How to use jQuery UI with React JS

If you really need to do that, here is an approach I am using.

The plan: Create a component to manage the jQuery plugin. This component will provide a React-centric view of the jQuery component. Moreover, it will:

Use React lifecycle methods to initialize and tear down the jQuery plugin;
Use React props as plugin configuration options and hook up to plugin's methods events;
Destroy the plugin when component unmounts.

Let's explore a practical example how to do that with the jQuery UI Sortable plugin.

TLDR: The Final Version

If you just want to grab the final version of the wrapped jQuery UI Sortable example:

here is a GIST I made with full annotated comments;
and here's a jsfiddle DEMO, full annotated comments too;

... plus, below is the shortened from the longer comments code snippet:

class Sortable extends React.Component {
    componentDidMount() {
        this.$node = $(this.refs.sortable);
        this.$node.sortable({
            opacity: this.props.opacity,
            change: (event, ui) => this.props.onChange(event, ui)
        });
    }

    shouldComponentUpdate() { return false; }

    componentWillReceiveProps(nextProps) {
        if (nextProps.enable !== this.props.enable)
            this.$node.sortable(nextProps.enable ? 'enable' : 'disable');
    }

    renderItems() {
        return this.props.data.map( (item, i) =>
            <li key={i} className="ui-state-default">
                <span className="ui-icon ui-icon-arrowthick-2-n-s"></span>
                { item }
            </li>
        );
    }
    render() {
        return (
            <ul ref="sortable">
                { this.renderItems() }
            </ul>
        );
    }

    componentWillUnmount() {
        this.$node.sortable('destroy');
    }
};

Optionally, you can set default props (in the case of none are passed) and the prop types:

Sortable.defaultProps = {
    opacity: 1,
    enable: true
};

Sortable.propTypes = {
    opacity: React.PropTypes.number,
    enable: React.PropTypes.bool,
    onChange: React.PropTypes.func.isRequired
};

... and here's how to use the <Sortable /> component:

class MyComponent extends React.Component {
    constructor(props) {
        super(props);
        // Use this flag to disable/enable the <Sortable />
        this.state = { isEnabled: true };

        this.toggleEnableability = this.toggleEnableability.bind(this);
    }

    toggleEnableability() {
        this.setState({ isEnabled: ! this.state.isEnabled });
    }

    handleOnChange(event, ui) {
        console.log('DOM changed!', event, ui);
    }

    render() {
        const list = ['ReactJS', 'JSX', 'JavaScript', 'jQuery', 'jQuery UI'];

        return (
            <div>
                <button type="button"
                    onClick={this.toggleEnableability}>
                    Toggle enable/disable
                </button>
                <Sortable
                    opacity={0.8}
                    data={list}
                    enable={this.state.isEnabled}
                    onChange={this.handleOnChange} />
            </div>
        );
    }
}

ReactDOM.render(<MyComponent />, document.getElementById('app'));

The Full Explanation

For those of you, who want to understand why and how. Here's a step by step guide:

Step 1: Create a component.

Our component will accept an array (list) of items (strings) as data prop.

class Sortable extends React.Component {
    componentDidMount() {
        // Every React component has a function that exposes the
        // underlying DOM node that it is wrapping. We can use that
        // DOM node, pass it to jQuery and initialize the plugin.

        // You'll find that many jQuery plugins follow this same pattern
        // and you'll be able to pass the component DOM node to jQuery
        // and call the plugin function.

        // Get the DOM node and store the jQuery element reference
        this.$node = $(this.refs.sortable);

        // Initialize the jQuery UI functionality you need
        // in this case, the Sortable: https://jqueryui.com/sortable/
        this.$node.sortable();
    }

    // jQuery UI sortable expects a <ul> list with <li>s.
    renderItems() {
        return this.props.data.map( (item, i) =>
            <li key={i} className="ui-state-default">
                <span className="ui-icon ui-icon-arrowthick-2-n-s"></span>
                { item }
            </li>
        );
    }
    render() {
        return (
            <ul ref="sortable">
                { this.renderItems() }
            </ul>
        );
    }
};

Step 2: Pass configuration options via props

Let's say we want to configure the opacity of the helper while sorting. We'll use the opacity option in the plugin configuration, that takes values from 0.01 to 1.

class Sortable extends React.Component {
    // ... omitted for brevity

    componentDidMount() {
        this.$node = $(this.refs.sortable);

        this.$node.sortable({
            // Get the incoming `opacity` prop and use it in the plugin configuration
            opacity: this.props.opacity,
        });
    }

    // ... omitted for brevity
};

// Optional: set the default props, in case none are passed
Sortable.defaultProps = {
    opacity: 1
};

And here's how we can use the component in our code now:

<Sortable opacity={0.8} />

The same way, we can map any of the jQUery UI Sortable options.

Step 3: Hook-up functions on plugin events.

You will most probably need to hook-up on some of the plugin methods, in order to perform some React logic, for example, manipulate the state let's day.

Here's how to do that:

class Sortable extends React.Component {
    // ... omitted for brevity

    componentDidMount() {
        this.$node = $(this.refs.sortable);

        this.$node.sortable({
            opacity: this.props.opacity,
            // Get the incoming onChange function
            // and invoke it on the Sortable `change` event
            change: (event, ui) => this.props.onChange(event, ui)
        });
    }

    // ... omitted for brevity
};

// Optional: set the prop types
Sortable.propTypes = {
    onChange: React.PropTypes.func.isRequired
};

And here's how to use it:

<Sortable
    opacity={0.8}
    onChange={ (event, ui) => console.log('DOM changed!', event, ui) } />

Step 4: Pass the future updates control to jQuery

Right after ReactJS adds the element in the actual DOM, we need to pass the future control to jQuery. Otherwise, ReactJS will never re-render our component, but we don't want that. We want jQuery to be responsible for all updates.

React lifecycle methods comes to the rescue!

Use shouldComponentUpdate() to let React know if a component's output is not affected by the current change in state or props. The default behavior is to re-render on every state change, and in the vast majority, but we don't want this behavior!

shouldComponentUpdate() is invoked before rendering when new props or state are being received. If shouldComponentUpdate() returns false, then componentWillUpdate(), render(), and componentDidUpdate() will not be invoked.

Then, we use componentWillReceiveProps(), we compare this.props with nextProps and call jQuery UI sortable updates only when necessary. For this example, we will implement the enable/disable option of the jQuery UI Sortable.

class Sortable extends React.Component {
    // Force a single-render of the component,
    // by returning false from shouldComponentUpdate ReactJS lifecycle hook.
    // Right after ReactJS adds the element in the actual DOM,
    // we need to pass the future control to jQuery.
    // This way, ReactJS will never re-render our component,
    // and jQuery will be responsible for all updates.
    shouldComponentUpdate() {
        return false;
    }

    componentWillReceiveProps(nextProps) {
        // Each time when component receives new props,
        // we should trigger refresh or perform anything else we need.
        // For this example, we'll update only the enable/disable option,
        // as soon as we receive a different value for this.props.enable
        if (nextProps.enable !== this.props.enable) {
            this.$node.sortable(nextProps.enable ? 'enable' : 'disable');
        }
    }

    // ... omitted for brevity
};

// Optional: set the default props, in case none are passed
Sortable.defaultProps = {
    enable: true
};

// Optional: set the prop types
Sortable.propTypes = {
    enable: React.PropTypes.bool
};

Step 5: Clean up the mess.

Many jQuery plugins provide a mechanism for cleaning up after themselves when they are no longer needed. jQuery UI Sortable provides an event that we can trigger to tell the plugin to unbind its DOM events and destroy. React lifecycle methods comes to the rescue again and provides a mechanism to hook into when the component is being unmounted.

class Sortable extends React.Component {
    // ... omitted for brevity

    componentWillUnmount() {
        // Clean up the mess when the component unmounts
        this.$node.sortable('destroy');
    }

    // ... omitted for brevity
};

Conclusion

Wrapping jQuery plugins with React is not always the best choice. However, it is nice to know that it is an option and how you can implement a solution. It is a viable option if you are migrating a legacy jQuery application to React or maybe you just can't find a React plugin that suits your needs in your case.

In the case that a library modifies the DOM, we try to keep React out of its way. React works best when it has full control of the DOM. In these cases, React components are more of wrappers for the 3rd party libraries. Mostly by using the componentDidMount/componentWillUnmount to initialize/destroy the third party library. And props as a way of giving the parent a way of customizing the behavior of the third party library that the child wraps and to hook-up on plugin events.

You can use this approach to integrate almost any jQuery plugin!

React doesn't play well with libraries that do direct DOM mutations. If something else mutates the DOM where React is attempting to render, it will throw errors. If you had to make this work, your best compromise is to have different parts of your page which are managed by different things, for example a div which houses your jquery component(s), and then some other div which contains your React component(s). Communicating between these disparate (jquery and react) components will be difficult however and honestly it's probably better to just choose one or the other.

While technically faultless, Kayolan's answer has a fatal flaw, IMHO: in passing the responsibility for future UI updates from React to jQuery, he's rather negated the point of React being there in the first place! React controls the initial render of the sortable list, but after that React's state data will become outdated as soon as the user does the first jQueryUI drag/sort operations. And the whole point of React is to represent your state data at the view level.

So, I took the reverse approach when I approached this problem: I tried to ensure that React was in control as much as possible. I don't let the jQueryUI Sortable control change the DOM at all.

How's that possible? Well jQuery-ui's sortable() method has a cancel call that sets the UI back to how it was before you started dragging and dropping stuff around. The trick is to read the state of the sortable control before you issue that cancel call. That way, we can pick up what the user's intentions were, before the cancel call sets the DOM back the way it was. Once we have those intentions, we can pass them back to React, and manipulate the state data to be in the new order that the user wanted. Finally, call a setState() on that data to have React render the new order.

Here's how I do that:

Attach the jquery-ui.sortable() method to a list of line items (generated by React of course!)
Let the user drag and drop those line items around the DOM.
When the user starts dragging, we read the index of the line item that user's dragging from.
When the user drops the line item, we:
1. Read from jQuery-ui.sortable() the new index position for the line item, i.e. where in the list user dropped it.
2. Pass a cancel call to jQuery-ui.sortable() so that the list goes backs to its original position, and the DOM is unchanged.
3. Pass the old and new indexes of the dragged line item as parameters to a JavaScript function in a React module.
4. Have that function reorder the list's back-end state data to be in the new order that the user dragged and dropped it into.
5. Make a React setState() call.

The list in the UI will now reflect the new order of our state data; this is standard React functionality.

So, we get to use jQueryUI Sortable's drag and drop functionality, but without it changing the DOM at all. React's happy, because it's in control of the DOM (where it should be).

Github repository example at https://github.com/brownieboy/react-dragdrop-test-simple. This includes a link to a live demo.

I could not get the jquery-ui npm package to work. What has worked for me is to use jquery-ui-bundle:

import $ from 'jquery';
import 'jquery-ui-bundle';
import 'jquery-ui-bundle/jquery-ui.min.css';