@perspective-dev/react

React bindings for Perspective, an interactive analytics and data visualization component for large, real-time and streaming datasets. This package wraps the <perspective-viewer> Custom Element in an idiomatic, declarative React component, <PerspectiveViewer>, which manages the element's imperative load()/restore()/delete() lifecycle for you.

Installation

npm install @perspective-dev/react

@perspective-dev/client and @perspective-dev/viewer are installed as dependencies, but you'll also want at least one plugin package for the visualizations themselves:

npm install @perspective-dev/viewer-datagrid @perspective-dev/viewer-charts

Setup

Perspective's engine and UI are WebAssembly binaries which must be initialized once, before the first <PerspectiveViewer> renders. Plugins register themselves via import side effects. See the User Guide's bundling section for bundler configuration details.

import perspective from "@perspective-dev/client";
import perspective_viewer from "@perspective-dev/viewer";
import "@perspective-dev/viewer-datagrid";
import "@perspective-dev/viewer-charts";
import "@perspective-dev/viewer/dist/css/themes.css";

import SERVER_WASM from "@perspective-dev/server/dist/wasm/perspective-server.wasm";
import CLIENT_WASM from "@perspective-dev/viewer/dist/wasm/perspective-viewer.wasm";

await Promise.all([
    perspective.init_server(fetch(SERVER_WASM)),
    perspective_viewer.init_client(fetch(CLIENT_WASM)),
]);

Usage

Create a Table (here in a Web Worker Client) and pass it — or a Promise of it — to <PerspectiveViewer>:

import * as React from "react";
import { PerspectiveViewer } from "@perspective-dev/react";

const WORKER = await perspective.worker();

const TABLE = WORKER.table(
    fetch("superstore.lz4.arrow").then((resp) => resp.arrayBuffer()),
    { name: "superstore" },
);

const App: React.FC = () => (
    <PerspectiveViewer
        client={TABLE}
        config={{ group_by: ["State"], plugin: "Y Bar" }}
    />
);

Props

A subset of standard HTML attributes — className, id, style, hidden, slot, tabIndex and title — is forwarded to the underlying element.

client

The viewer's data source, forwarded to viewer.load() whenever it changes:

• A Table (or Promise<Table>) displays that table directly.
• A Client (e.g. from perspective.worker() or a WebSocket connection to a remote server) connects the viewer to every table hosted by that client; the table each panel displays is chosen by config or interactively by the user.
• undefined ejects the viewer, returning it to an unloaded state without unmounting it.

The component does not take ownership of the Table — delete it yourself when it is no longer needed (e.g. table.delete({ lazy: true })).

config

Declarative viewer state — group-bys, splits, filters, sorts, expressions, plugin and plugin config — applied with restore() whenever it (or client) changes. A config with a panels property is treated as a multi-panel workspace layout and applied with restoreWorkspace() instead. Configs are compared structurally, so passing a fresh-but-equal object literal on each render does not re-apply.

Combine config with onConfigUpdate to make the viewer a controlled component — store the user's latest configuration in state (or persist it) and pass it back down:

const App: React.FC = () => {
    const [config, setConfig] = React.useState<pspViewer.ViewerConfigUpdate>({
        group_by: ["Category"],
    });

    return (
        <PerspectiveViewer
            client={TABLE}
            config={config}
            onConfigUpdate={setConfig}
        />
    );
};

Lifecycle

On unmount, the component calls the element's delete() method, freeing the viewer's WebAssembly resources. Tables and clients are created outside the component and are yours to manage; a Table passed as client survives unmount and can be shown again by a later mount.

See also

• react-example — a complete bundler-configured project using this package, including a multi-panel workspace config.
• Perspective User Guide
• <perspective-viewer> API documentation
• @perspective-dev/client API documentation