nano_spa

nano_spa is a way to write single page applications with lazy loading "features" aka "handlers" by default and auto generates docs for you.

NOTE: although most of the api is stable (render, to_dom), nano_spa is still very experimental and changes might happend to the default handlers Box, State, etc....

• Get Started
• CLI Usage
• render
• to_dom
• handlers
  • Box
  • State
  • Reducer
  • Router
  • Router::link
  • Router::head
• Create Your Own Handlers
• Generate Docs
• Deploy

Get started

• Create your apps directory (you can have many apps under one directory sharing the same features). $ mkdir my-app && cd my-app
• initialize project $ npm init -y && npm i nano_spa
• add start script in package.json

{
  "name": "my-app",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "scripts": {
    "start": "nano_spa start",
    "build": "nano_spa build",
    "docs": "nano_spa docs"
  }
}

CLI usage

start

Starts the development server.

Arguments

• -s source folder to start the development server from, defaults to app.
• -p port to serve, defaults to 3000.

Example: the following starts the development server on another-app directory on port 5000.

"scripts": {
  "start:another-app": "nano_spa start -s another-app -p 5000"
}

$ npm run start:another-app

Requirements

inside the root of your "source" directory it must contains.

• index.html
• main.js
• static

NOTE: if the above does not exist nano_spa will create a simple hello world starter for you.

build

Builds your project in dist-app

Arguments

• -s source folder to build, defaults to app.

Example: the following builds another-app to dist-another-app

{
  "scripts": {
    "build:another-app": "nano_spa build -s another-app"
  }
}

$ npm build:another-app

Requirements

given the previous example you must have a another-app directory.

docs

Generates documentation for the whole project, specifically from handlers-props. check handlers-props for more info.

render

render under the hood uses htm, this means that render just renders a string to jsx object.

simple usage

import render from 'nano_spa/render'

function app() {
  return render`<div>Hello, world!</div>`
}

with components

import render from 'nano_spa/render'

// simple component.
function myComponent({msg}) {
  return render`<div>${msg}</div>`
}

// also supports fragments.
function myFragment() {
  return render`
    <>
      <li>1</li>
      <li>2</li>
      <li>3</li>
    </>
  `
}

function app() {
  return render`
    <div>
      <${myComponent} msg='hello, world!' />
      <${myFragment} />
    </div>
  `
}

to_dom

converts jsx made from render to DOM nodes

usage

import render from 'nano_spa/render'
import to_dom from 'nano_spa/to_dom'

function app() {
  return render`<div>Hello, world!</div>`
}

document.getElementById('root').appendChild(to_dom(render`<${app} />`))

in the case of app returning a fragment, to_dom will return an array of DOM nodes.

function app() {
  return render`
    <>
      <li>1</li>
      <li>2</li>
    </>
  `
}

const appRoot = document.getElementById('root')

to_dom(render`<${app} />`).forEach(domNode => appRoot.appendChild(domNode))

handlers

Now that you are familiar with the core concepts of nano_spa it is time to get familiar with handlers.

when using render, the moment render encounters an element that starts with an uppercase element E.g. <Div /> it will look for ./handlers/Div.js and it will lazley load that module, without importing the module!

nano_spa ships with default handlers:

• Box
• State
• Reducer
• Router
• Router::link
• Router::head

Box

Box is a very simple handler that transforms props to style elements.

prop	type	required	default	description
type	string	false	div	sets the DOM node type
grid	boolean	false	none	sets the display to grid
flex	boolean	false	none	sets the display to flex
*	string	false	none	appends to the style attribute

usage

import render from 'nano_spa/render'

function app() {
  return render`
    <Box
      type='main'
      padding='1rem'
      background-color='blue'
      display='grid'
    >
      Hello, world
    </Box>
  `
}

  /*
  *** note that we didn't import Box from 'somewhere' ***
  this is the same as:
  <main style='padding: 1rem; background-color: blue; display: grid;'>
    Hello, world
  </main>
  */

State

prop	type	required	default	description
state	object	true	none	none
render	function	true	none	a function that takes state and setState as arguments and returns a component

usage

import render from 'nano_spa/render'

// simple counter example.
const counter = (state, setState) => {
  /*
    setState only accepts function as argument and expected to
    return an object.
  */
  const increment = () => setState(oldState => ({
    count: oldState.count + 1
  }))
  return render`
    <div>
      <button onclick=${increment}>
        increment
      </button>
      ${state.count}
    </div>
  `
}
function myComponent() {
  const state = { count: 0 }
  return render`<State state=${state} render=${counter} />`
}

Reducer

prop	type	required	default	description
initial	object	true	none	initial state
reducer	function	true	none	a function that takes state, action as arguments and returns new state
render	function	true	none	a function that takes state and dispatch as arguments and returns a component

usage

import render from 'nano_spa/render'

const reducer = (state, action) => {
  if(action.type == 'INCREMENT') {
    return {...state, count: state.count + 1}
  } else if(action.type == 'DECREMENT') {
    return {...state, count: state.count - 1}
  } else {
    return state
  }
}
const counter = (state, dispatch) => {
  const increment = () => dispatch({type: 'INCREMENT'})
  const decrement = () => dispatch({type: 'DECREMENT'})
  return render`
    <div>
      <button onclick=${increment}>increment</button>
      <button onclick=${decrement}>increment</button>
      ${state.count}
    </div>
  `
}
function myComponent() {
  return render`
    <Reducer
      initial=${{ count: 0}}
      reducer=${reducer}
      render=${counter}
    />
  `
}

Router

prop	type	required	default	description
dir	function	true	none	a function that returns a dynamic import statement
on_mount	function	true	none	a function that takes DOM node of current page, and current route
on_unmount	function	true	none	a function that takes DOM node of previous page, and previous route

usage

// in main.js
import render from 'nano_spa/render'

function app() {
  return render`
    <div>
      <h1>I will exist on every route!</h1>
      <Router
        dir=${page => import(`./pages/${page}.js`)}
        on_mount=${console.log}
        on_unmount=${console.log}
      />
    </div>
  `
}
/*
 * now you have to create a directory `pages`
 * inside `pages`:
 * '/' maps to index.js
 * 'a not found route' maps to 404.js
 * or the default 404 page that comes with Router
*/

// in ./pages/index.js
import render from 'nano_spa/render'

export default () => render`<div>hello, world</div>`

Router@link

prop	type	required	default	description
href	string	true	none	none

usage

/*
 * Router::link supports any element that accepts an `onclick` method.
 * a, button, img, ...etc. and will set `tabIndex` to 0. for a11y
 * it's very important that you don not set href on the anchor tag here.
*/
// ...
  `<Router::link href='/'>
    <a>Home</a>
  <//>`
// ...

Router@head

does not take any props just one or more children, and works on route level.

usage

// ...
  `<Router::head>
    <title>my-app | Home</title>
    <meta name='description' content='this is our home page.'/>
  <//>`
// ...

Create Your Own Handlers

handlers let you use your favorite data structures and the full capability of the web platform. this means the possiblities are endless, you could make a react handler if you want.

handlers accepts virtual node (jsx object), utils, and if it returns a DOM node then it will be appended to the rest of the jsx tree it does not return anything, then it will just execute whatever is inside of your handler, treating it as a side effect if you will.

utils contains {to_dom, on} in the root of your project create Hello.js inside ./handlers

// inside ./handlers/Hello.js
export default helloHandler(vNode) {
  const Hello = document.createElement('div')
  Hello.innerText = 'hello, ' + vNode.props.name || ''
  return Hello
}

usage

// inside ./app/main.js
import render from 'nano_spa/render'
import to_dom from 'nano_spa/to_dom'

function app() {
  return render`
    <Hello name='world'/>
  `
}

document.getElementById('root').appendChild(to_dom(render`<${app} />`))

Generate Docs

To generate docs for your project nano_spa looks for ./handlers-props/MyHandler.js this will allow for development warnings + auto generated docs.

given the previous example Hello.js to include it and the docs and have development environment warnings and errors you must create ./handlers-props/Hello.js and populate it as follows.

// inside ./handlers-props/Hello.js
module.exports = {
  name: {
    type: ['string'],
    required: false
  }
}

NOTE: when you use the command nano_spa docs inside scripts in your package.json nano_spa will look at your handlers directory and generate empty prop-types for the handlers it found.

Deploy

the only thing to keep in mind when deploying is you serve index.html at every route. great deployment services like zeit/now or netlify provide a very easy way to do this.

that's it. examples coming soon!