∴ spræ

DOM tree microhydration

Sprae is open & minimalistic progressive enhancement framework. Perfect for small-scale websites, static pages, landings, prototypes, or lightweight UI.

Usage

<div id="container" :if="user">
  Hello <span :text="user.name">World</span>.
</div>

<script type="module">
  import sprae from 'sprae'

  // init
  const state = sprae(container, { user: { name: 'Kitty' } })

  // update
  state.user.name = 'Dolly'
</script>

Sprae evaluates :-directives and evaporates them, returning reactive state.

Directives

:if="condition", :else

Control flow of elements.

<span :if="foo">foo</span>
<span :else :if="bar">bar</span>
<span :else>baz</span>

<!-- fragment -->
<template :if="foo">foo <span>bar</span> baz</template>

:each="item, index? in items"

Multiply element.

<ul><li :each="item in items" :text="item"/></ul>

<!-- cases -->
<li :each="item, idx in array" />
<li :each="value, key in object" />
<li :each="count, idx in number" />

<!-- fragment -->
<template :each="item in items">
  <dt :text="item.term"/>
  <dd :text="item.definition"/>
</template>

<!-- prevent FOUC -->
<style>[:each] {visibility: hidden}</style>

:text="value"

Set text content of an element.

Welcome, <span :text="user.name">Guest</span>.

<!-- fragment -->
Welcome, <template :text="user.name" />.

:class="value"

Set class value.

<!-- appends class -->
<div class="foo" :class="bar"></div>

<!-- interpolation -->
<div :class="'foo $<bar>'"></div>

<!-- array/object, a-la clsx -->
<div :class="[foo && 'foo', {bar: bar}]"></div>

:style="value"

Set style value.

<!-- extends style -->
<div style="foo: bar" :style="'baz: qux'">

<!-- interpolation -->
<div :style="'foo: $<bar>'"></div>

<!-- object -->
<div :style="{foo: 'bar'}"></div>

<!-- CSS variable -->
<div :style="{'--baz': qux}"></div>

:value="value"

Set value of an input, textarea or select.

<input :value="value" />
<textarea :value="value" />

<!-- selects right option & handles selected attr -->
<select :value="selected">
  <option :each="i in 5" :value="i" :text="i"></option>
</select>

<!-- handles checked attr -->
<input type="checkbox" :value="checked" />

:[prop]="value", :="values"

Set any attribute(s).

<label :for="name" :text="name" />

<!-- multiple attributes -->
<input :id:name="name" />

<!-- spread attributes -->
<input :="{ id: name, name, type: 'text', value }" />

:with="values"

Define values for a subtree.

<x :with="{ foo: signal('bar') }">
  <y :with="{ baz: 'qux' }" :text="foo + baz"></y>
</x>

:ref="name"

Expose element with name.

<textarea :ref="text" placeholder="Enter text..."></textarea>

<!-- iterable items -->
<li :each="item in items" :ref="item">
  <input :onfocus..onblur="e => (item.classList.add('editing'), e => item.classList.remove('editing'))"/>
</li>

:fx="code"

Run effect, not changing any attribute.

<div :fx="a.value ? foo() : bar()" />

<!-- cleanup function -->
<div :fx="id = setInterval(tick, interval), () => clearInterval(tick)" />

:on[event]="handler"

Attach event(s) listener with optional modifiers.

<input type="checkbox" :onchange="e => isChecked = e.target.value">

<!-- multiple events -->
<input :value="text" :oninput:onchange="e => text = e.target.value">

<!-- events sequence -->
<button :onfocus..onblur="e => ( handleFocus(), e => handleBlur())">

<!-- modifiers -->
<button :onclick.throttle-500="handler">Not too often</button>

Modifiers:

• .once, .passive, .capture – listener options.
• .prevent, .stop – prevent default or stop propagation.
• .window, .document, .outside, .self – specify event target.
• .throttle-<ms>, .debounce-<ms> – defer function call with one of the methods.
• .ctrl, .shift, .alt, .meta, .arrow, .enter, .escape, .tab, .space, .backspace, .delete, .digit, .letter, .character – filter by event.key.
• .ctrl-<key>, .alt-<key>, .meta-<key>, .shift-<key> – key combinations, eg. .ctrl-alt-delete or .meta-x.
• .* – any other modifier has no effect, but allows binding multiple handlers to same event (like jQuery event classes).

:html="element" 🔌

Include as import 'sprae/directive/html'.

Set html content of an element or instantiate a template.

Hello, <span :html="userElement">Guest</span>.

<!-- fragment -->
Hello, <template :html="user.name">Guest</template>.

<!-- instantiate template -->
<template :ref="tpl"><span :text="foo"></span></template>
<div :html="tpl" :with="{foo:'bar'}">...inserted here...</div>

:data="values" 🔌

Include as import 'sprae/directive/data'.

Set data-* attributes. CamelCase is converted to dash-case.

<input :data="{foo: 1, barBaz: true}" />
<!-- <input data-foo="1" data-bar-baz /> -->

:aria="values" 🔌

Include as import 'sprae/directive/aria'.

Set aria-* attributes. Boolean values are stringified.

<input role="combobox" :aria="{
  controls: 'joketypes',
  autocomplete: 'list',
  expanded: false,
  activeOption: 'item1',
  activedescendant: ''
}" />
<!--
<input role="combobox" aria-controls="joketypes" aria-autocomplete="list" aria-expanded="false" aria-active-option="item1" aria-activedescendant>
-->

Signals

Sprae can take signal values. Signals provider can be switched to any preact-flavored implementation:

import sprae from 'sprae';
import { signal, computed, effect, batch, untracked } from 'sprae/signal';
import * as signals from '@preact/signals-core';

// switch provider to @preact/signals-core
sprae.use(signals);

// use signal as state value
const name = signal('Kitty')
sprae(el, { name });

// update state
name.value = 'Dolly';

Provider | Size | Feature :---|:---|:--- ulive (default) | 350b | Minimal implementation, basic performance, good for small states. @webreflection/signal | 531b | Class-based, better performance, good for small-medium states. usignal | 850b | Class-based with optimizations, good for medium states. @preact/signals-core | 1.47kb | Best performance, good for any states, industry standard. signal-polyfill | 2.5kb | Proposal signals. Use via adapter.

Evaluator

Expressions use new Function as default evaluator, which is fast & compact way, but violates "unsafe-eval" CSP. To make eval stricter & safer, as well as sandbox expressions, an alternative evaluator can be used, eg. justin:

import sprae from 'sprae'
import justin from 'subscript/justin'

sprae.use({compile: justin}) // set up justin as default compiler

Justin is minimal JS subset that avoids "unsafe-eval" CSP and provides sandboxing.

Operators:

++ -- ! - + ** * / % && || ?? = < <= > >= == != === !== << >> & ^ | ~ ?: . ?. [] ()=>{} in

Primitives:

[] {} "" '' 1 2.34 -5e6 0x7a true false null undefined NaN

Custom Build

Sprae can be tailored to project needs via sprae/core:

// sprae.custom.js
import sprae, { directive } from 'sprae/core'
import { effect } from 'sprae/signal'
import * as signals from '@preact/signals'
import compile from 'subscript'

// include directives
import 'sprae/directive/if.js'
import 'sprae/directive/text.js'

// custom directive :id="expression"
directive.id = (el, evaluate, state) => {
  effect(() => el.id = evaluate(state))
}

// configure signals
sprae.use(signals)

// configure compiler
sprae.use({ compile })

Justification

Template-parts is stuck with native HTML quirks (parsing table, SVG attributes, liquid syntax conflict etc). Alpine / petite-vue / lucia escape native HTML quirks, but have excessive API (:, x-, {}, @, $) and tend to self-encapsulate.

Sprae holds open & minimalistic philosophy, combining :-directives with emerging signals.

Examples

• ToDo MVC: demo, code
• JS Framework Benchmark: demo, code
• Wavearea: demo, code
• Prostogreen demo, code