Quickstart

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Overview

The @dnd-kit/react package provides a set of React components and hooks that you can use to build drag and drop interfaces. It is thin React integration layer built on top of the vanilla library, so all of the same concepts are shared and can be used. You can refer to the vanilla documentation of these concepts, such as plugins, modifiers, and sensors.

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Installation

Before getting started, make sure you install @dnd-kit/react in your project:

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Making elements draggable

Let’s get started by creating draggable elements that can be dropped over droppable targets. To do so, we’ll be using the useDraggable hook.

The useDraggable hook requires a unique id, and returns a ref that you can attach to any element to make it draggable.

import {useDraggable} from '@dnd-kit/react';

function Draggable() {
  const {ref} = useDraggable({
    id: 'draggable',
  });

  return (
    <button ref={ref}>
      Draggable
    </button>
  );
}

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Creating droppable elements

In order for our draggable elements to have targets where they can be dropped, we need to create droppable elements. To do so, we’ll be using the useDroppable hook.

Like the useDraggable hook, the useDroppable hook requires a unique id, and returns a ref that you can attach to any element to make it droppable.

This time, we’ll accept the id argument as a prop of the Droppable component.

import {useDroppable} from '@dnd-kit/react';

function Droppable({id, children}) {
  const {ref} = useDroppable({
    id,
  });

  return (
    <div ref={ref} style={{width: 300, height: 300}}>
      {children}
    </div>
  );
}

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Putting all the pieces together

Now that we have both draggable and droppable elements, we can put them together to create a simple drag and drop interaction.

We’ll be using the DragDropProvider component to wrap our draggable and droppable elements. This component handles the drag and drop interactions between our draggable and droppable elements and allow us listen to drag and drop events.

We now have a simple drag and drop interaction set up. You can now build on top of this to create more complex interactions.

For example, you can render multiple draggable elements and droppable targets, and listen to drag and drop events to move elements around.

Let’s try adding more droppable targets to our example:

import React, {useState} from 'react';
import {DndContext} from '@dnd-kit/core';

import {Droppable} from './Droppable';
import {Draggable} from './Draggable';

function App() {
  const targets = ['A', 'B', 'C'];
  const [target, setTarget] = useState();
  const draggable = (
    <Draggable id="draggable">Drag me</Draggable>
  );

  return (
    <DragDropProvider
      onDragEnd={(event) => {
        if (event.canceled) return;

        setTarget(event.target?.id);
      }}
    >
      {!target ? draggable : null}

      {targets.map((id) => (
        <Droppable key={id} id={id}>
          {target === id ? draggable : `Droppable ${id}`}
        </Droppable>
      ))}
    </DragDropProvider>
  );
};

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Next steps

Now that you have a basic understanding of how to make elements draggable and droppable, you can explore the concepts covered in this quickstart guide in more detail: