chime

Chime

A tiny, declarative UI framework.

Getting Started | Installation | API

Element('div')
    .Element('input')
        .attribute('placholder', 'username')
        .attribute('value', username)
        .end()
    .Element('input')
        .attribute('placeholder', 'password')
        .attribute('value', password)
        .end()
    .Element('div')
        .Element('h6')
            .text('About you')
            .end()
        .Element('div')
            .Element('textarea')
                .attribute('class', 'bio')
                .top()

Getting Started

Chime is a tiny UI library which makes use of function chaining to construct UIs in a declarative style. The core library only contains a few DOM functions however it can be very easily extended via plugins using the use() API (for example to support two-way data binding). While Chime doesn't allow you to create views in HTML syntax, functional chaining allows you to achieve comparable succinctness while also being declarative.

Constructing Views

Chime works by implementing several chainable functions in the prototype of HTMLElement, allowing them to be used on any HTML element. Chime exports Element() (an alias of document.createElement()), which can be used as the root of a view. To append a child to an existing element, simply call .Element() on the element. For example:

Element('div').Element('a') // <a></a>

This returns the inner <a> element. To access the parent element, chain on .end():

Element('div')    // <div>
    .Element('a') //     <a></a>
    .end()        // </div>

The .end() method can be thought of like a closing tag for the current element. As such, it can be used to construct nested DOMs. For example:

Element('div')       // <div>
    .Element('p')    //     <p>
        .text('foo') //         foo
        .end()       //     </p>
    .Element('div')  //     <div>
        .text('bar') //         bar
        .end()       //     </div>
    .end()           // </div>

To reduce boilerplate, Chime also provides the top() function which returns the root element of a tree. For example, consider this set of nested div elements:

Element('div')
    .Element('div')
        .Element('div')
            .Element('div')
                .Element('div')
                    .end()
                .end()
            .end()
        .end()
    .end()

Using top() we can divide the line count in half:

Element('div')
    .Element('div')
        .Element('div')
            .Element('div')
                .Element('div')
                    .top()

Manipulating Elements

Apart from constructing views, Chime also allows you to easily modify the content and/or attributes of individual DOM elements. The attribute() function can be used to set an attribute on an element. For example:

Element('div').attribute('class', 'foo') // <div class='foo'></div>

Another important function is when() which allows you to add event listeners to elements. For example:

Element('button')
   .text('Click me!')
   .event('click', () => console.log('Button clicked!'))

Installation

npm i chime

API

Most of the functions exported by the library are fairly self-explanatory.

• Element(name: String) -> HTMLElement - creates a new element (an alias of document.createElement).

The following functions are prototyped on HTMLElement:

• Element(name: String) -> HTMLElement - adds a new child element to the current element.

• attribute(name: String, value: String) -> HTMLElement - sets an attribute on the current element.

• text(value: String) -> HTMLElement - sets the innerText of the current element.

• when(name: String, callback: Function) -> HTMLElement - registers an event listener on the current element.

Finally, the use() API can be used to add new functions to the prototype of HTMLElement. This is the easiest way to develop plugins for Chime. For example, to implement data-binding:

class Variable {
    constructor(value) {
        this.value = value
        this.subscribers = []
    }

    set(value) {
        this.value = value
        this.subscribers.forEach(callback => callback(value))
    }
    
    subscribe(callback) {
        this.subscribers.push(callback)
        callback(this.value)
    }
}


use('binding', function(variable) {

    variable.subscribe(value => this.attribute('value', value))
    return this.event('input', () => variable.attribute(this.value))
}

Note that when writing plugins, you should typically return the current element to allow for further function chaining.

This function can then be used when constructing views:

function App() {
    const username = new Variable('Alice')
    
    return Element('div')
        .Element('input').binding(username)
        .top()
}