visx README

The project's README from github.com/airbnb/visx. As one markdown file: README.md.

visx

visx is a collection of reusable low-level visualization components. visx combines the power of d3 to generate your visualization with the benefits of react for updating the DOM.

[!IMPORTANT] visx v4 is the current stable release and requires React 18 or 19.

npm install @visx/shape

Upgrading from v3? See the visx 4 migration guide.


Docs • Gallery • Changelog • Migration

Usage

Let's make a simple bar graph.

First we'll install the relevant packages:

npm install --save @visx/mock-data @visx/group @visx/shape @visx/scale

import React from 'react';
import { letterFrequency } from '@visx/mock-data';
import { Group } from '@visx/group';
import { Bar } from '@visx/shape';
import { scaleLinear, scaleBand } from '@visx/scale';

// We'll use some mock data from `@visx/mock-data` for this.
const data = letterFrequency;

// Define the graph dimensions and margins
const width = 500;
const height = 500;
const margin = { top: 20, bottom: 20, left: 20, right: 20 };

// Then we'll create some bounds
const xMax = width - margin.left - margin.right;
const yMax = height - margin.top - margin.bottom;

// Accessors
const getLetter = (d) => d.letter;
const getFrequency = (d) => d.frequency * 100;

// And then scale the graph by our data
const xScale = scaleBand({
  range: [0, xMax],
  round: true,
  domain: data.map(getLetter),
  padding: 0.4,
});
const yScale = scaleLinear({
  range: [yMax, 0],
  round: true,
  domain: [0, Math.max(...data.map(getFrequency))],
});

// Finally we'll embed it all in an SVG
function BarGraph() {
  return (
    <svg width={width} height={height}>
      {data.map((d) => {
        const letter = getLetter(d);
        const barHeight = yMax - (yScale(getFrequency(d)) ?? 0);
        return (
          <Group key={`bar-${letter}`}>
            <Bar
              x={xScale(letter)}
              y={yMax - barHeight}
              height={barHeight}
              width={xScale.bandwidth()}
              fill="#fc2e1c"
            />
          </Group>
        );
      })}
    </svg>
  );
}

For more examples using visx, check out the gallery.

Motivation

Goal

The goal is to create a library of components you can use to make both your own reusable chart library or your slick custom one-off chart. visx is largely unopinionated and is meant to be built upon. Keep your bundle sizes down and use only the packages you need.

How?

Under the hood, visx is using d3 for the calculations and math. If you're creating your own awesome chart library on top of visx, it's easy to create a component api that hides d3 entirely. Meaning your team could create charts as easily as using reusable react components.

But why?

Mixing two mental models for updating the DOM is never a good time. Copy and pasting d3 code into useEffect() is just that. This collection of components lets you easily build your own reusable visualization charts or library without having to learn d3. No more selections or enter()/exit()/update().

FAQ

  1. What does visx stand for?

    visx stands for visualization components.

  2. Do you plan on supporting animation/transitions?

    A common criticism of visx is it doesn't have animation baked in, but this was a conscious choice. It's a powerful feature to not bake it in.

    Imagine your app already bundles react-motion, adding a hypothetical @visx/animation is bloat. Since visx is react, it already supports all react animation libs.

    Charting libraries are like style guides. Each org or app will eventually want full control over their own implementation.

    visx makes this easier for everyone. No need to reinvent the wheel each time.

    more info: https://github.com/airbnb/visx/issues/6

  3. Do I have to use every package to make a chart?

    nope! pick and choose the packages you need.

  4. Can I use this to create my own library of charts for my team?

    Please do.

  5. Does visx work with preact?

    yup! alias react + react-dom to preact/compat. For visx v4, configure your package manager to satisfy the React 18/19 peer dependency range.

  6. I like using d3.

    Me too.

Thanks

Thanks to Happo for providing the visual regression testing platform that helps us review UI changes and catch unintended visual regressions.

Happo

Development

Please see CONTRIBUTING.md

:v:

MIT

visx (airbnb/visx)

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21.1K ·GitHub
Visx
What is this?visx is a collection of reusable low-level visualization components for React: d3 does the calculations and math, while React renders and updates the DOM. You compose charts from components instead of writing d3 selection code.
How is it different from just using d3 directly?visx uses d3 under the hood for the math but exposes everything as React components, so there are no selections or enter()/exit()/update() to learn. You can even wrap it in your own component API that hides d3 entirely.
How do I add it to a project?Install only the @visx packages you need — visx is split into small modules so bundle sizes stay down — and compose them in your React app. The README walks through a bar graph, and the gallery has many more examples.
Which React version does it need?visx v4, the current stable release, requires React 18 or 19. Preact also works if you alias react and react-dom to preact/compat and satisfy the React 18/19 peer dependency range.
Is animation baked in?No — that was a conscious choice. Because visx is plain React, it already works with any React animation library, so an app that already bundles something like react-motion does not pay for a duplicate animation package.
Are these ready-made charts or building blocks for my own chart library?Both. The goal is components you can use for your own reusable chart library or a slick custom one-off chart, and visx is largely unopinionated and meant to be built upon — wrapping it for your team is explicitly encouraged.
What does the name visx stand for?It stands for visualization components — the name is literally an abbreviation of what the library is.
Is the project still actively developed?Yes — v4 is the current stable release with an official v3-to-v4 migration guide, and the repo runs CI workflows on pushes and pull requests.
Is it a good fit for TypeScript projects?Yes — the codebase itself is written in TypeScript and the packages are compiled from .ts and .tsx sources, so you work with typed code throughout.
What are similar projects?victory, G2, recharts, apexcharts.js, blobatar, vue-echarts, d3, vega
Which topics is it in?preact, d3, chart, svg, visualization, monorepo, component-library, data-visualization, ui-components, ui, web-development, react
Creator
airbnb
Size
16.4 MB
Stars
21.1K
Updated
CommitJun 22Releasev4.0.0Jun 11
Age
9y
Commits · 90 Days