Syncfusion javascript gantt chart

Implementing Syncfusion Gantt Chart

A comprehensive skill for implementing the Syncfusion Essential JS 2 Gantt Chart component in JavaScript/TypeScript projects. Covers everything from initial setup to advanced features like critical path, resource management, virtual scrolling, and export.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when the user needs to:

• Set up the Syncfusion Gantt Chart from scratch (installation, dependencies, basic init)
• Bind data (local hierarchical, flat/self-referential, remote DataManager, load-on-demand)
• Configure task scheduling (auto/manual, milestones, duration units, constraints)
• Define columns (custom columns, templates, frozen, WBS, checkbox, responsive)
• Manage resources (assign resources, resource view, multi-taskbar, work/task types)
• Configure timeline (top/bottom tiers, zooming, formatting)
• Enable editing (cell, dialog, taskbar drag/resize, dependency editing, indent/outdent)
• Implement filtering, sorting, searching on Gantt grid
• Show task dependencies (FS, SS, FF, SF, offsets, connector lines)
• Display critical path, baseline, event markers, holidays, data markers, labels
• Export to Excel or PDF
• Implement toolbar, context menu, undo/redo
• Handle events, state persistence, localization, RTL, timezone
• Optimize performance (virtual scroll, immutable mode, loading animation)

Quick Start

import { Gantt, Edit, Filter, Sort, Toolbar } from '@syncfusion/ej2-gantt';

Gantt.Inject(Edit, Filter, Sort, Toolbar);

let gantt: Gantt = new Gantt({
    dataSource: [
        {
            TaskID: 1, TaskName: 'Project Initiation',
            StartDate: new Date('04/02/2024'), EndDate: new Date('04/21/2024'),
            subtasks: [
                { TaskID: 2, TaskName: 'Identify Site location', StartDate: new Date('04/02/2024'), Duration: 4, Progress: 50 },
                { TaskID: 3, TaskName: 'Soil test approval', StartDate: new Date('04/02/2024'), Duration: 4, Predecessor: '2FS', Progress: 50 }
            ]
        }
    ],
    height: '450px',
    taskFields: { id: 'TaskID', name: 'TaskName', startDate: 'StartDate', endDate: 'EndDate', duration: 'Duration', progress: 'Progress', dependency: 'Predecessor', child: 'subtasks' },
    toolbar: ['Add', 'Edit', 'Delete', 'Update', 'Cancel', 'ExpandAll', 'CollapseAll', 'Search'],
    editSettings: { allowAdding: true, allowEditing: true, allowDeleting: true, allowTaskbarEditing: true },
    allowSorting: true,
    allowFiltering: true
});
gantt.appendTo('#Gantt');

Navigation Guide

Setup & Installation

📄 Read: references/getting-started.md

• npm installation, webpack setup
• Basic Gantt initialization (app.ts + index.html)
• taskFields mapping, module injection
• Error handling with actionFailure

Data Binding

📄 Read: references/data-binding.md

• Local hierarchical and self-referential (flat) data
• Remote data (DataManager, WebApiAdaptor, UrlAdaptor)
• Load child on demand
• Ajax binding, split tasks (segments)

Task Scheduling

📄 Read: references/task-scheduling.md

• taskMode: 'Auto' (default) / 'Manual' / 'Custom' — controls date validation behaviour
• Auto: parent taskbar derived from child min/max dates; dependencies shift successors automatically
• Manual: user controls all dates; no recalculation; validateManualTasksOnLinking: true enables predecessor-based validation only
• Custom: per-task scheduling via taskFields.manual boolean field in data source
• Unscheduled tasks: allowUnscheduledTasks: true — tasks with only start date, only end date, only duration, or none; if false, defaults to duration 1 from projectStartDate
• Duration units: durationUnit (project-wide: 'Day'/'Hour'/'Minute'); per-task via taskFields.durationUnit field or inline string ('4hours', '30min')
• Milestones: Duration: 0 renders a diamond shape
• projectStartDate / projectEndDate — constrain chart range; auto-calculated if omitted
• dayWorkingTime — define working hour ranges (default: 8–12 and 13–17); used for auto-scheduling calculations
• weekWorkingTime — per-day-of-week working hours; overrides dayWorkingTime for listed days; unlisted days fall back to dayWorkingTime
• workWeek — specify working days (default: Mon–Fri); includeWeekend: true makes Sat/Sun working days
• highlightWeekends: true — visually shade non-working days in chart

Task Constraints

📄 Read: references/task-constraints.md

• Constraint types: ASAP(0), ALAP(1), MSO(2), MFO(3), SNET(4), SNLT(5), FNET(6), FNLT(7)
• constraintType and constraintDate field mapping in taskFields
• Benefits: enforce task sequences, anchor milestones, prevent resource conflicts
• Handle constraint violations via actionBegin (requestType: 'validateTaskViolation')
• validateMode flags: respectMustStartOn, respectMustFinishOn, respectStartNoLaterThan, respectFinishNoLaterThan
• Constraint interaction with taskMode (Auto / Manual / Custom)
• Editing constraints via dialog editor or programmatically (updateRecordByID)

Task Dependency

📄 Read: references/task-dependency.md

• FS, SS, FF, SF types with lag/lead offsets (day/hour/minute units)
• allowParentDependency, multiple predecessors (comma-separated)
• Connector line customization (connectorLineWidth, connectorLineBackground)
• addPredecessor / removePredecessor / updatePredecessor methods
• Validation modes (respectLink, removeLink, preserveLinkWithEditing) via actionBegin
• Validation dialog when all modes are disabled
• autoUpdatePredecessorOffset — sync offsets against calendar rules on initial load
• updateOffsetOnTaskbarEdit: false — preserve offsets during taskbar drag
• Show/hide dependency lines dynamically via .e-gantt-dependency-view-container
• enablePredecessorValidation: false — draw lines without enforcing scheduling

Critical Path

📄 Read: references/critical-path.md

• enableCriticalPath property
• Slack calculation (zero/negative slack)
• Visual highlighting and CPM principles

Baseline

📄 Read: references/baseline.md

• renderBaseline, baselineColor
• baselineStartDate, baselineEndDate, baselineDuration
• Baseline milestones, CSS customization

Resources

📄 Read: references/resources.md

• resourceFields mapping, resources collection
• Assigning resources to tasks, resource units
• Over-allocation, resource templates
• Custom column template + queryTaskbarInfo for per-resource badge and taskbar colors

Resource View

📄 Read: references/resource-view.md

• viewType: 'ResourceView'
• showOverAllocation
• Resource grouping and display
• Unassigned tasks grouped automatically at bottom
• Taskbar drag and drop between resources (allowTaskbarDragAndDrop + RowDD module)

Resource Multi Taskbar

📄 Read: references/multi-taskbar.md

• enableMultiTaskbar for collapsed resource rows
• Overlapping task visualization
• Editing tasks in collapsed state

Work & Task Types

📄 Read: references/work.md

• taskFields.work mapping, workUnit (Hour/Day/Minute)
• FixedWork, FixedDuration, FixedUnit task types

Columns

📄 Read: references/columns.md

• columns array definition, treeColumnIndex
• Checkbox columns, responsive columns
• Column spanning, column templates
• WBS column (enableWBS, enableAutoWbsUpdate)

Column Operations

📄 Read: references/column-operations.md

• Column resizing (allowResizing, Resize module)
• Column reordering (allowReordering, Reorder module)
• Column menu (showColumnMenu)
• Frozen/pinned columns (frozenColumns)

Timeline

📄 Read: references/timeline.md

• topTier / bottomTier units and format
• timelineSettings configuration
• Custom timeline formatting, timeline tooltip

Zooming

📄 Read: references/timeline.md

• ZoomIn, ZoomOut, ZoomToFit toolbar items
• zoomingLevels configuration
• Programmatic zoom control

Sorting

📄 Read: references/sorting.md

• allowSorting: true + Sort module injection
• Click header to sort; Ctrl+click for multi-column sort; Shift+click to remove column from multi-sort
• Initial sort via sortSettings.columns array (field + direction)
• Programmatic sort: gantt.sortModule.sortColumn(field, direction, isMultiSort); clear all: gantt.clearSorting()
• Sort events: actionBegin / actionComplete with args.requestType === 'sorting'
• Disable sort for specific column: columns.allowSorting: false
• Custom columns (string/numeric) sortable via sortSettings or programmatically
• Touch: tap header to sort; popup appears for multi-column sort on touch devices

Filtering

📄 Read: references/filtering.md

• allowFiltering, Filter module
• Menu filter and Excel-like filter
• Column-level filtering, searching

Selection

📄 Read: references/selection.md

• allowSelection: false disables all selection; Selection module required
• selectionSettings.mode: 'Row' (default) / 'Cell' / 'Both'
• selectionSettings.type: 'Single' (default) / 'Multiple' (Ctrl+click for multi-select)
• selectionSettings.enableToggle: true — click selected item again to deselect
• enableHover: true — highlights rows, taskbars, header cells, and timeline cells on hover
• Row selection: selectedRowIndex for initial load; selectRow(index) / selectRows([indexes]) for dynamic selection
• Prevent row selection: rowSelecting event with args.cancel = true; rowDeselecting to prevent deselection
• Cell selection: mode: 'Cell'; selectCell({ rowIndex, cellIndex }) for dynamic selection; getSelectedRowCellIndexes() returns { cellIndexes, rowIndex }[]
• Prevent cell selection: cellSelecting event with args.cancel = true; cellSelected fires after
• Select rows by condition in dataBound via gantt.treeGrid.grid.dataSource + gantt.selectRows(indexes)
• getSelectedRowIndexes() → number[]; getSelectedRecords() → object[]
• gantt.clearSelection() — clears all selected rows and cells
• Touch: tap to select a row; tap popup to enter multi-row select mode, then tap additional rows
• Cell selection not supported with enableVirtualization

Rows

📄 Read: references/rows.md

• Customize row styles via rowDataBound event, CSS (.e-altrow, .e-selectionbackground), and treeGrid methods
• Style parent vs child rows using hasChildRecords in rowDataBound
• autoFocusTasks — scroll chart to taskbar when a row is clicked
• rowHeight — uniform row height; per-row height via args.rowHeight in rowDataBound
• Row hover with custom actions using dataBound + mouseover + Tooltip
• Add rows programmatically via gantt.addRecord(data, position, index) — Top/Bottom/Above/Below/Child
• Show/hide rows dynamically via treeGrid.getRowByIndex() + CSS display toggle
• Row spanning via args.rowSpan in queryCellInfo (combine with colSpan for 2D merge)

Row Drag, Drop, Indent and Outdent

📄 Read: references/rows-drag-drop.md

• RowDD module, allowRowDragAndDrop — drag rows within the Gantt
• Drop positions: above (top border), below (bottom border), child (both borders)
• Drag rows to external component via treeGrid.rowDropSettings.targetID in load event
• Multi-row drag via selectionSettings.type: 'Multiple'
• allowTaskbarDragAndDrop — reorder rows by dragging their taskbar
• Programmatic reorder via gantt.reorderRows(fromIndexes, toIndex, position)
• Drag lifecycle events: rowDragStartHelper, rowDragStart, rowDrag, rowDrop
• Prevent child drop position using dropPosition === 'middleSegment' + reorderRows
• Indent/Outdent toolbar items and gantt.indent() / gantt.outdent() methods
• Programmatic indent/outdent: selectRow(i) then indent()/outdent()
• Detect indent/outdent via actionComplete (args.requestType === 'indented'/'outdented')

Managing Tasks (Editing)

📄 Read: references/managing-tasks.md

• editSettings (allowAdding, allowEditing, allowDeleting)
• Cell / Dialog / Taskbar editing modes
• Add, delete, indent/outdent, drag-and-drop rows
• Server-side CRUD, split/merge tasks, validation

Undo / Redo

📄 Read: references/undo-redo.md

• UndoRedo module injection, enableUndoRedo property
• undoRedoActions — configure which actions to track (Edit, Delete, Add, Sorting, Filtering, ZoomIn/Out, ColumnReorder, ColumnResize, Indent, Outdent, RowDragAndDrop, TaskbarDragAndDrop, ColumnState, PreviousTimeSpan, NextTimeSpan)
• undoRedoStepsCount — limit history depth (default: 10; 0 = disabled)
• Toolbar Undo/Redo items for UI-based history navigation
• Programmatic control: undo() and redo() methods
• Retrieve history: getUndoActions() / getRedoActions()
• Reset history: clearUndoCollection() / clearRedoCollection()

Toolbar

📄 Read: references/toolbar.md

• Built-in toolbar items reference (Add, Edit, Delete, Update, Cancel, Search, ExpandAll, CollapseAll, Indent, Outdent, PrevTimeSpan, NextTimeSpan, ZoomIn, ZoomOut, ZoomToFit, Undo, Redo)
• Override built-in toolbar behavior via toolbarClick with args.cancel = true
• Show only icons — hide text labels with CSS (.e-tbar-btn-text)
• Customize toolbar button appearance using CSS class selectors
• Reposition toolbar to bottom using created event + DOM manipulation
• Custom toolbar items using ItemModel (text, id, prefixIcon, align)
• Mix built-in and custom items in the same toolbar array
• Enable/disable toolbar items dynamically via gantt.toolbarModule.enableItems()
• Add input components (AutoComplete, DropDownList) to toolbar using type: 'Input' with template

Context Menu

📄 Read: references/context-menu.md

• enableContextMenu, ContextMenu module
• Default and custom context menu items

Event Markers

📄 Read: references/event-markers.md

• DayMarkers module, eventMarkers array
• day, label, cssClass properties

Holidays

📄 Read: references/holidays.md

• DayMarkers module, holidays array
• from, to, label, cssClass properties

Data Markers (Indicators)

📄 Read: references/data-markers.md

• taskFields.indicators mapping
• date, iconClass, name, tooltip per indicator

Task Labels

📄 Read: references/labels.md

• labelSettings: leftLabel, rightLabel, taskLabel
• Field-based and template-based labels

Taskbar Customization

📄 Read: references/taskbar.md

• taskbarHeight, rowHeight
• taskbarTemplate, parentTaskbarTemplate, milestoneTemplate
• queryTaskbarInfo event for dynamic styling

Scrolling

📄 Read: references/scrolling.md

• scrollToDate method, scroll settings
• Horizontal and vertical scroll control

Virtual Scrolling

📄 Read: references/virtual-scroll.md

• VirtualScroll module injection, enableVirtualization for row virtualization
• enableTimelineVirtualization — on-demand horizontal timeline rendering (renders 3x viewport width initially)
• Get filtered record count with virtual scroll: actionComplete + gantt.treeGrid.filterModule.filteredResult
• Get total dataset count via gantt.flatData.length in created event
• Limitations: height must be in pixels, no multi-taskbar in Resource View, cell selection not persisted

Splitter

📄 Read: references/splitter.md

• splitterSettings (position, columnIndex, view)
• setSplitterPosition method, view modes

State Persistence

📄 Read: references/state-persistence.md

• enablePersistence — saves Filtering, Sorting, Columns state in localStorage
• localStorage key format: "gantt" + element ID (e.g., "ganttGantt")
• Get/set persisted state via window.localStorage.getItem / setItem
• Prevent specific keys from persisting via addOnPersist override in dataBound
• Not persisted by default: column templates, formatters, headerText, headerTemplate, value accessors
• Restore header templates and header text using getPersistData() + Object.assign + gantt.treeGrid.setProperties()

Immutable Mode

📄 Read: references/immutable.md

• enableImmutableMode for performance
• When to use immutable mode

Timezone

📄 Read: references/timezone.md

• timezone property (UTC, IANA zones)
• Consistent time display across regions

Globalization & Localization

📄 Read: references/global-local.md

• Localization: L10n.load({ 'de-DE': { gantt: { ... } } }) + locale: 'de-DE' on Gantt instance
• Full locale key table organized by category: task fields/columns, dialog/tabs, toolbar/actions, context menu/dependency, labels/timeline, predecessor validation messages (taskBeforePredecessor_FS etc.)
• New keys vs old reference: resourceID, writeNotes, task, tasks, saveButton, okText, from/to, taskLink, lag, start/finish, enterValue, above/below/child, milestone, toTask/toMilestone, eventMarkers, leftTaskLabel, rightTaskLabel, timelineCell, confirmPredecessorDelete, changeScheduleMode, subTasksStartDate/subTasksEndDate, scheduleStartDate/scheduleEndDate, unit, work, taskType, group
• Internationalization: loadCldr(cagregorian, numbers) + setCulture() for locale-aware date/number formatting; CLDR data from @syncfusion/ej2-cldr-data
• RTL: enableRtl: true + matching locale (e.g., 'ar-AE') — reverses text direction and full layout
• Default locale is 'en-US'

Excel Export

📄 Read: references/excel-export.md

• ExcelExport module, allowExcelExport, toolbar items: ExcelExport, CsvExport
• excelExport() / csvExport() methods, export to blob (4th arg isBlob)
• Custom data source override (dataSource in ExcelExportProperties)
• fileName, includeHiddenColumn, exportType
• Show/hide columns on export (toolbarClick + excelExportComplete to restore)
• Cell formatting (excelQueryCellInfo + args.style.backColor)
• Theme (header/record font name and color), header/footer rows with hyperlinks and styles
• Multiple Gantt export: AppendToSheet (same sheet, blankRows) and NewSheet modes

PDF Export

📄 Read: references/pdf-export.md

• PdfExport module, allowPdfExport, toolbar item
• fileName, pageOrientation, pageSize, exportType, includeHiddenColumn, showPredecessorLines
• Export current view data, export/hide columns on export
• Fit-to-width (isFitToWidth, chartWidth, gridWidth), export to blob
• Header/footer: Text, Image, Line, PageNumber content types; enableFooter
• Multiple Gantt export to single PDF, indicators in PDF export
• Conditional cell formatting (pdfQueryCellInfo + PdfColor)
• Timeline cell formatting (pdfQueryTimelineCellInfo)
• Taskbar formatting + split taskbar segment colors (taskSegmentStyles)
• ganttStyle: full appearance override (columnHeader, cell, taskbar, timeline, label, eventMarker, holiday)
• Export with column templates (images/hyperlinks), taskbar templates, label templates, header templates
• pdfColumnHeaderQueryCellInfo for header template export

Loading Animation

📄 Read: references/loading-animation.md

• loadingIndicator.indicatorType: 'Shimmer' | 'Spinner'
• Shimmer with virtual scroll

Accessibility

📄 Read: references/accessibility.md

• WCAG 2.1 Level AA compliance
• Keyboard navigation (grid, toolbar, context menu shortcuts)
• ARIA roles and attributes (treegrid, row, gridcell, columnheader, dialog)
• High contrast theme (highcontrast.css)
• Screen reader support (NVDA, JAWS, VoiceOver) — taskbarAriaLabel customization
• Focus management and autoFocusTasks

Programmatic Methods

📄 Read: references/gantt-methods.md

• Column: autoFitColumns(field?), getGanttColumns(), getGridColumns(), refreshColumns(), reorderColumns(from, to), removeSortColumn(field)
• Row/Record lookup: getRecordByID(id), getTaskByUniqueID(uid), getRowByID(id), getRowByIndex(index), getTaskInfo(taskId), getCurrentViewData(), getExpandedRecords(records)
• Expand/Collapse: expandByIndex(index | index[]), collapseByIndex(index)
• Edit/CRUD: cancelEdit(), deleteRecord(taskDetail), updateRecordByIndex(index, data), updateTaskId(currentId, newId), changeTaskMode(data), convertToMilestone(id)
• Dependency: removePredecessor(id) — removes all dependencies from a task
• Split/Merge: splitTask(taskId, splitDate | splitDate[]), mergeTask(taskId, segmentIndexes) — requires allowTaskbarEditing; parent/milestones cannot be split
• Selection: selectCells(rowCellIndexes) — select cells by { rowIndex, cellIndexes[] } pairs; requires mode: 'Cell'
• Scroll: scrollToTask(taskId), setScrollTop(px), updateChartScrollOffset(left, top)
• Data: updateDataSource(dataSource, { projectStartDate, projectEndDate })
• Critical path: getCriticalTasks() → IGanttData[]; requires enableCriticalPath + CriticalPath module
• Formatting helpers: getDurationString(value, unit), getWorkString(value, unit), getTaskbarHeight()
• All methods use the Gantt instance directly: gantt.methodName(args) (TypeScript/JavaScript)

Events

📄 Read: references/events.md

• actionBegin — fires before any action (add/edit/delete/sort/filter/dependency/zoom); supports args.cancel; argument types vary by operation (ITaskAddedEventArgs, ITimeSpanEventArgs, FilterEventArgs, SortEventArgs, IDependencyEventArgs, ZoomEventArgs)
• actionComplete — fires after action completes; switch on args.requestType (filtering, sorting, save, delete, AfterZoomIn/Out/ToProject)
• actionFailure — fires on operation failure; args.error[0] for error details
• cellEdit — fires when grid cell enters edit mode; args.cancel = true prevents editing; args: cancel, cell, columnName, columnObject, row, rowData, value, validationRules
• beforeTooltipRender — fires before tooltip renders (taskbar/connector/timeline); override args.content or set args.cancel = true
• beforeExcelExport / beforePdfExport — fires before export; args.cancel = true aborts; isCsv flag for Excel vs CSV
• Cell selection events (require selectionSettings.mode: 'Cell' or 'Both'): cellSelecting (cancel to prevent), cellSelected, cellDeselecting, cellDeselected — CellSelectEventArgs (cellIndex, cells, currentCell, data, previousRowCell) and CellDeselectEventArgs (cellIndexes, cells, data)
• Row selection events: rowSelecting, rowSelected, rowDeselecting, rowDeselected — cancel, data, rowIndex, isCtrlPressed, isShiftPressed
• Column drag events (require allowReordering: true + Reorder module): columnDragStart, columnDrag, columnDrop — ColumnDragEventArgs (column, target, draggableType)
• Column menu events (require showColumnMenu: true + ColumnMenu module): columnMenuOpen (ColumnMenuOpenEventArgs: cancel, column, element, items, left, top, parentItem), columnMenuClick (ColumnMenuClickEventArgs: name, column, element, item)
• contextMenuClick — requires ContextMenu module + contextMenuItems; args: name, element, event, item (id/text), type, rowData
• Export complete events: excelExportComplete / pdfExportComplete — access blob via args.promise.then((e) => e.blobData)
• requestType reference table: beforeSave, beforeDelete, taskbarEditing, filtering, sorting, zoom variants, save, delete, validateDependency, updateDependency