Scheduling tasks in React Gantt component

2 Feb 202324 minutes to read

Duration units

In Gantt, the tasks’ duration value can be measured by the following duration units,

Day
Hour
Minute

In Gantt, we can define duration unit for whole project by using durationUnit property, when we defines the value for this property, this unit will be applied for all task which don’t has duration unit value. And each task in the project can be defined with different duration units and the duration unit of a task can be defined by the following ways,

Using taskFields.durationUnit property, to map the duration unit data source field.
Defining the duration unit value along with the duration field in the data source.

Mapping the duration unit field

The below code snippet explains the mapping of duration unit data source field to the Gantt component using the taskFields.durationUnit property.

index.jsx
index.tsx
index.html
let data = [
    {
        TaskID: 1,
        TaskName: 'Project Initiation',
        StartDate: new Date('04/02/2019'),
        EndDate: new Date('04/21/2019'),
        subtasks: [
            { TaskID: 2, TaskName: 'Identify Site location', StartDate: new Date('04/02/2019'), Duration: 2, DurationUnit: 'day', Progress: 50 },
            { TaskID: 3, TaskName: 'Perform Soil test', StartDate: new Date('04/02/2019'), Duration: 12, DurationUnit: 'hour', Progress: 70 },
            { TaskID: 4, TaskName: 'Soil test approval', StartDate: new Date('04/02/2019'), Duration: 240, DurationUnit: 'minute', Progress: 80 },
        ]
    },
    {
        TaskID: 5,
        TaskName: 'Project Estimation',
        StartDate: new Date('04/02/2019'),
        EndDate: new Date('04/21/2019'),
        subtasks: [
            { TaskID: 6, TaskName: 'Develop floor plan for estimation', StartDate: new Date('04/04/2019'), Duration: 8, DurationUnit: 'hour', Progress: 50 },
            { TaskID: 7, TaskName: 'List materials', StartDate: new Date('04/04/2019'), Duration: 3, Progress: 50, DurationUnit: 'day' },
            { TaskID: 8, TaskName: 'Estimation approval', StartDate: new Date('04/04/2019'), Duration: 480, DurationUnit: 'minute', Progress: 70 }
        ]
    },
];
import * as React from 'react';
import * as ReactDOM from 'react-dom';
import { GanttComponent } from '@syncfusion/ej2-react-gantt';
class App extends React.Component {
    taskFields = {
        id: 'TaskID',
        name: 'TaskName',
        startDate: 'StartDate',
        duration: 'Duration',
        progress: 'Progress',
        durationUnit: 'DurationUnit',
        child: 'subtasks'
    };
    splitterSettings = {
        columnIndex: 4
    };
    render() {
        return <GanttComponent dataSource={data} taskFields={this.taskFields} splitterSettings={this.splitterSettings} height='450px'>
       </GanttComponent>;
    }
}
;
ReactDOM.render(<App />, document.getElementById('root'));
let data: Object[]  =  [
    {
        TaskID: 1,
        TaskName: 'Project Initiation',
        StartDate: new Date('04/02/2019'),
        EndDate: new Date('04/21/2019'),
        subtasks: [
            { TaskID: 2, TaskName: 'Identify Site location', StartDate: new Date('04/02/2019'), Duration: 2, DurationUnit:'day', Progress: 50 },
            { TaskID: 3, TaskName: 'Perform Soil test', StartDate: new Date('04/02/2019'), Duration: 12,DurationUnit:'hour', Progress: 70  },
            { TaskID: 4, TaskName: 'Soil test approval', StartDate: new Date('04/02/2019'), Duration: 240,DurationUnit:'minute', Progress: 80 },
        ]
    },
    {
        TaskID: 5,
        TaskName: 'Project Estimation',
        StartDate: new Date('04/02/2019'),
        EndDate: new Date('04/21/2019'),
        subtasks: [
            { TaskID: 6, TaskName: 'Develop floor plan for estimation', StartDate: new Date('04/04/2019'), Duration: 8, DurationUnit:'hour', Progress: 50  },
            { TaskID: 7, TaskName: 'List materials', StartDate: new Date('04/04/2019'), Duration: 3, Progress: 50, DurationUnit:'day' },
            { TaskID: 8, TaskName: 'Estimation approval', StartDate: new Date('04/04/2019'), Duration: 480, DurationUnit:'minute', Progress: 70 }
        ]
    },
];

import * as React from 'react';
import * as ReactDOM from 'react-dom';
import { GanttComponent } from '@syncfusion/ej2-react-gantt';

class App extends React.Component<{}, {}>{
    public taskFields: any = {
    id: 'TaskID',
    name: 'TaskName',
    startDate: 'StartDate',
    duration: 'Duration',
    progress: 'Progress',
    durationUnit:'DurationUnit',
    child: 'subtasks'
  };
  public splitterSettings: any = {
    columnIndex: 4
  };
    render() {
        return <GanttComponent dataSource={data} taskFields={this.taskFields}
          splitterSettings={this.splitterSettings} height = '450px'>
       </GanttComponent>
    }
};
ReactDOM.render(<App />, document.getElementById('root'));
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">

<head>
    <title>Syncfusion React Gantt</title>
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" />
    <meta name="description" content="Essential JS 2 for React Components" />
    <meta name="author" content="Syncfusion" />
    <link href="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/material.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"/>
    <link href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.7/css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/systemjs/0.19.38/system.js"></script>
    <script src="systemjs.config.js"></script>
     <style>
        #loader {
            color: #008cff;
            height: 40px;
            left: 45%;
            position: absolute;
            top: 45%;
            width: 30%;
        }
    </style>
<script src="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/syncfusion-helper.js" type ="text/javascript"></script>
</head>

<body>
        <div id='root'>
            <div id='loader'>Loading....</div>
        </div>
</body>

</html>

NOTE
The default value of the durationUnit property is day.

Defining duration unit along with duration field

Duration units for the tasks can also be defined along with the duration values, the below code snippet explains the duration unit for a task along with duration value,

index.jsx
index.tsx
index.html
let data = [
    {
        TaskID: 1,
        TaskName: 'Project Initiation',
        StartDate: new Date('04/02/2019'),
        EndDate: new Date('04/21/2019'),
        isParent: true,
        subtasks: [
            { TaskID: 2, TaskName: 'Identify Site location', StartDate: new Date('04/02/2019'), Duration: '4days', Progress: 50 },
            { TaskID: 3, TaskName: 'Perform Soil test', StartDate: new Date('04/02/2019'), Duration: '16hours', Progress: 70 },
            { TaskID: 4, TaskName: 'Soil test approval', StartDate: new Date('04/02/2019'), Duration: '1800minutes', Progress: 80 },
        ]
    },
    {
        TaskID: 5,
        TaskName: 'Project Estimation',
        StartDate: new Date('04/02/2019'),
        EndDate: new Date('04/21/2019'),
        isParent: true,
        subtasks: [
            { TaskID: 6, TaskName: 'Develop floor plan for estimation', StartDate: new Date('04/04/2019'), Duration: '16hours', Progress: 50 },
            { TaskID: 7, TaskName: 'List materials', StartDate: new Date('04/04/2019'), Duration: '3days', Progress: 50 },
            { TaskID: 8, TaskName: 'Estimation approval', StartDate: new Date('04/04/2019'), Duration: '480minutes', Progress: 70 }
        ]
    },
];
import * as React from 'react';
import * as ReactDOM from 'react-dom';
import { GanttComponent } from '@syncfusion/ej2-react-gantt';
class App extends React.Component {
    taskFields = {
        id: 'TaskID',
        name: 'TaskName',
        startDate: 'StartDate',
        duration: 'Duration',
        progress: 'Progress',
        child: 'subtasks'
    };
    splitterSettings = {
        columnIndex: 4
    };
    render() {
        return <GanttComponent dataSource={data} taskFields={this.taskFields} splitterSettings={this.splitterSettings} height='450px'>
        </GanttComponent>;
    }
}
;
ReactDOM.render(<App />, document.getElementById('root'));
let data: Object[]  = [
    {
        TaskID: 1,
        TaskName: 'Project Initiation',
        StartDate: new Date('04/02/2019'),
        EndDate: new Date('04/21/2019'),
        isParent:true,
        subtasks: [
            { TaskID: 2, TaskName: 'Identify Site location', StartDate: new Date('04/02/2019'), Duration: '4days', Progress: 50 },
            { TaskID: 3, TaskName: 'Perform Soil test', StartDate: new Date('04/02/2019'), Duration: '16hours', Progress: 70   },
            { TaskID: 4, TaskName: 'Soil test approval', StartDate: new Date('04/02/2019'), Duration: '1800minutes', Progress: 80  },
        ]
    },
    {
        TaskID: 5,
        TaskName: 'Project Estimation',
        StartDate: new Date('04/02/2019'),
        EndDate: new Date('04/21/2019'),
        isParent:true,
        subtasks: [
            { TaskID: 6, TaskName: 'Develop floor plan for estimation', StartDate: new Date('04/04/2019'), Duration: '16hours',Progress: 50 },
            { TaskID: 7, TaskName: 'List materials', StartDate: new Date('04/04/2019'), Duration: '3days', Progress: 50 },
            { TaskID: 8, TaskName: 'Estimation approval', StartDate: new Date('04/04/2019'), Duration: '480minutes', Progress: 70  }
        ]
    },
];

import * as React from 'react';
import * as ReactDOM from 'react-dom';
import { GanttComponent, ColumnsDirective, ColumnDirective } from '@syncfusion/ej2-react-gantt';

class App extends React.Component<{}, {}>{
    public taskFields: any = {
    id: 'TaskID',
    name: 'TaskName',
    startDate: 'StartDate',
    duration: 'Duration',
    progress: 'Progress',
    child: 'subtasks'
  };
  public splitterSettings: any = {
    columnIndex: 4
  };
    render() {
        return <GanttComponent dataSource={data} taskFields={this.taskFields}
          splitterSettings={this.splitterSettings} height = '450px'>
        </GanttComponent>
    }
};
ReactDOM.render(<App />, document.getElementById('root'));
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">

<head>
    <title>Syncfusion React Gantt</title>
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" />
    <meta name="description" content="Essential JS 2 for React Components" />
    <meta name="author" content="Syncfusion" />
    <link href="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/material.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"/>
    <link href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.7/css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/systemjs/0.19.38/system.js"></script>
    <script src="systemjs.config.js"></script>
     <style>
        #loader {
            color: #008cff;
            height: 40px;
            left: 45%;
            position: absolute;
            top: 45%;
            width: 30%;
        }
    </style>
<script src="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/syncfusion-helper.js" type ="text/javascript"></script>
</head>

<body>
        <div id='root'>
            <div id='loader'>Loading....</div>
        </div>
</body>

</html>

NOTE:
The edit type of the duration column in Gantt is string, to support editing the duration field along with duration units.

Unscheduled Tasks

Unscheduled tasks are planned for a project without any definite schedule dates. The Gantt component supports rendering the unscheduled tasks. You can create or update the tasks with anyone of start date, end date, and duration values or none. You can enable or disable the unscheduled tasks by using the allowUnscheduledTasks property. The following images represent the various types of unscheduled tasks in Gantt.

Start Date Only

Alt text

End Date Only

Alt text

Duration Only

Alt text

Milestone

The milestone task, one without a start and end date, but having a duration value of zero is represented as follows.

Alt text

Define unscheduled tasks in data source

You can define the various types of unscheduled tasks in the data source as follows

index.jsx
index.tsx
index.html
let GanttData = [
    {
        TaskID: 1,
        TaskName: 'Project Initiation',
        StartDate: new Date('04/02/2019'),
        EndDate: new Date('04/21/2019'),
        subtasks: [
            { TaskID: 2, TaskName: 'Identify Site location', Duration: 3, Progress: 50 },
            { TaskID: 3, TaskName: 'Perform Soil test', StartDate: new Date('04/02/2019'), Progress: 50 },
            { TaskID: 4, TaskName: 'Soil test approval', EndDate: new Date('04/08/2019'), Progress: 50 },
        ]
    },
    {
        TaskID: 5,
        TaskName: 'Project Estimation',
        StartDate: new Date('04/02/2019'),
        EndDate: new Date('04/21/2019'),
        subtasks: [
            { TaskID: 6, TaskName: 'Develop floor plan for estimation', StartDate: new Date('04/04/2019'), EndDate: new Date('04/08/2019'), Progress: 50 },
            { TaskID: 7, TaskName: 'List materials', StartDate: new Date('04/04/2019'), Progress: 50 },
            { TaskID: 8, TaskName: 'Estimation approval', Duration: 0, Progress: 50 }
        ]
    },
];
import * as React from 'react';
import * as ReactDOM from 'react-dom';
import { GanttComponent } from '@syncfusion/ej2-react-gantt';
class App extends React.Component {
    taskFields = {
        id: 'TaskID',
        name: 'TaskName',
        startDate: 'StartDate',
        endDate: 'EndDate',
        duration: 'Duration',
        progress: 'Progress',
        child: 'subtasks'
    };
    render() {
        return <GanttComponent dataSource={GanttData} taskFields={this.taskFields} allowUnscheduledTasks={true} height='400px'>
        </GanttComponent>;
    }
}
;
ReactDOM.render(<App />, document.getElementById('root'));
let GanttData: Object[] = [
    {
        TaskID: 1,
        TaskName: 'Project Initiation',
        StartDate: new Date('04/02/2019'),
        EndDate: new Date('04/21/2019'),
        subtasks: [
            { TaskID: 2, TaskName: 'Identify Site location', Duration: 3, Progress: 50 },
            { TaskID: 3, TaskName: 'Perform Soil test', StartDate: new Date('04/02/2019'), Progress: 50 },
            { TaskID: 4, TaskName: 'Soil test approval', EndDate: new Date('04/08/2019'), Progress: 50 },
        ]
    },
    {
        TaskID: 5,
        TaskName: 'Project Estimation',
        StartDate: new Date('04/02/2019'),
        EndDate: new Date('04/21/2019'),
        subtasks: [
            { TaskID: 6, TaskName: 'Develop floor plan for estimation', StartDate: new Date('04/04/2019'), EndDate: new Date('04/08/2019'), Progress: 50 },
            { TaskID: 7, TaskName: 'List materials', StartDate: new Date('04/04/2019'), Progress: 50 },
            { TaskID: 8, TaskName: 'Estimation approval', Duration: 0, Progress: 50 }
        ]
    },
];

import * as React from 'react';
import * as ReactDOM from 'react-dom';
import { GanttComponent } from '@syncfusion/ej2-react-gantt';

class App extends React.Component<{}, {}>{
    public taskFields: any = {
        id: 'TaskID',
        name: 'TaskName',
        startDate: 'StartDate',
        endDate: 'EndDate',
        duration: 'Duration',
        progress: 'Progress',
        child: 'subtasks'
    };
    render() {
        return <GanttComponent dataSource={GanttData} taskFields={this.taskFields} allowUnscheduledTasks={true} height = '400px'>
        </GanttComponent>
    }
};
ReactDOM.render(<App />, document.getElementById('root'));
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">

<head>
    <title>Syncfusion React Gantt</title>
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" />
    <meta name="description" content="Essential JS 2 for React Components" />
    <meta name="author" content="Syncfusion" />
    <link href="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/material.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"/>
    <link href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.7/css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/systemjs/0.19.38/system.js"></script>
    <script src="systemjs.config.js"></script>
     <style>
        #loader {
            color: #008cff;
            height: 40px;
            left: 45%;
            position: absolute;
            top: 45%;
            width: 30%;
        }
    </style>
<script src="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/syncfusion-helper.js" type ="text/javascript"></script>
</head>

<body>
        <div id='root'>
            <div id='loader'>Loading....</div>
        </div>
</body>

</html>

NOTE
If the allowUnscheduledTasks property is set to false, then the Gantt component automatically calculates the scheduled date values with a default value of duration 1 and the project start date is considered as the start date for the task.

Working Time Range

In the Gantt component, working hours in a day for a project can be defined by using the dayWorkingTime property. Based on the working hours, automatic date scheduling and duration validations for a task are performed.

The following code snippet explains how to define the working time range for the project in Gantt.

index.jsx
index.tsx
index.html
import * as React from 'react';
import * as ReactDOM from 'react-dom';
import { GanttComponent } from '@syncfusion/ej2-react-gantt';
import { data } from './datasource';
class App extends React.Component {
    taskFields = {
        id: 'TaskID',
        name: 'TaskName',
        startDate: 'StartDate',
        duration: 'Duration',
        progress: 'Progress',
        child: 'subtasks'
    };
    timelineSettings = {
        timelineUnitSize: 60,
        topTier: {
            format: 'MMM dd, yyyy',
            unit: 'Day',
        },
        bottomTier: {
            unit: 'Hour',
            format: 'h.mm a'
        },
    };
    dayWorkingTime = [{ from: 9, to: 18 }];
    render() {
        return <GanttComponent dataSource={data} taskFields={this.taskFields} dayWorkingTime={this.dayWorkingTime} timelineSettings={this.timelineSettings} height='450px'>
      </GanttComponent>;
    }
}
;
ReactDOM.render(<App />, document.getElementById('root'));
import * as React from 'react';
import * as ReactDOM from 'react-dom';
import { GanttComponent } from '@syncfusion/ej2-react-gantt';
import { data } from './datasource';

class App extends React.Component<{}, {}>{
    public taskFields: any = {
    id: 'TaskID',
    name: 'TaskName',
    startDate: 'StartDate',
    duration: 'Duration',
    progress: 'Progress',
    child: 'subtasks'
  };
  public timelineSettings: any = {
    timelineUnitSize: 60,
    topTier: {
      format: 'MMM dd, yyyy',
      unit: 'Day',
    },
    bottomTier: {
      unit: 'Hour',
      format: 'h.mm a'
    },
  };
  public dayWorkingTime: any = [{ from: 9, to: 18 }]
    render() {
        return <GanttComponent dataSource={data} taskFields={this.taskFields}
          dayWorkingTime={this.dayWorkingTime} timelineSettings={this.timelineSettings} height = '450px'>
      </GanttComponent>
    }
};
ReactDOM.render(<App />, document.getElementById('root'));
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">

<head>
    <title>Syncfusion React Gantt</title>
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" />
    <meta name="description" content="Essential JS 2 for React Components" />
    <meta name="author" content="Syncfusion" />
    <link href="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/material.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"/>
    <link href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.7/css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/systemjs/0.19.38/system.js"></script>
    <script src="systemjs.config.js"></script>
     <style>
        #loader {
            color: #008cff;
            height: 40px;
            left: 45%;
            position: absolute;
            top: 45%;
            width: 30%;
        }
    </style>
<script src="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/syncfusion-helper.js" type ="text/javascript"></script>
</head>

<body>
        <div id='root'>
            <div id='loader'>Loading....</div>
        </div>
</body>

</html>

NOTE

Individual tasks can lie between any time within the defined working time range of the project.

The dayWorkingTime property is used to define the working time for the whole project.

Weekend/Non-working days

Non-working days/weekend are used to represent the non-productive days in a project. You can define the non-working days in a week using the workWeek property in Gantt.

index.jsx
index.tsx
index.html
import * as React from 'react';
import * as ReactDOM from 'react-dom';
import { GanttComponent, Inject, DayMarkers } from '@syncfusion/ej2-react-gantt';
import { data } from './datasource';
function App(){
    const taskFields = {
    id: 'TaskID',
    name: 'TaskName',
    startDate: 'StartDate',
    duration: 'Duration',
    progress: 'Progress',
    child: 'subtasks'
  };
  const  workWeek = ['Sunday','Monday','Tuesday','Wednesday','Thursday'];
        return <GanttComponent dataSource={data} taskFields={taskFields}
        highlightWeekends={true} workWeek={workWeek} height = '450px'>
         <Inject services={[DayMarkers]} />
        </GanttComponent>
};
ReactDOM.render(<App />, document.getElementById('root'));
import * as React from 'react';
import * as ReactDOM from 'react-dom';
import { GanttComponent, Inject, DayMarkers } from '@syncfusion/ej2-react-gantt';
import { data } from './datasource';
function App(){
    const taskFields: any = {
    id: 'TaskID',
    name: 'TaskName',
    startDate: 'StartDate',
    duration: 'Duration',
    progress: 'Progress',
    child: 'subtasks'
  };
  const  workWeek: any = ['Sunday','Monday','Tuesday','Wednesday','Thursday'];
        return <GanttComponent dataSource={data} taskFields={taskFields}
        highlightWeekends={true} workWeek={workWeek} height = '450px'>
         <Inject services={[DayMarkers]} />
        </GanttComponent>
};
ReactDOM.render(<App />, document.getElementById('root'));
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">

<head>
    <title>Syncfusion React Gantt</title>
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" />
    <meta name="description" content="Essential JS 2 for React Components" />
    <meta name="author" content="Syncfusion" />
    <link href="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/material.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"/>
    <link href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.7/css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/systemjs/0.19.38/system.js"></script>
    <script src="systemjs.config.js"></script>
     <style>
        #loader {
            color: #008cff;
            height: 40px;
            left: 45%;
            position: absolute;
            top: 45%;
            width: 30%;
        }
    </style>
<script src="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/syncfusion-helper.js" type ="text/javascript"></script>
</head>

<body>
        <div id='root'>
            <div id='loader'>Loading....</div>
        </div>
</body>

</html>

By default, Saturdays and Sundays are considered as non-working days/weekend in a project.
In the Gantt component, you can make weekend as working day by setting the includeWeekend property to true.