hx-take 🤏

Version 0.3.0

An htmx extension that allows to take an existing element and copy, move or exchange it into a target. Like this:

<div hx-ext="take">
    <div id="here">
        <p>This content is going to be replaced...</p>
    </div>
    <template id="the-content">
        <p>...with this other content...</p>
    </template>
    <button hx-take="#the-content" hx-target="#here">
        ... when this button is clicked.
    </button>
</div>

See it for yourself and experiment with it in the playground page.

Use it

Include it on a script tag, after htmx, using a CDN on your html.

<script src="https://unpkg.com/hx-take@0.3.0/dist/hx-take.min.js"></script>

or install it and use it with npm

npm install hx-take

then require it after you have the window.htmx object declared.

window.htmx = require('htmx.org');
require('hx-take');

or include your own copy of the JavaScript file

You can find the regular and minified files that you can use in the dist directory of the repository.

How it works

Add "take" to the htmx extension attribute, like hx-ext="take", to a parent element (the body or a container element) to enable hx-take on the container element and all its children. You can also just add the hx-ext="take" attribute into the "triggering" element itself.

Use the attribute hx-take to select an existing element on the document specifying a CSS query, if the query returns multiple elements it will always get the first one. Likehx-take="#hidden-content"or hx-take=".info-box".

If hx-trigger is not specified, a click event trigger will be added by default. Check the hx-trigger attribute in the htmx docs here: https://htmx.org/attributes/hx-trigger/

If hx-target is not specified it will target itself. Check the hx-target attribute in the htmx docs here: https://htmx.org/attributes/hx-target/

If hx-swap is not specified it will copy the innerHTML of the selected element with hx-take into the innerHTML of the target. Check the hx-swap attribute in the htmx docs here: https://htmx.org/attributes/hx-swap/.
Also check the "Advanced swap specifications" section to read about the new swap mechanics that hx-take adds.

hx-select can be used to select part of the taken content specifying a CSS query. Check the hx-select attribute in the htmx docs here: https://htmx.org/attributes/hx-select/

hx-selectis ignored with the exchange swap mode. Read more about swap modes on the "Advanced swap specifications" section.

Shadow DOM compatibility

hx-take is compatible with elements that use shadow DOM 👻, like HTML <template> tags. If the target (or a taken element too in case of using the exchange swap mode) has a #document-fragment (js contentproperty) it will modify the contents of the fragment.

Advanced swap specifications

This extension adds 4 additional swap methods using the htmx swap modifiers syntax. They work together to specify the swap behavior of the taken and the target elements.

Mode modifiers: move:, copy:, exchange:

The "mode" modifiers specify how will the taken element content be swapped into the target element. These modifiers accept innerHTML (or the inner alias) and outerHTML (or the outer alias) as values.

• copy: (default) 🟦 ➡️ 🟦
  Copies the innerHTML or outerHTML of the taken element to the target element. copy:innerHTML or copy:inner, copy:outerHTML or copy:outer.
• move: ⬜️ ➡️ 🟦
  Move the innerHTML or outerHTML of the taken element to the target element. move:innerHTML or move:inner, move:outerHTML or move:outer.
• exchange: 🟥 ↔️ 🟦
  Exchanges the innerHTML or outerHTML of the taken element with the target element. exchange:innerHTML or exchange:inner, exchange:outerHTML or exchange:outer. This mode is not compatible with the hx-selectattribute.

Target modifier: to:

The "to:" modifier specifies how will the moved, copied or exchanged content from the taken element be swapped into the target element. The target modifier values are the standard htmx swap styles:

• to:innerHTML or to:inner (default): Replace the inner html of the target element with the taken content.
• to:outerHTML or to:outer: Replace the entire target element with the taken element content.
• to:beforebegin: Insert the taken content before the target element.
• to:afterbegin: Insert the taken content before the first child of the target element.
• to:beforeend: Insert the taken content after the last child of the target element.
• to:afterend: Insert the taken content after the target element.
• to:delete: Deletes the target element regardless of the taken content.
• to:none: Does not append content from the taken content.

Swap specifications aliases

Some common swap specifications have aliases:

• hx-swap="move": alias of hx-swap="move:inner to:inner". Moves the content of the taken element to the content of the target.
• hx-swap="replace": alias of hx-swap="move:outer to:outer". Replaces the target element with the taken element.
• hx-swap="copy": alias of hx-swap="copy:inner to:inner". Replace the target with a copy of the taken element.
• hx-swap="trade": alias of hx-swap="exchange:inner to:inner". Swap the content of the taken element and the target, exchanging the contents.
• hx-swap="exchange": alias of hx-swap="exchange:outer to:outer". Swap the content of the taken element and the target, exchanging the contents.
• hx-swap="append": alias of hx-swap="copy:inner to:beforeend". Put a copy of the taken element at the end of the target content.
• hx-swap="prepend": alias of hx-swap="copy:inner to:afterbegin". Put a copy of the taken element at the beginning of the target content.

Using htmx swap modifiers

As the hx-takeswap modifiers are additions to the existing swap modifiers of htmx, they are all compatible. So hx-swap="copy:inner to:beforeend swap:250ms" will work, adding a delay of 250ms to the swap.

hx-swap-oobcompatibility

If the taken element content includes an element with the swap out of band attribute, it will be processed.

Events

A set of events is triggered on a hx-take swap on both the taken element and the target element.
When elements are triggered, it will send a generic extTakeBefore (ext-take-before in kebabcase).
Then a more specific extTakeBeforeTarget and extTakeBeforeTaken events are triggered on the target or taken elements.
Finally a extTakeBeforeTarget{swap style} and extTakeBeforeTaken{swap style} will be triggered on the elements, {swap style} being the swap style of the element, for instance extTakeBeforeTargetAfterbegin or extTakeBeforeTakenInnerHTML.

After the swap is performed all the events are triggered again with After instead of Before:

extTakeAfter,
extTakeAfterTarget and extTakeAfterTaken,
extTakeAfterTarget{swap style} and extTakeAfterTaken{swap style}.

Classes

A set of classes is added during the swap to the taken and target elements depending on their role and swap style. The generic hx-take-swapping is added to both elements. hx-take-swapping-taken or hx-take-swapping-target to the specific element depending on its role. hx-take-swapping-{swap style}, like hx-take-swapping-beforeend, specifying the swap style of both the target and taken elements.

Examples

Play around with hx-takein the playground page.

Get the content

    <button hx-ext="take" hx-take="#big-text" hx-target="#text">Get me a big text</button>
    <div id="text">
    	<p><small>small text</small></p>
    </div>
    <template id="big-text">
    	<h1>BIG TEXT</h1>
    </template>

When the user clicks on the button ,the content of the #text div will be replaced with "<h1>BIG TEXT</h1>".

Append elements

<form method="POST" action="/post-url" hx-ext="take">
    <div id="fields">
        <input type="text" name="first-name" placeholder="First name" />
        <input type="text" name="last-name" placeholder="Last name" />
        <input class="extra-field" type="text" name="extra[]" placeholder="Extra field" />
    </div>

    <a class="btn" href="#" hx-take=".extra-field" hx-target="#fields" hx-swap="copy:outer to:beforeend">Add a text field</a>
    <input type="submit" value="Send this thing!" />
</form>

Clicking the "Add a text field" button will add copies of the extra field at the end of the #fieldsdiv content.
ht-take=".extra-field"will select just the first element with that class.
⚠️ Be careful when using the copy: swap mode, you may duplicate elements with the same id.

Replace elements that perform more actions

    <button class="btn btn-secondary" hx-take="#new-button" hx-swap="outerHTML">Click me</button>
    
    <div id="content">
        <p>This content has not been processed by hx-take.</p>
    </div>
    
    <template id="new-button">
        <button class="btn btn-info" hx-take="#new-content" hx-target="#content">Click me again</button>
    </template>
    
    <template id="new-content">
        <h1>New content loaded by hx-take!</h1>
    </template>

On the first click, the button will change itself by the one on the #new-button template, and clicking that new button will swap the #content div with the content of the template #new-content.

Using the additional swap behaviors

<!-- ... -->
<div id="up">
    <p>This is up</p>
</div>

<button class="btn btn-accent" hx-take="#up" hx-target="#down" hx-swap="exchange">
    ↕️ Swap'em!
</button>

<div id="down">
    <p>This is down</p>
</div>

The divs #up and #down will exchange themselves with all their content. Clicking the button again will exchange them again, and again.

Found a bug?

Yeah, I thought so. You can open an issue or try a pull request and we can figure it out.

What is with the code of this? Looks old.

It's written in ES5 JavaScript like htmx (1.9.x), the bulk of the code is a modified version of the swap function(s) of htmx.

Haiku

XHR fatigue:

longing for some elements

already in hand

Based on the htmx webpage footer haiku.