React Navigation Material Top Tab Navigation Event Listeners: Listen to The Swipe Event

Introduction

React Navigation provides event listeners that allow you to listen to various tab-related events in a Material Top Tab Navigator. This article will guide you on how to use event listeners to listen to tab press and swipe events, and provide code examples to demonstrate their usage.

swipe react navigation

Problem Statement

One problem with using the swipeEnd event in React Navigation’s Material Top Tab Navigator is the lack of official documentation from react-navigation. As of now (2023 version 6.x), the swipeEnd event is not documented in the official React Navigation documentation for Material Top Tab Navigator. Therefore, its usage and behavior may be subject to change or not fully supported at this time.

Listening to Tab Press and Swipe Events

To listen to tab press and swipe events in a Material Top Tab Navigator, you can use the listeners prop on each Tab.Screen component. The listeners prop accepts an object with event callbacks for specific events. In this example, we’ll focus on the tabPress event, which is documented, and the swipeEnd event, which is not yet documented.

Code Example:

<Tab.Navigator
  lazy={true}
>
  <Tab.Screen name='FirstTab'
    options={{ tabBarLabel: 'First Tab' }}
    listeners={({ navigation }) => ({
      swipeEnd: (e) => {
        console.log('First Tab Swipe')
      },
      tabPress: (e) => {
        console.log('First Tab')
      },
    })}
    component={FirstTabList} />
  <Tab.Screen name='SecondTab'
    options={{ tabBarLabel: 'Second Tab' }}
    listeners={({ navigation }) => ({
      swipeEnd: (e) => {
        console.log('Second Tab Swipe')
      },
      tabPress: (e) => {
        console.log('Second Tab')
      },
    })}
    component={SecondTabList} />
  <Tab.Screen name='ThirdTab'
    options={{ tabBarLabel: 'Third Tab' }}
    listeners={({ navigation }) => ({
      swipeEnd: (e) => {
        console.log('Third Tab Swipe')
      },
      tabPress: (e) => {
        console.log('Third Tab')
      },
    })}
    component={ThirdTabList} />
</Tab.Navigator>

Explanation

In the above code snippet, we have a Tab.Navigator component containing three Tab.Screen components representing different tabs. Each Tab.Screen component has an associated listeners prop that accepts an object with event callbacks.

For each tab, we define two event callbacks:
- swipeEnd: This callback is triggered when the user finishes swiping the tab. Please note that the swipeEnd event is not documented in the official React Navigation documentation for Material Top Tab Navigator.
- tabPress: This callback is triggered when the tab is pressed.

Inside each event callback, we log a message to the console indicating the event and the tab name.

Additional Notes

1. As of now, the swipeEnd event is not documented in the official React Navigation documentation for Material Top Tab Navigator. Therefore, its usage and behavior may be subject to change or not fully supported at this time.
2. Last but not least, you can also implement the swipeStart event, which triggers when the user starts swiping away from the active tab screen. However, please note that the swipeStart event is not demonstrated in the provided code example.

Conclusion

By utilizing the listeners prop for swipeEnd and tabPress in a Material Top Tab Navigator, you can easily listen to tab press and swipe events. This allows you to perform custom actions or handle specific logic based on user interactions with the tabs in your React Navigation application.