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.
• If you want to conditionally render a HighligtableElement, you must instead conditionally render the contents of the element:

  // From:
  {showElement && (
    <HighligtableElement>
      <OtherComponent />
    </HighligtableElement>
  )}
  
  // To
  <HighligtableElement>
    {showElement && (
      <OtherComponent />
    )}
  </HighligtableElement>
  

  HighligtableElement is an unstyled View, but it is non-collapsible so it won't get optimized away. This shouldn't change how your app is displayed, except in rare circumstanses.

Installation

This package is available in the npm registry as react-native-highlight-overlay.

# 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_1"
            options={{
                // Options are useful if you want to configure the highlight, but can be left blank.
                mode: "rectangle",
                padding: 5,
                borderRadius: 15,
            }}
        >
            <TheRestOfTheOwl />
        </HighlightableElement>
        <HighlightableElement 
            id="important_item_2"
            options={{
                mode: "circle",
                padding: 5,
            }}
        >
            <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_1"
            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