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Components

Several Sandpack prefixed components are available in the sandpack-react package. They can be used to build custom presets, as long as they render within the providers we talked about during the previous section.

Let's try to rebuild the Sandpack preset, using the sandpack components available in the sandpack-react package.

Layout​

The first component inside the Provider is SandpackLayout. This component ensures the theming is applied and gives your sandpack instance the two column layout with the first child on the left and the second one on the right.

info

SandpackLayout gives you the left-right split between two components and also breaks the columns when the component is under 700px wide, so you have some responsiveness built-in. It also renders the theme provider for convenience.

import {
  SandpackProvider,
  SandpackLayout,
  SandpackCodeEditor,
  SandpackPreview,
} from "@codesandbox/sandpack-react";

const CustomSandpack = () => (
  <SandpackProvider template="react">
    <SandpackLayout>
      <SandpackCodeEditor />
      <SandpackPreview />
    </SandpackLayout>
  </SandpackProvider>
);
export default function App() {
  return <h1>Hello World</h1>
}
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Further now we have pretty much the same component as the preset, minus the prop passing, which you can decide based on your specific needs.

You can easily swap the two components inside the SandpackLayout to get a different instance of Sandpack.

<SandpackProvider template="react">
  <SandpackLayout>
    <SandpackPreview />
    <SandpackCodeEditor />
  </SandpackLayout>
</SandpackProvider>
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export default function App() {
  return <h1>Hello World</h1>
}

SandpackLayout accepts a theme prop, so you can pass in your custom theme object or a predefined theme.

Reminder

If you do not want to use the SandpackLayout but still want to have style applied to the sandpack components according to the theme, you need to wrap your components with the SandpackThemeProvider.

Preview​

The Preview component is running the sandpack bundler, so without rendering a Preview component you will not have any bundling and evaluation of the code in sandpack. However, the Preview is smart enough to start even if it is mounted later in the page. This is how the autorun=false mode is working.

<SandpackProvider template="react">
  <SandpackLayout>
    <SandpackPreview />
  </SandpackLayout>
</SandpackProvider>

There's nothing stopping you from rendering multiple previews in the same Provider. They will all be connected to the same state source, but they can for example point to different pages of the same application.

<SandpackProvider template="react">
  <SandpackLayout>
    <SandpackPreview />
    <SandpackPreview />
    <SandpackPreview />
    <SandpackPreview />
  </SandpackLayout>
</SandpackProvider>
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Additional buttons​

The <SandpackPreview /> component also allows you to add additional buttons to the preview area.

<SandpackProvider template="react">
  <SandpackLayout>
    <SandpackPreview
      actionsChildren={
        <button
          className="sp-button"
          style={{ padding: 'var(--sp-space-1) var(--sp-space-3)' }}
          onClick={() => window.alert('Bug reported!')}
        >
          Report bug
        </button>
      }
    />
    <SandpackCodeEditor />
  </SandpackLayout>
</SandpackProvider>
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export default function App() {
  return <h1>Hello World</h1>
}

Additional content​

For advanced use cases, children of <SandpackPreview> are rendered at the end of the preview container.

Getting the client instance from SandpackPreview​

You can imperatively retrieve the Sandpack client from a SandpackPreview ref, and also consume or interact with the current state of the preview. Check out the type definitions for more details.

import { SandpackPreviewRef, useSandpack, SandpackPreview } from "@codesandbox/sandpack-react"

const SandpackPreviewClient: React.FC = () => {
  const { sandpack } = useSandpack();
  const previewRef = React.useRef<SandpackPreviewRef>();

  React.useEffect(() => {
    const client = previewRef.current?.getClient();
    const clientId = previewRef.current?.clientId;

    if (client && clientId) {
      console.log(client);
      console.log(sandpack.clients[clientId]);
    }
  /**
   * NOTE: In order to make sure that the client will be available
   * use the whole `sandpack` object as a dependencie.
   */
  }, [sandpack]);

  return <SandpackPreview ref={previewRef} />;
};
note

Worth mentioning that the SandpackClient will not be instantly available. Sandpack has its own rules to decide when it'is the "right" moment to initialize an instance from a preview component. (Sandpack will take into account properties such as autorun, initMode, and the current client stack priority) This means that it's expected that getClient function returns undefined which is a valid state.

Code editor​

The SandpackCodeEditor component renders a wrapper over codemirror, a lightweight code editor we use inside sandpack.

<SandpackProvider template="react">
  <SandpackLayout>
    <SandpackCodeEditor />
    <SandpackPreview />
  </SandpackLayout>
</SandpackProvider>

If you played with the Sandpack preset, you should be familiar already with the props that you can pass to the code editor component:

<SandpackProvider template="react">
  <SandpackLayout>
    <SandpackCodeEditor
      showTabs
      showLineNumbers={false}
      showInlineErrors
      wrapContent
      closableTabs
    />
    <SandpackPreview />
  </SandpackLayout>
</SandpackProvider>
export default function App() {
  return <h1>Hello World</h1>
}
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Extensions​

Sandpack uses CodeMirror under the hood to provide a nice editor. You can extend the editor with any CodeMirror extensions, such as @codemirror/autocomplete.

import { autocompletion, completionKeymap } from "@codemirror/autocomplete";

<SandpackProvider template="react">
  <SandpackThemeProvider>
    <SandpackCodeEditor
      extensions={[autocompletion()]}
      extensionsKeymap={[completionKeymap]}
    />
  </SandpackThemeProvider>
</SandpackProvider>

<Sandpack
  options={{
    codeEditor: {
      extensions: [autocompletion()],
      extensionsKeymap: [completionKeymap],
    },
  }}
  template="react"

Additional languages​

Sandpack provides built-in support for a variety of common languages:

  • JavaScript, JSX
  • TypeScript, TSX
  • CSS, SCSS, Less
  • HTML
  • Vue

When an appropriate language can't be detected JavaScript is used.

If you want to support additional languages you can extend the editor by supplying a CodeMirror language and associating it with one or more file extensions.

import { python } from "@codemirror/lang-python";

<SandpackProvider>
  <SandpackCodeEditor
    additionalLanguages={[
      {
        name: "python",
        extensions: ["py"],
        language: python(),
      },
    ]}
  />
</SandpackProvider>

<Sandpack
  options={{
    codeEditor: {
      additionalLanguages: [
        {
          name: "python",
          extensions: ["py"],
          language: python(),
        },
      ]
    },
  }}
  template="react"

When using a stream language mode you'll need to convert it into a LanguageSupport instance.

import { LanguageSupport, StreamLanguage } from "@codemirror/language";
import { shell } from "@codemirror/legacy-modes/mode/shell";

<SandpackProvider>
  <SandpackCodeEditor
    additionalLanguages={[
      {
        name: "shell",
        extensions: ["sh", "bat", "ps1"],
        language: new LanguageSupport(StreamLanguage.define(shell)),
      },
    ]}
  />
</SandpackProvider>

Advanced usage​

If you want to interact directly with CodeMirror, use the component ref to access the getCodemirror function, which will return the CodeMirror instance. Check out how to use it:

import { EditorSelection } from "@codemirror/state";

const App = () => {
  const codemirrorInstance = useRef();

  useEffect(() => {
    // Getting CodeMirror instance
    const cmInstance = codemirrorInstance.current.getCodemirror();
    
    if(!cmInstance) return 
    
    // Current position
    const currentPosition = cmInstance.state.selection.ranges[0].to;

    // Setting a new position
    const trans = cmInstance.state.update({
      selection: EditorSelection.cursor(currentPosition + 1),
      changes: {
        from: 0,
        to: cmInstance.state.doc.length,
        insert: code
      }
    });
    
    cmInstance.update([trans]);
  }, []);

  return (
    <SandpackProvider template="react">
      <SandpackThemeProvider>
        <SandpackCodeEditor ref={codemirrorInstance} />
      </SandpackThemeProvider>
    </SandpackProvider>
  );
};

This is especially useful to get the cursor's current position, add custom decorators, set the selection in a specific position, etc.

Tests​

The SandpackTests component renders a thin wrapper around Jest to run tests directly in the browser. This means you can run tests but additional configuration may not possible given the browser environment.

info

Any test files ending with .test.js(x), .spec.js(x), .test.ts(x) and .spec.ts(x) will automatically be run with Jest and the results shown in the SandpackTests component.

Usage​

There are two ways to run tests and check out the output:

Sandpack Preset​

Using test-ts template preset, which contains an example test.

<Sandpack template="test-ts" />
import { add } from './add';

describe('add', () => {
  test('Commutative Law of Addition', () => {
    expect(add(1, 2)).toBe(add(2, 1));
  });
});

Open browser consoleTests

SandpackTests component​

Standalone and configurable component to run tests, which you can combine with test-ts template or supply custom files. For more details about its usage and implementation, check out the API reference.

Options

  • verbose: Display individual test results with the test suite hierarchy.
  • watchMode: Watch files for changes and rerun all tests. Note if changing a test file then the current file will run on it's own.
  • onComplete: A callback that is invoked with the completed specs.
<SandpackProvider template="test-ts">
  <SandpackLayout>
    <SandpackTests />
    <SandpackCodeEditor />
  </SandpackLayout>
</SandpackProvider>

Open browser consoleTests

import { add } from './add';

describe('add', () => {
  test('Commutative Law of Addition', () => {
    expect(add(1, 2)).toBe(add(2, 1));
  });
});

Extending expect​

note

Although not all configuration is supported, extending expect with custom / third party matchers is still possible.

Add the matchers either as a dependency or as a file and then import the matchers into your tests and invoke expect.extend with your matchers.

const extendedTest = `
import * as matchers from 'jest-extended';
import { add } from './add';

expect.extend(matchers);

describe('jest-extended matchers are supported', () => {
  test('adding two positive integers yields a positive integer', () => {
    expect(add(1, 2)).toBePositive();
  });
});
`;

<SandpackProvider
  customSetup={{ dependencies: { "jest-extended": "^3.0.2" } }}
  files={{ "/extended.test.ts": extendedTest }}
  template="test-ts"
>
  <SandpackLayout>
    <SandpackCodeEditor />
    <SandpackTests />
  </SandpackLayout>
</SandpackProvider>;
import * as matchers from 'jest-extended';
import { add } from './add';

expect.extend(matchers);

describe('jest-extended matchers are supported', () => {
  test('adding two positive integers yields a positive integer', () => {
    expect(add(1, 2)).toBePositive();
  });
});

Open browser consoleTests

Console​

SandpackConsole is a Sandpack devtool that allows printing the console logs from a Sandpack client. It is designed to be a light version of a browser console, which means that it's limited to a set of common use cases you may encounter when coding.

Sandpack runs the console directly into the iframe. As a result, all console messages pass through the Sandpack protocol, where you can attach a listener to these messages in your own component or use the proper Sandpack React hook to consume them.

Usage​

There are three ways to print the logs:

import { Sandpack } from "@codesandbox/sandpack-react";

<Sandpack 
  options={{ 
    showConsole: true, 
    showConsoleButton: true 
  }}
/>
console.log("Hello Sandpack")    

document.getElementById("app").innerHTML = `
<h1>Check the logs 👇</h1>
`
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Limitation​

Considering that SandpackConsole is meant to be a light version of a browser console, there are a few limitations in its implementation in order to keep it modular and light:

  • It needs to have a Sandpack client running (iframe) to execute the logs.
  • It only supports four types of consoles: info, warning, error, and clear.
  • It doesn't render nested objects due to recursive issues.

However, if you need to support more advanced cases, useSandpackConsole hook is compatible with console-feed, which provides a closer browser-console experience without any of the limitations mentioned above.

Code Viewer​

For situations when you strictly want to show some code and run it in the browser, you can use the SandpackCodeViewer component. It looks similar to the code editor, but it renders a read-only version of codemirror, so users will not be able to edit the code.

import {
  SandpackProvider,
  SandpackLayout,
  SandpackCodeEditor,
  SandpackCodeViewer,
  SandpackPreview
} from "@codesandbox/sandpack-react";

const CustomSandpack = () => (
  <SandpackProvider template="react">
    <SandpackLayout>
      <SandpackCodeViewer />
      <SandpackPreview />
    </SandpackLayout>
  </SandpackProvider>
)
export default function App() {
  return <h1>Hello World</h1>
}
Open on CodeSandbox

CodeMirror decorations​

This API provides a way to draw or style a piece of code in the editor content. You can implement it in the following ways:

  • Entire line: add className or elements attributes to an entire line;
  • Range: add className or elements attributes to a piece of content, given a line, startColumn and endColumn;
export default [
  { className: "highlight", line: 1 },
  { className: "highlight", line: 9 },
  {
    className: "widget",
    elementAttributes: { "data-id": "1" },
    line: 12,
    startColumn: 26,
    endColumn: 38,
  },
  {
    className: "widget",
    elementAttributes: { "data-id": "2" },
    line: 13,
    startColumn: 8,
    endColumn: 17,
  },
];
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ReactDevTools​

Sandpack also provides a component that adds React DevTools, allowing you to inspect the React component hierarchies in the iframe. This is useful for props debugging and understanding the component tree. Our SandpackReactDevTools component has the same functionality as the React DevTools browser extensions, but it only shows what is in your Sandpack instance.

import {
  SandpackProvider,
  SandpackLayout,
  SandpackPreview,
  SandpackReactDevTools,
  SandpackStack
} from "@codesandbox/sandpack-react";
export default function CustomSandpack() {
  return (
    <SandpackProvider template="react">
      <SandpackLayout>
        <SandpackPreview />
        <SandpackStack>
          <SandpackReactDevTools />
         </SandpackStack> 
      </SandpackLayout>
    </SandpackProvider>
  )
}
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OpenInCodeSandboxButton​

You can build a custom button that creates a new sandbox from the sandpack files. It will include any edits made in the Sandpack editor, so it is a great way to persist your changes. The created sandbox will open on CodeSandbox in a new tab.

Let's use the UnstyledOpenInCodeSandboxButton as an example:

import {
  SandpackProvider,
  SandpackLayout,
  SandpackCodeEditor,
  UnstyledOpenInCodeSandboxButton,
} from "@codesandbox/sandpack-react";

const CustomSandpack = () => (
  <SandpackProvider template="react">
    <SandpackLayout>
      <SandpackCodeEditor />
      <UnstyledOpenInCodeSandboxButton>
        Open in CodeSandbox
      </UnstyledOpenInCodeSandboxButton>
    </SandpackLayout>
  </SandpackProvider>
);

The UnstyledOpenInCodeSandboxButton is a basic component that does not carry any styles. If you want a ready-to-use component, use the OpenInCodeSandboxButton instead, which has the same functionality but includes the CodeSandbox logo.

Other components​

You can also bring other components in the mix: SandpackTranspiledCode, FileTabs, SandpackFileExplorer, Navigator and so on.

For example, you can create an editor instance that gives you the transpiled code of your active component instead of the preview page:

import {
  SandpackProvider,
  SandpackLayout,
  SandpackCodeEditor,
  SandpackTranspiledCode,
} from "@codesandbox/sandpack-react";

const CustomSandpack = () => (
  <SandpackProvider template="react">
    <SandpackLayout>
      <SandpackCodeEditor />
      <SandpackTranspiledCode />
    </SandpackLayout>
  </SandpackProvider>
);
export default function App() {
  return <h1>Hello World</h1>
}

You will notice that the theming applies to all components in the same way, as the theme object is also distributed by the theme context.

Some of the components have configuration props that toggle subparts on/off or that configure behavior/look. All of them comunicate with sandpack through the shared context.

Congrats!

You can now easily create a custom Sandpack component by reusing some of the building components of the library. The next step is to build your own sandpack components with the help of our custom hooks.