Unlock the Power of Accordion Menus in React
What is an Accordion Menu?
The accordion menu, also known as an expansion panel, is a UI feature that allows users to toggle between hiding and displaying content. This innovative design concept, called progressive disclosure, provides a clean and organized user interface, minimizing scrolling, especially on smaller screens.
Building an Accordion Menu in React from Scratch
In this comprehensive tutorial, we’ll guide you through the process of creating an accordion menu in React from the ground up. We’ll develop a FAQ application with two different accordion types: one that allows a single expansion at a time and another that allows multiple expansions.
Getting Started
Before we dive in, make sure you have a basic understanding of React and Node.js installed. You can explore the final project here.
Project Architecture and Setup
To organize our project, we’ll divide the layout into four independent components: App, Header, Accordion, and AccordionItem. Let’s create a file for each component and set up our project architecture.
Creating the Accordion Header Component
The Header component will render the heading content. We’ll add a simple code snippet to the components/Header.js file to achieve this.
Creating the Accordion Component
The Accordion component will hold the individual AccordionItem components. We’ll create a data.js file to store our FAQ data and then import it into the Accordion component.
Toggling the Accordion Panels
Now, let’s implement the logic to open one panel at a time. We’ll use the AccordionItem’s index to define a logic that returns a Boolean value to dynamically toggle the panel.
Implementing a Smooth Transition Toggle
To add a smooth transition effect, we’ll use CSS transitions and the DOM scrollHeight property to dynamically set the dropdown content height.
Expanding Multiple Accordion Panels
For this accordion type, we’ll simply use a Boolean state value to toggle the panels. We’ll update the components/Accordion.js and components/AccordionItem.js files accordingly.
Putting it all Together
By following this tutorial, you’ll learn how to create a smooth transitioning accordion menu in React. You can now implement this feature into your own projects and enhance the user experience.
Try it Yourself
Explore the project source code on GitHub and try it out on CodeSandbox.
Get Started with LogRocket’s Modern React Error Tracking
Visit LogRocket to get started with modern React error tracking in minutes.