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Using Bootstrap 5 with React

Carol Skelly on December 30, 2020

How to use the new Bootstrap 5 with React Bootstrap and React have both been around for a while now, but now that the Bootstrap 5 beta i...

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Joel N. Walkley • Dec 30 '20

Aren't we supposed to avoid direct interaction with the DOM in a React app? Your useState targets the element directly by name; and also directly adds an event listener. Is there another way to make use of Bootstrap without the 3rd party libraries?

Carol Skelly • Dec 31 '20 • Edited

This is a great question and you're absolutely right! As explained in the React hooks FAQ you'd want useRef in this case. This will ensure we get the .current instance of the DOM element that's synched with the React lifecycle. I've updated the Toast example accordingly...

function ToastDemo() {
    var [toast, setToast] = useState(false);
    const toastRef = useRef();

    useEffect(() => {
        var myToast = toastRef.current
        var bsToast = bootstrap.Toast.getInstance(myToast)

        if (!bsToast) {
            // initialize Toast
            bsToast = new Toast(myToast, {autohide: false})
            // hide after init
            bsToast.hide()
            setToast(false)
        }
        else{
            // toggle
            toast ? bsToast.show() : bsToast.hide()

        }
    })

    return (
    <div className="py-2">
        <button className="btn btn-success" onClick={() => setToast(toast => !toast)}>
            Toast {toast?'hide':'show'}
        </button>
        <div className="toast" role="alert" ref={toastRef}>
            <div className="toast-header">
                <strong className="me-auto">Bootstrap 5</strong>
                <small>4 mins ago</small>
                <button type="button" className="btn-close" onClick={() => setToast(false)} aria-label="Close"></button>
            </div>
            <div className="toast-body">
              ...
            </div>
        </div>
    </div>
    )
}

I also updated the other examples to follow this same pattern.

mt • Jun 9 '21

Thank you for the article, I have checked the examples and still can't be sure if it is okay to use bs components with only data-bs attribute.

Is it a bad practice for React virtual dom to use it like below.


function DropdownDemoBs() {
    return (
        <div class="btn-group">
          <button data-bs-toggle="dropdown" class="btn btn-secondary dropdown-toggle" type="button" id="dropdownMenuClickableInside" aria-expanded="false">
            Dropdown button bs
          </button>
          <ul class="dropdown-menu" aria-labelledby="dropdownMenuClickableInside">
            <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Menu item</a></li>
            <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Menu item</a></li>
            <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Menu item</a></li>
          </ul>
        </div>
    )
}

jbergens • Jul 1 '21

For some or maybe most of these examples you should probably also add an empty array for the useEffect dependencies. Basically saying that we only want to run this code once (to create the component), then it does not have to run again as long as the component is left in the DOM tree.

lgk-bsw • Jul 9 '21

But then the bsToast.show() or bsToast.hide() wouldn't trigger when the state of toast changes. In my case I only added [toast] to the useEffect dependencies.

Muhamad Amir Azmi • Jun 18 '21

why the error 'bootstrap' is not defined appear? the bootstrap.Toast give error. where the bootstrap comes from?

lgk-bsw • Jul 9 '21

I did something similar with the Modal component. But I also had to include an event listener when the user clicks outside of the modal to close it:

    useEffect(() => {
        const myModal = modalRef.current as unknown as Element
        let bsModal = Modal.getInstance(myModal)

        if (!bsModal) {
            bsModal = new Modal(myModal)
            bsModal.hide()
            setModal(false)

            // When the user clicks on underlay to close the modal
            myModal.addEventListener("hide.bs.modal", () => {
                setModal(false)
            })
        }
        else {
            modal ? bsModal.show() : bsModal.hide()
        }
    }, [modal])