Thema
🎨 Semantic themes for use with Stencila encoda
.
- Quick Start
- Themes
- Web Components
- Extensions
- Develop
- Acknowledgments
- Utilities API
- Functions
- ready(func)
- first([elem], selector) ⇒
Element
| null
- select([elem], selector) ⇒
Array.<Element>
- create([spec], [attributes], ...children) ⇒
Element
- tag(target, [value]) ⇒
string
| Element
- attrs(target, [attributes]) ⇒
object
| undefined
- attr(target, name, [value]) ⇒
string
| null
- text(target, [value]) ⇒
string
| null
| undefined
- append(target, ...elems)
- prepend(target, ...elems)
- before(target, ...elems)
- after(target, ...elems)
- replace(target, ...elems)
- wrap(target, elem)
Quick Start
npm install @stencila/thema
@import '@stencila/thema/dist/themes/stencila/styles.css';
@import '@stencila/thema/dist/themes/stencila';
Themes
Thema comes with several premade themes. Preview and customize the themes in the
gallery, or learn how to make one from scratch.
Current themes
Structure of themes
There are two primary files inside each theme folder. The naming convention of these two
files is important, and they must not be changed since they are referred to
from encoda
.
styles.css
: CSS and visual styles specific to the theme. We use PostCSS
to compile the CSS. This is done to utilize PostCSS utilities such as
autoprefixing vendor flags to selectors, and writing nested selectors.index.ts
: Written in TypeScript, this file is loaded asynchronously. It is
used to progressively enhance the theme with things like syntax highlighting
of code blocks.
Web Components
Stencila Web Components are used to provide
interactivity and enhancement to several document nodes.
Encoda will output several Schema nodes as custom HTML elements.
Currently, the following node types have Web Components:
Node type | Custom element |
---|
CodeChunk | <stencila-code-chunk> |
CodeExpression | <stencila-code-expression> |
More components will be added over time. In the meantime, the "pseudo-component" folders in
src/extensions
, provide styling for some other node types.
See the Extensions section for more details.
Extensions
Extensions provide styling, and potentially interactivity, for node types that do not yet have corresponding web components. They are like fledgling web components, each with it's own CSS (and/or Javascript), that you can import into your own theme. Over time we expect extensions to be promoted to the Stencila components library, thereby obviating the need to import them explicitly.
Current extensions
Name | Description |
---|
cite | Provides styling for in-text citations (i.e. Cite and CiteGroup nodes) and bibliographies (i.e. CreativeWork nodes in the references property of another CreativeWork ). |
cite-apa | Provides styling for in-text citations and bibliographies in accordance with the American Psychological Association (APA) style. |
cite-author-year | CSS styles to support author-year in-text citations as used in citation styles such as APA, Chicago and MLA. |
cite-mla | Provides styling for in-text citations and bibliographies in accordance with the Modern Language Association (MLA) style. |
cite-numeric | CSS styles to support numeric in-text citations (e.g. Vancouver, IEEE citation styles). |
code | Provides syntax highlighting for CodeFragment and CodeBlock nodes using Prism. Will not style executable node types like CodeExpression and CodeChunk which are styled by the base Stencila Web Components. |
math | Provides styling of math nodes using MathJax fonts and styles. Use this if there is any likely to be math content, i.e. MathFragment and/or MathBlock nodes, in documents that your theme targets. |
organization | Provides styling of Organization nodes e.g the authors of an article, or affiliations for each author in it's authors list. |
pages | Provides a @media print CSS at-rule to modify properties when printing a document e.g. to PDF. |
person | Provides styling of Person nodes e.g the authors of an article, or authors for each citation in it's references . |
Use an extension
To add an extension to your theme, you simply have to import it's CSS and Javascript.
First import it's styles.css
file into your theme's styles.css
file e.g.
@import '../../extensions/cite-apa/styles.css';
Then, if it has one, import it's index.ts
file into your theme's index.ts
file e.g.
import '../../extensions/cite-apa'
Develop an extension
The first question to ask when developing a new extension is: should I? Extensions are best suited for styling / features that are:
- likely to be used in several themes, and
- needed in a hurry
If it's not likely to be used in more than one or two themes then it's probably not worth creating an extension. If it's
not needed in a hurry, then it is probably better to put the effort into contributing a web component to
@stencila/components
. Having said that, if you are more comfortable writing a simple extension here, to try out some
ideas for something that may become a fully fledged web component, we are grateful for any contributions.
The easiest way to create a new extension is using:
npm run create:extension -- myextensionname
That will update the src/extensions/index.ts
file with a new entry for your extension and create a new folder in the
src/extensions
folder with the necessary files:
src/extensions/myext
├── README.md
└── styles.css
You can create the folder and files yourself if you prefer. Just remember to run npm run update:extensions
afterwards
to add your extension to the index. See the other extensions for approaches to writing the CSS and Javascript /
Typescript for your extension.
Some extensions perform manipulation of the DOM to make it more amenable to achieving a particular CSS styling e.g.
adding a wrapping <div>
s. For performance reasons these manipulations should be kept to a minimum. In some cases, it
may be better to make the necessary changes to Encoda's HTML codec. In those cases the DOM manipulations in the
extension should be commented as being temporary, and be linked to an issue in
Encoda to make those changes permanent.
Develop
Prerequisites
Getting started
The best way to get started is to develop CSS and JS for a theme with the live updating demo running.
git clone git@github.com:stencila/thema.git
cd thema
npm install
npm run bootstrap
npm run dev
Your browser should automatically open (http://localhost:8081)[http://localhost:8081] with the theme gallery view.
Any changes to the stylesheets and code will be automatically recompiled and reflected in the browser.
Gallery UI parameters
There are a few URL query parameters which can be used to control the UI of the theme preview.
Parameter | Default Value | Description |
---|
theme | stencila | Sets the active theme for the preview |
example | articleKitchenSink | Sets the content for the preview |
ui | true | When set to false hides the header and theme customization sidebar from the preview page |
header | true | When set to false hides only the header from the preview page |
sidebar | true | When set to false hides only the theme customization sidebar from the preview page |
Creating a new theme
Scripted creation
The easiest way to create a new theme is:
npm run create:theme -- mytheme
Theme names should be all lower case, and start with a letter. This creates a new folder in src/themes
and the following files:
- a
README.md
providing a description of the theme and notes for contributors, - a
styles.css
file for the theme's CSS, - a
index.ts
for any Typescript that the theme may need
Manual creation
You can create this folder structure for your theme manually. If you prefer to use Javascript instead of Typescript, use a index.js
file instead of index.ts
. Then update the list of themes in themes/themes.ts
and elsewhere using:
npm run update:themes
Approaches
There are three broad approaches to developing a new theme, each epitomized in three of the themes in this repository:
- the
skeleton
approach: define all styles yourself, importing only the extensions
needed for the theme - the
stencila
approach: leverage skeleton
theme as a foundation, overriding CSS variables and nodes as needed start from a
relatively - the
bootstrap
approach: reuse existing stylesheets from elsewhere by creating a mapping
between Thema's semantic selectors and existing selectors in those stylesheets
It is important to note that the skeleton
and bootstrap
themes are extremes of each of the approaches - they apply
their approach to all document node types. Depending on your theme, the best approach is probably some combination of
these approaches for different node types e.g. starting from scratch for some nodes and using shared
styles for
others.
There are a few key rules enforced by Stylelint:
- All selectors must be descendants of a custom semantic selector. This reduces risks of a theme interfering with exsitng
stylesheets on a website.
- Avoid hard-coded values for things such as font-sizes, colors, and fonts. Instead, use CSS variables, as these will
allow simple theme overrides within the browser without having to rebuild the theme.
- Design your themes using a mobile-first approach, adding overrides to refine styles on larger screens. At the same
time, it is highly recommended to also include print media overrides with your theme.
- These themes are primarily intended for rendering interactive articles and other relatively long forms of prose. As
such, good typography is paramount. Reading Matthew Butterick’s Typography in Ten
Minutes will give you a solid foundation and a
reference for crafting your own themes.
To tweak or adjust an existing theme, you may override some common CSS variables found in the themes.
Please refer to the specific theme documentation for available variables.
Type selectors
For types defined by Schema.org (e.g. Article
), or extensions such as,
schema.stenci.la (e.g. CodeChunk
), Bioschemas (e.g. Taxon
) etc.
Conventions:
- use the same upper camel case as in the schema the type is defined in
- use a
[itemtype=...]
selector if possible (i.e. if Encoda encodes it in HTML)
Property selectors
For properties of types defined in schemas.
Conventions:
- use the same lower camel case as in the schema the property is defined in
- use a
[itemprop=...]
selector for singular properties, or items of container properties
There are several additional selectors which are not found as the Stencila Schema definitions. These are:
Selector | Description | Target |
---|
:--root | Used in place of the :root CSS pseudo selector. It maps to the root element generated by Encoda. This is done to avoid potential clashes with external stylesheets, and to ensure that Thema only styles semantically annotated content. | [data-itemscope=root] |
:--CodeBlockTypes | Block level code elements | :--CodeBlock , :--CodeChunk |
:--CodeTypes | Inline level code elements | :--CodeBlock , :--CodeChunk , :--Code , :--CodeError , :--CodeExpression , :--CodeFragment , :--SoftwareSourceCode |
:--ListTypes | List elements, both ordered and unordered, as well as other lists such as author affiliations and article references | :--Article:--root > :--affiliations , :--Collection , :--List , :--references > ol |
:--MediaTypes | These are elements which usually benefit from taking up a wider screen area. Elements such as images, video elements, code blocks | :--CodeBlock , :--CodeChunk , :--Datatable , :--Figure , :--ImageObject , :--MediaObject , :--Table , :--VideoObject |
Generated code
Some files in the src
directory are auto-generated and should not be edited manually. Generated files include:
src/themes/themes.ts
: from the list of sub-folders in the themes
foldersrc/examples/examples.ts
: from the functions defined in generate/examples.ts
src/examples/*
: files generated by those functions, usually using the @stencila/encoda
packagesrc/selectors.css
: custom selectors from the JSON Schema in the @stencila/schema
package
Run npm run update
when you add new themes, addons, or examples, or upgrade one of those upstream packages. In particular, when Encoda is upgraded it is important to regenerate HTML for the examples - npm run update
is called after npm install
to ensure this.
Testing
DOM traversal and manipulation
Authors of themes and extensions, and contributors to the utility functions are encouraged to add tests. We use Jest as a testing framework. Jest ships with jsdom
which simulates a DOM environment in Node.js, thereby allowing testing as though running in the browser. See existing *.test.ts
files for examples of how to do that.
Visual regressions
We use visual regression testing powered by Sauce Labs, Percy, and WebdriverIO.
As part of the continuous integration for this repository, for each push,
- themes are built on Travis,
- examples rendered in a browser running on Sauce Labs,
- screenshots taken and uploaded to Percy.
To run these tests locally, run npm run test
.
By default Webdriver will try to run the tests using Chrome, but you can switch to Firefox by setting an TEST_BROWSER=firefox
environment variable.
When testing locally, there are three screenshot folders to be aware of inside the test/screenshots
directory:
reference
: These are the baseline screenshots. To generate them, make sure your Git branch is free of any changes, and run npm test
.local
: These are screenshots generated by Webdriver tests, and will be compared to those found in the reference
directory.diff
: If any discrepancies are found between the reference
and local
screenshots, the differences will be highlighted and saved to this directory.
There is a pseudo-test in test/screenshot.test.js
which can be un-skipped to help with debugging the automated running of tests.
Committing
Commit messages should follow the conventional commits specification. This is useful (but not essential) because commit messages are used to determine the semantic version of releases and to generate the project's CHANGELOG.md. If appropriate, use the sentence case theme name as the scope (to help make both git log
and the CHANGELOG more readable). Some examples,
fix(Wilmore): Fix Code, Math, DataPublished node formatting & styles
feat(Elife): Use eLife corresponding author envelope icon
docs(README): Add some notes on testing
ci(Travis): Fix command to check themes
Acknowledgments
We rely on many tools and services for which we are grateful ❤ to their developers and contributors for all their time and energy.
Tool | Use |
---|
| Cross-browser testing platform |
| WebDriver test framework for Node.js |
Utilities API
Several utility functions are provided in the util
module for traversing and manipulating the DOM. These may be useful for theme and extension authors when there is a need to modify the HTML structure of the document (e.g. adding additional purely presentational elements such as social sharing buttons). Caution should be taken to not overly modify the content. Only use these functions for things that are not possible with CSS alone.
Functions
- ready(func)
Register a function to be executed when the DOM is fully loaded.
- first([elem], selector) ⇒
Element
| null
Select the first element matching a CSS selector.
- select([elem], selector) ⇒
Array.<Element>
Select all elements matching a CSS selector.
- create([spec], [attributes], ...children) ⇒
Element
Create a new element.
- tag(target, [value]) ⇒
string
| Element
Get or set the tag name of an element.
- attrs(target, [attributes]) ⇒
object
| undefined
Get or set the attributes of an element
- attr(target, name, [value]) ⇒
string
| null
Get or set the value of an attribute on an element.
- text(target, [value]) ⇒
string
| null
| undefined
Get or set the text content of an element.
- append(target, ...elems)
Append new child elements to an element.
- prepend(target, ...elems)
Prepend new child elements to an element.
- before(target, ...elems)
Insert new elements before an element.
- after(target, ...elems)
Insert new elements after an element.
- replace(target, ...elems)
Replace an element with a new element.
- wrap(target, elem)
Wrap an element with a new element.
ready(func)
Register a function to be executed when the DOM is fully loaded.
Kind: global function
Detail: Use this to wrap calls to the DOM selection and manipulation functions
to be sure that the DOM is ready before working on it.
Param | Type | Description |
---|
func | function | Function to register |
Example
ready(() => {
})
first([elem], selector) ⇒ Element
| null
Select the first element matching a CSS selector.
Kind: global function
Returns: Element
| null
- An Element
or null
if no match
Detail: This function provides a short hand for querySelector
but
also allowing for the use of semantic selectors.
You can use it for the whole document, or scoped to a particular element.
Param | Type | Description |
---|
[elem] | Element | The element to query (defaults to the window.document ) |
selector | string | The selector to match |
Example (Select the first element from the document matching selector)
first(':--CodeChunk')
Example (Select the first element within an element matching the selector)
first(elem, ':--author')
select([elem], selector) ⇒ Array.<Element>
Select all elements matching a CSS selector.
Kind: global function
Returns: Array.<Element>
- An array of elements
Detail: Provides a short hand for using querySelectorAll
but
also allowing for the use of semantic selectors. You can use it for
the whole document, or scoped to a particular element.
Param | Type | Description |
---|
[elem] | Element | The element to query (defaults to the window.document ) |
selector | string | The selector to match |
Example (Select all elements from the document matching selector)
select(':--CodeChunk')
Example (Select all elements within an element matching the selector)
select(elem, ':--author')
create([spec], [attributes], ...children) ⇒ Element
Create a new element.
Kind: global function
Detail: This function allows creation of new elements using either
(a) a HTML (or SVG) string (b) a CSS selector like string, or (c) an Element
.
CSS selectors are a convenient way to create elements with attributes,
particularly Microdata elements. They can be prone to syntax errors however.
Alternatively, the second argument can be an object of attribute name:value pairs.
Param | Type | Description |
---|
[spec] | string | Element | Specification of element to create. |
[attributes] | object | undefined | null | boolean | number | string | Element | Attributes for the element. |
...children | undefined | null | boolean | number | string | Element | Child nodes to to add as text content or elements. |
Example (Create a <figure> with id, class and itemtype attributes)
create('figure #fig1 .fig :--Figure')
Example (As above but using an object to specify attributes)
create('figure', {
id: 'fig1',
class: 'fig',
itemscope: '',
itemtype: translate(':--Figure')
})
Example (Create a Person with a name property)
create(':--Person', create('span :--name', 'John Doe'))
Example (Create a link around an SVG image)
create('a', {href: 'https://example.com'}, create(imageSVG))
tag(target, [value]) ⇒ string
| Element
Get or set the tag name of an element.
Kind: global function
Returns: string
| Element
- The lowercase tag name when getting,
a new element when setting.
Detail: Caution must be used when setting the tag. This function
does not actually change the tag of the element (that is not possible)
but instead returns a new Element
that is a clone of the original apart
from having the new tag name. Use the replace
function where necessary
in association with this function.
Param | Type | Description |
---|
target | Element | The element to get or set the tag |
[value] | string | The value of the tag (when setting) |
Example (Get the tag name as a lowercase string)
tag(elem)
Example (Setting the tag actually returns a new element)
tag(tag(elem, 'h2'))
Example (Change the tag name of an element)
replace(elem, tag(elem, 'h2'))
attrs(target, [attributes]) ⇒ object
| undefined
Get or set the attributes of an element
Kind: global function
Returns: object
| undefined
- The attributes of the element when getting, undefined
when setting
Param | Type | Description |
---|
target | Element | The element to get or set the attributes |
[attributes] | object | The name/value pairs of the attributes |
attr(target, name, [value]) ⇒ string
| null
Get or set the value of an attribute on an element.
Kind: global function
Returns: string
| null
- a string
if the attribute exists, null
if does not exist, or when setting
Param | Type | Description |
---|
target | Element | The element to get or set the attribute |
name | string | The name of the attribute |
[value] | string | The value of the attribute (when setting) |
Example (Set an attribute value)
attr(elem, "attr", "value")
Example (Get an attribute)
attr(elem, "attr")
text(target, [value]) ⇒ string
| null
| undefined
Get or set the text content of an element.
Kind: global function
Returns: string
| null
| undefined
- null
if there is no text content,
undefined
when setting
Param | Type | Description |
---|
target | Element | The element to get or set the text content |
[value] | string | The value of the text content (when setting) |
Example (Set the text content)
text(elem, "text content")
Example (Get the text content)
text(elem)
append(target, ...elems)
Append new child elements to an element.
Kind: global function
Param | Type | Description |
---|
target | Element | The element to append to |
...elems | Element | The elements to append |
prepend(target, ...elems)
Prepend new child elements to an element.
Kind: global function
Detail: When called with multiple elements to prepend
will maintain the order of those elements (at the top
of the target element).
Param | Type | Description |
---|
target | Element | The element to prepend to |
...elems | Element | The elements to prepend |
before(target, ...elems)
Insert new elements before an element.
Kind: global function
Param | Type | Description |
---|
target | Element | The element before which the elements are to be inserted |
...elems | Element | The elements to insert |
after(target, ...elems)
Insert new elements after an element.
Kind: global function
Param | Type | Description |
---|
target | Element | The element after which the elements are to be inserted |
...elems | Element | The elements to insert |
replace(target, ...elems)
Replace an element with a new element.
Kind: global function
Param | Type | Description |
---|
target | Element | The element to replace |
...elems | Element | The elements to replace it with |
wrap(target, elem)
Wrap an element with a new element.
Kind: global function
Detail: This function can be useful if you need
to create a container element to more easily style
a type of element.
Param | Description |
---|
target | The element to wrap |
elem | The element to wrap it in |
Example (Wrap all figure captions in a <div>)
select(':--Figure :--caption')
.forEach(caption => wrap(caption, create('div')))