Web Components Tooltip

The Ignite UI for Web Components Tooltip component provides a way to display a tooltip for a specific element. A tooltip is a popup that displays information related to an element, usually when the element receives keyboard focus or when the mouse hovers over it.

Getting Started

To start using the Tooltip, first, you need to install the Ignite UI for Web Components by running the following command:

npm install igniteui-webcomponents

After that, you need to import the Tooltip, its necessary CSS, and register its module, as follows:

import { defineComponents, IgcTooltipComponent } from 'igniteui-webcomponents';
import 'igniteui-webcomponents/themes/light/bootstrap.css';

defineComponents(IgcTooltipComponent);

Now you can start with a basic configuration of the Web Components Tooltip.

<igc-tooltip anchor="hover-button">
  Congrats you've hovered the button!
</igc-tooltip>

<igc-button id="hover-button">Hover me</igc-button>

For a complete introduction to the Ignite UI for Web Components, read the Getting Started topic.

Usage

Tooltip target

To attach a tooltip to the desired element, use the anchor property on the <igc-tooltip> element. This property accepts either an element ID or a direct reference to an element. When using an ID reference, simply set the anchor property to the ID of the target element.

<igc-button id="target-button">Hover me</igc-button>
<igc-tooltip anchor="target-button">
  Congrats you've hovered the button!
</igc-tooltip>

You can also specify the target by passing the element instance directly:

<igc-tooltip id="tooltip">
  Congrats you've hovered the button!
</igc-tooltip>
<igc-button id="hover-button">Hover me</igc-button>

constructor() {
  const anchor = document.querySelector('#hover-button') as IgcButtonComponent;
  const tooltip = document.querySelector('#tooltip') as IgcTooltipComponent;
  tooltip.anchor = anchor;
}

The Tooltip content is defined by placing custom content between the opening and closing tags of the <igc-tooltip> element.

<igc-tooltip>
  This is my custom content here.
</igc-tooltip>

Alternatively, to set simple text, you can use the message property.

<igc-tooltip message="This is my custom content here."></igc-tooltip>

If you use both approaches (slotted content and the message property), the slotted content will take priority and the message value will be ignored.

<igc-button>Hover me</igc-button>
<igc-tooltip message="I will be hidden.">
  I will be shown!
</igc-tooltip>

In this example, the slotted content (“I will be shown!”) will be displayed instead of the message property value.

The Tooltip content can be more than just simple text. Since the Tooltip is a regular element in the markup, you can enhance its content by adding any elements you need and styling them accordingly.

Show/Hide delay settings

If you want to control the delay before showing and hiding the Tooltip, you can use the showDelay and hideDelay properties. Both properties accept a number value representing time in milliseconds.

<igc-tooltip show-delay="600" hide-delay="800">
  Her name is Madelyn James.
</igc-tooltip>

[!NOTE] It's important to note that the Tooltip API methods — show, hide, and toggle — DO NOT take the showDelay and hideDelay properties into account. They act immediately when invoked.

Placement

The Tooltip can also be positioned relative to its target element with ease. All you need to do is use the placement property along with one of the following position options: top, top-start, top-end, bottom, bottom-start, bottom-end , right, right-start, right-end, left, left-start, left-end.

If the placement property is not set, the default value is "top", which places the Tooltip above the target element.

Additionally, you can make the Tooltip "sticky" using the sticky property, which adds a close button and keeps the Tooltip visible until the user closes it manually - either by clicking the close button or pressing the Esc key. This behavior overrides the default hover behavior, preventing the Tooltip from disappearing when the user stops hovering over the target element.

<igc-button id="target-button">Hover me</igc-button>
<igc-tooltip anchor="target-button" placement="top-left" sticky="true">
  Congrats you've hovered the button!
</igc-tooltip>

In the following example, you can see a demonstration of all position options and the sticky property in action:

Triggers

By default, the Tooltip is triggered only while hovering over the target element. However, you can change this behavior using the showTriggers and hideTriggers properties, which allow you to control when the Tooltip appears and disappears. These properties accept event names as values—such as click, focus, or keypress—letting you trigger the Tooltip in different scenarios.

Additional Properties

Apart from the properties we've already covered, the Tooltip component offers a variety of additional properties that allow you to further configure its behavior, position, and appearance.

Name	Type	Description
`open`	boolean	Determines whether the tooltip is visible.
`disableArrow`	boolean	If set to `true`, disables the arrow indicator on the tooltip.
`offset`	number	Sets the pixel distance between the tooltip and its `anchor`.

Methods

In addition to its configurable properties, the Tooltip also exposes three methods that you can use:

Name	Description
`show`	Displays the tooltip if it’s not already shown. If a target is provided, it sets the target as a transient `anchor`.
`hide`	Hides the tooltip if it’s not already hidden.
`toggle`	Toggles the tooltip between the shown and hidden states.

Accessibility & ARIA Support

The Tooltip is built with accessibility in mind and includes the following ARIA attributes:

role - When the tooltip is in its default behavior, role="tooltip" is applied. If the sticky property is enabled, the role changes to status.
inert - Dynamically toggled based on visibility. When the tooltip is hidden, it becomes inert.
aria-atomic - Set to true, ensuring that the entire tooltip content is announced when it changes.
aria-live - Set to polite, indicating to screen readers that updates should be announced only when the user is idle.

Styling

The IgcTooltipComponent component exposes two CSS parts that you can use for styling:

Name	Description
`base`	The base wrapper of the tooltip component.
`bottom`	The area containing the tooltip arrow.

igc-tooltip::part(base) {
  background-color: var(--ig-primary-500);
  color: var(--ig-primary-500-contrast);
}

igc-tooltip::part(bottom) {
  border-bottom-color: var(--ig-primary-500);
}

Ignite UI for Web Components Tooltip Example