WebReflection/element

A minimalistic DOM element creation library.

@webreflection/element

^{Social Media Photo by James Owen on Unsplash}

A minimalistic DOM element creation library.

Usage and Description

The default export is a function that accepts a tag and an optional options or setup literal, plus zero, one or more childNodes to append: (tag:string|Node, options:object?, ...(Node|string)[])

The tag

• if it's an Element already it uses options to enrich the element as described
• if it's a string and it does not start with <, it creates a new Element with such name
  • if it starts with svg: (followed by its name) or the tag value is svg itself, it creates an SVGElement
  • in every other case it creates an HTMLElement or, of course, a CustomElement with such name or, if options.is exists, a custom element builtin extend
• if it's a string and it starts with < it uses the element found after document.querySelector. If no element is found, it returns null out of the box.

The options

Each option key / value pair is handled to enrich the created or retrieved element in a library friendly way.

The key

• if key in element is false:
  • aria and data are used to attach aria- prefixed attributes (with the role exception) or the element dataset
  • class, html and text are transformed into className, innerHTML and textContent to directly set these properties with less, yet semantic, typing
  • @type is treated as listener intent. If its value is an array, it is possible to add the third parameter to element.addEventListener(key.slice(1), ...value), otherwise the listener will be added without options
  • ?name is treated as boolean attribute intent and, like it is for @type, the key will see the first char removed
• if key in element is true:
  • classList adds all classes via element.classList.add(...value)
  • style content is directly set via element.style.cssText = value or via element.setAttribute('style', value) in case of SVG element
  • everything else, including on... handlers, is attached directly via element[key] = value

The value

If key in element is false, the behavior is inferred by the value:

• a boolean value that is not known in the element will be handled via element.toggleAttribute(key, value)
• a function or an object with a handleEvent are handled via element.addEventListener(key, value)
• an object without handleEvent will be serialized as JSON to safely land as element.setAttribute(key, JSON.stringify(value))
• null and undefined are simply ignored
• everything else is simply added as element.setAttribute(key, value)

Please read the example to have more complete example of how all these features play together.

---

Example - Live Demo

// https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/@webreflection/element/index.min.js for best compression
import element from 'https://esm.run/@webreflection/element';

// direct node reference or `< css-selector`  to enrich, ie:
// element(document.body, ...) or ...
element(
  '< body',
  {
    // override body.style.cssText = ...
    style: 'text-align: center',
    // classList.add('some', 'container')
    classList: ['some', 'container'],
    // a custom listener as object.handleEvent pattern
    ['custom:event']: {
      count: 0,
      handleEvent({ type, currentTarget }) {
        console.log(++this.count, type, currentTarget);
      },
    },
    // listener with an extra { once: true } option
    ['@click']: [
      ({ type, currentTarget }) => {
        console.log(type, currentTarget);
        currentTarget.dispatchEvent(new Event('custom:event'))
      },
      { once: true },
    ],
  },
  // body children / childNodes
  element('h1', {
    // clallName
    class: 'name',
    // textContent
    text: '@webreflection/element',
    style: 'color: purple',
    // role="heading" aria-level="1"
    aria: {
      role: 'heading',
      level: 1,
    },
    // dataset.test = 'ok'
    data: {
      test: 'ok',
    },
    // serialized as `json` attribute
    json: {a: 1, b: 2},
    // direct listener
    onclick: ({ type, currentTarget }) => {
      console.log(type, currentTarget);
    },
  }),
  element(
    'svg',
    {
      width: 100,
      height: 100,
    },
    // svg children / childNodes
    element('svg:circle', {
      cx: 50,
      cy: 50,
      r: 50,
      fill: 'violet',
    })
  ),
  element('p', {
    // innerHTML
    html: 'made with ❤️ for the <strong>Web</strong>',
  })
);