@P5-wrapper/react

A component to integrate P5.js sketches into React apps.

Note: Version 5 is still in development, currently 5.0.0-rc.0 has been released for internal development testing ONLY. It is recommended to continue utilising version 4.4.0 until it is out of the rc versioning scheme.

Installation

To install, use the following command in the format appropriate to your chosen package manager:

[npm|yarn|pnpm] [install|add] p5 @p5-wrapper/react

Peer dependencies

Please note that p5, react and react-dom are peer dependencies, meaning you should ensure they are installed before installing React P5 Wrapper.

"peerDependencies": {
  "p5": ">= 1.4.1",
  "react": ">= 18.2.0",
  "react-dom": ">= 18.2.0"
},

TypeScript

If you would like to use Typescript, you should install p5 types in the development environment:

[npm|yarn|pnpm] [install|add] -D @types/p5

Next.js

If you plan to use this component within a Next.js application, you should instead use our Next.js dynamic implementation instead. To do get started, you can run:

[npm|yarn|pnpm] [install|add] p5 @p5-wrapper/next @p5-wrapper/react

Please continue reading these docs and also look at the Next.js dynamic implementation docs for further supporting information.

Demo & Examples

Live demo

A live demo can be viewed at P5-wrapper.github.io/react.

Examples

The repository contains further examples.

To try them out for yourself fork the repository, be sure you have PNPM installed and then run the following:

git clone git@github.com:<your username>/react.git
cd react
pnpm install
pnpm preview

Then just open http://localhost:3001 in a browser.

Usage

Javascript

import * as React from "react";
import { ReactP5Wrapper } from "@p5-wrapper/react";

function sketch(p5) {
  p5.setup = () => p5.createCanvas(600, 400, p5.WEBGL);

  p5.draw = () => {
    p5.background(250);
    p5.normalMaterial();
    p5.push();
    p5.rotateZ(p5.frameCount * 0.01);
    p5.rotateX(p5.frameCount * 0.01);
    p5.rotateY(p5.frameCount * 0.01);
    p5.plane(100);
    p5.pop();
  };
}

export function App() {
  return <ReactP5Wrapper sketch={sketch} />;
}

TypeScript

TypeScript sketches can be declared in two different ways, below you will find two ways to declare a sketch, both examples do the exact same thing.

In short though, the ReactP5Wrapper component requires you to pass a sketch prop. The sketch prop is simply a function which takes a p5 instance as it's first and only argument.

Option 1: Declaring a sketch using the P5CanvasInstance type

import * as React from "react";
import { P5CanvasInstance, ReactP5Wrapper } from "@p5-wrapper/react";

function sketch(p5: P5CanvasInstance) {
  p5.setup = () => p5.createCanvas(600, 400, p5.WEBGL);

  p5.draw = () => {
    p5.background(250);
    p5.normalMaterial();
    p5.push();
    p5.rotateZ(p5.frameCount * 0.01);
    p5.rotateX(p5.frameCount * 0.01);
    p5.rotateY(p5.frameCount * 0.01);
    p5.plane(100);
    p5.pop();
  };
}

export function App() {
  return <ReactP5Wrapper sketch={sketch} />;
}

Option 2: Declaring a sketch using the Sketch type

Using the Sketch type has one nice benefit over using P5CanvasInstance and that is that the p5 argument passed to the sketch function is auto-typed as a P5CanvasInstance for you.

Side note:

In general, it comes down to personal preference as to how you declare your sketches and there is nothing wrong with using the P5CanvasInstance manually in a regular function declaration.

import * as React from "react";
import { ReactP5Wrapper, Sketch } from "@p5-wrapper/react";

const sketch: Sketch = p5 => {
  p5.setup = () => p5.createCanvas(600, 400, p5.WEBGL);

  p5.draw = () => {
    p5.background(250);
    p5.normalMaterial();
    p5.push();
    p5.rotateZ(p5.frameCount * 0.01);
    p5.rotateX(p5.frameCount * 0.01);
    p5.rotateY(p5.frameCount * 0.01);
    p5.plane(100);
    p5.pop();
  };
};

export function App() {
  return <ReactP5Wrapper sketch={sketch} />;
}

TypeScript Generics

We also support the use of Generics to add type definitions for your props. If used, the props will be properly typed when the props are passed to the updateWithProps method.

To utilise generics you can use one of two methods. In both of the examples below, we create a custom internal type called MySketchProps which is a union type of SketchProps and a custom type which has a rotation key applied to it.

Side note:

We could also write the MySketchProps type as an interface to do exactly the same thing if that is to your personal preference:

interface MySketchProps extends SketchProps {
  rotation: number;
}

This means, in these examples, that when the rotation prop that is provided as part of the props passed to the updateWithProps function, it will be correctly typed as a number.

Usage with the P5CanvasInstance type

import {
  P5CanvasInstance,
  ReactP5Wrapper,
  SketchProps
} from "@p5-wrapper/react";
import React, { useEffect, useState } from "react";

type MySketchProps = SketchProps & {
  rotation: number;
};

function sketch(p5: P5CanvasInstance<MySketchProps>) {
  let rotation = 0;

  p5.setup = () => p5.createCanvas(600, 400, p5.WEBGL);

  p5.updateWithProps = props => {
    if (props.rotation) {
      rotation = (props.rotation * Math.PI) / 180;
    }
  };

  p5.draw = () => {
    p5.background(100);
    p5.normalMaterial();
    p5.noStroke();
    p5.push();
    p5.rotateY(rotation);
    p5.box(100);
    p5.pop();
  };
}

export function App() {
  const [rotation, setRotation] = useState(0);

  useEffect(() => {
    const interval = setInterval(
      () => setRotation(rotation => rotation + 100),
      100
    );

    return () => {
      clearInterval(interval);
    };
  }, []);

  return <ReactP5Wrapper sketch={sketch} rotation={rotation} />;
}

Usage with the Sketch type

import { ReactP5Wrapper, Sketch, SketchProps } from "@p5-wrapper/react";
import React, { useEffect, useState } from "react";

type MySketchProps = SketchProps & {
  rotation: number;
};

const sketch: Sketch<MySketchProps> = p5 => {
  let rotation = 0;

  p5.setup = () => p5.createCanvas(600, 400, p5.WEBGL);

  p5.updateWithProps = props => {
    if (props.rotation) {
      rotation = (props.rotation * Math.PI) / 180;
    }
  };

  p5.draw = () => {
    p5.background(100);
    p5.normalMaterial();
    p5.noStroke();
    p5.push();
    p5.rotateY(rotation);
    p5.box(100);
    p5.pop();
  };
};

export function App() {
  const [rotation, setRotation] = useState(0);

  useEffect(() => {
    const interval = setInterval(
      () => setRotation(rotation => rotation + 100),
      100
    );

    return () => {
      clearInterval(interval);
    };
  }, []);

  return <ReactP5Wrapper sketch={sketch} rotation={rotation} />;
}

Using abstracted setup and draw functions

import * as React from "react";
import { ReactP5Wrapper } from "@p5-wrapper/react";

function setup(p5) {
  return () => {
    p5.createCanvas(600, 400, p5.WEBGL);
  };
}

function draw(p5) {
  return () => {
    p5.background(250);
    p5.normalMaterial();
    p5.push();
    p5.rotateZ(p5.frameCount * 0.01);
    p5.rotateX(p5.frameCount * 0.01);
    p5.rotateY(p5.frameCount * 0.01);
    p5.plane(100);
    p5.pop();
  };
}

function sketch(p5) {
  p5.setup = setup(p5);
  p5.draw = draw(p5);
}

export function App() {
  return <ReactP5Wrapper sketch={sketch} />;
}

Props

The only required property of the ReactP5Wrapper component is the sketch prop. The sketch prop is a function that will be passed a p5 instance to use for rendering your sketches as shown in the usage section above.

You can pass as many custom props as you want to the ReactP5Wrapper component and these will all be passed into the updateWithProps method if you have defined it within your sketch.

Reacting to props

In the below example you see the updateWithProps method being used. This is called when the component initially renders and when the props passed to the wrapper are changed, if it is set within your sketch. This way we can render our ReactP5Wrapper component and react to component prop changes directly within our sketches!

import { ReactP5Wrapper } from "@p5-wrapper/react";
import React, { useEffect, useState } from "react";

function sketch(p5) {
  let rotation = 0;

  p5.setup = () => p5.createCanvas(600, 400, p5.WEBGL);

  p5.updateWithProps = props => {
    if (props.rotation) {
      rotation = (props.rotation * Math.PI) / 180;
    }
  };

  p5.draw = () => {
    p5.background(100);
    p5.normalMaterial();
    p5.noStroke();
    p5.push();
    p5.rotateY(rotation);
    p5.box(100);
    p5.pop();
  };
}

export function App() {
  const [rotation, setRotation] = useState(0);

  useEffect(() => {
    const interval = setInterval(
      () => setRotation(rotation => rotation + 100),
      100
    );

    return () => {
      clearInterval(interval);
    };
  }, []);

  return <ReactP5Wrapper sketch={sketch} rotation={rotation} />;
}

Children

To render a component on top of the sketch, you can add it as a child of the ReactP5Wrapper component and then use the exported P5WrapperClassName constant in your css-in-js library of choice to style one element above the other via css.

For instance, using styled components, we could center some text on top of our sketch like so:

import { P5WrapperClassName, ReactP5Wrapper } from "@p5-wrapper/react";
import styled, { createGlobalStyle } from "styled-components";

const GlobalWrapperStyles = createGlobalStyle`
  .${P5WrapperClassName} {
    position: relative;
  }
`;

const StyledCentredText = styled.span`
  .${P5WrapperClassName} & {
    position: absolute;
    top: 50%;
    left: 50%;
    transform: translate(-50%, -50%);
    color: white;
    font-size: 2rem;
    margin: 0;
    text-align: center;
  }
`;

export function App() {
  const [rotation, setRotation] = useState(0);

  useEffect(() => {
    const interval = setInterval(
      () => setRotation(rotation => rotation + 100),
      100
    );

    return () => {
      clearInterval(interval);
    };
  }, []);

  return (
    <Fragment>
      <GlobalWrapperStyles />
      <ReactP5Wrapper sketch={sketch} rotation={rotation}>
        <StyledCentredText>Hello world!</StyledCentredText>
      </ReactP5Wrapper>
    </Fragment>
  );
}

Of course, you can also use any other css-in-js library or by just using simple css to achieve almost anything you can imagine just by using the wrapper class as your root selector.

Fallback UIs

Lets say you want to have a fallback UI in case the sketch ever falls out of sync or is undefined for some reason. If this is a use case for you then you call use the fallback prop to provide the necessary UI to show in the case that the sketch becomes undefined. An example could be as follows:

import * as React from "react";
import { ReactP5Wrapper } from "@p5-wrapper/react";

function sketchOne(p5) {
  p5.setup = () => p5.createCanvas(600, 400, p5.WEBGL);

  p5.draw = () => {
    p5.background(250);
    p5.normalMaterial();
    p5.push();
    p5.rotateZ(p5.frameCount * 0.01);
    p5.rotateX(p5.frameCount * 0.01);
    p5.rotateY(p5.frameCount * 0.01);
    p5.plane(100);
    p5.pop();
  };
}

function sketchTwo(p5) {
  p5.setup = () => p5.createCanvas(600, 400, p5.WEBGL);

  p5.draw = () => {
    p5.background(500);
    p5.normalMaterial();
    p5.push();
    p5.rotateZ(p5.frameCount * 0.01);
    p5.rotateX(p5.frameCount * 0.01);
    p5.rotateY(p5.frameCount * 0.01);
    p5.plane(100);
    p5.pop();
  };
}

export function App() {
  const [sketch, setSketch] = React.useState(undefined);
  const chooseNothing = () => setSketch(undefined);
  const chooseSketchOne = () => setSketch(sketchOne);
  const chooseSketchTwo = () => setSketch(sketchTwo);

  return (
    <>
      <ul>
        <li>
          <button onClick={chooseNothing}>Choose nothing</button>
        </li>
        <li>
          <button onClick={chooseSketchOne}>Choose sketch 1</button>
        </li>
        <li>
          <button onClick={chooseSketchTwo}>Choose sketch 2</button>
        </li>
      </ul>
      <ReactP5Wrapper
        fallback={<h1>No sketch selected yet.</h1>}
        sketch={sketch}
      />
    </>
  );
}

In this case, by default the fallback UI containing <h1>No sketch selected yet.</h1> will be rendered, then if you select a sketch, it will be rendered until you choose to once again "show nothing" which falls back to the fallback UI.

Error and Loading UIs

Since version 4.4.0, it was possible to add a fallback prop, see the section on fallbacks.

Since version 5 it is now possible to pass an error and loading prop to the wrapper which allow the user to pass different UIs for error and loading states.

• The error state will trigger if the sketch or the wrapper encounter an issue, otherwise a default error view will be shown.
• The loading state will trigger while the wrapper is being lazy loaded, otherwise a default loading view will be shown.

Error UIs

To show a custom UI when an error occurs within the sketch or the wrapper, you can pass a lazy function to the error prop.

import * as React from "react";
import { P5CanvasInstance, ReactP5Wrapper } from "@p5-wrapper/react";

// This child will throw an error, oh no!
function ErrorChild() {
  throw new Error("oops");
}

// This view will catch the thrown error and give you access to what exactly was thrown.
function ErrorUI(error: any) {
  if (error instanceof Error) {
    return <p>An error occured: {error.message}</p>;
  }

  return <p>An unknown error occured: {error.toString()}</p>;
}

function sketch(p5: P5CanvasInstance) {
  p5.setup = () => p5.createCanvas(600, 400, p5.WEBGL);

  p5.draw = () => {
    p5.background(250);
    p5.normalMaterial();
    p5.push();
    p5.rotateZ(p5.frameCount * 0.01);
    p5.rotateX(p5.frameCount * 0.01);
    p5.rotateY(p5.frameCount * 0.01);
    p5.plane(100);
    p5.pop();
  };
}

export function App() {
  return (
    <ReactP5Wrapper sketch={sketch} error={ErrorUI}>
      <ErrorChild />
    </ReactP5Wrapper>
  );
}

Instead of the sketch, this will render <p>An error occured: oops</p>. Note that in truth, the ErrorView will always receive any values since JS / TS allow you to throw whatever values you want to, this is why we have to add the error instanceof Error check to be sure the value we got was actually an Error instance and not some other value like a number, string, object or anything else that could be thrown by JS / TS.

As mentioned above, the error state will trigger if the sketch or the wrapper encounter an issue, otherwise a default error view will be shown.

Loading UIs

To show a custom UI while the sketch UI is being lazy loaded, you can pass a lazy function to the loading prop.

import * as React from "react";
import { P5CanvasInstance, ReactP5Wrapper } from "@p5-wrapper/react";

function LoadingUI() {
  return <p>The sketch is being loaded.</p>;
}

function sketch(p5: P5CanvasInstance) {
  p5.setup = () => p5.createCanvas(600, 400, p5.WEBGL);

  p5.draw = () => {
    p5.background(250);
    p5.normalMaterial();
    p5.push();
    p5.rotateZ(p5.frameCount * 0.01);
    p5.rotateX(p5.frameCount * 0.01);
    p5.rotateY(p5.frameCount * 0.01);
    p5.plane(100);
    p5.pop();
  };
}

export function App() {
  return <ReactP5Wrapper sketch={sketch} loading={LoadingUI} />;
}

In the initial period between the sketch render starting and it's lazy loading ending, the LoadingUI will be shown!

As mentioned above, the loading state will trigger while the wrapper is being lazy loaded, otherwise a default loading view will be shown.

P5 plugins and constructors

As discussed in multiple issues such as #11, #23, #61 and #62, there seems to be confusion as to how we can use P5 plugins and constructors out of the box. This section aims to clarify these!

Plugins

Since P5 is being used in P5 instance mode as part of this project, P5 will not automatically load global plugins like it usually might in global mode.

Let's say we want to use the P5 sound plugin in our component, we could do the following:

import * as p5 from "p5";
import { ReactP5Wrapper, Sketch } from "@p5-wrapper/react";
import React, { useEffect, useState } from "react";

(window as any).p5 = p5;

await import("p5/lib/addons/p5.sound");

const sketch: Sketch = p5 => {
  let song: p5.SoundFile;
  let button: p5.Element;

  p5.setup = () => {
    p5.createCanvas(600, 400, p5.WEBGL);
    p5.background(255, 0, 0);
    button = p5.createButton("Toggle audio");

    button.mousePressed(() => {
      if (!song) {
        const songPath = "/piano.mp3";
        song = p5.loadSound(
          songPath,
          () => {
            song.play();
          },
          () => {
            console.error(
              `Could not load the requested sound file ${songPath}`
            );
          }
        );
        return;
      }

      if (!song.isPlaying()) {
        song.play();
        return;
      }

      song.pause();
    });
  };

  p5.draw = () => {
    p5.background(250);
    p5.normalMaterial();
    p5.push();
    p5.rotateZ(p5.frameCount * 0.01);
    p5.rotateX(p5.frameCount * 0.01);
    p5.rotateY(p5.frameCount * 0.01);
    p5.plane(100);
    p5.pop();
  };
};

export default function App() {
  return <ReactP5Wrapper sketch={sketch} />;
}

In this Typescript + React example, we can see a few key things.

• Firstly we need to set p5 on the window object manually. This is because p5.sound requires that it be executed client side only AND that p5 be available BEFORE it is imported into the global (window) scope.
• Secondly, we ensure that audio is played after a user action, in our case this happens on a button click. This is because in some browsers, without waiting for a user interaction before playing audio, the audio will be blocked by the browser from playing at all.
• Thirdly and relevant especially to Safari users, Safari blocks audio from all tabs by default, you will need to manually change this setting in your Safari settings. This could affect other browsers but sadly this is a browser decision and until P5 Sound is updated to support newer audio APIs and browser requirements. This could happen at anytime in other places and is a P5 Sound issue most generally because it does not ask for permissions by default, even though browsers have been requiring it for some time.

Note: The above example requires support for top level await, dynamic import statements and the stream API to be supported in your browser. Furthermore, the stream API built into the browser requires that HTTPS is used to ensure secure data transmission.

Constructors

To access P5 constructors such as p5.Vector or p5.Envelope, you need to use the instance mode syntax instead. For example:

So now that we know this, let's imagine we want a random 2D Vector instance. In our sketch function we would simply call p5.constructor.Vector.random2D() instead of p5.Vector.random2D(). This is because of how the P5 instance mode was implemented by the P5 team. While I am not sure why they decided to change the API for instance mode specifically, it is still quite simple to use the constructs we are used to without much extra work involved.

Development

NOTE: The source code for the component is in the src directory.

To build, watch and serve the examples which will also watch the component source, run:

  pnpm preview