How integrate jQuery plugin in React

First of all air-datepicker is not React component, it's jQuery plugin, so it won't work like in your examples.

Secondly, for proper work, jQuery should be availabel in global context, the most esiest ways to do this is to include it into page via <script> tag. It should be included before plugin script.

To check if its really included and it available globally, just type in Chrome console window.jQueryand press Enter it should return something like function (a,b){...}. If not, when you doing something wrong, check src attribute of <script> tag, maybe it pointing to wrong destination

How to get it worked in React?

Well, the most simpliest way is just to initialize plugin on any DOM element in your component, like in regular JavaScript.

class MyComponent extends React.Component {
  componentDidMount(){
    this.initDatepicker();
  }
  
  initDatepicker(){
    $(this.refs.datepicker).datepicker();
  }
  
  render(){
    return (
      <div>
        <h3>Choose date!</h3>
        <input type='text'  ref='datepicker' />
      </div>    
    )
  }
}

ReactDOM.render(
  <MyComponent />,
  document.getElementById('app')
);

<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/react/15.1.0/react.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/react/15.1.0/react-dom.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>

<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/air-datepicker/2.2.3/js/datepicker.min.js"></script>
<link href="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/air-datepicker/2.2.3/css/datepicker.min.css" rel="stylesheet"/>

<div id="app"></div>

As separate component

Very simple datepicker React component example

class Datepicker extends React.Component {
  componentDidMount(){
    this.initDatepicker();
  }
  
  initDatepicker(){
    $(this.refs.datepicker).datepicker(this.props);
  }

  render(){
    return (
      <input type='text' ref='datepicker'/>
    )
  }
}


class MyComponent extends React.Component {
  render(){
    return (
      <div>
        <h3>Choose date from React Datepicker!</h3>
        <Datepicker range={true} />
      </div>    
    )
  }
}

ReactDOM.render(
  <MyComponent />,
  document.getElementById('app')
);

<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/react/15.1.0/react.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/react/15.1.0/react-dom.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>

<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/air-datepicker/2.2.3/js/datepicker.min.js"></script>
<link href="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/air-datepicker/2.2.3/css/datepicker.min.css" rel="stylesheet"/>

<div id="app"></div>

Also don't forget to include css files.

air-datepicker is not the React-component. It is the jquery-plugin, so we can follow this tutorial https://reactjs.org/docs/integrating-with-other-libraries.html

import React from 'react'
import $ from 'jquery'
import 'air-datepicker/dist/js/datepicker.js'
import 'air-datepicker/dist/css/datepicker.css'

class AirDatepicker extends React.Component {
    componentDidMount(){
        this.$el = $(this.el)
        this.$el.datepicker()
    }

    render() {
        return (
            <div>
                <input ref={el => this.el = el}/>
            </div>
        )
    }
}

export default AirDatepicker

But it still not work cause the jquery not the dependency of the air-datepicker.

ReferenceError: jQuery is not defined
./node_modules/air-datepicker/dist/js/datepicker.js
D:/demo/react/jq-plugin/datepicker/node_modules/air-datepicker/dist/js/datepicker.js:2236
  2233 |         }
  2234 |     };
  2235 | })();
> 2236 |  })(window, jQuery);
  2237 | 
  2238 | 
  2239 | //////////////////

Follow the error message and the easiest way is to hake the air-datepicker. Add jQuery as the dependency in the first line of the air-datepicker/dist/js/datepicker.js

Before:

  1 |;(function (window, $, undefined) { ;(function () {
  2 |    var VERSION = '2.2.3',
  3 |        pluginName = 'datepicker'

After:

> 1 |import jQuery from 'jquery'
  2 |;(function (window, $, undefined) { ;(function () {
  3 |    var VERSION = '2.2.3',
  4 |        pluginName = 'datepicker'

Thus <AirDatepicker /> can works well as the React-component.