prism-react-renderer/README.md

<a href="https://formidable.com/open-source/" target="_blank">
  <img alt="Prism React Renderer — Formidable, We build the modern web" src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/FormidableLabs/prism-react-renderer/master/prism-react-renderer-Hero.png" />
</a>

<p align="center" style="font-size: 1.2rem;">
  A lean <a href="https://github.com/PrismJS/prism">Prism</a> highlighter component for React<br>
  Comes with everything to render Prismjs highlighted code directly to React (Native) elements, global-pollution-free!
</p>

[![Maintenance Status][maintenance-image]](#maintenance-status)
## Why?

Maybe you need to render some extra UI with your Prismjs-highlighted code,
or maybe you'd like to manipulate what Prism renders completely,
or maybe you're just using Prism with React and are searching for an easier,
global-pollution-free way?

Then you're right where you want to be!

## How?

This library tokenises code using Prism and provides a small render-props-driven
component to quickly render it out into React. This is why it even works with
React Native! It's bundled with a modified version of Prism that won't pollute
the global namespace and comes with
[a couple of common language syntaxes](./src/vendor/prism/includeLangs.js).

_(There's also an [escape-hatch](https://github.com/FormidableLabs/prism-react-renderer#prism) to use your own Prism setup, just in case)_

It also comes with its own [VSCode-like theming format](#theming), which means by default
you can easily drop in different themes, use the ones this library ships with, or
create new ones programmatically on the fly.

_(If you just want to use your Prism CSS-file themes, that's also no problem)_

## Table of Contents

<!-- START doctoc generated TOC please keep comment here to allow auto update -->
<!-- DON'T EDIT THIS SECTION, INSTEAD RE-RUN doctoc TO UPDATE -->

- [Installation](#installation)
- [Usage](#usage)
- [Custom Language Support](#custom-language-support)
- [Basic Props](#basic-props)
  - [children](#children)
  - [language](#language)
  - [code](#code)
- [Advanced Props](#advanced-props)
  - [theme](#theme)
  - [Prism](#prism)
- [Children Function](#children-function)
  - [state](#state)
  - [prop getters](#prop-getters)
    - [`getLineProps`](#getlineprops)
    - [`getTokenProps`](#gettokenprops)
- [Theming](#theming)
- [LICENSE](#license)

<!-- END doctoc generated TOC please keep comment here to allow auto update -->

## Installation

This module is distributed via npm which is bundled with node and
should be installed as one of your project's `dependencies`:

```sh
# npm
npm install --save prism-react-renderer
# yarn
yarn add prism-react-renderer
# pnpm
pnpm add prism-react-renderer
```

> Prism React Renderer has a peer dependency on `react`

### Usage
Prism React Renderer has a named export for the `<Highlight />` component along with `themes`. To see Prism React Render in action with base styling check out `packages/demo` or run `pnpm run start:demo` from the root of this repository.

```tsx
import React from "react"
import ReactDOM from "react-dom/client"
import { Highlight, themes } from "prism-react-renderer"
import styles from 'styles.module.css'

const codeBlock = `
const GroceryItem: React.FC<GroceryItemProps> = ({ item }) => {
  return (
    <div>
      <h2>{item.name}</h2>
      <p>Price: {item.price}</p>
      <p>Quantity: {item.quantity}</p>
    </div>
  );
}
`

export const App = () => (
  <Highlight
    theme={themes.shadesOfPurple}
    code={codeBlock}
    language="tsx"
  >
    {({ className, style, tokens, getLineProps, getTokenProps }) => (
      <pre style={style}>
        {tokens.map((line, i) => (
          <div key={i} {...getLineProps({ line })}>
            <span>{i + 1}</span>
            {line.map((token, key) => (
              <span key={key} {...getTokenProps({ token })} />
            ))}
          </div>
        ))}
      </pre>
    )}
  </Highlight>
)

ReactDOM.createRoot(document.getElementById("root") as HTMLElement)
        .render(<App />)

```

### Custom Language Support

By default `prism-react-renderer` only includes a [base set of languages](https://github.com/FormidableLabs/prism-react-renderer/blob/c914fdea48625ba59c8022174bb3df1ed802ce4d/packages/generate-prism-languages/index.ts#L9-L23) that Prism supports. **Depending on your app's build system you may need to `await` the `import` or use `require` to ensure `window.Prism` exists before importing the custom languages.** You can add support for more by including their definitions from the main `prismjs` package:

```js
import { Highlight, Prism } from "prism-react-renderer";

(typeof global !== "undefined" ? global : window).Prism = Prism
await import("prismjs/components/prism-applescript")
/** or **/
require("prismjs/components/prism-applescript")
```


## Basic Props

This is the list of props that you should probably know about. There are some
[advanced props](#advanced-props) below as well.

Most of these [advanced props](#advanced-props) are included in the `defaultProps`.

### children

> `function({})` | _required_

This is called with an object. Read more about the properties of this object in
the section "[Children Function](#children-function)".

### language

> `string` | _required_

This is the language that your code will be highlighted as. You can see a list
of all languages that are supported out of the box [here](./src/vendor/prism/includeLangs.js). Not all languages are included and the list of languages that are currently is a little arbitrary. You can use the [escape-hatch](https://github.com/FormidableLabs/prism-react-renderer#prism) to use your own Prism setup, just in case, or [add more languages to the bundled Prism.](https://github.com/FormidableLabs/prism-react-renderer#faq)

### code

> `string` | _required_

This is the code that will be highlighted.

## Advanced Props

### theme

> `PrismTheme` | _optional; default is vsDark_

If a theme is passed, it is used to generate style props which can be retrieved
via the prop-getters which are described in "[Children Function](#children-function)".

Read more about how to theme `prism-react-renderer` in
the section "[Theming](#theming)".

### prism

> `prism` | _optional; default is the vendored version_

This is the [Prismjs](https://github.com/PrismJS/prism) library itself.
A vendored version of Prism is provided (and also exported) as part of this library.
This vendored version doesn't pollute the global namespace, is slimmed down,
and doesn't conflict with any installation of `prismjs` you might have.

If you're only using `Prism.highlight` you can choose to use `prism-react-renderer`'s
exported, vendored version of Prism instead.

But if you choose to use your own Prism setup, simply pass Prism as a prop:

```jsx
// Whichever way you're retrieving Prism here:
import Prism from 'prismjs/components/prism-core';

<Highlight prism={prism} {/* ... */} />
```

## Children Function

This is where you render whatever you want to based on the output of `<Highlight />`.
You use it like so:

```js
const ui = (
  <Highlight>
    {highlight => (
      // use utilities and prop getters here, like highlight.className, highlight.getTokenProps, etc.
      <pre>{/* more jsx here */}</pre>
    )}
  </Highlight>
);
```

The properties of this `highlight` object can be split into two categories as indicated below:

### state

These properties are the flat output of `<Highlight />`. They're generally "state" and are what
you'd usually expect from a render-props-based API.

| property    | type        | description                                                                                                                  |
| ----------- | ----------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `tokens`    | `Token[][]` | This is a doubly nested array of tokens. The outer array is for separate lines, the inner for tokens, so the actual content. |
| `className` | `string`    | This is the class you should apply to your wrapping element, typically a `<pre>`                                             |

A "Token" is an object that represents a piece of content for Prism. It has a `types` property, which is an array
of types that indicate the purpose and styling of a piece of text, and a `content` property, which is the actual
text.

You'd typically iterate over `tokens`, rendering each line, and iterate over its items, rendering out each token, which is a piece of
this line.

### prop getters

> See
> [Kent C. Dodds' blog post about prop getters](https://blog.kentcdodds.com/how-to-give-rendering-control-to-users-with-prop-getters-549eaef76acf)

These functions are used to apply props to the elements that you render. This
gives you maximum flexibility to render what, when, and wherever you like.

You'd typically call these functions with some dictated input and add on all other
props that it should pass through. It'll correctly override and modify the props
that it returns to you, so passing props to it instead of adding them directly is
advisable.

| property        | type           | description                                                                                           |
| --------------- | -------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `getLineProps`  | `function({})` | returns the props you should apply to any list of tokens, i.e. the element that contains your tokens. |
| `getTokenProps` | `function({})` | returns the props you should apply to the elements displaying tokens that you render.                 |

#### `getLineProps`

You need to add a `line` property (type: `Token[]`) to the object you're passing to
`getLineProps`; It's also advisable to add a `key`.

This getter will return you props to spread onto your line elements (typically `<div>s`).

It will typically return a `className` (if you pass one it'll be appended), `children`,
`style` (if you pass one it'll be merged). It also passes on all other props you pass
to the input.

The `className` will always contain `.token-line`.

#### `getTokenProps`

You need to add a `token` property (type: `Token`) to the object you're passing to
`getTokenProps`; It's also advisable to add a `key`.

This getter will return you props to spread onto your token elements (typically `<span>s`).

It will typically return a `className` (if you pass one it'll be appended), `children`,
`style` (if you pass one it'll be merged). It also passes on all other props you pass
to the input.

The `className` will always contain `.token`. This also provides full compatibility with
your old Prism CSS-file themes.

## Theming

The `defaultProps` you'd typically apply in a basic use-case, contain a default theme.
This theme is [vsDark](./packages/prism-react-renderer/src/themes/vsDark.ts).

While all `className`s are provided with `<Highlight />`, so that you could use your good
old Prism CSS-file themes, you can also choose to use `prism-react-renderer`'s themes like so:

```jsx
import { Highlight, themes } from 'prism-react-renderer';

<Highlight theme={themes.dracula} {/* ... */} />
```

These themes are JSON-based and are heavily inspired by VSCode's theme format.

Their syntax, expressed in Flow looks like the following:

```js
{
  plain: StyleObj,
  styles: Array<{
    types: string[],
    languages?: string[],
    style: StyleObj
  }>
}
```

The `plain` property provides a base style-object. This style object is directly used
in the `style` props that you'll receive from the prop getters, if a `theme` prop has
been passed to `<Highlight />`.

The `styles` property contains an array of definitions. Each definition contains a `style`
property, that is also just a style object. These styles are limited by the `types`
and `languages` properties.

The `types` properties is an array of token types that Prism outputs. The `languages`
property limits styles to highlighted languages.

When converting a Prism CSS theme it's mostly just necessary to use classes as
`types` and convert the declarations to object-style-syntax and put them on `style`.

## LICENSE

MIT

## Maintenance Status

**Active:** Formidable is actively working on this project, and we expect to continue for work for the foreseeable future. Bug reports, feature requests and pull requests are welcome.

[maintenance-image]: https://img.shields.io/badge/maintenance-active-green.svg