React Gantt Chart Tutorial: Build an Interactive Project Timeline

Quick answer:

Creating an interactive React Gantt chart is simple. First, you need to install an advanced Gantt chart library like fusioncharts and react-fusioncharts in your terminal. After installing this, register the fusioncharts/fusioncharts. gantt module, and create a chart with type: “gantt”. From there, you can set your date range with categories, timeline rows with processes, task bars with tasks, and dependencies with connectors. Finally, at this point, you can customize your chart by adding milestones, progress, tooltips, scrolling, and draggable task bars to meet your needs.

Introduction

Project schedules are easier to follow when you can see tasks, timelines, dependencies, and milestones in one place. Building this view from scratch in React can take a lot of work. You need to handle task bars, dates, dependencies, scrolling, and user interactions.

A Gantt chart library can handle most of this for you. React can then take care of the rest of the application and its UI.

In this tutorial,  you’ll build a React Gantt chart using FusionCharts. You’ll add project tasks, set their timelines, show dependencies, and include milestones. By the end, you’ll have a working Gantt chart that you can adapt for different project schedules.

We’ll use FusionCharts 4.2.2, the current npm release at the time of research.

What are we building?

In this example, we will build a React Gantt chart for a Website Redesign project running from September to October 2026. We will break this into seven tasks on a real date axis, named: Requirements, UX Design, UI Design, Frontend Development, Backend Integration, QA Testing, and Production Launch.

Each task bar shows a completion percentage, while connector lines indicate dependencies, including that QA can’t begin until both frontend and backend work lands. Likewise, a star milestone marks the go-live date. 

Hovering over a bar shows a custom tooltip with dates and progress, and you can drag task bars along the timeline.

Overall, the final chart shows a project schedule rather than a horizontal bar chart that happens to use dates.

How does a Gantt chart work in React?

A Gantt chart in React is a data-driven UI component that allows you to show both time and date. 

Simply put, when you need to represent interactive project or development timelines with exact start and end dates, a Gantt chart is a practical choice. Other bonuses include custom colors, drag-and-drop scheduling, annotations, and auto-zooms with various view modes.

Before we head to code, it is important to understand that a Gantt chart is not one flat array of bars; it comes in different blocks. FusionCharts Gantt primarily separates the visualization into:

Additionally, there is one more option, datatable, in case you want extra columns of information to add beside the process names, such as owner or status.

Conceptually, one row flows like this:

Process: Frontend Development
             ↓
Task: Sep 8 ───────── Sep 17
             ↓
Connector → QA Testing

The process is the label. The task is the bar. The connector is the relationship. Keep that mapping in mind, and the rest of the configuration reads naturally.

Step 1: Create a React project with Vite

Start from a fresh Vite project:

npm create vite@latest react-gantt-chart -- --template react
cd react-gantt-chart
npm install

Then add the charting dependencies:

npm install fusioncharts react-fusioncharts

Here, fusioncharts is the core library. react-fusioncharts is the official React wrapper that turns a chart configuration into a component. 

Step 2: Configure Vite for React-FusionCharts

FusionCharts ships CommonJS builds, and Vite’s dev server pre-bundles dependencies differently from a production build. If you skip this step, you’ll likely hit:

ReactFC.fcRoot is not a function

error.

vite.config.js

import { defineConfig } from "vite";
import react from "@vitejs/plugin-react";
export default defineConfig({
  plugins: [react()],
  optimizeDeps: {
    include: ["react-fusioncharts", "fusioncharts"],
  },
});

Then, if required:

rm -rf node_modules/.vite
npm run dev -- --force

That’s the whole fix. Set it once and move on.

Step 3: Import the FusionCharts Gantt module

Now, here’s one thing to learn: this is where a Gantt tutorial diverges from a standard chart tutorial. Gantt is not part of the core chart bundle. 

It lives in its own module, called:

fusioncharts/fusioncharts.gantt

The official React examples use this module when rendering type: “gantt”.

Recommended code

import ReactFusionCharts from "react-fusioncharts";
import FusionCharts from "fusioncharts";
import Gantt from "fusioncharts/fusioncharts.gantt";
import FusionTheme from "fusioncharts/themes/fusioncharts.theme.fusion";
const ReactFC =
  ReactFusionCharts.default || ReactFusionCharts;
ReactFC.fcRoot(FusionCharts, Gantt, FusionTheme);

The ReactFusionCharts.default || ReactFusionCharts line looks redundant, but it’s mandatory. Depending on how the module is interpreted, the wrapper may arrive as a namespace object with a default property or as the component itself. Therefore, normalizing it here can save you from a whole class of interop bugs in Vite.

Step 4: Define the project timeline

As mentioned earlier, categories define the visible time scale. Because FusionCharts’ Gantt chart is date/time-based rather than slot-based, you can mention periods with real start and end dates. 

This way, you can ensure irregular calendar spans work correctly, rather than forcing every month to the same width.

Categories

const categories = [
  {
    category: [
      {
        start: "09/01/2026",
        end: "09/30/2026",
        label: "September",
      },
      {
        start: "10/01/2026",
        end: "10/15/2026",
        label: "October",
      },
    ],
  },
];

For instance, a partial month, like the October 1-15 window above, is a perfectly valid category. You can also nest multiple category levels if you want months on top and weeks underneath. 

Step 5: Add project tasks as processes

Each process becomes one row on the left of the chart:

const processes = {
  headerText: "Task",
  fontSize: "13",
  fontColor: "#3F4F5F",

  headerFontSize: "13",
  headerFontColor: "#3F4F5F",
  headerIsBold: "1",

  align: "center",
  headerAlign: "center",

  bgColor: "#FFFFFF",
  bgAlpha: "100",

  width: "140",

  process: [
    {
      id: "task-requirements",
      label: "Requirements",
    },
    {
      id: "task-ux",
      label: "UX Design",
    },
    {
      id: "task-ui",
      label: "UI Design",
    },
    {
      id: "task-frontend",
      label: "Frontend Development",
    },
    {
      id: "task-backend",
      label: "Backend Integration",
    },
    {
      id: "task-qa",
      label: "QA Testing",
    },
    {
      id: "task-launch",
      label: "Production Launch",
    },
  ],
};

Here you need to pay attention to the id values. They’re not decorative. Every task bar you create leads to a process through processId, which determines which row the bar lands in. If you later load processes from an API, keep these IDs stable and derived from your own records rather than array indexes.

Step 6: Plot the tasks on the timeline

Now the bars themselves:

const COLORS = {
  teal: "#13A88A",
  blue: "#3478D4",
  lightSlack: "#E9EEF3",
};

const tasks = {
  slackFillColor: COLORS.lightSlack,

  showHoverEffect: "1",

  allowDrag: "1",

  task: [
    {
      id: "task-requirements",
      processId: "task-requirements",
      start: "09/01/2026",
      end: "09/04/2026",
      label: "Requirements",
      percentComplete: "100",

      color: COLORS.teal,
      borderColor: COLORS.teal,
      borderAlpha: "0",

      showLabel: "0",
      showPercentLabel: "0",
    },

    {
      id: "task-ux",
      processId: "task-ux",
      start: "09/04/2026",
      end: "09/09/2026",
      label: "UX Design",
      percentComplete: "100",

      color: COLORS.teal,
      borderColor: COLORS.teal,
      borderAlpha: "0",

      showLabel: "1",
      showPercentLabel: "1",
    },

    {
      id: "task-ui",
      processId: "task-ui",
      start: "09/08/2026",
      end: "09/14/2026",
      label: "UI Design",
      percentComplete: "80",

      color: COLORS.blue,
      borderColor: COLORS.blue,
      borderAlpha: "0",

      showLabel: "1",
      showPercentLabel: "1",
    },

    {
      id: "task-frontend",
      processId: "task-frontend",
      start: "09/14/2026",
      end: "09/25/2026",
      label: "Frontend Development",
      percentComplete: "55",

      color: COLORS.blue,
      borderColor: COLORS.blue,
      borderAlpha: "0",

      showLabel: "1",
      showPercentLabel: "1",
    },

    {
      id: "task-backend",
      processId: "task-backend",
      start: "09/16/2026",
      end: "09/28/2026",
      label: "Backend Integration",
      percentComplete: "40",

      color: COLORS.blue,
      borderColor: COLORS.blue,
      borderAlpha: "0",

      showLabel: "1",
      showPercentLabel: "1",
    },

    {
      id: "task-qa",
      processId: "task-qa",
      start: "09/28/2026",
      end: "10/06/2026",
      label: "QA Testing",
      percentComplete: "0",

      color: COLORS.blue,
      borderColor: COLORS.blue,
      borderAlpha: "0",

      showLabel: "1",
      showPercentLabel: "1",
    },

    {
      id: "task-launch",
      processId: "task-launch",
      start: "10/07/2026",
      end: "10/08/2026",
      label: "Production Launch",
      percentComplete: "0",

      color: COLORS.teal,
      borderColor: COLORS.teal,
      borderAlpha: "0",

      showLabel: "0",
      showPercentLabel: "0",
    },
  ],
};

At this point, there are three things you must understand:

First, each task has its own id, separate from the process ID. Connectors reference task IDs, not process IDs, which is a common source of confusion.

Further, percentComplete accepts values from 0 to 100 and renders as a filled portion of the bar. If you use UI Design at 80 and Frontend Development at 55, it creates a realistic in-progress chart feel.

Similarly, the overlaps are intentional. UI Design starts on Sep 8 while UX Design runs to Sep 9, and Backend Integration begins two days after Frontend Development. Same way, Real schedules overlap, and a Gantt chart earns its place precisely because it makes that visible.

Finally, resist the temptation to allocate a custom color to every task at this stage. Get the chart rendering with the default theme first, then customize only where a color communicates something.

Step 7: Connect dependent tasks

Connectors turn the chart into a schedule:

const connectors = {
  connector: [
    {
      fromTaskId: "task-requirements",
      toTaskId: "task-ux",
      color: "#9AA6B2",
      thickness: "1",
    },

    {
      fromTaskId: "task-ux",
      toTaskId: "task-ui",
      color: "#9AA6B2",
      thickness: "1",
    },

    {
      fromTaskId: "task-ui",
      toTaskId: "task-frontend",
      color: "#9AA6B2",
      thickness: "1",
    },

    {
      fromTaskId: "task-frontend",
      toTaskId: "task-qa",
      color: "#9AA6B2",
      thickness: "1",
    },

    {
      fromTaskId: "task-backend",
      toTaskId: "task-qa",
      color: "#9AA6B2",
      thickness: "1",
    },

    {
      fromTaskId: "task-qa",
      toTaskId: "task-launch",
      color: "#9AA6B2",
      thickness: "1",
    },
  ],
};

fromTaskId is the preceding task, and toTaskId is the dependent one. Notice that task-qa appears as a target twice. Both frontend and backend work must be completed before QA starts, and the chart draws both lines, so the reader can see immediately that QA sits on the critical path.

The best part, with FusionCharts, you can also control each bar’s edges with corresponding connector attachments, so you can express finish-to-start, start-to-start, and similar relationships rather than being locked to one connector style.

Step 8: Add a project milestone

Milestones mark dates rather than durations. Anchor one to the launch task:

const milestones = {
  milestone: [
    {
      date: "10/08/2026",
      taskId: "task-launch",
      label: "Go Live",
      shape: "star",
      color: "#13A88A",
      toolText: "Production release",
    },
  ],
};

Because the milestone references taskid, it renders on the correct row and stays visually tied to the work that produces it. Beyond shape, you can control size, color, label position, and tooltip text, which is enough to distinguish internal checkpoints from external commitments in a busier roadmap.

Step 9: Configure the interactive Gantt chart

Here is the central configuration example:

const chartConfigs = {
  type: "gantt",
  width: "100%",
  height: "520",
  dataFormat: "json",

  dataSource: {
    chart: {
      caption: "Website Redesign Project",

      subCaption: "September–October 2026",

      dateFormat: "mm/dd/yyyy",

      outputDateFormat: "dd mmm",

      theme: "fusion",

      showTaskLabels: "1",

      showPercentLabel: "1",

      /*
       * Show enough of September and October
       * in the final presentation.
       */      ganttPaneDuration: "45",
      ganttPaneDurationUnit: "d",

      showHoverEffect: "1",

      dateInToolTip: "1",

      plotToolText:
        "<b>$processName</b>{br}Start: $start{br}End: $end{br}Progress: $percentComplete%",

      /*
       * Enable taskbar dragging.
       */      allowDrag: "1",

      /*
       * Update start/end date values when
       * the taskbar is moved.
       */      autoUpdateStartEndDateColumn: "1",

      /*
       * Allow taskbars to overlap during interaction.
       */      allowTaskbarOverlap: "1",

      /*
       * Task hover appearance.
       */      taskHoverFillColor: "#2567BE",

      taskHoverFillAlpha: "90",

      /*
       * Typography.
       */      baseFont: "Arial",

      baseFontSize: "13",

      baseFontColor: "#3F4F5F",

      /*
       * Layout.
       */      chartTopMargin: "18",

      chartBottomMargin: "10",

      /*
       * Keep chart clean.
       */      showShadow: "0",
    },

    categories,

    processes,

    tasks,

    connectors,

    milestones,
  },
};

Then:

function App() {
  return (
    <main>
      <ReactFC {...chartConfigs} />
    </main>
  );
}

export default App;

FusionCharts supports tooltip macros such as $processName, $start, $end, $label, and $percentComplete for Gantt tasks.

Next, remember that two date settings do different jobs. dateformat shows the chart how to parse the dates you supplied. Whereas outputDateFormat controls how dates are displayed. Keeping this in mind will help you avoid the situation where a Gantt chart renders the wrong dates.

Render it as a component:

function App() {
  return (
    <main>
      <ReactFC {...chartConfigs} />
    </main>
  );
}

export default App;

FusionCharts supports tooltip macros including $processName, $start, $end, $label, and $percentComplete, which keep the tooltip in sync with the data without extra wiring. 

How to make the React Gantt chart interactive?

Static schedules go stale. These three settings are what make the chart feel like a tool.

Drag and resize tasks

allowDrag: "1"

Draggable Gantt taskbars arrived in FusionCharts v3.23, and later releases improved connector behavior mid-drag and added resizing from the bar edges, so users can extend a task’s duration as well as move it.

autoUpdateStartEndDateColumn: "1"

Introduced in FusionCharts 4.0, this keeps any start/end date columns in sync as a bar moves, so the numbers beside the chart don’t contradict the picture.

One thing to be clear about in a production app: dragging changes the visualization in the browser and nothing else. To make a schedule change stick, listen for the drag event and persist the new dates to your React state and your backend. That’s covered in the next section.

Show more of the timeline with scrolling

Use:

ganttPaneDuration: "21",
ganttPaneDurationUnit: "d",

Together, these show a 21-day window at a time. The project runs longer than that, so the remaining range stays reachable through the Gantt pane’s horizontal scrolling instead of being crushed into an unreadable width. Adjust the number to match how much detail your users need at once; shorter windows suit day-level planning, longer ones suit quarterly roadmaps.

Add task-specific tooltips

plotToolText:
  "<b>$processName</b>{br}Start: $start{br}End: $end{br}Progress: $percentComplete%"

This is the cheapest interaction win in the tutorial. It gives every bar a useful hover state with no component state, no event handlers, and no extra rendering logic.

Complete React Gantt chart example

Here’s the whole thing as a single src/App.jsx:

Recommended complete example:

import ReactFusionCharts from "react-fusioncharts";
import FusionCharts from "fusioncharts";
import Gantt from "fusioncharts/fusioncharts.gantt";
import FusionTheme from "fusioncharts/themes/fusioncharts.theme.fusion";

const ReactFC =
  ReactFusionCharts.default || ReactFusionCharts;

ReactFC.fcRoot(FusionCharts, Gantt, FusionTheme);

const categories = [
  {
    category: [
      {
        start: "09/01/2026",
        end: "09/30/2026",
        label: "September",
      },
      {
        start: "10/01/2026",
        end: "10/15/2026",
        label: "October",
      },
    ],
  },
];

const processes = {
  headerText: "Task",
  process: [
    { id: "requirements", label: "Requirements" },
    { id: "ux", label: "UX Design" },
    { id: "ui", label: "UI Design" },
    { id: "frontend", label: "Frontend Development" },
    { id: "backend", label: "Backend Integration" },
    { id: "qa", label: "QA Testing" },
    { id: "launch", label: "Production Launch" },
  ],
};

const tasks = {
  task: [
    {
      id: "task-requirements",
      processId: "requirements",
      start: "09/01/2026",
      end: "09/04/2026",
      label: "Requirements",
      percentComplete: "100",
    },
    {
      id: "task-ux",
      processId: "ux",
      start: "09/04/2026",
      end: "09/09/2026",
      label: "UX Design",
      percentComplete: "100",
    },
    {
      id: "task-ui",
      processId: "ui",
      start: "09/08/2026",
      end: "09/14/2026",
      label: "UI Design",
      percentComplete: "80",
    },
    {
      id: "task-frontend",
      processId: "frontend",
      start: "09/14/2026",
      end: "09/25/2026",
      label: "Frontend Development",
      percentComplete: "55",
    },
    {
      id: "task-backend",
      processId: "backend",
      start: "09/16/2026",
      end: "09/28/2026",
      label: "Backend Integration",
      percentComplete: "40",
    },
    {
      id: "task-qa",
      processId: "qa",
      start: "09/28/2026",
      end: "10/06/2026",
      label: "QA Testing",
      percentComplete: "0",
    },
    {
      id: "task-launch",
      processId: "launch",
      start: "10/07/2026",
      end: "10/08/2026",
      label: "Production Launch",
      percentComplete: "0",
    },
  ],
};

const connectors = [
  {
    connector: [
      {
        fromTaskId: "task-requirements",
        toTaskId: "task-ux",
      },
      {
        fromTaskId: "task-ux",
        toTaskId: "task-ui",
      },
      {
        fromTaskId: "task-ui",
        toTaskId: "task-frontend",
      },
      {
        fromTaskId: "task-frontend",
        toTaskId: "task-qa",
      },
      {
        fromTaskId: "task-backend",
        toTaskId: "task-qa",
      },
      {
        fromTaskId: "task-qa",
        toTaskId: "task-launch",
      },
    ],
  },
];

const milestones = {
  milestone: [
    {
      date: "10/08/2026",
      taskid: "task-launch",
      label: "Go Live",
      shape: "star",
      tooltext: "Production release",
    },
  ],
};

const chartConfigs = {
  type: "gantt",
  width: "100%",
  height: "520",
  dataFormat: "json",
  dataSource: {
    chart: {
      caption: "Website Redesign Project",
      subcaption: "September–October 2026",
      dateformat: "mm/dd/yyyy",
      outputdateformat: "dd mmm",
      theme: "fusion",

      showTaskLabels: "1",
      showPercentLabel: "1",

      ganttPaneDuration: "21",
      ganttPaneDurationUnit: "d",

      showHoverEffect: "1",
      dateInToolTip: "1",
      plotToolText:
        "<b>$processName</b>{br}Start: $start{br}End: $end{br}Progress: $percentComplete%",

      allowDrag: "1",
      autoUpdateStartEndDateColumn: "1",
    },

    categories,
    processes,
    tasks,
    connectors,
    milestones,
  },
};

function App() {
  return (
    <main style={{ padding: "24px" }}>
      <ReactFC {...chartConfigs} />
    </main>
  );
}

export default App;

Run npm run dev and you have a scrollable, draggable project timeline with dependencies, progress, and a milestone.

How to respond when a task is moved

Dragging is only half the feature. FusionCharts exposes events for user interaction, including process, category, connector, and task-level events, and dataplotdragmove fires as a Gantt taskbar is dragged.

Wire it up modestly to start:

For example:

const chartEvents = {
  dataplotdragmove: (eventObj, dataObj) => {
    console.log("Task moved:", dataObj);
  },
};

Then pass it to the component:

<ReactFC
  {...chartConfigs}
  events={chartEvents}
/>

From there, the production pattern is straightforward: read the new start and end dates off the event payload, update the task in React state (or your query cache), and fire a request to persist the change. Because the chart re-renders from dataSource, keeping state as the source of truth lets you handle optimistic updates and failed saves cleanly.

Common React Gantt chart issues

Most React Gantt chart issues come from configuration mismatches rather than the chart itself. The following checks cover some of the most common problems you may run into when setting up FusionCharts with React and Vite.

ReactFC.fcRoot is not a function

This is the Vite CommonJS/ESM interop problem from Step 2. Add react-fusioncharts and fusioncharts to optimizeDeps.include, use the ReactFusionCharts.default || ReactFusionCharts normalization, and clear node_modules/. vite if the error survives a restart.

Tasks appear in the wrong row

Check that every task.processId exactly matches a process.id. A typo won’t throw; the bar will just land somewhere you didn’t expect or not render at all.

Dependency lines don’t appear

Connectors reference task IDs, not process IDs. Confirm that both fromTaskId and toTaskId match values in your tasks array.

Dates render incorrectly

Your incoming dates must match the configured dateformat. Mixing ISO dates from an API (2026-09-01) with a chart configured for mm/dd/yyyy is the usual culprit. Either normalize the dates before passing them in, or set dateformat to match your source.

When should you use a React Gantt chart?

A Gantt chart earns its complexity when work has duration and sequence. 

Good fits:

• Product roadmaps
• Project schedules
• Release planning
• Construction schedules
• Campaign planning
• Implementation projects
• Workflow dependencies

Gantt charts shine when tasks have durations, overlap, and dependencies — you need to see not just what happens, but when it starts, how long it runs, and what it’s waiting on.

When not to use a Gantt chart:

For simple chronological events without task duration or dependencies, a regular timeline is usually easier to read and build. If you’re just listing milestones or dates in sequence,  a launch history, a company’s key events – a Gantt chart adds unnecessary complexity. Save it for planning work with real scheduling logic, not for storytelling a sequence of events.

Next steps

You now have a working timeline. Some natural extensions:

• Load task data from an API instead of hard-coded constants
• Persist dragged dates to your backend through dataplotdragmove
• Add extra process columns with a datatable for owner, status, or effort
• Show planned versus actual schedules as parallel bars
• Mark deadlines and freeze windows with trend lines and zones
• Respond to clicks on processes, tasks, and connectors through chart events
• Break the project into additional phases as the schedule grows

FusionCharts’ Gantt chart supports all of these, along with customizable task interactions and detailed tooltip control. If you’re building scheduling or project-management features into a React application, the React Gantt chart you built here is a solid starting point. 

Explore the full Gantt documentation, or start a free trial to build it into your own product. 

FAQs

What is a React Gantt chart?
In simple terms, a react grant chart is a date/time-based chart. It helps you to represent tasks with their exact start and end dates. Other than this, with Gantt charts, you can also show project dependencies, progress, milestones, and other scheduling information.

How do I create a Gantt chart in React?
To create a Gantt chart in React, first install a Gantt-capable charting library, like FusionCharts. After that, you need to plot tasks and their respective dates/data points and render the timeline using a React component. 

Here is how you can do this with FusionCharts: use react-fusioncharts, register fusioncharts/fusioncharts.gantt, and set the chart type to gantt.

Can a React Gantt chart show task dependencies?
Yes. FusionCharts Gantt charts support connectors between tasks using task IDs. This provides clear visual relationships between tasks, such as one task beginning after another finishes.

Can users drag tasks in a FusionCharts Gantt chart?
Yes. With FusionCharts, you can easily drag Gantt taskbars. To do this, use the allowDrag capability. With recent updates, you can also adjust connector behavior, such as dragging and resizing from taskbar edges.

Can I show project progress in a React Gantt chart?
Yes. FusionCharts tasks support the percentComplete property, which accepts values from 0 to 100 and can be used to visualize task completion.