Unlock the Power of Sticky Headers in React
The Challenge of Creating Sticky Headers
Before the advent of the CSS position: sticky property, creating a sticky header for tables was a daunting task for many developers. But fear not, dear reader! In this article, we’ll explore a game-changing approach to building sticky headers using React Hooks.
Getting Started with Create-React-App
To begin, ensure you have Node.js and NPM installed on your machine, along with basic knowledge of JavaScript and React. Then, install the official React application scaffold tool, create-react-app, by running the command in your terminal. Verify the installation by running create-react-app, which will prompt you to specify a directory name. For this tutorial, we’ll create a table of countries with a sticky header built using React Hooks.
Building the Table Component
We’ll create three essential files: Table.js, Data.js, and stickyHeader.js. The Table.js component will contain the table and sticky hook, while Data.js will hold the data to be passed as props. The stickyHeader.js file will house our custom hook for making the header sticky.
Crafting the Data Component
In the src folder, create a new file called Data.js. Here, we’ll export a constant HeaderTable array with country, code, and area objects, along with another array of objects containing country information.
Designing the StickyHeader Hook
In this component, we’ll build a custom hook to handle scroll events and enforce stickiness. We’ll import the native React useState to update the initial state of the application, define a tableRef object as a reference to the table element, and create a handleScroll function to detail the position of the table on the screen.
Assembling the Table Component
Now, we’ll build a functional component that takes in parameters from our StickyHeader component and renders our application. We’ll initialize the StickyHeader component using two parameters: tableRef and isSticky.
Rendering the Final Application
Update your App.js file to render our individual components using the Table component. Pass the headerTable and tableData as props, and voilà! Your app header should remain sticky while scrolling through the countries table.
Unlocking the Full Potential of React
In this article, we’ve explored the power of using hooks to build a sticky header, passing data from components, and rendering it as props. Take your React skills to the next level with LogRocket’s modern error tracking and explore more React articles on our blog. The code used in this article is available on CodeSandbox.
Get Started with LogRocket
Visit https://logrocket.com/signup/ to get an app ID and set up LogRocket’s modern React error tracking in minutes.