Highlight overlay

A tinted overlay that allows one or more elements to be highlighted (non-tinted).
Works with all types of components; native, function, class, etc.

Supports switching between highlights, useful for a “tutorial” / “walkththrough” flow
where you step the user through different parts of a screen. Also very useful for
highlighting an element when the user enters the app from a deep link.

⚠️ Caveats ⚠️

  • If the highlightedElementId given to the HighlightOverlay does not
    correspond to an existing HighlightableElement, the overlay will be shown
    without any highlight. Might change this in the future. For now make sure
    the id always exists.
  • In certain setups, the position of the highlighted element might be off by a
    fraction. If this happens to you, set the rootRef of
    HighlightableElementProvider manually to the root element of your app.
    However in most circumstances this is not necessary.
  • If your HighlightedElement is inside a scroll view (like in the demo video above)
    the HighlightOverlay must also be inside the scroll view, otherwise the highlighted
    element will not properly overlay the “root” element. This is because of how React Native handles
    measuring positions & sizes. I’m working on possible fixes to make this more
    user-friendly.

Installation

# npm
npm install react-native-highlight-overlay

# yarn
yarn add react-native-highlight-overlay

Usage

import {
    HighlightableElement,
    HighlightableElementProvider,
    HighlightOverlay,
} from "react-native-highlight-overlay";

// Remember to wrap the ROOT of your app in HighlightableElementProvider!
return (
    <HighlightableElementProvider>
        <HighlightableElement id="important_item">
            <TheRestOfTheOwl />
        </HighlightableElement>

        {/* 
          * The HighlightOverlay should be next to the ROOT of the app, 
          * since it is NOT a modal, it's just an absolutely positioned view.
          * If you want it to be a modal, wrap it in <Modal> yourself first,
          * but I recommend not using modals since they can be buggy.
          */}
        <HighlightOverlay
            // You would usually use a state variable for this :)
            highlightedElementId="important_item"
            onDismiss={() => {
                // Called when the user clicks outside of the highlighted element.
                // Set "highlightedElementId" to nullish to hide the overlay.
            }}
        />
    </HighlightableElementProvider>
);

Contributing

See the contributing guide to learn how to contribute to the repository and the development workflow.

License

MIT

GitHub

View Github