Placeholders

Use loading placeholders for your components or pages to indicate something may still be loading.

About

Placeholders can be used to enhance the experience of your application. They’re built only with HTML and CSS, meaning you don’t need any JavaScript to create them. You will, however, need some custom JavaScript to toggle their visibility. Their appearance, color, and sizing can be easily customized with our utility classes.

Example

In the example below, we take a typical card component and recreate it with placeholders applied to create a “loading card”. Size and proportions are the same between the two.

import Button from 'react-bootstrap/Button';
import Card from 'react-bootstrap/Card';
import Placeholder from 'react-bootstrap/Placeholder';

function CardExample() {
  return (
    <div className="d-flex justify-content-around">
      <Card style={{ width: '18rem' }}>
        <Card.Img variant="top" src="holder.js/100px180" />
        <Card.Body>
          <Card.Title>Card Title</Card.Title>
          <Card.Text>
            Some quick example text to build on the card title and make up the
            bulk of the card's content.
          </Card.Text>
          <Button variant="primary">Go somewhere</Button>
        </Card.Body>
      </Card>

      <Card style={{ width: '18rem' }}>
        <Card.Img variant="top" src="holder.js/100px180" />
        <Card.Body>
          <Placeholder as={Card.Title} animation="glow">
            <Placeholder xs={6} />
          </Placeholder>
          <Placeholder as={Card.Text} animation="glow">
            <Placeholder xs={7} /> <Placeholder xs={4} /> <Placeholder xs={4} />{' '}
            <Placeholder xs={6} /> <Placeholder xs={8} />
          </Placeholder>
          <Placeholder.Button variant="primary" xs={6} />
        </Card.Body>
      </Card>
    </div>
  );
}

export default CardExample;

import Button from 'react-bootstrap/Button';
import Card from 'react-bootstrap/Card';
import Placeholder from 'react-bootstrap/Placeholder';

function CardExample() {
  return (
    <div className="d-flex justify-content-around">
      <Card style={{ width: '18rem' }}>
        <Card.Img variant="top" src="holder.js/100px180" />
        <Card.Body>
          <Card.Title>Card Title</Card.Title>
          <Card.Text>
            Some quick example text to build on the card title and make up the
            bulk of the card's content.
          </Card.Text>
          <Button variant="primary">Go somewhere</Button>
        </Card.Body>
      </Card>

      <Card style={{ width: '18rem' }}>
        <Card.Img variant="top" src="holder.js/100px180" />
        <Card.Body>
          <Placeholder as={Card.Title} animation="glow">
            <Placeholder xs={6} />
          </Placeholder>
          <Placeholder as={Card.Text} animation="glow">
            <Placeholder xs={7} /> <Placeholder xs={4} /> <Placeholder xs={4} />{' '}
            <Placeholder xs={6} /> <Placeholder xs={8} />
          </Placeholder>
          <Placeholder.Button variant="primary" xs={6} />
        </Card.Body>
      </Card>
    </div>
  );
}

export default CardExample;

How it works

Create placeholders with the Placeholder component and a grid column prop (e.g., xs={6}) to set the width. They can replace the text inside an element or be added to an existing component via the as prop.

Additional styling is applied to PlaceholderButtons via ::before to ensure the height is respected. You may extend this pattern for other situations as needed, or add a   within the element to reflect the height when actual text is rendered in its place.

import Placeholder from 'react-bootstrap/Placeholder';

function BasicExample() {
  return (
    <>
      <p aria-hidden="true">
        <Placeholder xs={6} />
      </p>

      <Placeholder.Button xs={4} aria-hidden="true" />
    </>
  );
}

export default BasicExample;

import Placeholder from 'react-bootstrap/Placeholder';

function BasicExample() {
  return (
    <>
      <p aria-hidden="true">
        <Placeholder xs={6} />
      </p>

      <Placeholder.Button xs={4} aria-hidden="true" />
    </>
  );
}

export default BasicExample;

Width

You can change the width through grid column classes, width utilities, or inline styles.

import Placeholder from 'react-bootstrap/Placeholder';

function WidthExample() {
  return (
    <>
      <Placeholder xs={6} />
      <Placeholder className="w-75" /> <Placeholder style={{ width: '25%' }} />
    </>
  );
}

export default WidthExample;

import Placeholder from 'react-bootstrap/Placeholder';

function WidthExample() {
  return (
    <>
      <Placeholder xs={6} />
      <Placeholder className="w-75" /> <Placeholder style={{ width: '25%' }} />
    </>
  );
}

export default WidthExample;

Color

By default, the Placeholder uses currentColor. This can be overridden with a custom color or utility class.

import Placeholder from 'react-bootstrap/Placeholder';

function ColorExample() {
  return (
    <>
      <Placeholder xs={12} />

      <Placeholder xs={12} bg="primary" />
      <Placeholder xs={12} bg="secondary" />
      <Placeholder xs={12} bg="success" />
      <Placeholder xs={12} bg="danger" />
      <Placeholder xs={12} bg="warning" />
      <Placeholder xs={12} bg="info" />
      <Placeholder xs={12} bg="light" />
      <Placeholder xs={12} bg="dark" />
    </>
  );
}

export default ColorExample;

import Placeholder from 'react-bootstrap/Placeholder';

function ColorExample() {
  return (
    <>
      <Placeholder xs={12} />

      <Placeholder xs={12} bg="primary" />
      <Placeholder xs={12} bg="secondary" />
      <Placeholder xs={12} bg="success" />
      <Placeholder xs={12} bg="danger" />
      <Placeholder xs={12} bg="warning" />
      <Placeholder xs={12} bg="info" />
      <Placeholder xs={12} bg="light" />
      <Placeholder xs={12} bg="dark" />
    </>
  );
}

export default ColorExample;

Sizing

The size of Placeholders are based on the typographic style of the parent element. Customize them with sizing props: lg, sm, or xs.

import Placeholder from 'react-bootstrap/Placeholder';

function SizeExample() {
  return (
    <>
      <Placeholder xs={12} size="lg" />
      <Placeholder xs={12} />
      <Placeholder xs={12} size="sm" />
      <Placeholder xs={12} size="xs" />
    </>
  );
}

export default SizeExample;

import Placeholder from 'react-bootstrap/Placeholder';

function SizeExample() {
  return (
    <>
      <Placeholder xs={12} size="lg" />
      <Placeholder xs={12} />
      <Placeholder xs={12} size="sm" />
      <Placeholder xs={12} size="xs" />
    </>
  );
}

export default SizeExample;

Animation

Animate placeholders by setting the prop animation to glow or wave to better convey the perception of something being actively loaded.

import Placeholder from 'react-bootstrap/Placeholder';

function AnimationExample() {
  return (
    <>
      <Placeholder as="p" animation="glow">
        <Placeholder xs={12} />
      </Placeholder>
      <Placeholder as="p" animation="wave">
        <Placeholder xs={12} />
      </Placeholder>
    </>
  );
}

export default AnimationExample;

import Placeholder from 'react-bootstrap/Placeholder';

function AnimationExample() {
  return (
    <>
      <Placeholder as="p" animation="glow">
        <Placeholder xs={12} />
      </Placeholder>
      <Placeholder as="p" animation="wave">
        <Placeholder xs={12} />
      </Placeholder>
    </>
  );
}

export default AnimationExample;

API

Placeholderview source file

import Placeholder from 'react-bootstrap/Placeholder'

Name	Type	Default	Description
animation	`'glow'` \| `'wave'`		Changes the animation of the placeholder.
bg	`'primary'` \| `'secondary'` \| `'success'` \| `'danger'` \| `'warning'` \| `'info'` \| `'light'` \| `'dark'`		Change the background color of the placeholder.
size	`'xs'` \| `'sm'` \| `'lg'`		Component size variations.
bsPrefix	string	`'placeholder'`	Change the underlying component CSS base class name and modifier class names prefix. This is an escape hatch for working with heavily customized bootstrap css.

Placeholder.Buttonview source file

import Placeholder from 'react-bootstrap/Placeholder'

Name	Type	Default	Description
animation	`'glow'` \| `'wave'`		Changes the animation of the placeholder.
size	`'xs'` \| `'sm'` \| `'lg'`		Component size variations.
variant	string		Button variant.
bsPrefix	string	`'placeholder'`	Change the underlying component CSS base class name and modifier class names prefix. This is an escape hatch for working with heavily customized bootstrap css.

Placeholders

About#

Example#

How it works#

Width#

Color#

Sizing#

Animation#

API#

Placeholder#view source file

Placeholder.Button#view source file