postcss-prefix-selector

What is postcss-prefix-selector?

The postcss-prefix-selector npm package is a PostCSS plugin that allows you to add a prefix to all CSS selectors. This can be useful for scoping styles to a specific part of a page, avoiding conflicts with other styles, or applying styles conditionally.

What are postcss-prefix-selector's main functionalities?

Prefixing all selectors

This feature allows you to add a prefix to all CSS selectors. In this example, the selector '.foo' is prefixed with '.my-prefix', resulting in '.my-prefix .foo'.

const postcss = require('postcss');
const prefixer = require('postcss-prefix-selector');

const css = '.foo { color: red; }';

postcss([prefixer({ prefix: '.my-prefix' })])
  .process(css)
  .then(result => {
    console.log(result.css);
  });
// Output: .my-prefix .foo { color: red; }

Excluding specific selectors

This feature allows you to exclude specific selectors from being prefixed. In this example, the selector '.bar' is excluded from being prefixed, so only '.foo' is prefixed.

const postcss = require('postcss');
const prefixer = require('postcss-prefix-selector');

const css = '.foo { color: red; } .bar { color: blue; }';

postcss([prefixer({ prefix: '.my-prefix', exclude: ['.bar'] })])
  .process(css)
  .then(result => {
    console.log(result.css);
  });
// Output: .my-prefix .foo { color: red; } .bar { color: blue; }

Transforming the prefix

This feature allows you to transform the prefix in a custom way. In this example, the prefix is transformed to include '--' between the prefix and the selector.

const postcss = require('postcss');
const prefixer = require('postcss-prefix-selector');

const css = '.foo { color: red; }';

postcss([prefixer({ prefix: '.my-prefix', transform: (prefix, selector, prefixedSelector) => `${prefix}--${selector}` })])
  .process(css)
  .then(result => {
    console.log(result.css);
  });
// Output: .my-prefix--.foo { color: red; }

Other packages similar to postcss-prefix-selector

postcss-nested

The postcss-nested package allows you to nest your CSS selectors in a way that follows the same visual hierarchy of your HTML. While it doesn't add prefixes, it helps in organizing and scoping styles in a nested manner, which can be an alternative approach to managing CSS scope.

postcss-namespace

The postcss-namespace package is another PostCSS plugin that helps in scoping CSS by adding a namespace to your selectors. It is similar to postcss-prefix-selector but focuses on adding a namespace rather than a simple prefix.

postcss-scopify

The postcss-scopify package allows you to scope your CSS by adding a specific scope to your selectors. It is similar to postcss-prefix-selector but offers more flexibility in defining the scope.

README

postcss-prefix-selector

Prefix every CSS selector with a custom namespace .a => .prefix .a

Table of Contents

• Install
• Usage with PostCSS
• Usage with Webpack
• Usage with Vite
• Options
• Maintainer
• Contribute
• License

Install

$ npm install postcss-prefix-selector

Usage with PostCSS

const prefixer = require('postcss-prefix-selector')

// css to be processed
const css = fs.readFileSync("input.css", "utf8")

const out = postcss().use(prefixer({
  prefix: '.some-selector',
  exclude: ['.c'],

  // Optional transform callback for case-by-case overrides
  transform: function (prefix, selector, prefixedSelector, filePath, rule) {
    if (selector === 'body') {
      return 'body' + prefix;
    } else {
      return prefixedSelector;
    }
  }
})).process(css).css

Using the options above and the CSS below...

body {
  background: red;
}

.a, .b {
  color: aqua;
}

.c {
  color: coral;
}

You will get the following output

body.some-selector {
  background: red;
}

.some-selector .a, .some-selector .b {
  color: aqua;
}

.c {
  color: coral;
}

Usage with webpack

Use it like you'd use any other PostCSS plugin. If you also have autoprefixer in your webpack config then make sure that postcss-prefix-selector is called first. This is needed to avoid running the prefixer twice on both standard selectors and vendor specific ones (ex: @keyframes and @webkit-keyframes).

module: {
  rules: [{
    test: /\.css$/,
    use: [
      require.resolve('style-loader'),
      require.resolve('css-loader'),
      {
        loader: require.resolve('postcss-loader'),
        options: {
          postcssOptions: {
            plugins: {
              "postcss-prefix-selector": {
                prefix: '.my-prefix',
                transform(prefix, selector, prefixedSelector, filePath, rule) {
                  if (selector.match(/^(html|body)/)) {
                    return selector.replace(/^([^\s]*)/, `$1 ${prefix}`);
                  }
                  
                  if (filePath.match(/node_modules/)) {
                    return selector; // Do not prefix styles imported from node_modules
                  }
                  
                  const annotation = rule.prev();
                  if (annotation?.type === 'comment' && annotation.text.trim() === 'no-prefix') {
                    return selector; // Do not prefix style rules that are preceded by: /* no-prefix */
                  }

                  return prefixedSelector;
                },
              },
              autoprefixer: {
                browsers: ['last 4 versions']
              }
            }
          }
        }
      }
    ]
  }]
}

Usage with Vite

Following the same way of Webpack but for Vite:

import prefixer from 'postcss-prefix-selector';
import autoprefixer from 'autoprefixer';

...

export default defineConfig({
...
  css: {
    postcss: {
      plugins: [
        prefixer({
          prefix: '.my-prefix',
          transform(prefix, selector, prefixedSelector, filePath, rule) {
            if (selector.match(/^(html|body)/)) {
              return selector.replace(/^([^\s]*)/, `$1 ${prefix}`);
            }

            if (filePath.match(/node_modules/)) {
              return selector; // Do not prefix styles imported from node_modules
            }

            const annotation = rule.prev();
            if (annotation?.type === 'comment' && annotation.text.trim() === 'no-prefix') {
              return selector; // Do not prefix style rules that are preceded by: /* no-prefix */
            }

            return prefixedSelector;
          },
        }),

        autoprefixer({}) // add options if needed
      ],
    }
  },
...
});  

Options

Name	Type	Description
prefix	string	This string is added before every CSS selector
exclude	string[] or RegExp[]	It's possible to avoid prefixing some selectors by passing an array of selectors
transform	Function	In cases where you may want to use the prefix differently for different selectors, it is possible to pass in a custom transform method
ignoreFiles	string[] or RegExp[]	List of ignored files for processing
includeFiles	string[] or RegExp[]	List of included files for processing

Maintainer

This project was originally created by @jongleberry and is being maintained by @RadValentin. If you have any questions, feel free to ping the latter.

Contribute

Please contribute! If you have any questions or bugs, open an issue. Or, open a pull request with a fix.

This project uses Mocha. If you submit a PR, please add appropriate tests and make sure that everything is green for your branch.

License

MIT © 2015-2022 Jonathan Ong.