RCSS

Warning: deprecated. The "CSS in JS" experiment has been successful and there are now much more polished alternatives:

Turn your JavaScript objects into CSS classes.

Designed with React and Browserify in mind.

npm install rcss

Demo of the example folder output here. No CSS files involved.

Overview

button.js:

var RCSS = require('rcss');

var button = {
  display: 'inline-block',
  padding: '6px 12px',
  // CamelCased. Transformed back into the dashed CSS counterparts on-the-fly.
  marginBottom: '0',
  ':hover': {
    color: 'blue'
  }
};

module.exports = RCSS.registerClass(button);

index.js

/** @jsx React.DOM */

var React = require('React');
var RCSS = require('RCSS');

var button = require('./button');

RCSS.injectAll();

React.renderComponent(
  <button className={button.className}>Hello!</button>,
  document.body
);

Easy =).

API

RCSS.registerClass(styleObject)

Wrap the style declaration and register it internally. Returns a new object of the format: {className: 'uniqueClassName', style: originalStyleObj}. You can then use to the opaque className and the style object however you want.

RCSS.injectAll()

A top-level call that parses all the registered style objects into real CSS, puts the result in a style tag, and injects it in the document head. This clears the styles registry.

RCSS.cascade(styleObj1, styleObj2, ...)

A simple merge utility that returns a new object. Typically used this way.

RCSS.getStylesString()

For server-side rendering, you'd want the big style string instead of calling injectAll(). In fact, injectAll() is nothing but a helper that takes the output of getStylesString, creates a tag and fill the content, and puts it in head.

Motivations

Client-side asset bundling is complicated. RCSS piggy rides on whatever require implementation you use (Browserify, Webpack, etc.), so there's no extra compilation step.
Use the full power of a programming language with CSS.
No CSS preprocessor needed. There is no domain-specific language to learn, since you're constructing your JavaScript objects in... well, JavaScript.
CSS namespacing for free.
Cascading for free through simple object merges.
Validates your CSS properties.
... And more to come. Just imagine what you can do to normal objects.

License

MIT.

chenglou/RCSS