Carousel

A carousel shows slides one place at a time: the photos of a product, the steps of an onboarding, a banner that moves on by itself, a row of cards. Carousel owns the behavior: which slide shows, swiping between them, the previous and next controls, a pagination, the arrow keys, going around the ends, and what screen readers hear. Its parts find it through context, so the app arranges them freely in its own layout. The look is the app’s: no colors, sizes, arrows, dots or labels of its own.

import { mount, signal, Text, View } from "nsh";
import { Carousel, CarouselContent, CarouselItem, CarouselNext, CarouselPagination, CarouselPaginationItem, CarouselPrevious } from "nsh/base";
import { desktop, focusRing, hoverFill, Icon, Log, Split, tint, ui } from "./palette";

const places: { name: string; detail: string; from: string; to: string }[] = [
  { name: "Lisbon", detail: "Tiles, trams and the river light", from: "#3d5a73", to: "#8fb3c9" },
  { name: "Kyoto", detail: "Temples, moss gardens, quiet lanes", from: "#5a3d4a", to: "#c98fa6" },
  { name: "Oaxaca", detail: "Markets, mole and mezcal", from: "#6b4a2f", to: "#d1a06b" },
  { name: "Tromsø", detail: "Fjords under the northern lights", from: "#2f4a4f", to: "#6bb3a8" },
  { name: "Marrakesh", detail: "Riads, souks and courtyards", from: "#73402f", to: "#d9875b" },
];

function App() {
  const shown = signal(0);
  const events = signal<string[]>([]);
  const log = (line: string) => events.set([line, ...events()].slice(0, 3));
  const arrow = {
    style: { width: desktop ? 28 : 34, height: desktop ? 28 : 34, borderRadius: 999, alignItems: "center", justifyContent: "center", ...ui().raised } as const,
    class: "transition-opacity active:opacity-70 disabled:opacity-30 motion-reduce:transition-none",
    hoverStyle: hoverFill(),
    focusStyle: focusRing(2),
  };
  return (
    <View style={{ flex: 1, backgroundColor: ui().page, padding: 20, paddingTop: 24, gap: 14 }}>
      <Text style={{ fontSize: 22, fontWeight: "700", color: ui().text }}>carousel</Text>
      <Text style={{ color: ui().muted }}>
        {desktop
          ? "Scroll with the touchpad, click the arrows or a dot, or focus it and press ← →; after the last place comes the first"
          : "Swipe the cards, or tap the arrows or a dot; after the last place comes the first"}
      </Text>

      <Split gap={14} inspector={<Log title={`onChange · ${places[shown()].name}`} lines={events()} minHeight={76} />}>
        {/* Five cards at 85% span more than the view and a card: the loop is seamless. */}
        <Carousel
          looping
          accessibilityLabel="Places to visit"
          onChange={({ index }) => {
            shown.set(index);
            log(`index: ${index} (${places[index].name})`);
          }}
          style={{ gap: 12, borderRadius: 14 }}
          focusStyle={focusRing(4)}
        >
          {/* Each card is 85% of the view: the next one peeks in. */}
          <CarouselContent style={{ height: desktop ? 150 : 170, gap: 10 }}>
            <Each of={places}>
              {(p, i) => (
                <CarouselItem
                  accessibilityLabel={`${i() + 1} of ${places.length}: ${p().name}`}
                  style={{
                    width: "85%",
                    height: "100%",
                    padding: 16,
                    justifyContent: "flex-end",
                    gap: 2,
                    borderRadius: 14,
                    borderCurve: "continuous",
                    backgroundColor: p().from,
                    backgroundImage: `linear-gradient(135deg, ${p().from} 0%, ${p().to} 100%)`,
                  }}
                >
                  <Text style={{ fontSize: 20, fontWeight: "700", color: "#ffffff" }}>{p().name}</Text>
                  <Text style={{ fontSize: 13, color: tint("#ffffff", 0.82) }}>{p().detail}</Text>
                </CarouselItem>
              )}
            </Each>
          </CarouselContent>

          <View style={{ flexDirection: "row", alignItems: "center", gap: 8 }}>
            <CarouselPrevious accessibilityLabel="Previous place" {...arrow}>
              <Icon name="back" size={14} tint={ui().text} />
            </CarouselPrevious>
            {/* The dots: a pill springs to the one of the card shown. */}
            <CarouselPagination
              accessibilityLabel="Choose a place"
              style={{ flex: 1, flexDirection: "row", justifyContent: "center", alignItems: "center" }}
              indicatorStyle={{ top: 7, bottom: 7, marginHorizontal: 2, borderRadius: 4, backgroundColor: ui().accent }}
            >
              <Each of={places}>
                {(p, i) => (
                  <CarouselPaginationItem
                    index={i()}
                    accessibilityLabel={p().name}
                    class="group"
                    style={{ width: 20, height: 20, alignItems: "center", justifyContent: "center", borderRadius: 10 }}
                    focusStyle={focusRing()}
                  >
                    <View
                      class="opacity-60 group-hover:opacity-100 group-selected:opacity-0 transition-opacity motion-reduce:transition-none"
                      style={{ width: 6, height: 6, borderRadius: 3, backgroundColor: tint(ui().text, 0.4) }}
                    />
                  </CarouselPaginationItem>
                )}
              </Each>
            </CarouselPagination>
            <CarouselNext accessibilityLabel="Next place" {...arrow}>
              <Icon name="chevron" size={14} tint={ui().text} />
            </CarouselNext>
          </View>
        </Carousel>
      </Split>
    </View>
  );
}

mount(App);

The content is a native scroll view. A finger, the wheel and the touchpad move the slides on the platform’s main thread, in the same frame as the pointer, and on release the content snaps to the nearest slide, one slide per fling. When it comes to rest the carousel reports the slide with onChange. The controls, the pagination, the keys and the app’s index scroll the content natively to the slide, animated.

use nsh_base::{
    carousel, carousel_content, carousel_item, carousel_next, carousel_pagination,
    carousel_pagination_item, carousel_previous, theme,
};
use nsh_core::prelude::*;

fn photos() -> impl IntoElement {
    let index = signal(0u32);
    let names = ["Harbor", "Dunes", "Glacier"];
    carousel()
        .index(move || Some(index.get()))
        .on_change(move |i: &u32| index.set(*i))
        .accessibility_label("Photos")
        .gap_3()
        .child(
            carousel_content().w_full().h(px(180.0)).gap_3().child(
                names
                    .iter()
                    .enumerate()
                    .map(|(i, name)| {
                        carousel_item()
                            .accessibility_label(format!("{} of 3: {name}", i + 1))
                            .w_full()
                            .rounded(move || theme().radius)
                            .bg(move || theme().muted)
                            .items_center()
                            .justify_center()
                            .child(text(*name))
                    })
                    .collect::<Vec<_>>(),
            ),
        )
        .child(
            view()
                .flex_row()
                .items_center()
                .gap_2()
                .child(carousel_previous().accessibility_label("Previous photo").child(text("‹")))
                .child(
                    carousel_pagination()
                        .flex_row()
                        .gap_1()
                        .child(
                            (0..3)
                                .map(|i| {
                                    carousel_pagination_item()
                                        .index(i)
                                        .accessibility_label(format!("Photo {}", i + 1))
                                        .size_2()
                                        .rounded_full()
                                        .bg(move || theme().border)
                                        .selected_style(|s| s.bg(move || theme().primary))
                                })
                                .collect::<Vec<_>>(),
                        ),
                )
                .child(carousel_next().accessibility_label("Next photo").child(text("›"))),
        )
}

import { mount, signal, Text, View } from "nsh";
import {
  Carousel,
  CarouselContent,
  CarouselItem,
  CarouselNext,
  CarouselPagination,
  CarouselPaginationItem,
  CarouselPrevious,
} from "nsh/base";

const NAMES = ["Harbor", "Dunes", "Glacier"];

function App() {
  const index = signal(0);
  return (
    <Carousel index={index()} onChange={({ index: next }) => index.set(next)} accessibilityLabel="Photos" class="gap-3">
      <CarouselContent class="h-[180px] w-full gap-3">
        {NAMES.map((name, i) => (
          <CarouselItem
            accessibilityLabel={`${i + 1} of ${NAMES.length}: ${name}`}
            class="w-full items-center justify-center rounded-(--radius) bg-muted"
          >
            <Text>{name}</Text>
          </CarouselItem>
        ))}
      </CarouselContent>
      <View class="flex-row items-center gap-2">
        <CarouselPrevious accessibilityLabel="Previous photo" class="disabled:opacity-40">
          <Text>‹</Text>
        </CarouselPrevious>
        <CarouselPagination class="flex-row gap-1">
          {NAMES.map((_, i) => (
            <CarouselPaginationItem
              index={i}
              accessibilityLabel={`Photo ${i + 1}`}
              class="size-2 rounded-full bg-border selected:bg-primary"
            />
          ))}
        </CarouselPagination>
        <CarouselNext accessibilityLabel="Next photo" class="disabled:opacity-40">
          <Text>›</Text>
        </CarouselNext>
      </View>
    </Carousel>
  );
}

mount(App);

Carousel and its parts come from nsh/base, the nsh-base crate in Rust. The slide shown is the app’s index: a swipe, a control or a key reports the next one with onChange, and the carousel scrolls to the index the app passes back. Until the app answers a swipe with a new index, the slide it rests on stays shown, so a swipe never springs back. Without index the carousel keeps its own, from defaultIndex. In Rust, carousel(), carousel_content(), carousel_item(), carousel_previous(), carousel_next(), carousel_pagination() and carousel_pagination_item() make the parts, with a setter per prop (.index(..)), a listener per event (.on_change(..)), the typed style methods and .child(..) for their content.

#Props

#Carousel

#CarouselContent

#CarouselItem

#CarouselPrevious, CarouselNext

#CarouselPagination

#CarouselPaginationItem

#Events

#Parts

#Several slides per view

A slide’s width is its own class’s, so a row of cards is several slides in the viewport. Each slide is a snap point where it starts: the content rests with that slide where the first one rests, so a padding before the first is kept before each. At the end of the range the slides that cannot reach that place rest with the last one, and next stops there. index names the slide in the first place; the slides that rest with the last one show the same place, and a swipe there reports the first of them:

<Carousel accessibilityLabel="Collections">
  <CarouselContent class="w-full gap-4 px-4">
    <Each of={collections()}>
      {(c) => (
        <CarouselItem class="basis-1/3">
          <Card collection={c()} />
        </CarouselItem>
      )}
    </Each>
  </CarouselContent>
</Carousel>

basis-1/2 at a phone’s width, or basis-[85%], shows a peek of the next card. A vertical carousel (axis="vertical") sizes its slides by their height.

#Looping

With looping, the slides go around seamlessly: after the last comes the first, swiped, stepped with next or the keys, or set by the app’s index, with no rewind across the slides between. The content keeps room of a whole turn of slides before and after them, and draws each slide where it is nearest the middle of the view; the animation runs this on the platform’s own frames, with the scroll. Each slide is there once: screen readers and the pagination see it once.

The loop is seamless while the slides span the viewport and one slide more (three full-width slides, or five a third wide). With fewer, previous, next and the keys still go around, scrolling back across the slides.

#Slides that move on by themselves

A banner that rolls on is the app’s: a timer that sets index. The carousel reports when the user is at it, so the timer waits then, as the WAI-ARIA carousel pattern asks: onDragStart / onDragEnd around a drag, onFocus / onBlur while the keyboard focus is on the carousel, its controls or its pagination, and the pointer over a view around it. Leave it off with reduced motion, and give users a button that stops it (the rotation control):

import { cleanup, effect, reduceMotion, signal, Text, View } from "nsh";
import { Button, Carousel, CarouselContent } from "nsh/base";

const index = signal(0);
const playing = signal(true);
const held = signal(0);
const hold = (on: boolean) => held.set(held() + (on ? 1 : -1));

effect(() => {
  index();
  if (!playing() || held() > 0 || reduceMotion()) return;
  const timer = setInterval(() => index.set((index() + 1) % SLIDES.length), 4000);
  cleanup(() => clearInterval(timer));
});

<View onMouseEnter={() => hold(true)} onMouseLeave={() => hold(false)}>
  <Carousel
    looping
    index={index()}
    onChange={({ index: next }) => index.set(next)}
    onDragStart={() => hold(true)}
    onDragEnd={() => hold(false)}
    onFocus={() => hold(true)}
    onBlur={() => hold(false)}
    accessibilityLabel="Highlights"
  >
    <CarouselContent class="w-full">{/* the slides */}</CarouselContent>
    <Button onPress={() => playing.set(!playing())} class="self-start px-3 py-1">
      <Text>{playing() ? "Pause slides" : "Play slides"}</Text>
    </Button>
  </Carousel>
</View>

Reading index() in the effect starts a whole interval again after each change, the user’s included. With looping, going from the last slide to the first moves forward across the seam.

#Accessibility

• The carousel is a region named by accessibilityLabel; each slide is a group named by its own (its place among the others and what it shows).
• Previous and next are buttons, disabled at the ends unless the carousel loops; each pagination item is a button, selected while its slide shows.
• Every label is the app’s, in the app’s language.
• A looping carousel’s slides are each there once, wherever they are drawn.

See Accessibility for labels, roles and announcements in general.

#Keyboard

On macOS and the web, where Tab reaches the views that take presses, the carousel is a stop of the keyboard focus, and so are its controls and pagination items. While one of them has the focus:

In a right-to-left layout a horizontal carousel’s slides run from the right, so Left moves to the next slide and Right to the previous; a vertical carousel keeps Up and Down. A control that turns disabled while it has the focus (next on the last slide) hands the focus to the carousel, so the keys go on working there.

#Motion

• A swipe, the wheel and the touchpad move the slides with the pointer, in the same frame: the platform scrolls them.
• On release the content glides to the nearest slide, one slide per fling, as the platform snaps.
• Previous, next, a pagination item, a key and the app’s index scroll the content to the slide, animated; with reduced motion, at once.
• The pagination’s indicator springs to the item of the slide shown; with reduced motion it moves at once.
• looping goes from the last slide to the first one step forward, across the seam; once the content rests, it moves back by a whole turn without animation, which changes nothing on screen.

#Platform notes

• iOS, Android and Mac Catalyst: a finger swipes the slides; a tap presses a control.
• Desktops (macOS, Windows, Linux, GPUI) and the web: the wheel and the touchpad scroll the slides, and a click presses a control. A mouse drag over the content is the app’s, as on every scroll view there.
• Every platform draws what the app styles: the slides, the controls, the pagination and its indicator.