react-pivottable

react-pivottable is a React-based pivot table library with drag'n'drop functionality. It is a React port of the jQuery-based PivotTable.js by the same author.

react-pivottable is part of Plotly's React Component Suite for building data visualization Web apps and products.

What does it do & where is the demo?

react-pivottable's function is to enable data exploration and analysis by summarizing a data set into table or Plotly.js chart with a true 2-d drag'n'drop UI, very similar to the one found in older versions of Microsoft Excel.

A live demo can be found here.

How can I use it in my project?

Drag'n'drop UI with Table output only

Installation is via NPM and has a peer dependency on React:

npm install --save react-pivottable react react-dom

Basic usage is as follows. Note that PivotTableUI is a "dumb component" that maintains essentially no state of its own.

import React from 'react';
import ReactDOM from 'react-dom';
import PivotTableUI from 'react-pivottable/PivotTableUI';
import 'react-pivottable/pivottable.css';

// see documentation for supported input formats
const data = [['attribute', 'attribute2'], ['value1', 'value2']];

class App extends React.Component {
    constructor(props) {
        super(props);
        this.state = props;
    }

    render() {
        return (
            <PivotTableUI
                data={data}
                onChange={s => this.setState(s)}
                {...this.state}
            />
        );
    }
}

ReactDOM.render(<App />, document.body);

Drag'n'drop UI with Plotly charts as well as Table output

The Plotly react-plotly.js component can be passed in via dependency injection. It has a peer dependency on plotly.js.

Important: If you build your project using webpack, you'll have to follow these instructions in order to successfully bundle plotly.js. See below for how to avoid having to bundle plotly.js.

npm install --save react-pivottable react-plotly.js plotly.js react react-dom

To add the Plotly renderers to your app, you can use the following pattern:

import React from 'react';
import PivotTableUI from 'react-pivottable/PivotTableUI';
import 'react-pivottable/pivottable.css';
import TableRenderers from 'react-pivottable/TableRenderers';
import Plot from 'react-plotly.js';
import createPlotlyRenderers from 'react-pivottable/PlotlyRenderers';

// create Plotly renderers via dependency injection
const PlotlyRenderers = createPlotlyRenderers(Plot);

// see documentation for supported input formats
const data = [['attribute', 'attribute2'], ['value1', 'value2']];

class App extends React.Component {
    constructor(props) {
        super(props);
        this.state = props;
    }

    render() {
        return (
            <PivotTableUI
                data={data}
                onChange={s => this.setState(s)}
                renderers={Object.assign({}, TableRenderers, PlotlyRenderers)}
                {...this.state}
            />
        );
    }
}

ReactDOM.render(<App />, document.body);

With external plotly.js

If you would rather not install and bundle plotly.js but rather get it into your app via something like <script> tag, you can ignore react-plotly.js' peer-dependcy warning and handle the dependency injection like this:

import React from 'react';
import PivotTableUI from 'react-pivottable/PivotTableUI';
import 'react-pivottable/pivottable.css';
import TableRenderers from 'react-pivottable/TableRenderers';
import createPlotlyComponent from 'react-plotly.js/factory';
import createPlotlyRenderers from 'react-pivottable/PlotlyRenderers';

// create Plotly React component via dependency injection
const Plot = createPlotlyComponent(window.Plotly);

// create Plotly renderers via dependency injection
const PlotlyRenderers = createPlotlyRenderers(Plot);

// see documentation for supported input formats
const data = [['attribute', 'attribute2'], ['value1', 'value2']];

class App extends React.Component {
    constructor(props) {
        super(props);
        this.state = props;
    }

    render() {
        return (
            <PivotTableUI
                data={data}
                onChange={s => this.setState(s)}
                renderers={Object.assign({}, TableRenderers, PlotlyRenderers)}
                {...this.state}
            />
        );
    }
}

ReactDOM.render(<App />, document.body);

Properties and layered architecture

• <PivotTableUI {...props} />
  • <PivotTable {...props} />
    • <Renderer {...props} />
      • PivotData(props)

The interactive component provided by react-pivottable is PivotTableUI, but output rendering is delegated to the non-interactive PivotTable component, which accepts a subset of its properties. PivotTable can be invoked directly and is useful for outputting non-interactive saved snapshots of PivotTableUI configurations. PivotTable in turn delegates to a specific renderer component, such as the default TableRenderer, which accepts a subset of the same properties. Finally, most renderers will create non-React PivotData object to handle the actual computations, which also accepts a subset of the same props as the rest of the stack.

Here is a table of the properties accepted by this stack, including an indication of which layer consumes each, from the bottom up:

Accepted formats for data

Arrays of objects

One object per record, the object's keys are the attribute names.

Note: missing attributes or attributes with a value of null are treated as if the value was the string "null".

const data = [
    {
        attr1: 'value1_attr1',
        attr2: 'value1_attr2',
        //...
    },
    {
        attr1: 'value2_attr1',
        attr2: 'value2_attr2',
        //...
    },
    //...
];

Arrays of arrays

One sub-array per record, the first sub-array contains the attribute names. If subsequent sub-arrays are shorter than the first one, the trailing values are treated as if they contained the string value "null". If subsequent sub-arrays are longer than the first one, excess values are ignored. This format is compatible with the output of CSV parsing libraries like PapaParse.

const data = [
    ['attr1', 'attr2'],
    ['value1_attr1', 'value1_attr2'],
    ['value2_attr1', 'value2_attr2'],
    //...
];

Functions that call back

The function will be called with a callback that takes an object as a parameter.

Note: missing attributes or attributes with a value of null are treated as if the value was the string "null".

const data = function(callback) {
    callback({
        "attr1": "value1_attr1",
        "attr2": "value1_attr2",
        //...
    });
    callback({
        "attr1": "value2_attr1",
        "attr2": "value2_attr2",
        //...
    };
    //...
};