💡
dalehurwitz
dalehurwitz

💻
Bogdan Lobor
Bogdan Lobor

🐛 💻
Luke Herrington
Luke Herrington

💡
Brandon Clemons
Brandon Clemons

💻
Kieran
Kieran

💻
Brushedoctopus
Brushedoctopus

🐛 💻
Cameron Edwards
Cameron Edwards

💻 ⚠️
stereobooster
stereobooster

💻 ⚠️
Trevor Pierce
Trevor Pierce

👀
Xuefei Li
Xuefei Li

💻
Alfred Ringstad
Alfred Ringstad

💻
D[oa]vid Weisz
D[oa]vid Weisz

💻
Royston Shufflebotham
Royston Shufflebotham

🐛 💻
Michaël De Boey
Michaël De Boey

💻
Henry
Henry

💻
Andrew Walton
Andrew Walton

🐛 💻 ⚠️
Arthur Denner
Arthur Denner

💻
Cody Olsen
Cody Olsen

💻
Thomas Ladd
Thomas Ladd

💻
lixualinta
lixualinta

💻
Jacob Cofman
Jacob Cofman

💻
Joshua Freedman
Joshua Freedman

💻
Amy
Amy

💡
Rogin Farrer
Rogin Farrer

💻
Dmitrii Kanatnikov
Dmitrii Kanatnikov

💻
Dallon Feldner
Dallon Feldner

🐛 💻
Samuel Fuller Thomas
Samuel Fuller Thomas

💻
Ryan Castner
Ryan Castner

💻
Silviu Alexandru Avram
Silviu Alexandru Avram

🐛 💻 ⚠️
Anton Volkov
Anton Volkov

💻 ⚠️
Keegan Street
Keegan Street

🐛 💻
Manuel Dugué
Manuel Dugué

💻
Max Karadeniz
Max Karadeniz

💻
Gonzalo Beviglia
Gonzalo Beviglia

🐛 💻 👀
Brian Kilrain
Brian Kilrain

🐛 💻 ⚠️ 📖
Gerd Zschaler
Gerd Zschaler

💻 🐛
Karen Gasparyan
Karen Gasparyan

💻
Sergey Korchinskiy
Sergey Korchinskiy

🐛 💻 ⚠️
Edygar Oliveira
Edygar Oliveira

💻 🐛
epeicher
epeicher

🐛
François Chalifour
François Chalifour

💻 ⚠️ 📦
Maxim Malov
Maxim Malov

🐛 💻
Enrique Piqueras
Enrique Piqueras

🤔
Oleksandr Fediashov
Oleksandr Fediashov

💻 🚇 🤔
Mikhail Bashurov
Mikhail Bashurov

💻 🐛
Joshua Godi
Joshua Godi

💻
Kanitkorn Sujautra
Kanitkorn Sujautra

🐛 💻
Jorge Moya
Jorge Moya

💻 🐛
Jakub Jastrzębski
Jakub Jastrzębski

💻
Shukhrat Mukimov
Shukhrat Mukimov

💻
Jhonny Moreira
Jhonny Moreira

💻
stefanprobst
stefanprobst

💻 ⚠️
Louisa Spicer
Louisa Spicer

💻 🐛
Ryō Igarashi
Ryō Igarashi

🐛 💻
Ryan Lue
Ryan Lue

📖
Mateusz Leonowicz
Mateusz Leonowicz

💻
Dennis Thompson
Dennis Thompson

⚠️
Maksym Boytsov
Maksym Boytsov

💻
Sergey Skrynnikov
Sergey Skrynnikov

💻 ⚠️
Vincent Voyer
Vincent Voyer

📖
limejoe
limejoe

💻 🐛
Manish Kumar
Manish Kumar

💻
Anang Fachreza
Anang Fachreza

📖 💡
Nick Deom
Nick Deom

💻 🐛
Clément Garbay
Clément Garbay

💻
Kaimin Huang
Kaimin Huang

💻 🐛
David Welling
David Welling

💻 🐛 🤔 🔬
chandrasekhar1996
chandrasekhar1996

🐛 💻
Brendan Drew
Brendan Drew

💻
Jean Pan
Jean Pan

💻
Tom Jenkinson
Tom Jenkinson

🚇
Alice Hendicott
Alice Hendicott

💻 🐛
Zach Davis
Zach Davis

💻 🐛

This project follows the all-contributors specification.
Contributions of any kind welcome!

LICENSE

MIT