dom-helpers

What is dom-helpers?

The dom-helpers package is a collection of utility functions for managing and interacting with the DOM. It provides a consistent and cross-browser way to perform common DOM manipulation tasks without relying on a larger library like jQuery.

What are dom-helpers's main functionalities?

Class Manipulation

Allows adding and removing CSS classes from DOM elements.

import { addClass, removeClass } from 'dom-helpers';
const element = document.getElementById('my-element');
addClass(element, 'new-class');
removeClass(element, 'old-class');

Events

Facilitates adding and removing event listeners to DOM elements.

import { on, off } from 'dom-helpers';
const handleClick = event => console.log('Clicked!', event);
const element = document.getElementById('my-button');
on(element, 'click', handleClick);
// Later on, to remove the event listener
off(element, 'click', handleClick);

Query

Provides a way to select DOM elements using CSS selectors.

import { querySelectorAll } from 'dom-helpers';
const items = querySelectorAll(document, '.list-item');
console.log(items);

Style

Enables getting and setting CSS styles on DOM elements.

import { css } from 'dom-helpers';
const element = document.getElementById('my-element');
css(element, { display: 'none' });
css(element, 'display', 'block');

Dimensions

Allows measuring and setting the dimensions of DOM elements.

import { height, width } from 'dom-helpers';
const element = document.getElementById('my-element');
console.log(height(element));
console.log(width(element));

Other packages similar to dom-helpers

jquery

jQuery is a fast, small, and feature-rich JavaScript library. It makes things like HTML document traversal and manipulation, event handling, and animation much simpler with an easy-to-use API that works across a multitude of browsers. Compared to dom-helpers, jQuery is a more comprehensive tool but is also larger in size.

zepto

Zepto is a minimalist JavaScript library for modern browsers with a largely jQuery-compatible API. If you use jQuery, you will already be familiar with Zepto. While similar in API to dom-helpers, Zepto focuses on a jQuery-like experience in a smaller package.

cash-dom

Cash is an absurdly small jQuery alternative for modern browsers. It provides jQuery-style syntax for manipulating the DOM, handling events, and making AJAX requests. Cash-dom is more feature-rich than dom-helpers but still aims to be lightweight.

README

dom-helpers

tiny modular DOM lib for ie8+

Install

npm i -S dom-helpers

Mostly just naive wrappers around common DOM API inconsistencies, Cross browser work is minimal and mostly taken from jQuery. This library doesn't do a lot to normalize behavior across browsers, it mostly seeks to provide a common interface, and eliminate the need to write the same damn if (ie8) statements in every project.

For example events.on works in all browsers ie8+ but it uses the native event system so actual event oddities will continue to exist. If you need robust cross-browser support, use jQuery. If you are just tired of rewriting:

It does expect certain, polyfillable, es5 features to be present for which you can use es5-shim for ie8

if (document.addEventListener)
  return (node, eventName, handler, capture) =>
    node.addEventListener(eventName, handler, capture || false);
else if (document.attachEvent)
  return (node, eventName, handler) =>
      node.attachEvent('on' + eventName, handler);

over and over again, or you need a ok getComputedStyle polyfill but don't want to include all of jQuery, use this.

The real advantage to this collection is that any method can be required individually, meaning tools like Browserify or webpack will only include the exact methods you use. This is great for environments where jQuery doesn't make sense, such as React where you only occasionally need to do direct DOM manipulation.

Each level of the module can be required as a whole or you can drill down for a specific method or section:

    var helpers = require('dom-helpers')
    var query = require('dom-helpers/query')
    var offset = require('dom-helpers/query/offset')

    // style is a function
    require('dom-helpers/style')(node, { width: '40px' })

    //and a namespace
    var gcs = require('dom-helpers/style/getComputedStyle')

• dom-helpers
  • ownerDocument(element): returns the element's document owner
  • ownerWindow(element): returns the element's document window
  • activeElement: return focused element safely
  • query
    • querySelectorAll(element, selector): optimized qsa, uses getElementBy{Id|TagName|ClassName} if it can.
    • contains(container, element)
    • height(element, useClientHeight)
    • width(element, useClientWidth)
    • matches(element, selector): matches() polyfill that works in ie8
    • offset(element) -> { top: Number, left: Number, top: height, width: Number}
    • offsetParent(element): return the parent node that the element is offset from
    • position(element, [offsetParent]: return "offset" of the node to its offsetParent, optionally you can specify the offset parent if different than the "real" one
    • scrollTop(element, [value])
    • scrollLeft(element, [value])
    • scrollParent(element)
  • class
    • addClass(element, className)
    • removeClass(element, className)
    • hasClass(element, className)
  • style(element, propName, [value]) or style(element, objectOfPropValues)
    • removeStyle(element, styleName)
    • getComputedStyle(element) -> getPropertyValue(name)
  • transition
    • animate(node, properties, duration, easing, callback) programmatically start css transitions
    • end(node, handler, [duration]) listens for transition end, and ensures that the handler if called even if the transition fails to fire its end event. Will attempt to read duration from the element, otherwise one can be provided
    • properties: Object containing the various vendor specific transition and transform properties for your browser

       {
        transform: // transform property: 'transform'
        end:       // transitionend
        property:  // transition-property
        timing:    // transition-timing
        delay:     // transition-delay  
        duration:  // transition-duration
       }
    

  • events
    • on(node, eventName, handler, [capture]): capture is silently ignored in ie8
    • off(node, eventName, handler, [capture]): capture is silently ignored in ie8
    • listen(node, eventName, handler, [capture]): wraps on and returns a function that calls off for you
    • filter(selector, fn): returns a function handler that only fires when the target matches or is contained in the selector ex: events.on(list, 'click', events.filter('li > a', handler))
  • util
    • requestAnimationFrame(cb) returns an ID for canceling
      • requestAnimationFrame.cancel(id)
    • scrollTo(element, [scrollParent])