LitElement
A simple base class for creating custom elements rendered with lit-html.
LitElement uses lit-html to render into the
element's Shadow DOM
and Polymer's
PropertiesMixin
to help manage element properties and attributes. LitElement reacts to changes in properties
and renders declaratively using lit-html
.
-
React to changes: LitElement reacts to changes in properties and attributes by
asynchronously rendering, ensuring changes are batched. This reduces overhead
and maintains consistent state.
-
Declarative rendering LitElement uses lit-html
to declaratively describe
how an element should render. Then lit-html
ensures that updates
are fast by creating the static DOM once and smartly updating only the parts of
the DOM that change. Pass a javascript string to the html
tag function,
describing dynamic parts with standard javascript template expressions:
- static elements:
html`<div>Hi</div>`
- expression:
html`<div>${disabled ? 'Off' : 'On'}</div>`
- attribute:
html`<div class$="${color} special"></div>`
- event handler:
html`<button on-click="${(e) => this._clickHandler(e)}"></button>`
Minimal Example
- Create a class that extends
LitElement
. - Implement a static
properties
getter that returns the element's properties
(which automatically become observed attributes). - Then implement a
_render(props)
method and use the element's
current properties (props) to return a lit-html
template result to render
into the element. This is the only method that must be implemented by subclasses.
import {LitElement, html} from '@polymer/lit-element';
class MyElement extends LitElement {
static get properties() { return { mood: String }}
_render({mood}) {
return html`You are ${mood} today!`;
}
}
customElements.define('my-element', MyElement);
<my-element mood="happy"></my-element>
API Documentation
See the source
for detailed API info, here are some highlights. Note, the leading underscore
is used to indicate that these methods are
protected;
they are not private and can and should be implemented by subclasses.
These methods generally are called as part of the rendering lifecycle and should
not be called in user code unless otherwise indicated.
-
_createRoot()
: Implement to customize where the
element's template is rendered by returning an element into which to
render. By default this creates a shadowRoot for the element.
To render into the element's childNodes, return this
.
-
_firstRendered()
: Called after the element DOM is rendered for the first time.
-
_shouldRender(props, changedProps, prevProps)
: Implement to control if rendering
should occur when property values change or invalidate
is called.
By default, this method always returns true, but this can be customized as
an optimization to avoid rendering work when changes occur which should not be rendered.
-
_render(props)
: Implement to describe the element's DOM using lit-html
. Ideally,
the _render
implementation is a pure function using only props
to describe
the element template. This is the only method that must be implemented by subclasses.
-
_didRender(props, changedProps, prevProps)
: Called after element DOM has been rendered.
Implement to directly control rendered DOM. Typically this is not needed as lit-html
can be used in the _render
method to set properties, attributes, and
event listeners. However, it is sometimes useful for calling methods on
rendered elements, for example focusing an input:
this.shadowRoot.querySelector('input').focus()
.
-
renderComplete
: Returns a promise which resolves after the element next renders.
-
_requestRender
: Call to request the element to asynchronously re-render regardless
of whether or not any property changes are pending.
Bigger Example
import {LitElement, html} from '@polymer/lit-element';
class MyElement extends LitElement {
static get properties() {
return {
foo: String,
whales: Number
}
}
constructor() {
super();
this.foo = 'foo';
this.addEventListener('click', async (e) => {
this.whales++;
await this.renderComplete;
this.dispatchEvent(new CustomEvent('whales', {detail: {whales: this.whales}}))
});
}
_render({foo, whales}) {
return html`
<style>
:host {
display: block;
}
</style>
<h4>Foo: ${foo}</h4>
<div>whales: ${'🐳'.repeat(whales)}</div>
<slot></slot>
`;
}
}
customElements.define('my-element', MyElement);
<my-element whales="5">hi</my-element>
Known Issues
- When the Shady DOM polyfill and ShadyCSS shim are used, styles may be out of order.
- Rendering is not supported in IE11 due to a lit-html issue.