Ant Design: Complete Component Framework Cheatsheet

Introduction: What is Ant Design & Why It Matters

Ant Design is a comprehensive UI design language and React component library created by Alibaba’s Ant Financial team. It provides a set of high-quality React components, development tools, and design resources that follow established design principles, helping developers build elegant, consistent, and accessible enterprise-level applications quickly and efficiently.

Why Ant Design matters:

• Provides a complete design system with consistent UI components
• Saves development time with ready-to-use, customizable components
• Ensures responsive, accessible interfaces out of the box
• Backed by a large community and the Alibaba ecosystem
• Offers comprehensive documentation and design resources

Core Concepts & Principles

Design Values

• Nature: Organic, flowing visual language derived from natural patterns
• Certainty: Clear, predictable patterns and consistent behaviors
• Meaningfulness: Purposeful design choices for intuitive interfaces
• Growth: Scalable design system that evolves with changing needs

Getting Started with Ant Design

Installation

# Using npm
npm install antd

# Using yarn
yarn add antd

Basic Setup

// Import style
import 'antd/dist/antd.css';
// Import component
import { Button } from 'antd';

const App = () => (
  <Button type="primary">Hello Ant Design</Button>
);

Customization

// Custom theme
import { ConfigProvider } from 'antd';

const App = () => (
  <ConfigProvider
    theme={{
      token: {
        colorPrimary: '#00b96b',
        borderRadius: 2,
      },
    }}
  >
    {/* Your components */}
  </ConfigProvider>
);

Key Components by Category

Layout Components

Navigation Components

Data Entry Components

Data Display Components

Feedback Components

Advanced Features & Patterns

Form Validation

<Form
  name="basic"
  initialValues={{ remember: true }}
  onFinish={onFinish}
  onFinishFailed={onFinishFailed}
>
  <Form.Item
    label="Username"
    name="username"
    rules={[{ required: true, message: 'Please input your username!' }]}
  >
    <Input />
  </Form.Item>
  
  <Form.Item
    label="Password"
    name="password"
    rules={[
      { required: true, message: 'Please input your password!' },
      { min: 8, message: 'Password must be at least 8 characters' }
    ]}
  >
    <Input.Password />
  </Form.Item>
  
  <Form.Item>
    <Button type="primary" htmlType="submit">Submit</Button>
  </Form.Item>
</Form>

Data Table with Filtering & Sorting

const columns = [
  {
    title: 'Name',
    dataIndex: 'name',
    sorter: (a, b) => a.name.localeCompare(b.name),
    filters: [
      { text: 'Joe', value: 'Joe' },
      { text: 'Jim', value: 'Jim' },
    ],
    onFilter: (value, record) => record.name.includes(value),
  },
  {
    title: 'Age',
    dataIndex: 'age',
    sorter: (a, b) => a.age - b.age,
  }
];

<Table dataSource={data} columns={columns} />

Responsive Design with Grid

<Row gutter={[16, 16]}>
  <Col xs={24} sm={12} md={8} lg={6} xl={4}>
    <div>Responsive Column</div>
  </Col>
  {/* More columns */}
</Row>

Common Challenges & Solutions

Challenge: Component Style Customization

Solution 1: CSS-in-JS with ConfigProvider

<ConfigProvider theme={{
  token: {
    colorPrimary: '#00b96b',
    colorLink: '#1890ff',
    borderRadius: 4,
  },
  components: {
    Button: {
      colorPrimary: '#f5222d',
      algorithm: true, // Enable algorithm
    },
  },
}}>
  {/* Your components */}
</ConfigProvider>

Solution 2: CSS Modules or Less

// YourComponent.module.css
.customButton :global(.ant-btn) {
  background-color: #f5222d;
  border-color: #f5222d;
}

// Usage
import styles from './YourComponent.module.css';

<div className={styles.customButton}>
  <Button type="primary">Custom Button</Button>
</div>

Challenge: Form Complex Validation

Solution: Custom Validator Functions

<Form.Item
  name="password"
  rules={[
    { required: true },
    ({ getFieldValue }) => ({
      validator(_, value) {
        if (!value || getFieldValue('password') === value) {
          return Promise.resolve();
        }
        return Promise.reject(new Error('The passwords do not match!'));
      },
    }),
  ]}
>
  <Input.Password />
</Form.Item>

Challenge: Server-Side Table Pagination

Solution: Custom Pagination Handler

const [data, setData] = useState([]);
const [loading, setLoading] = useState(false);
const [pagination, setPagination] = useState({
  current: 1,
  pageSize: 10,
  total: 0,
});

const fetchData = async (params) => {
  setLoading(true);
  try {
    const response = await api.getData({
      page: params.pagination.current,
      pageSize: params.pagination.pageSize,
      // Other params
    });
    setData(response.data);
    setPagination({
      ...params.pagination,
      total: response.total,
    });
  } finally {
    setLoading(false);
  }
};

<Table
  columns={columns}
  dataSource={data}
  pagination={pagination}
  loading={loading}
  onChange={(pagination, filters, sorter) => {
    fetchData({
      pagination,
      filters,
      sorter,
    });
  }}
/>

Best Practices & Tips

Performance Optimization

• Use Dynamic Imports: Load components only when needed

  const OtherComponent = React.lazy(() => import('./OtherComponent'));
  

• Virtual Lists: For rendering large datasets

  import { List } from 'antd';
  import VirtualList from 'rc-virtual-list';
  
  <List>
    <VirtualList
      data={listData}
      height={400}
      itemHeight={47}
      itemKey="id"
    >
      {(item) => <List.Item>{item.name}</List.Item>}
    </VirtualList>
  </List>
  

• Debounce Input Handlers: Prevent excessive re-renders

  import { debounce } from 'lodash';
  
  const handleSearch = debounce((value) => {
    // Search logic
  }, 300);
  
  <Input onChange={(e) => handleSearch(e.target.value)} />
  

Accessibility (a11y)

• Use semantic HTML elements with Ant Design components
• Ensure sufficient color contrast for text and UI elements
• Include proper ARIA attributes when necessary
• Test keyboard navigation through your interface
• Use Form.Item labels properly for screen readers

Design Consistency

• Maintain consistent spacing using the Space component or grid system
• Use token-based theming to ensure visual consistency
• Follow Ant Design’s spacing recommendations (8px grid system)
• Use their official design tokens for colors, typography, and spacing

Responsive Development

// Responsive Form Layout
<Form
  labelCol={{
    xs: { span: 24 },
    sm: { span: 8 },
  }}
  wrapperCol={{
    xs: { span: 24 },
    sm: { span: 16 },
  }}
>
  {/* Form items */}
</Form>

// Responsive Table
<Table
  columns={columns}
  dataSource={data}
  scroll={{ x: 'max-content' }}
  responsive
/>

Comparison with Other UI Libraries

Resources for Further Learning

Official Resources

• Ant Design Official Documentation
• Ant Design Pro – Enterprise UI solution
• Ant Design Charts – Visualization library
• Ant Design Mobile – Mobile UI library

Community Resources

• Ant Design GitHub Repository
• Awesome Ant Design
• Ant Design Landing – Page builder

Learning Resources

• Ant Design YouTube Tutorials
• UI/UX courses featuring Ant Design on Udemy and Coursera
• Ant Design Discord/Slack communities

Tools

• Ant Design Pro Blocks – Pre-built page templates
• Ant Design Icons – Icon library
• UmiJS – React framework that works well with Ant Design

This cheatsheet provides a comprehensive overview of Ant Design, but the library is continually evolving. Always refer to the official documentation for the most up-to-date information and best practices.