Simpla Paths

Simpla-paths maps Simpla content paths to the DOM with new HTML attributes. This allows you to structure your content declaratively in code.

Installation & usage

Simpla-paths is available on NPM/Yarn, Bower, and the Unpkg CDN

$ npm i simpla-paths --save

$ bower i simpla-paths --save

https://unpkg.com/simpla-paths@^1.0.0

Setup Simpla on your page, then include simpla-paths in your <head>. Simpla-paths is distributed as both an HTML import (simpla-paths.html) and a JavaScript file (simpla-paths.min.js). You can include either, but make sure you only include one of them.

<!-- As HTML import -->
<link rel="import" href="/bower_components/simpla-paths/simpla-paths.html">

<!-- As Javascript file -->
<script src="/node_modules/simpla-paths/simpla-paths.min.js"></script>

Simpla-paths will automatically begin observing its attributes and constructing paths (except inside Shadow DOM - see observing shadow roots).

Constructing paths

Simpla-paths creates paths for elements by stringing together IDs used in new HTML attributes. For example, this markup

<div sid="page">
  <div sid="section">
    <simpla-text sid="element"></simpla-text>
  </div>
</div>

Creates the path /page/section/element for the ``` element.

Simpla-paths exposes two new HTML attributes:

sid: Scoped ID
gid: Global ID

Every element with either of these attributes will get a path property set on it by simpla-paths.

Scoped IDs

Scoped IDs (the sid attribute) are the building blocks of structured content. They are namespaced to any parent element with a path ID attribute. To created nested paths, just nest HTML elements with sid attributes

<div sid="nested">
  <!-- path = /nested/path -->
  <simpla-text sid="path"></simpla-text>
</div>

<!-- path = /path -->
<simpla-text sid="path"></simpla-text>

Global IDs

Global IDs (the gid attribute) always create new paths regardless of where they are used. When applied to Simpla elements, they are equivelant to specifying path="/[gid]".

They are useful for creating reusable chunks of content that always have consistent data, regardless of where they appear on your site.

<div sid="page">

  <!-- path = /page/title -->
  <simpla-text sid="title"></simpla-text>

  <div gid="footer">

    <!-- path = /footer/company -->
    <simpla-text sid="company"></simpla-text>  

  </div>

</div>

Dynamically reloading paths

Changing any ID in a chain of IDs recalculates the entire path. This means you can easily make your content react to changes in DOM.

<div id="page" sid="page">
  <div sid="section">
    <simpla-text sid="title"></simpla-text>
  </div>
</div>

<!-- simpla-text path = /page/section/title -->

<script>
  document.querySelector('#page').setAttribute('sid', 'about');
</script>

<!-- simpla-text path = /about/section/title -->

Read more about structuring data with simpla-paths

Observing shadow roots

Simpla-paths automatically observes IDs and constructs paths in the main document. To use sid and gid attributes in Shadow DOM you will need to tell simpla-paths to observe your shadow root manually.

Do this with the observe() method on the SimplaPaths global. It takes two arguments, the shadow tree to observe, and an optional base path (defaults to '/').

SimplaPaths.observe(el.shadowRoot, el.path);

API

Custom attributes

Attribute	Description
`sid`	Scoped ID, appended to parent IDs to create nested paths
`gid`	Global ID, creates a new root path

Events

Events are fired on elements that sid or gid attributes set

Event	Detail	Description
`path-changed`	`{ path: String }`	Fired whenever an element's path changes

Contributing

If you find any issues with simpla-paths please report them! If you'd like to see a new feature in supported file an issue. We also happily accept PRs.

simplajs/simpla-paths