@brixtol/pjax
Advanced tools
This is still in beta stages, use it with care and expect some changes to be shipped before official release. Tests are still being worked on and will be pushed at official v1, sit tight.
Blazing fast, lightweight (9kb gzipped), feature full drop-in next generation pjax for SSR web applications. This pjax variation supports multiple fragment replacements, advanced pre-fetching capabilities executing via mouse/pointer/touch or intersection events and provides a snapshot caching engine which prevents subsequent requests from occurring resulting in instantaneous page navigations.
We are using this module live on our webshop.
The landscape of pjax based solution has become rather scarce. The current bread winners either offer the same thing or for our use cases were vastly over engineered and rather shitty tbh. This pjax variation couples together various techniques I found to be the most effective in enhancing the performance of SSR rendered web application that fetch pages over the wire. The pjax approach is tried and tested in the web nexus and while many folks tend to dismiss this tactic for improving TTFB load times of web applications there is actually very little difference in terms of rendering speed when this technique is appropriated correctly and in some cases it can outperform the rendering performance of a virtual dom library.
pnpm add @brixtol/pjax
Because pnpm is dope and does dope shit.
To initialize, call Pjax.connect() in your bundle and optionally pass preset configuration. By default it will replace the entire <body> fragment upon each navigation. You should define a set of targets[] whose inner contents should change on a per-page basis for the most optimal performance.
The typings provided in this package will describe each option in good detail, below are the defaults
import * as Pjax from "@brixtol/pjax";
Pjax.connect({
targets: ["body"], // Define fragments to be replaced here!
cache: {
enable: true,
reverse: true,
limit: 50
},
requests: {
timeout: 30000,
async: true,
poll: 150 // You should leave this alone.
},
prefetch: {
preempt: undefined, // Accepts [] or { '/path': [] }
mouseover: {
enable: true, // You want the speed? leave this as true.
threshold: 100,
},
intersect: {
enable: true,
options: {
rootMargin: "0px 0px 0px 0px",
threshold: 1.0,
},
},
},
progress: {
enable: true,
threshold: 500,
options: {
enable: true,
threshold: 850,
style: {
render: true,
colour: 'black',
height: '2px'
},
options: {
minimum: 0.1,
easing: 'ease',
speed: 225,
trickle: true,
trickleSpeed: 225,
showSpinner: false
}
}
});
Below is a real world example you can use to better understand how this module works so you can apply it into your web application. We are working on providing a live demonstration for more advanced use cases, but the below example should give you a good understanding and help you in understanding how to leverage the module.
The first thing we want to do is make a connection with Pjax. In your JavaScript bundle, we need to initialize. Our example web application has 3 pages, the home page, about page and contact page. We are going to instruct pjax to replace the <nav> and <main> fragments on every visit and then we are going to leverage data-pjax attributes to replace an additional fragment when we navigate to the contact page.
import * as Pjax from "@brixtol/pjax";
export default () => {
Pjax.connect({
targets: [
"nav",
"main"
],
})
}
Home Page
<!doctype html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Home Page</title>
<script src="/bundle.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
<header>
<h1>@brixtol/pjax</h1>
<!-- THIS FRAGMENT WILL BE REPLACED -->
<nav>
<!-- This link will be intercepted -->
<a
href="/home"
class="active">Home</a>
<!-- These links will be pe-fetched on hover -->
<a
href="/about"
data-pjax-prefetch="hover">About</a>
<!-- This link will replace the #foo fragment -->
<a
href="/contact"
data-pjax-replace="(['#foo'])"
data-pjax-prefetch="hover">Faq</a>
</nav>
</header>
<!-- THIS FRAGMENT WILL BE REPLACED -->
<main>
<h1>Welcome to the home page</h1>
<div class="container">
Brixtol Textiles is a Swedish apparel brand!
</div>
</main>
<div id="foo">
This fragment will not be touched until /contact is clicked
</div>
<footer>
This will not be touched during navigation
</footer>
</body>
</html>
About Page
The about page in our web application would look practically identical to the home page. We instructed pjax to pre-fetch this page upon hover, so navigating to this page will be instantaneous. The about page only has some minor differences, but for the sake of clarity, lets have look:
<!doctype html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>About Page</title>
<script src="/bundle.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
<header>
<h1>@brixtol/pjax</h1>
<!-- THIS FRAGMENT WILL BE REPLACED -->
<nav>
<!-- This link will be intercepted -->
<a
href="/home">Home</a>
<!-- These links will be pe-fetched on hover -->
<a
href="/about"
class="active"
data-pjax-prefetch="hover">About</a>
<!-- This link will replace the #foo fragment -->
<a
href="/contact"
data-pjax-replace="(['#foo'])"
data-pjax-prefetch="hover">Contact</a>
</nav>
</header>
<!-- THIS FRAGMENT WILL BE REPLACED -->
<main>
<h1>Welcome to the About Page</h1>
<div class="container">
Brixtol Textiles makes jackets out of recycled PET bottles.
<p>Producing clothing in a sustainable way is the future!</p>
</div>
</main>
<div id="foo">
This fragment will not be touched until /contact is clicked
</div>
<footer>
This will not be touched during navigation
</footer>
</body>
</html>
Contact Page
The contact page will replace an additional fragment with the id value of foo which we instructed via attribute annotation. When the contact page link is hovered the page will be saved to cache, upon visit the <nav>, <main> and <div id="foo"> fragments will be replaced.
<!doctype html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Contact Page</title>
<script src="/bundle.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
<header>
<h1>@brixtol/pjax</h1>
<!-- THIS FRAGMENT WILL BE REPLACED -->
<nav>
<!-- This link will be intercepted -->
<a
href="/home">Home</a>
<!-- These links will be pe-fetched on hover -->
<a
href="/about"
data-pjax-prefetch="hover">About</a>
<!-- This link will replace the #foo fragment -->
<a
href="/contact"
class="active"
data-pjax-replace="(['#foo'])"
data-pjax-prefetch="hover">Contact</a>
</nav>
</header>
<!-- THIS FRAGMENT WILL BE REPLACED -->
<main>
<h1>Welcome to the Contact Page</h1>
<div class="container">
This is contact page of our example! The below fragment was replaced too!
</div>
</main>
<!-- THIS FRAGMENT WAS REPLACE VIA ATTRIBUTE INSTRUCTION -->
<div id="foo">
This fragment was replaced!
</div>
<footer>
This will not be touched during navigation
</footer>
</body>
</html>
Lifecycle events are dispatched to the document upon each navigation. You can access context information from within event.detail or cancel events with preventDefault() and prevent execution.
// Triggered when a prefetch is triggered
document.addEventListener("pjax:prefetch");
// Triggered when a mousedown event occurs on a link
document.addEventListener("pjax:trigger");
// Triggered before a page is fetched over XHR
document.addEventListener("pjax:request");
// Triggered before a page is cached
document.addEventListener("pjax:cache");
// Triggered before a page is rendered
document.addEventListener("pjax:render");
// Triggered after a page has rendered
document.addEventListener("pjax:load");
// Triggered when a JavaScript module is loaded
document.addEventListener("pjax:module");
In addition to Lifecycle events, a list of methods are available. Methods will allow you some basic programmatic control of a Pjax session.
// Check to see if Pjax is supported by the browser
Pjax.supported: boolean
// Connects Pjax, called upon initialization
Pjax.connect(options?): void
// Execute a programmatic visit
Pjax.visit(url?, options?): Promise<Page{}>
// Access the cache, pass in href for specific record
Pjax.cache(url?): Page{}
// Clears the cache, pass in href to clear specific record
Pjax.clear(url?): void
// Returns a UUID string via nanoid
Pjax.uuid(size = 16): string
// Reloads the current page
Pjax.reload(): Page{}
// Disconnects Pjax
Pjax.disconnect(): void
Link elements can be annotated with data-pjax attributes. You can control how pages are rendered by passing the below attributes on <a> nodes.
Used on resources contained within <head> fragment like styles and scripts. Use this attribute if you want pjax the evaluate scripts and/or stylesheets. This option accepts a false value so you can define which scripts to execute on each navigation. By default, pjax will run and evaluate all <script> tags it detects for every page visit but will not re-evaluate <script src="*"></script> tags.
If a script tag is detected on pjax navigation and is using
data-pjax-eval="false"it will execute only once upon the first visit but never again after that.
<script>
console.log('I will run on every navigation');
</script>
<!-- script will also run once if detected on pjax navigation -->
<script data-pjax-eval="false">
console.log('I will run on initialization only!');
</script>
Place on href elements you don't want pjax navigation to be executed. When a link element is annotated with data-pjax-disable a normal page navigation will be executed and cache will be cleared.
Clicking this link will clear cache and a normal page navigation will be executed.
<a href="*" data-pjax-disable></a>
Place on elements to track on a per-page basis that might otherwise not be contained within target elements.
Lets assume you are navigating from Page 1 to Page 2 and #main is your defined target. When you navigate from Page 1 only the #main target will be replaced and any other dom elements will be skipped which are not contained within #main. Elements located outside of target/s that do no exist on previous or future pages will be added.
Page 1
<nav>
<a href="/page-1" class="active">Page 1</a>
<a href="/page-2">Page 2</a>
</nav>
<div id="#main">
<div class="block">I will be replaced, I am active on every page.</div>
</div>
Page 2
<nav>
<a href="/page-1">Page 1</a>
<a href="/page-2" class="active">Page 2</a>
</nav>
<div id="#main">
<div class="block">I will be replaced, I am active on every page.</div>
</div>
<!-- This element will be appended to the dom -->
<div data-pjax-track>
I am outside of target and will be tracked if Pjax was initialized on Page 1
</div>
<!-- This element will not be appended to the dom -->
<div>I will not be tracked unless Pjax was initialized on Page 2</div>
If pjax was initialized on
Page 2then Pjax would have knowledge of its existence before navigation. In such a situation, pjax will mark the tracked element internally.
Executes a replacement of the defined elements. Hydrate is different from replace, append and prepend methods in the sense that the those are combined with your defined targets. When calling Hydrate, it will run precedence over targets and for the visit it will replace only the element/s provided.
(['target'])(['target' , 'target'])
<a
href="*"
data-pjax-hydrate="(['.price', '.cart-count'])">
Link
</a>
<div>
The next navigation will replace all elements with class "price"
and the elements with class "cart-count" - If you have defined
the element "#main" as a "target" in your connection, a replacement
will not be made on that element, instead the elements defined in
"data-pjax-hydrate" will become the target/s.
</div>
<span class="cart-count">1</span>
<span class="price">€ 450</span>
<div id="main">
<img src="*">
<ul>
<li>Great Product</li>
<li class="price">€ 100</li>
<li>Awesome Product</li>
<li class="price">€ 200</li>
<li>Cool Product</li>
<li class="price">€ 300</li>
</ul>
</div>
Executes a replacement of defined targets, where each target defined in the array is replaced.
(['target'])(['target' , 'target'])
<a
href="*"
data-pjax-replace="(['#target1', '#target2'])">
Link
</a>
<div id="target1">
I will be replaced on next navigation
</div>
<div id="target2">
I will be replaced on next navigation
</div>
Executes a prepend visit, where [0] will prepend itself to [1] defined in that value. Multiple prepend actions can be defined. Each prepend action is recorded are marked.
(['target' , 'target'])(['target' , 'target'], ['target' , 'target'])PAGE 1
<a
href="*"
data-pjax-prepend="(['#target-1', '#target-2'])">
Page 2
</a>
<div id="target-1">
I will prepend to target-2 on next navigation
</div>
<div id="target-2">
<p>target-1 will prepended to me on next navigation</p>
</div>
PAGE 2
<a
href="*"
data-pjax-prepend="(['#target-1', '#target-2'])">
Page 2
</a>
<div id="target-2">
<!-- An action reference record is applied -->
<div data-pjax-action="xxxxxxx">
I am target-1 and have been prepended to target-2
</div>
<p>target-1 is now prepended to me</p>
</div>
Prefetch option to execute. Accepts either intersect or hover value. When intersect is provided a request will be dispatched and cached upon visibility via Intersection Observer, whereas hover will dispatch a request upon a pointerover (mouseover) event.
On mobile devices the
hovervalue will execute on atouchstartevent
<!-- This link will be prefetch when it is hovered -->
<a data-pjax-prefetch="hover" href="*"></a>
<!-- This link will be prefetch when it is in viewport -->
<a data-pjax-prefetch="intersect" href="*"></a>
Set the threshold delay timeout for hover prefetches. By default, this will be set to 100 or whatever preset configuration was defined in Pjax.connect() but you can override those settings by annotating the link with this attribute.
<!-- hover prefetch will begin according to the connect preset -->
<!-- prefetch will not be initialized if a click was detected before threshold -->
<a data-pjax-prefetch="hover" href="*"></a>
<!-- prefetch will begin 500ms after hover but will cancel if mouse existed before threshold -->
<a data-pjax-prefetch="hover" data-pjax-threshold="500" href="*"></a>
<!-- Prefetch will begin once this link becomes visible in viewport -->
<a data-pjax-prefetch="intersect" href="*"></a>
Scroll position of the next navigation. Space separated expression with colon separated prop and value.
<!-- This next navigation will load at 1000px from top of page -->
<a data-pjax-position="y:1000 x:0" href="*"></a>
Controls the caching engine for the link navigation. Accepts false, reset or clear value. Passing in false will execute a pjax visit that will not be saved to cache and if the link exists in cache it will be removed. When passing reset the cache record will be removed, a new pjax visit will be executed and its result saved to cache. The clear option will clear the entire cache.
<a data-pjax-cache="false" href="*"></a>
Controls the history pushstate for the navigation. Accepts false, replace or push value. Passing in falsewill prevent this navigation from being added to history. Passing in replace or push will execute its respective value to pushstate to history.
<!-- the navigation not be pushed to history -->
<a data-pjax-history="false" href="*"></a>
Controls the progress bar delay. By default, progress will use the threshold defined in configuration presets defined upon connection, else it will use the value defined on link attributes. Passing in a value of false will disable the progress from showing.
<!-- Progress bar will be displayed if the request exceeds 500ms -->
<a data-pjax-progress="500" href="*"></a>
Each page has an object state value. Page state is immutable and created for every unique url /path or /pathname?query=param value encountered throughout a pjax session. The state value of each page is added to its pertaining History stack record.
Navigation sessions begin once a Pjax connection has been established and ends when a browser refresh is executed or url origin changes.
You can access a readonly copy of page state via the event.details.state property within dispatched lifecycle events or via the Pjax.cache() method. The caching engine used by this Pjax variation acts as mediator when a session begins, so when you access page state via the Pjax.cache() method you are given a bridge to the Map object of all active sessions cache data.
State modifications are carried out via link attributes or when executing a programmatic visit using the Pjax.visit() method. The visit method provides an options parameter for adjustments to be merged. Though this method will only allow you to modify the next navigation you should avoid modifying state outside of the available methods, instead treat it as readonly.
interface IPage {
/**
* The list of fragment target element selectors defined upon connection.
* Targets are inherited from `Pjax.connect()` presets.
*
* > You cannot override the targets but you can skip replacements using
* `hydrate` to replace specific fragments.
*
* @example
* ['#main', '.header', '[data-attr]', 'header']
*/
readonly targets?: string[];
/**
* The URL cache key and current url path
*/
url?: string;
/**
* UUID reference to the page snapshot HTML Document element
*/
snapshot?: string;
/**
* The Document title
*/
title?: string;
/**
* Should this fetch be pushed to history
*/
history?: boolean;
/**
* List of fragments to replace. When `hydrate` is used,
* it will run precedence over `targets` and execute replacements
* on the triggered page fragments.
*
* @example
* ['#main', '.header', '[data-attr]', 'header']
*/
hyrdate?: null | string[];
/**
* List of fragment element selectors. Accepts any valid
* `querySelector()` string.
*
* @example
* ['#main', '.header', '[data-attr]', 'header']
*/
replace?: null | string[];
/**
* List of fragments to append from and to. Accepts multiple.
*
* @example
* [['#main', '.header'], ['[data-attr]', 'header']]
*/
append?: null | Array<[from: string, to: string]>;
/**
* List of fragments to be prepend from and to. Accepts multiple.
*
* @example
* [['#main', '.header'], ['[data-attr]', 'header']]
*/
prepend?: null | Array<[from: string, to: string]>;
/**
* Controls the caching engine for the link navigation.
* Option is enabled when `cache` preset config is `true`.
* Each pjax link can set a different cache option.
*/
cache?: boolean | 'reset' | 'clear';
/**
* Define mouseover timeout from which fetching will begin
* after time spent on mouseover
*
* @default 100
*/
threshold?: number;
/**
* Define proximity prefetch distance from which fetching will
* begin relative to the cursor offset of href elements.
*
* @default 0
*/
proximity?: number;
/**
* Progress bar threshold delay
*
* @default 350
*/
progress?: boolean | number;
/**
* Scroll position of the next navigation.
*
* ---
* `x` - Equivalent to `scrollLeft` in pixels
*
* `y` - Equivalent to `scrollTop` in pixels
*/
position?: {
y: number;
x: number;
};
/**
* Location URL
*/
location?: {
/**
* The URL origin name
*
* @example
* 'https://website.com'
*/
origin?: string;
/**
* The URL Hostname
*
* @example
* 'website.com'
*/
hostname?: string;
/**
* The URL Pathname
*
* @example
* '/pathname' OR '/pathname/foo/bar'
*/
pathname?: string;
/**
* The URL search params
*
* @example
* '?param=foo&bar=baz'
*/
search?: string;
/**
* The URL Hash
*
* @example
* '#foo'
*/
hash?: string;
/**
* The previous page path URL, this is also the cache identifier.
* If `cache.reverse` is `true` then preemptive fetches will be
* executed to this location.
*
* @example
* '/pathname' OR '/pathname?foo=bar'
*/
lastpath?: string;
};
}
This module is written in TypeScript. Production bundles export in ES2015 format. Legacy support is provided as an ES5 UMD bundle. This project leverages JSDocs and Type Definition files for its type checking, so all features you enjoy with TypeScript are available.
This module is consumed by us for a couple of our projects and has been open sourced but exists as part of a mono/multi repo. We will update it according to what we need. Feel free to suggest features or report bugs, PR's are of course welcome!
This module combines concepts originally introduced by other awesome Open Source projects and owes its creation and overall approach to those originally creators:
Licensed under MIT
We ♡ open source!
FAQs
A modern next generation pjax solution for SSR web applications
We found that @brixtol/pjax demonstrated a not healthy version release cadence and project activity because the last version was released a year ago. It has 1 open source maintainer collaborating on the project.
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