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jquense/react-big-calendar

8,689JavaScriptAudience · developerComplexity · 2/5Setup · moderate

TLDR

React component that displays a list of events in monthly, weekly, and daily calendar views styled like Google Calendar or Outlook, drop it in and hand it your events.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((react-big-calendar))
    What it does
      Monthly view
      Weekly view
      Daily view
    Setup
      npm install
      Pick a localizer
      Set container height
    Localizers
      Moment.js
      date-fns
      Day.js
      Globalize.js
    Features
      Drag and drop addon
      SASS theming
      TypeScript support
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Code map

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filefunction / class

Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

Add a Google Calendar-style event grid to a React app

USE CASE 2

Build a scheduling interface with drag-and-drop event rescheduling

USE CASE 3

Display events from a backend API in monthly, weekly, and daily views

USE CASE 4

Match calendar colors and sizing to your app's design using SASS variables

Tech stack

JavaScriptReactCSSSASSnpm

Getting it running

Difficulty · moderate Time to first run · 30min

Must choose and wire up a date-formatting localizer (Moment.js, date-fns, Day.js, or Globalize.js) and set a fixed height on the calendar container.

License not specified in the explanation, check the repository directly before using in a commercial project.

In plain English

react-big-calendar is a calendar component for React apps, designed to look and behave like the calendars most people already know: Google Calendar and Outlook. You drop it into your app, hand it a list of events with start and end times, and it renders those events in a monthly, weekly, or daily grid view. It is built for modern browsers and uses a flexible layout system rather than old-style HTML tables. To use it, you install the package via npm or yarn, include a CSS file it ships with, and make sure the container element on your page has a defined height. Without a height, the calendar will not appear. One required step is choosing a date-formatting library, called a localizer. The project supports four options: Moment.js, Globalize.js, date-fns, and Day.js. You pick one based on what your project already uses, wire it up once, and then the calendar handles all date display and formatting from that point on. If you want drag-and-drop event editing (moving events around on the grid by clicking and dragging), there is a built-in addon for that. Starter repositories are linked in the README for a plain setup, a drag-and-drop setup, and a TypeScript setup with React hooks. Styling is handled through compiled CSS files that you include, but the project also ships SASS source files if you want to adjust colors and sizing to match your own app's look. The SASS approach gives you access to a variables file where you can change the core visual settings, though the README notes that changes should be tested carefully since some overrides can cause display issues. The project has a live demo and documentation site linked from the README, and a Slack community for questions and contributions. The README is focused and practical: it covers installation, localizer setup, styling, and how to run the examples locally.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
Set up react-big-calendar in my React app using date-fns as the localizer and display a list of events from an array.
Prompt 2
How do I enable drag-and-drop event moving in react-big-calendar?
Prompt 3
My react-big-calendar isn't showing up on the page, what height issue do I need to fix?
Prompt 4
How do I switch react-big-calendar from month view to week view programmatically?
Prompt 5
Customize the colors and fonts of react-big-calendar by overriding SASS variables.
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