react-mt-svg-lines

A React.js wrapper component that lets you trigger an "animated lines" effect within your SVGs by applying CSS animations*. Use it to add visual interest to icons, diagrams, loading spinners, or just any fun stuff!

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How it works

The component wraps your SVG and animates the stroke-dashoffset property on every path element within. To accomplish this, it injects a style tag with a generated string of CSS. For a description of the technique, see this article.

IE/Edge

While CSS animation comes "free", it doesn't work for SVGs on IE/Edge browsers. As of 0.6.0, the component falls back to using JavaScript when IE/Edge is detected. The JS implementation relies on tween.js and doesn't interpret all prop permutations. It's "experimental" and doesn't seem very performant, so tread lightly!

Installation

npm install react-mt-svg-lines --save

Usage

Require MtSvgLines into your component (you can import it under any name)...

import MtSvgLines from 'react-mt-svg-lines';      // ES6+
// or...
var MtSvgLines = require('react-mt-svg-lines').default;

In your JSX, wrap it around any valid SVG...

<MtSvgLines animate={ true } duration={ 500 }>
  <svg viewBox="0 0 100 100">
    <path stroke="green" strokeWidth="10" fill="none" d="M20.8,51c0,0,20.8,18.2,21.5,18.2c0.6,0,33.3-38.5,33.3-38.5" />
  </svg>
</MtSvgLines>

Props

The component comes with a reasonable set of defaults. The only prop required to engage it is animate.

className: string

Any custom CSS class you'd like applied to the component's span wrapper. Default is "mt-svg".

animate: string || number || bool

Your animation "trigger key":

  • false render the SVG instantly (default)
  • true || string trigger the animation immediately
  • number trigger the animation after an initial delay of number (ms)
  • "hide" draw the SVG as invisible (rendered with opacity: 0)

If you need to re-trigger the animation, simply pass in a new string or number (different from the last value). You can generate it, e.g. String( Date.now() ). Have a look at the DemoPage code.

callback: function

Callback function, executes when animation concludes.

duration: number

Desired duration of one full cycle of the entire animation, across all paths (ms). Default is 1000.

jsOnly: bool

Apply tween.js to drive animations using JavaScript regardless of browser. Default is false (kicks in on IE/Edge only, via browser sniffing).

fade: bool

Apply a fade-in transition to each path. If a path has a fill color, the entire element will fade in while the line is drawn. Default is false. Not supported in JS mode.

playback: string

Any additional valid CSS animation shorthand props, specifically iteration-count || direction || fill-mode || play-state. Default is "forwards" (play once and stop), but feel free to experiment. For example, the spinner example is set to "2 alternate-reverse both". Partially supported in JS mode, respects defaults, iteration-count, and alternate direction.

stagger: number (0-100)

Delay between the start times of each path (when multiple paths are present within the SVG). Default is 0. Not supported in JS mode.

timing: string

Desired CSS "timing function" type: "ease" || "ease-in" || "ease-out" || "ease-in-out" || "linear" || "step-start" || "step-end". Default is "ease". Mostly supported in JS mode, with Tween.js equivalent presets.

All other props are passed through to the wrapper span

Extra Controls

What if you don't want the animation applied to ALL paths inside your SVG? Add a data attribute of data-mt="skip" to any path element and it will draw instantly. So will other SVG shapes (see below).

Caveats

  • The technique only applies to SVG path elements with a stroke defined. Other SVG primitives, e.g. circles, rectangles, polylines, will render instantly.
  • The path elements should sit at the same nesting level within the SVG structure (otherwise, the generated CSS rules will not target correctly). Also, staggered timing is applied to the elements in the order they appear in the SVG. You can edit your SVGs manually, or try svgo.
  • Remember to specify the viewBox on your SVGs, so they can be scaled to any size. By default, the SVG content will expand to fill its container, but you can give it a width attribute (either in finite units, or percentage).
  • IE/Edge: Doesn't seem to work on thick lines, round stroke-linecap appears regardless of offset, and other irregularities..

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