Version: v6

Migrating From IonSlides to Swiper.js

We recommend Swiper.js if you need a modern touch slider component. It powers our IonSlides component, but we now recommend that developers use Swiper for React directly.

This guide will go over how to get Swiper for React set up in your Ionic Framework application. It will also go over any migration information you may need to move from IonSlides to the official Swiper React integration.

note

Swiper's React component is set to be removed in a future release of Swiper, with Swiper Element as the replacement. However, this guide shows how to migrate to the React component because it provides the most stable experience at the time of writing. Notably, React does not have strong support for Web Components yet.

Using Swiper's React component is not required to use Swiper.js with Ionic Framework.

Getting Started

First, update to the latest version of Ionic:

npm install @ionic/react@latest @ionic/react-router@latest

Once that is done, install the Swiper dependency in your project:

npm install swiper@latest

note

Create React App does not support pure ESM packages yet. Developers can still use Swiper, but they will need to use Swiper 7.2.0+ and use direct file imports. This guide assumes you are using Create React App and will show you how to use these direct imports.

Swiping with Style

Next, we need to import the base Swiper styles. We are also going to import the styles that Ionic provides which will let us customize the Swiper styles using the same CSS Variables that we used with IonSlides.

We recommend importing the styles in the component in which Swiper is being used. This ensures that the styles are only loaded when needed:

import React from 'react';
import { IonContent, IonPage } from '@ionic/react';
import { Swiper, SwiperSlide } from 'swiper/react';

import 'swiper/swiper.min.css';
import '@ionic/react/css/ionic-swiper.css';

const Home: React.FC = () => {
  return (
    ...
  );
};
export default Home;

note

Importing @ionic/react/css/ionic-swiper.css is not required to use Swiper.js with Ionic. This files is used for backward-compatibility with the IonSlides component and can be safely omitted if you prefer not to use the CSS Variables provided in the stylesheet.

note

Not using Create React App? You can import the Swiper CSS from swiper/css instead.

Updating Selectors

Previously, we were able to target ion-slides and ion-slide to apply any custom styling. The contents of those style blocks remain the same, but we need to update the selectors. Below is a list of selector changes when going from ion-slides to Swiper React:

ion-slides Selector	Swiper Selector
`ion-slides`	`.swiper`
`ion-slide`	`.swiper-slide`

Pre-processors (optional)

For developers using SCSS or Less styles, Swiper also provides imports for those files.

For Less styles, replace css with less in the Swiper import path:

import React from 'react';
import { IonContent, IonPage } from '@ionic/react';
import { Swiper, SwiperSlide } from 'swiper/react';

import 'swiper/swiper.less';
import '@ionic/react/css/ionic-swiper.css';

const Home: React.FC = () => {
  return (
    ...
  );
};
export default Home;

For SCSS styles replace css with scss in the Swiper import path:

import React from 'react';
import { IonContent, IonPage } from '@ionic/react';
import { Swiper, SwiperSlide } from 'swiper/react';

import 'swiper/swiper.scss';
import '@ionic/react/css/ionic-swiper.css';

const Home: React.FC = () => {
  return (
    ...
  );
};
export default Home;

Using Components

Swiper exports two components: Swiper and SwiperSlide. The Swiper component is the equivalent of IonSlides, and SwiperSlide is the equivalent of IonSlide.

These components are imported from swiper/react/swiper-react.js:

import React from 'react';
import { IonContent, IonPage } from '@ionic/react';
import { Swiper, SwiperSlide } from 'swiper/react/swiper-react.js';

import 'swiper/swiper.min.css';
import '@ionic/react/css/ionic-swiper.css';

const Home: React.FC = () => {
  return (
    <IonPage>
      <IonContent>
        <Swiper>
          <SwiperSlide>Slide 1</SwiperSlide>
          <SwiperSlide>Slide 2</SwiperSlide>
          <SwiperSlide>Slide 3</SwiperSlide>
        </Swiper>
      </IonContent>
    </IonPage>
  );
};
export default Home;

note

Not using Create React App? You can import the Swiper components from swiper/react instead.

Using Modules

By default, Swiper for React does not import any additional modules. To use modules such as Navigation or Pagination, you need to import them first.

IonSlides automatically included the Pagination, Scrollbar, Autoplay, Keyboard, and Zoom modules. This part of the guide will show you how to install these modules.

To begin, we need to import the modules and their corresponding CSS files from the swiper package:

import React from 'react';
import { IonContent, IonPage } from '@ionic/react';
import { Swiper, SwiperSlide } from 'swiper/react/swiper-react.js';
import { Autoplay, Keyboard, Pagination, Scrollbar, Zoom } from 'swiper';

import 'swiper/swiper.min.css';
import 'swiper/modules/autoplay/autoplay.min.css';
import 'swiper/modules/keyboard/keyboard.min.css';
import 'swiper/modules/pagination/pagination.min.css';
import 'swiper/modules/scrollbar/scrollbar.min.css';
import 'swiper/modules/zoom/zoom.min.css';
import '@ionic/react/css/ionic-swiper.css';

const Home: React.FC = () => {
  return (
    <IonPage>
      <IonContent>
        <Swiper>
          <SwiperSlide>Slide 1</SwiperSlide>
          <SwiperSlide>Slide 2</SwiperSlide>
          <SwiperSlide>Slide 3</SwiperSlide>
        </Swiper>
      </IonContent>
    </IonPage>
  );
};
export default Home;

note

Not using Create React App? You can import these modules from swiper/css/[MODULE NAME] instead (i.e. swiper/css/autoplay).

From here, we need to provide these modules to Swiper by using the modules property on the Swiper component:

import React from 'react';
import { IonContent, IonPage } from '@ionic/react';
import { Swiper, SwiperSlide } from 'swiper/react/swiper-react.js';
import { Autoplay, Keyboard, Pagination, Scrollbar, Zoom } from 'swiper';

import 'swiper/swiper.min.css';
import 'swiper/modules/autoplay/autoplay.min.css';
import 'swiper/modules/keyboard/keyboard.min.css';
import 'swiper/modules/pagination/pagination.min.css';
import 'swiper/modules/scrollbar/scrollbar.min.css';
import 'swiper/modules/zoom/zoom.min.css';
import '@ionic/react/css/ionic-swiper.css';

const Home: React.FC = () => {
  return (
    <IonPage>
      <IonContent>
        <Swiper modules={[Autoplay, Keyboard, Pagination, Scrollbar, Zoom]}>
          <SwiperSlide>Slide 1</SwiperSlide>
          <SwiperSlide>Slide 2</SwiperSlide>
          <SwiperSlide>Slide 3</SwiperSlide>
        </Swiper>
      </IonContent>
    </IonPage>
  );
};
export default Home;

Finally, we can turn these features on by using the appropriate properties:

import React from 'react';
import { IonContent, IonPage } from '@ionic/react';
import { Swiper, SwiperSlide } from 'swiper/react/swiper-react.js';
import { Autoplay, Keyboard, Pagination, Scrollbar, Zoom } from 'swiper';

import 'swiper/swiper.min.css';
import 'swiper/modules/autoplay/autoplay.min.css';
import 'swiper/modules/keyboard/keyboard.min.css';
import 'swiper/modules/pagination/pagination.min.css';
import 'swiper/modules/scrollbar/scrollbar.min.css';
import 'swiper/modules/zoom/zoom.min.css';
import '@ionic/react/css/ionic-swiper.css';

const Home: React.FC = () => {
  return (
    <IonPage>
      <IonContent>
        <Swiper
          modules={[Autoplay, Keyboard, Pagination, Scrollbar, Zoom]}
          autoplay={true}
          keyboard={true}
          pagination={true}
          scrollbar={true}
          zoom={true}
        >
          <SwiperSlide>Slide 1</SwiperSlide>
          <SwiperSlide>Slide 2</SwiperSlide>
          <SwiperSlide>Slide 3</SwiperSlide>
        </Swiper>
      </IonContent>
    </IonPage>
  );
};
export default Home;

note

See https://swiperjs.com/react#usage for a full list of modules.

The IonicSlides Module

With IonSlides, Ionic automatically customized dozens of Swiper properties. This resulted in an experience that felt smooth when swiping on mobile devices. We recommend using the IonicSlides module to ensure that these properties are also set when using Swiper directly. However, using this module is not required to use Swiper.js in Ionic.

We can install the IonicSlides module by importing it from @ionic/react and passing it in as the last item in the modules array:

import React from 'react';
import { IonContent, IonPage, IonicSlides } from '@ionic/react';
import { Swiper, SwiperSlide } from 'swiper/react/swiper-react.js';
import { Autoplay, Keyboard, Pagination, Scrollbar, Zoom } from 'swiper';

import 'swiper/swiper.min.css';
import 'swiper/modules/autoplay/autoplay.min.css';
import 'swiper/modules/keyboard/keyboard.min.css';
import 'swiper/modules/pagination/pagination.min.css';
import 'swiper/modules/scrollbar/scrollbar.min.css';
import 'swiper/modules/zoom/zoom.min.css';
import '@ionic/react/css/ionic-swiper.css';

const Home: React.FC = () => {
  return (
    <IonPage>
      <IonContent>
        <Swiper
          modules={[Autoplay, Keyboard, Pagination, Scrollbar, Zoom, IonicSlides]}
          autoplay={true}
          keyboard={true}
          pagination={true}
          scrollbar={true}
          zoom={true}
        >
          <SwiperSlide>Slide 1</SwiperSlide>
          <SwiperSlide>Slide 2</SwiperSlide>
          <SwiperSlide>Slide 3</SwiperSlide>
        </Swiper>
      </IonContent>
    </IonPage>
  );
};
export default Home;

note

The IonicSlides module must be the last module in the array. This will let it automatically customize the settings of modules such as Pagination, Scrollbar, Zoom, and more.

Properties

Swiper options are provided as props directly on the <Swiper> component rather than via the options object in IonSlides.

Let's say in an app with IonSlides we had the slidesPerView and loop options set:

const MyComponent: React.FC = () => {
  return (
    <IonSlides
      options={{
        slidesPerView: 3,
        loop: true,
      }}
    >
      <IonSlide>Slide 1</IonSlide>
      <IonSlide>Slide 2</IonSlide>
      <IonSlide>Slide 3</IonSlide>
    </IonSlides>
  );
};

To migrate, we would move these options out of the options object and onto the <Swiper> component directly as properties:

const MyComponent: React.FC = () => {
  return (
    <Swiper slidesPerView={3} loop={true}>
      <SwiperSlide>Slide 1</SwiperSlide>
      <SwiperSlide>Slide 2</SwiperSlide>
      <SwiperSlide>Slide 3</SwiperSlide>
    </Swiper>
  );
};

Below is a full list of property changes when going from IonSlides to Swiper React:

Name	Notes
options	Set each option as a property directly on the `<Swiper>` component.
mode	For different styles based upon the mode, you can target the slides with `.ios .swiper` or `.md .swiper` in your CSS.
pager	Use the `pagination` property instead. Requires installation of the Pagination module.
scrollbar	You can continue to use the `scrollbar` property, just be sure to install the Scrollbar module first.

note

All properties available in Swiper React can be found at https://swiperjs.com/react#swiper-props.

Events

Since the Swiper component is not provided by Ionic Framework, event names will not have an onIonSlide prefix to them.

Let's say in an app with IonSlides we used the onIonSlideDidChange event:

const MyComponent: React.FC = () => {
  return (
    <IonSlides onIonSlideDidChange={() => onSlideChange()}>
      <IonSlide>Slide 1</IonSlide>
      <IonSlide>Slide 2</IonSlide>
      <IonSlide>Slide 3</IonSlide>
    </IonSlides>
  );
};

To migrate, we would change the name of the event to onSlideChange:

const MyComponent: React.FC = () => {
  return (
    <Swiper onSlideChange={() => onSlideChange()}>
      <SwiperSlide>Slide 1</SwiperSlide>
      <SwiperSlide>Slide 2</SwiperSlide>
      <SwiperSlide>Slide 3</SwiperSlide>
    </Swiper>
  );
};

Below is a full list of event name changes when going from IonSlides to Swiper React:

IonSlides Event	Swiper Event
onIonSlideWillChange	onSlideChangeTransitionStart
onIonSlideDidChange	onSlideChangeTransitionEnd
onIonSlideDoubleTap	onDoubleTap
onIonSlideDrag	onSliderMove
onIonSlideNextStart	onSlideNextTransitionStart
onIonSlideNextEnd	onSlideNextTransitionEnd
onIonSlidePrevStart	onSlidePrevTransitionStart
onIonSlidePrevEnd	onSlidePrevTransitionEnd
onIonSlideReachStart	onReachBeginning
onIonSlideReachEnd	onReachEnd
onIonSlideTap	onTap
onIonSlideTouchStart	onTouchStart
onIonSlideTouchEnd	onTouchEnd
onIonSlideTransitionStart	onTransitionStart
onIonSlideTransitionEnd	onTransitionEnd
onIonSlidesDidLoad	onInit

note

All events available in Swiper can be found at https://swiperjs.com/swiper-api#events.

Methods

Most methods have been removed in favor of accessing the Swiper props directly.

Accessing these properties can be tricky as you want to access the properties on the Swiper instance itself, not your React component. To do this, we recommend getting a reference to the Swiper instance via onSwiper:

import React, { useState } from 'react';
import { Swiper, SwiperSlide } from 'swiper/react/swiper-react.js';
import { Swiper as SwiperInterface } from 'swiper';
...
const Home: React.FC = () => {
  const [swiperInstance, setSwiperInstance] = useState<SwiperInterface>();
  return (
    ...
    <Swiper
      onSwiper={(swiper) => setSwiperInstance(swiper)}
    >
      ...
    </Swiper>
  )
};
export default Home;

From here, if you wanted to access a property on the Swiper instance you would access swiperInstance. For example, if you wanted to check the isBeginning property, you could do: swiperInstance.isBeginning. Make sure swiperInstance is defined first though!

Below is a full list of method changes when going from IonSlides to Swiper React:

IonSlides Method	Notes
getActiveIndex()	Use the `activeIndex` property instead.
getPreviousIndex()	Use the `previousIndex` property instead.
getSwiper()	Get a reference to the Swiper instance using `onSwiper`. See example above.
isBeginning()	Use the `isBeginning` property instead.
isEnd()	Use the `isEnd` property instead.
length()	Use the `slides` property instead. (i.e swiperRef.slides.length)
lockSwipeToNext()	Use the `allowSlidesNext` property instead.
lockSwipeToPrev()	Use the `allowSlidePrev` property instead.
lockSwipes()	Use the `allowSlideNext`, `allowSlidePrev`, and `allowTouchMove` properties instead.
startAutoplay()	Use the `autoplay` property instead.
stopAutoplay()	Use the `autoplay` property instead.

Effects

If you are using effects such as Cube or Fade, you can install them just like we did with the other modules. In this example, we will use the fade effect. To start, we will import EffectFade from swiper and provide it in the modules array:

import React from 'react';
import { IonContent, IonPage, IonicSlides } from '@ionic/react';
import { EffectFade } from 'swiper';
import { Swiper, SwiperSlide } from 'swiper/react/swiper-react.js';

import 'swiper/swiper.min.css';
import '@ionic/react/css/ionic-swiper.css';

const Home: React.FC = () => {
  return (
    <IonPage>
      <IonContent>
        <Swiper modules={[EffectFade, IonicSlides]}>
          <SwiperSlide>Slide 1</SwiperSlide>
          <SwiperSlide>Slide 2</SwiperSlide>
          <SwiperSlide>Slide 3</SwiperSlide>
        </Swiper>
      </IonContent>
    </IonPage>
  );
};
export default Home;

Next, we need to import the stylesheet associated with the effect:

import React from 'react';
import { IonContent, IonPage, IonicSlides } from '@ionic/react';
import { EffectFade } from 'swiper';
import { Swiper, SwiperSlide } from 'swiper/react/swiper-react.js';

import 'swiper/swiper.min.css';
import 'swiper/modules/effect-fade/effect-fade.min.css';
import '@ionic/react/css/ionic-swiper.css';

const Home: React.FC = () => {
  return (
    <IonPage>
      <IonContent>
        <Swiper modules={[EffectFade, IonicSlides]}>
          <SwiperSlide>Slide 1</SwiperSlide>
          <SwiperSlide>Slide 2</SwiperSlide>
          <SwiperSlide>Slide 3</SwiperSlide>
        </Swiper>
      </IonContent>
    </IonPage>
  );
};
export default Home;

note

Not using Create React App? You can import these effects from swiper/css/[EFFECT NAME] instead (i.e. swiper/css/effect-fade).

After that, we can activate it by setting the effect property on swiper to "fade":

import React from 'react';
import { IonContent, IonPage, IonicSlides } from '@ionic/react';
import { EffectFade } from 'swiper';
import { Swiper, SwiperSlide } from 'swiper/react/swiper-react.js';

import 'swiper/swiper.min.css';
import 'swiper/modules/effect-fade/effect-fade.min.css';
import '@ionic/react/css/ionic-swiper.css';

const Home: React.FC = () => {
  return (
    <IonPage>
      <IonContent>
        <Swiper modules={[EffectFade, IonicSlides]} effect="fade">
          <SwiperSlide>Slide 1</SwiperSlide>
          <SwiperSlide>Slide 2</SwiperSlide>
          <SwiperSlide>Slide 3</SwiperSlide>
        </Swiper>
      </IonContent>
    </IonPage>
  );
};
export default Home;

note

For more information on effects in Swiper, please see https://swiperjs.com/react#effects.

Wrap Up

Now that you have Swiper installed, there is a whole set of new Swiper features for you to enjoy. We recommend starting with the Swiper React Introduction and then referencing the Swiper API docs.

FAQ

Where can I find an example of this migration?

You can find a sample app with ion-slides and the equivalent Swiper usage at https://github.com/ionic-team/slides-migration-samples.

Where can I get help with this migration?

If you are running into issues with the migration, please create a post on the Ionic Forum.

Where do I file bug reports?

Before opening an issue, please consider creating a post on the Swiper Discussion Board or the Ionic Forum to see if your issue can be resolved by the community.

If you are running into problems with the Swiper library, new bugs should be filed on the Swiper repo: https://github.com/nolimits4web/swiper/issues

If you are running into problems with the IonicSlides module, new bugs should be filed on the Ionic Framework repo: https://github.com/ionic-team/ionic-framework/issues

note

Getting Started​

note

Swiping with Style​

note

note

Updating Selectors​

Pre-processors (optional)​

Using Components​

note

Using Modules​

note

note

The IonicSlides Module​

note

Properties​

note

Events​

note

Methods​

Effects​

note

note

Wrap Up​

FAQ​

Where can I find an example of this migration?​

Where can I get help with this migration?​

Where do I file bug reports?​

Contents

Getting Started

Swiping with Style

Updating Selectors

Pre-processors (optional)

Using Components

Using Modules

The IonicSlides Module

Properties

Events

Methods

Effects

Wrap Up

FAQ

Where can I find an example of this migration?

Where can I get help with this migration?

Where do I file bug reports?