<RadioButtonGroupInput>

If you want to let the user choose a value among a list of possible values that are always shown, <RadioButtonGroupInput> is the right component. It renders using Material UI’s <RadioGroup>.

This input allows editing record fields that are scalar values, e.g. 123, 'admin', etc.

Usage

In addition to the source, <RadioButtonGroupInput> requires one prop: the choices listing the possible values.

import { RadioButtonGroupInput } from 'react-admin';

<RadioButtonGroupInput source="category" choices={[
    { id: 'tech', name: 'Tech' },
    { id: 'lifestyle', name: 'Lifestyle' },
    { id: 'people', name: 'People' },
]} />

By default, the possible choices are built from the choices prop, using:

  • the id field as the option value,
  • the name field as the option text

The form value for the source must be the selected value, e.g.

{
    id: 123,
    title: 'Lorem Ipsum',
    category: 'lifestyle',
}

Tip: React-admin includes other components to edit such values:

Tip: If you need to let users select more than one item in the list, check out the <CheckboxGroupInput> component.

Props

Prop Required Type Default Description
choices Optional Object[] - List of items to show as options. Required unless inside a ReferenceInput.
isLoading Optional boolean false If true, the component will display a loading indicator.
options Optional Object - Props to pass to the underlying <RadioButtonGroup> element
optionText Optional string | Function name Field name of record to display in the suggestion item or function which accepts the current record as argument (record => {string})
optionValue Optional string id Field name of record containing the value to use as input value
row Optional boolean true Display options in a compact row.
translateChoice Optional boolean true Whether the choices should be translated

<RadioButtonGroupInput> also accepts the common input props.

choices

An array of objects that represents the choices to show in the options. The objects must have at least two fields: one to use for the option name, and the other to use for the option value. By default, <RadioButtonGroupInput> will use the id and name fields.

const choices = [
    { id: 'tech', name: 'Tech' },
    { id: 'lifestyle', name: 'Lifestyle' },
    { id: 'people', name: 'People' },
];
<RadioButtonGroupInput source="category" choices={choices} />

If the choices have different keys, you can use optionText and optionValue to specify which fields to use for the name and value.

const choices = [
    { _id: 'tech', label: 'Tech' },
    { _id: 'lifestyle', label: 'Lifestyle' },
    { _id: 'people', label: 'People' },
];
<RadioButtonGroupInput
    source="category"
    choices={choices}
    optionText="label"
    optionValue="_id"
/>

The choices are translated by default, so you can use translation identifiers as choices:

const choices = [
    { id: 'tech', name: 'myroot.categories.tech' },
    { id: 'lifestyle', name: 'myroot.categories.lifestyle' },
    { id: 'people', name: 'myroot.categories.people' },
];

You can opt-out of this translation by setting the translateChoice prop to false.

If you need to fetch the options from another resource, you’re actually editing a many-to-one or a one-to-one relationship. In this case, wrap the <RadioButtonGroupInput> in a <ReferenceInput>. You don’t need to specify the choices prop - the parent component injects it based on the possible values of the related resource.

<ReferenceInput label="Author" source="author_id" reference="authors">
    <RadioButtonGroupInput />
</ReferenceInput>

See Selecting a foreign key below for more information.

If you have an array of values for the options, turn it into an array of objects with the id and name properties:

const possibleValues = ['tech', 'lifestyle', 'people'];
const ucfirst = name => name.charAt(0).toUpperCase() + name.slice(1);
const choices = possibleValues.map(value => ({ id: value, name: ucfirst(value) }));

<RadioButtonGroupInput source="category" choices={choices} />

isLoading

When fetching choices from a remote API, the <RadioButtonGroupInput> can’t be used until the choices are fetched. To let the user know, you can pass the isLoading prop to <RadioButtonGroupInput>. This displays a loading indicator while the choices are being fetched.

import { useGetList, RadioButtonGroupInput } from 'react-admin';

const UserCountry = () => {
    const { data, isLoading } = useGetList('countries');
    // data is an array of { id: 123, code: 'FR', name: 'France' }
    return (
        <RadioButtonGroupInput 
            source="country"
            choices={data}
            optionText="name"
            optionValue="code"
            isLoading={isLoading}
        />
    );
}

options

Use the options attribute if you want to override any of Material UI’s <RadioGroup> attributes:

<RadioButtonGroupInput
    source="category"
    choices={choices}
    options={{ labelPosition: 'right' }} />

Refer to Material UI RadioGroup documentation for more details.

optionText

You can customize the property to use for the option name (instead of the default name) thanks to the optionText prop:

const choices = [
    { id: 'tech', label: 'Tech' },
    { id: 'lifestyle', label: 'Lifestyle' },
    { id: 'people', label: 'People' },
];
<RadioButtonGroupInput source="category" choices={choices} optionText="label" />

optionText is particularly useful when the choices are records fetched from another resource, and <RadioButtonGroupInput> is a child of a <ReferenceInput>. By default, react-admin uses the recordRepresentation function to display the record label. But if you set the optionText prop, react-admin will use it instead.

import { RadioButtonGroupInput, ReferenceInput } from 'react-admin';

<ReferenceInput label="Author" source="author_id" reference="authors">
    <RadioButtonGroupInput optionText="last_name" />
</ReferenceInput>

See fetching choices below for more details.

optionText also accepts a function, so you can shape the option text at will:

const choices = [
   { id: 123, first_name: 'Leo', last_name: 'Tolstoi' },
   { id: 456, first_name: 'Jane', last_name: 'Austen' },
];
const optionRenderer = choice => `${choice.first_name} ${choice.last_name}`;
<RadioButtonGroupInput
    source="author_id"
    choices={choices}
    optionText={optionRenderer}
/>

optionText also accepts a React Element, that will be rendered inside a <RecordContext> using the related choice as the record prop. You can use Field components there.

const choices = [
   { id: 123, first_name: 'Leo', last_name: 'Tolstoi' },
   { id: 456, first_name: 'Jane', last_name: 'Austen' },
];

const FullNameField = () => {
    const record = useRecordContext();
    return <span>{record.first_name} {record.last_name}</span>;
}

<RadioButtonGroupInput source="author_id" choices={choices} optionText={<FullNameField />}/>

optionValue

You can customize the property to use for the option value (instead of the default id) thanks to the optionValue prop:

const choices = [
    { _id: 'tech', name: 'Tech' },
    { _id: 'lifestyle', name: 'Lifestyle' },
    { _id: 'people', name: 'People' },
];
<RadioButtonGroupInput
    source="category"
    choices={choices}
    optionValue="_id"
/>

row

By default, the radio buttons are displayed in a row. You can change that and let react-admin render one choice per row by setting the row prop to false:

<RadioButtonGroupInput source="category" choices={choices} row={false} />

sx: CSS API

The <RadioButtonGroupInput> component accepts the usual className prop. You can also override many styles of the inner components thanks to the sx property (see the sx documentation for syntax and examples). This property accepts the following subclasses:

Rule name Description
& .RaRadioButtonGroupInput-label Applied to the underlying Material UI’s FormLabel component

To override the style of all instances of <RadioButtonGroupInput> using the application-wide style overrides, use the RaRadioButtonGroupInput key.

translateChoice

The choices are translated by default, so you can use translation identifiers as choices:

const choices = [
   { id: 'M', name: 'myroot.gender.male' },
   { id: 'F', name: 'myroot.gender.female' },
];

However, in some cases, you may not want the choice to be translated. In that case, set the translateChoice prop to false.

<RadioButtonGroupInput source="gender" choices={choices} translateChoice={false}/>

Note that translateChoice is set to false when <RadioButtonGroupInput> is a child of <ReferenceInput>.

Fetching Choices

You can use useGetList to fetch choices. For example, to fetch a list of countries for a user profile:

import { useGetList, RadioButtonGroupInput } from 'react-admin';

const CountryInput = () => {
    const { data, isLoading } = useGetList('countries');
    // data is an array of { id: 123, code: 'FR', name: 'France' }
    return (
        <RadioButtonGroupInput 
            source="country"
            choices={data}
            optionText="name"
            optionValue="code"
            isLoading={isLoading}
        />
    );
}

The isLoading prop is used to display a loading indicator while the data is being fetched.

However, most of the time, if you need to populate a <RadioButtonGroupInput> with choices fetched from another resource, it’s because you are trying to set a foreign key. In that case, you should use <ReferenceInput> to fetch the choices instead (see next section).

Selecting a Foreign Key

If you use <RadioButtonGroupInput> to set a foreign key for a many-to-one or a one-to-one relationship, you’ll have to fetch choices, as explained in the previous section. You’ll also have to fetch the record corresponding to the current value of the foreign key, as it may not be in the list of choices.

For example, if a contact has one company via the company_id foreign key, a contact form can let users select a company as follows:

import { useGetList, useGetOne, RadioButtonGroupInput } from 'react-admin';
import { useWatch } from 'react-hook-form';

const CompanyInput = () => {
    // fetch possible companies
    const { data: choices, isLoading: isLoadingChoices } = useGetList('companies');
    // companies are like { id: 123, name: 'Acme' }
    // get the current value of the foreign key
    const companyId = useWatch({ name: 'company_id'})
    // fetch the current company
    const { data: currentCompany, isLoading: isLoadingCurrentCompany } = useGetOne('companies', { id: companyId });
    // if the current company is not in the list of possible companies, add it
    const choicesWithCurrentCompany = choices
        ? choices.find(choice => choice.id === companyId)
            ? choices
            : [...choices, currentCompany]
        : [];
    return (
        <RadioButtonGroupInput 
            label="Company"
            source="company_id"
            choices={choicesWithCurrentCompany}
            optionText="name"
            disabled={isLoading}
        />
    );
}

As this is a common task, react-admin provides a shortcut to do the same in a declarative way: <ReferenceInput>:

import { ReferenceInput, RadioButtonGroupInput } from 'react-admin';

const CompanyInput = () => (
    <ReferenceInput reference="companies" source="company_id">
        <RadioButtonGroupInput 
            label="Company"
            source="company_id"
            optionText="name"
        />
    </ReferenceInput>
);

<ReferenceInput> is a headless component that:

  • fetches a list of records with dataProvider.getList() and dataProvider.getOne(), using the reference prop for the resource,
  • puts the result of the fetch in the ChoiceContext as the choices prop, as well as the isLoading state,
  • and renders its child component

When rendered as a child of <ReferenceInput>, <RadioButtonGroupInput> reads that ChoiceContext to populate its own choices and isLoading props.

In fact, you can simplify the code even further:

  • <ReferenceInput> puts all its props inside the ChoiceContext, including source, so <RadioButtonGroupInput> doesn’t need to repeat it.
  • You can also put the label prop on the <ReferenceInput> rather than <RadioButtonGroupInput> so that it looks just like <ReferenceField> (for easier memorization).
  • <RadioButtonGroupInput> uses the recordRepresentation to determine how to represent the related choices. In the example above, the companies resource uses name as its recordRepresentation, so <RadioButtonGroupInput> will default to optionText="name".

The code for the <CompanyInput> component can be reduced to:

import { ReferenceInput, RadioButtonGroupInput } from 'react-admin';

const CompanyInput = () => (
    <ReferenceInput reference="companies" source="company_id" label="Company">
        <RadioButtonGroupInput />
    </ReferenceInput>
);

This is the recommended approach for using <RadioButtonGroupInput> to select a foreign key. This not only signifies that the input is a <RadioButtonGroupInput> but also highlights its function in fetching choices from another resource, ultimately enhancing the code’s readability.

Tip: <ReferenceInput> is much more powerful than the initial snippet. It optimizes and caches API calls, enables refetching of both API calls with a single command, and stores supplementary data in the <ChoicesContext>. <ReferenceInput> can provide choices to <RadioButtonGroupInput>, but also to <AutocompleteInput> and <SelectInput>. For further information, refer to the <ReferenceInput> documentation.