Chakra UI: A Simple, Modular and Accessible Component Library for React
If you are looking for a way to create beautiful, accessible and responsive user interfaces for your React applications, you might want to check out Chakra UI. Chakra UI is a comprehensive library of reusable and composable React components that streamlines the development of modern web applications and websites. In this article, we will explore what Chakra UI is, why you should use it, how to use it in your React app, and how to learn more about it and join the community.
What is Chakra UI and why use it?
Chakra UI is a component library that provides a set of reusable UI components that can be used to create complex UIs. It focuses on providing a set of high-quality, accessible components that can be used to build responsive, user-friendly interfaces. Some of the features and benefits of Chakra UI are:
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The features and benefits of Chakra UI
It follows the for all components, ensuring that your app is accessible to all users.
It allows you to customize any part of the components to match your design needs, using a .
It is designed with composition in mind, meaning that you can combine different components to create new ones with ease.
It supports multiple color modes, such as light and dark, that can be toggled by the user or by the system preference.
It offers a great developer experience, with helpful tools such as .
It has an active community of maintainers and users who are ready to help you with any questions or issues you might have.
The installation and setup of Chakra UI
To use Chakra UI in your project, you need to install it using one of the following commands:
npm i @chakra-ui/react @emotion/react @emotion/styled framer-motion // or yarn add @chakra-ui/react @emotion/react @emotion/styled framer-motion
After installing Chakra UI, you need to set up the ChakraProvider at the root of your application. This component provides the theme and global styles for your app. You can also pass a custom theme object to the provider if you want to override or extend the default theme. Here is an example of how to set up the provider:
import * as React from 'react' import ChakraProvider from '@chakra-ui/react' function App() return ( <ChakraProvider> <TheRestOfYourApplication /> </ChakraProvider> )
How to use Chakra UI components in your React app
Chakra UI provides a wide range of components that can be used to create various types of user interfaces. You can find all the available components in the , along with their props, examples, and usage guidelines. To use a component in your app, you need to import it from the @chakra -ui/react package. Here are some examples of how to use Chakra UI components in your React app:
The basic usage of Chakra UI components
Chakra UI components are designed to be easy to use and intuitive. You can use them as you would use any other React component, by passing props and children to them. For example, here is how you can use the Button component to create a simple button:
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import * as React from 'react' import Button from '@chakra-ui/react' function Example() return ( <Button colorScheme="blue">Click Me</Button> )
This will render a blue button with the text "Click Me". You can see the result in the following image:
You can also use the as prop to change the underlying element of the component. For example, you can use the Link component to create a link that looks like a button:
import * as React from 'react' import Link from '@chakra-ui/react' function Example() return ( <Link as="button" colorScheme="blue" href=" Chakra UI</Link> )
This will render a link that looks like a blue button with the text "Visit Chakra UI". You can see the result in the following image:
The customization and theming of Chakra UI components
One of the main advantages of Chakra UI is that it allows you to customize any aspect of the components to suit your design needs. You can use two main ways to customize the components: using the theme object or using the style props.
The theme object is a global object that contains all the default values for the components, such as colors, fonts, sizes, breakpoints, etc. You can override or extend any part of the theme object by passing a custom theme object to the ChakraProvider. For example, here is how you can change the primary color of your app to green:
import * as React from 'react' import ChakraProvider, extendTheme from '@chakra-ui/react' const theme = extendTheme( colors: primary: 'green', , ) function App() return ( <ChakraProvider theme=theme> <TheRestOfYourApplication /> </ChakraProvider> )
This will change the primary color of all the components that use it, such as buttons, links, badges, etc. You can see the result in the following image:
The style props are props that you can pass to any component to modify its appearance or behavior. They are based on , but with some enhancements and shortcuts. For example, here is how you can change the size, color, and margin of a button using style props:
import * as React from 'react' import Button from '@chakra-ui/react' function Example() return ( <Button size="lg" color="white" bg="purple.500" m=4>Click Me</Button> )
This will render a large button with white text and purple background, with a margin of 4 units on all sides. You can see the result in the following image:
The accessibility and responsiveness of Chakra UI components
Another key feature of Chakra UI is that it ensures that all the components are accessible and responsive by default. This means that your app will be usable by anyone, regardless of their device or ability.
All the components follow the , which provide guidelines for making web content accessible to people with disabilities. For example, all the interactive components have proper keyboard navigation, focus, and aria attributes. For example, here is how the Button component handles accessibility:
<button type="button" role="button" tabindex="0" aria-disabled="false" > Click Me </button>
All the components are also responsive, meaning that they adapt to different screen sizes and orientations. You can use the breakpoints object in the theme to define the breakpoints for your app, and then use the responsive styles to change the style props based on the breakpoints. For example, here is how you can change the size of a button depending on the screen width:
import * as React from 'react' import Button from '@chakra-ui/react' function Example() return ( <Button size= base: 'sm', md: 'md', lg: 'lg' >Click Me</Button> )
This will render a small button on small screens, a medium button on medium screens, and a large button on large screens. You can see the result in the following image:
How to learn more about Chakra UI and join the community
If you are interested in learning more about Chakra UI and how to use it in your projects, there are several resources and platforms that you can use. Some of them are:
The official documentation and courses of Chakra UI
The best place to start learning about Chakra UI is the that show you how to use Chakra UI with other tools and frameworks, such as Next.js, Gatsby, TypeScript, etc.
If you prefer a more interactive and hands-on way of learning, you can check out some of the course by Leigh Halliday, which covers the basics of Chakra UI and how to build a simple app with it.
The GitHub repository and Discord server of Chakra UI
If you want to contribute to the development of Chakra UI or report any issues or bugs, you can visit the of Chakra UI. There you can find the source code, the roadmap, the issues, the pull requests, and the contribution guidelines of Chakra UI.
If you want to connect with other developers who use Chakra UI or ask for help or feedback, you can join the of Chakra UI. There you can find different channels for general discussion, support, showcase, feedback, etc.
Conclusion and FAQs
In this article, we have learned what Chakra UI is, why you should use it, how to use it in your React app, and how to learn more about it and join the community. We have seen that Chakra UI is a simple, modular and accessible component library for React that provides a set of reusable and composable components that can be used to create beautiful, responsive and user-friendly interfaces. We have also seen how to customize and theme the components using the theme object or style props, and how to ensure accessibility and responsiveness using WAI-ARIA standards and responsive styles.
We hope that this article has given you a good overview of Chakra UI and has inspired you to try it out in your next project. If you have any questions or comments about Chakra UI or this article, feel free to leave them below. Here are some FAQs that might help you:
What are some alternatives to Chakra UI?
There are many other component libraries for React that you can use instead of or alongside Chakra UI. Some of them are:
: A popular component library based on Google's Material Design system.
: A comprehensive component library based on Alibaba's design system.
: A low-level utility-first CSS framework that gives you full control over the styles.
: A classic and widely used component library based on HTML, CSS and JavaScript.
How can I test the accessibility of my app using Chakra UI?
One of the ways to test the accessibility of your app using Chakra UI is to use the tool that comes with Chakra UI. This tool allows you to inspect the accessibility tree, the roles, the states, and the properties of any element in your app. You can enable it by adding the following code to your app:
import useAccessibleColorMode from '@chakra-ui/react' function App() const toggleColorMode = useAccessibleColorMode() return ( <ChakraProvider> <button onClick=toggleColorMode>Toggle Color Mode</button> <TheRestOfYourApplication /> </ChakraProvider> )
This will add a button that toggles the color mode and the accessibility inspector. You can see the result in the following image:
How can I use Chakra UI with TypeScript?
Chakra UI is fully compatible with TypeScript, as it provides type definitions for all the components and utilities. You can use Chakra UI with TypeScript without any additional configuration or installation. You can also benefit from features such as auto-complete, type-safety, and code snippets when using Chakra UI with TypeScript.
How can I use Chakra UI with Next.js?
Chakra UI works well with Next.js, a popular framework for building React applications with server-side rendering and static site generation. You can use Chakra UI with Next.js by following these steps:
Install Chakra UI and its dependencies using one of the commands mentioned above.
Create a custom _app.js file in your pages folder and wrap your app with the ChakraProvider.
Create a custom _document.js file in your pages folder and add the CSSReset component to reset the browser styles.
Create a custom theme.js file in your root folder and export a custom theme object if you want to customize or extend the default theme.
Import and use any Chakra UI component in your pages or components as usual.
You can find more details and examples on how to use Chakra UI with Next.js in this .
How can I use Chakra UI with Gatsby?
Gatsby is another popular framework for building React applications with static site generation and performance optimization. You can use Chakra UI with Gatsby by following these steps:
Install Chakra UI and its dependencies using one of the commands mentioned above.
Create a custom wrapper.js file in your root folder and export a component that wraps your app with the ChakraProvider.
Create a custom gatsby-browser.js file in your root folder and import and use the wrapper component as the global layout.
Create a custom theme.js file in your root folder and export a custom theme object if you want to customize or extend the default theme.
Import and use any Chakra UI component in your pages or components as usual.
You can find more details and examples on how to use Chakra UI with Gatsby in this . 44f88ac181
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