Javascript

Introducing the SolidStart, TanStack Query and Tailwind CSS Starter kit

Published Mar 20, 2023

Updated Mar 20, 2023

3 min read

This article was written over 18 months ago and may contain information that is out of date. Some content may be relevant but please refer to the relevant official documentation or available resources for the latest information.

We are delighted to announce our SolidStart + TanStack + Tailwind Starter Kit on Starter.dev to help you build your next project with SolidStart, TanStack Solid Query, and Tailwind CSS in no time. In this article, we will walk you through the kit and how it is great for building your next project.

Why SolidStart?

Solid.js is a really cool new framework with a lot of amazing features. Its syntax is mostly like React syntax. However, they work in completely different ways behind the scenes.

Solid.js is a declarative, component-based library for building user interfaces. It is a highly customizable, low-level framework that gives you all of the building blocks you need to build bespoke designs without any opinionated styles that you have to fight to override. SolidStart is a meta-framework that helps you build your Solid.js apps with ease. It supports Client-side rendering, Server-side rendering, Streaming SSR, and Static site generation.

Vite

Vite is a new frontend build tool that significantly improves the frontend development experience. It consists of two major parts:

A dev server that provides rich feature enhancements over native ES Module imports (e.g. module hot-reloading, proper dependency analysis, etc).
A build command that bundles your code with Rollup, pre-configured to output highly optimized static assets for production.

Vite is designed from the ground up for the es-module era, and as such, it doesn't require a bundler like webpack or Parcel during development. It also doesn't require a complicated configuration file like snowpack. Instead, it leverages the browser's native support for ES modules (i.e. native ES imports) and the new spec proposal for importing CSS as modules. This means that Vite can provide instant feedback during development, and also enables features that are simply impossible with other tools, such as server-side rendering and static site generation.

Vite is designed to be framework-agnostic. It is not opinionated about your choice of framework, and it is also framework-agnostic in the sense that it doesn't require you to use a specific framework-specific toolchain. You can use Vite with any framework that supports native ES imports, including React, Vue, Svelte, Angular, and even vanilla JS.

Vite is also designed to be plugin-based. It is built on top of Rollup, which is a powerful and flexible bundler. However, Vite is not a wrapper around Rollup. Instead, it is a plugin-based build tool that uses Rollup under the hood. This means that you can use any Rollup plugin with Vite, and you can also create your own Vite plugins to customize Vite's behavior.

Why Tanstack?

TanStack is a full-stack framework for building web applications with Solid, Tailwind CSS, and TypeScript. It is a highly customizable, low-level framework that gives you all of the building blocks you need to build bespoke designs without any annoying opinionated styles that you have to fight to override.

Why Tailwind CSS?

Tailwind CSS is a utility-first CSS framework for rapidly building custom user interfaces. It is a highly customizable, low-level CSS framework that gives you all of the building blocks you need to build bespoke designs without any annoying opinionated styles you have to fight to override.

Testing

This kit comes with Vitest pre-configured. Vitest is a tool that is built with Vite in mind from the start, taking advantage of its improvements in DX, like its instant Hot Module Reload (HMR). This is Vitest, a blazing fast unit-test framework powered by Vite. It's a great alternative to Jest. It's fast and easy to use.

Conclusion

SolidStart is still in the beta phase. However, it has a lot of good DX improvements. This kit is great if you want to build a fast and lightweight fullstack web application. It provides you with everything you need from backend to frontend, even data caching and Tailwind configurations with two examples out of the box.

For more SolidJS resources, check our solidjs.framework.dev, where you can find courses, tutorials, and libraries for SolidJS. Also, you can create your next SolidJS project. Try our SolidJS starter kit from Starter.dev. It has a lot of tools pre-configured for you. If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to send them to us or reach out to us on Twitter.

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We love helping teams with projects that have missed their deadlines or helping keep your strategic digital initiatives on course. Check out our case studies and our clients that trust us with their engineering.

About the author(s)

Mark Shenouda
@MarkSShenouda @markshenouda

Svelte 4 Launch Party Recap

In this Svelte 4 Launch Party event, our panelists discussed the release of Svelte 4. In this wrap-up, we will talk about panel discussions with Svelte core team members, which is an in-depth exploration of the Svelte 4 release, highlighting its key features and performance enhancements. You can watch the full Svelte 4 Launch Party event on the This Dot Media's YouTube channel. Here is a complete list of the host and panelists that participated in this online event: Hosts: - Tracy Lee, CEO, This Dot, @ladyleet - Rob Ocel, Team Lead & Software Architect, This Dot, @robocell Panelists: - Geoff Rich, Svelte Core Team, @geoffrich_ - Simon Holthausen, Full-time Svelte maintainer, @dummdidumm_ - Puru Vijay, Svelte Core Team, @puruvjdev - Benn McCann, SvelteKit Maintainer, @BenjaminMcCann Introductions Geoff, one of the Svelte maintainers, started the introductions. He expressed his excitement about the new major version of Svelte and shared his years of experience using the framework. In his day job, Geoff is a Senior Software Engineer at Ordergroove. Simon, a full-time Svelte maintainer working at Vercel, was busy preparing and finally releasing Svelte 4. He happily noted that there were very few bugs, and everything seemed to be working smoothly. Simon's dedication to maintaining the framework has contributed significantly to its success. Puru, a college student, showcased his impressive skills by working on the website and the REPL for Svelte. Balancing his studies with web development, Puru demonstrated his passion for Svelte and his contributions to its ecosystem. Ben primarily focuses on Svelte Kit, but also pitched in with Svelte 4. Besides his work on Svelte, Ben is an entrepreneur, adding an extra dimension to his diverse skill set. His contributions to the Svelte community have been invaluable. What Should Everyone Be Excited About in Svelte 4? Svelte 4 has arrived, and while it may not be packed with mind-blowing features, there are several neat little improvements that are worth getting excited about. The main focus of this release was on maintenance and cleaning up the framework to pave the way for the big Svelte 5 release. So don't worry, there are bigger things in the pipeline! One of the first things to note is that file sizes in Svelte 4 have significantly decreased by about 10 to 12 fold. This means that your website will load much faster, thanks to the reduced bundle size. Additionally, improvements have been made in hydration, which affects the speed at which pages hydrate. The core around hydration has become smaller, resulting in improved performance. Another noteworthy enhancement in Svelte 4 is the complete overhaul of custom element support. This change, although technically a breaking one, introduces a new wrapper approach. Previously, in Svelte 3, you had to use every Svelte component as a custom element, even if you wanted to keep certain components as internal implementation details. With the wrapper approach, you now have the flexibility to use components as regular Svelte components internally, fixing a range of bugs and fulfilling numerous feature requests. This change proved to be a tremendous success, resolving multiple issues in one fell swoop. Svelte 4 brings value to your day-to-day development experience. For example, the improved type generation and autocomplete have made working with Svelte components a lot smoother. The autocomplete feature now grabs the correct import, eliminating the frustrations of navigating to the wrong files. Additionally, the introduction of declaration maps allows you to see the actual source code, providing a better understanding of the inner workings of Svelte. There's also good news for those who want to contribute to the Svelte codebase. In Svelte 4, the entire codebase has been converted from TypeScript to JavaScript with JS Docs. While type checking is still in place to ensure error-free development, this change simplifies the process of working with the source code. Developers can now directly edit the source and test changes without worrying about the mapping between TypeScript and JavaScript. In terms of performance, the reduction in bundle sizes has made a significant impact. Although the size reduction percentage may have been misunderstood by some, primarily referring to the compiler size rather than the runtime bundle, it has tangible benefits in scenarios like online tutorials and interactive experiences. Beyond the technical improvements, Svelte 4 also brings updates to the documentation site and the main website. The team has put in considerable effort to enhance the user experience, making it easier to navigate and find the information you need. Puru Does a Run Through of the Updates to the Svelte.dev Site Puru shares exciting news to share about the overhaul of the svelte.dev website. First things first, let's talk about the star of the show: dark mode. It's finally here, and it's a game-changer. They’ve given the entire site a fresh redesign, taking inspiration from the sleek look of kit.svelte.dev. You'll notice some similarities, but they’ve added their own unique touch to make it shine. They’re now linking to the improved tutorial on learn.svelte.dev, which is definitely worth checking out. Now, let's dive into the docs. They've made some significant changes to make your browsing experience a breeze. Instead of a single page, they've divided everything into multiple pages, making it super easy to find what you're looking for. Each component, logic block, and style module has its own dedicated page. It's all organized and up-to-date, thanks to the auto-generation from the source code. Say goodbye to outdated information and hello to hassle-free browsing. They've introduced some fantastic new features that you're going to love. In the REPL, they've added multiple cursors, making coding even more efficient. Plus, they've created a REPL User Guide, packed with handy shortcuts and nifty tips and tricks. And here's the best part: our code snippets now support TypeScript. Just a simple click, and you'll have the TypeScript equivalent at your fingertips. It couldn't get any easier to level up your coding game! So, head over to the new website, immerse yourself in the revamped docs, and enjoy all the fantastic updates we've made. And don't forget to check out the blog section for more in-depth information. Happy browsing, and get ready to experience the best of the new and improved website! Upgrading from Svelte 3 to Svelte 4 Well there are a few things you need to know. But don't worry, it's not too complicated. First off, you'll find all the breaking changes highlighted and summarized on the migration Doc Page. So, if something breaks, you can check it out there. If you're still on Svelte 3, the best way to start is by using the migration script. Just type in npx svelte-migrate svelte-4 in your command line, and it will go through your code base and automatically update things like tightened up types and local transitions. The migration script will even ask you if you want to migrate your global transitions or not. It's like a little questionnaire to make sure everything goes smoothly. The migration script does a lot of the heavy lifting for you, updating dependencies in your package.json and ensuring peer dependency versions match up. It takes care of most things, but there might be a few other changes you'll need to handle. That's where the migration guide comes in handy. It covers all the other changes and helps you navigate through them. Now keep in mind that upgrading to Svelte 4 might require at least Node 16. So, if you're using older dependencies that are holding you back from upgrading Node, it's time to poke your manager or tech lead and emphasize the need to stay current. After all, using outdated versions can pose security vulnerabilities. So make a strong case for the upgrade and let them know it's time to invest in keeping things up to date. Geoff talked about how he has already upgraded a few sites to Svelte 4, and honestly, just upgraded the dependencies, and it worked like a charm. He didn't even bother running the migration script himself. Different projects may have different needs, so it's always good to be aware of any potential obstacles. Stay up to date and remember, keeping things secure is a top priority! Svelte 4 and How It Works with Svelte Kit If you're using Svelte Kit and thinking about upgrading to Svelte 4, here's what you need to know. The good news is that you can stick with your current version of Svelte Kit if you want, but there will be a warning about the peer dependencies not matching up. We made a small change to officially support Svelte 4 within Svelte Kit. But other than that, not much else has changed. One important thing to remember is to upgrade the plugins file that Svelte Kit uses. You can do this by updating your lock file or simply upgrading to the latest Svelte Kit, which will take care of it for you. The migration script handles all the necessary updates, so running it will ensure everything works smoothly. When it comes to impact, Svelte 4 brings some improvements. Your hydration code will be smaller, and the hydration speed will be faster, which means your final app bundle could be around 10% smaller. We've been working on even more performance enhancements, and using the Chrome performance tab in the developer tools can help you identify areas that need improvement. So, in a nutshell, upgrading to Svelte 4 is optional for Svelte Kit users. But, it brings benefits like smaller code and faster hydration. Just remember to update the plugins file and use the migration script to handle any necessary changes. Keep an eye on the Chrome performance tab for optimization opportunities. Are Svelte and Svelte Kit Going to be Paired in the Future in Updates or Stay Independent? When it comes to updates for Svelte and Svelte Kit, there's a relationship between the two, but they also have their own focuses. The development of Svelte and Svelte Kit is somewhat interconnected, with learnings and improvements transferring between them. While the maintainers tend to focus on one major project at a time to gather feedback and make meaningful changes, they do draw lessons from both and apply them accordingly. For example, the decision to make transitions local by default in Svelte 4 stemmed from insights gained during the development of Svelte Kit. Although there may be periods of emphasis on either Svelte or Svelte Kit, they are designed to complement each other and take advantage of each other's features. The development teams work on both code bases, ensuring a coordinated approach. While there may be a Svelte Kit 2 in the future, it's important to note that the release of Svelte 5 doesn't automatically mean a corresponding major update for Svelte Kit. The decision to introduce a new version depends on various factors, such as API changes and compatibility with the latest versions of Svelte, Node.js, and bundlers. Ultimately, the goal is to provide a seamless and optimized experience for developers using Svelte and Svelte Kit. By developing them in tandem and leveraging the benefits of each, the teams behind these projects ensure continuous improvements and adaptability to the evolving needs of the community. Svelte Dev Tools Repo and Funding for Svelte So, regarding the Svelte Dev Tools repo, it used to be a community-maintained project led by a contributor named Red Hatter. She developed and published it independently. But more recently, she transferred the repository to the Svelte team so that they could also contribute and provide support. Currently, the team hasn't been able to publish new versions of the extension to the store, so there might still be the Svelte 3 version available. However, they are working on publishing a new version and may ask users to switch over to it for Svelte 4. Now, let's talk about funding for Svelte. While financial support is definitely appreciated, the team also values something equally important—time. Companies can make a significant impact by allowing their employees to work on Svelte or Svelte Kit, fixing bugs, and contributing their time and expertise to improving the projects. Donations are welcome, of course, but finding skilled developers like Pooria (one of the Svelte team members) can be challenging even with funding available. So, giving employees the time and freedom to work on Svelte-related projects is highly appreciated and can have a significant positive impact. It's not just about money; it's about investing resources, whether financial or human, into the growth and development of the Svelte community. Getting Involved in Open Source If you're interested in getting involved in open source for Svelte, the journey can take different paths. One way to start is by creating projects or contributing to existing ones in the Svelte ecosystem. For example, Peru mentioned that he initially created a Svelte version of a tool called MacOS, which gained attention and led to him becoming a Svelte ambassador. Being active in the community, showcasing your work, and advocating for Svelte through speaking engagements or participating in events like Svelte Summit can also help raise your profile. Becoming a Svelte ambassador or being recognized by the core team doesn't necessarily require direct contributions to the Svelte codebase. You can contribute in various ways, such as creating engaging content like videos or blog posts that benefit the community, maintaining popular Svelte libraries, assisting users on platforms like Discord or Stack Overflow, and participating in GitHub discussions. The core team and community value not only code contributions but also the positive impact and dedication you bring to the Svelte community. It's worth noting that the journey can be unique for each person. Even if you haven't contributed to the Svelte codebase directly, like the ambassadors Hunter Byte and Joy of Code, you can still make a significant impact and be recognized for your contributions. For instance, Pooria mentioned that his first contribution was focused on creating the Svelte website rather than working on the core Svelte codebase. So, anyone with a passion for Svelte and a willingness to contribute can become a Svelte ambassador and actively participate in the open-source community. Contributing to Open Source Contributing to open-source projects like Svelte may seem daunting, but you don't have to understand the entire codebase from the start. Start by looking for beginner-friendly issues labeled as "good first issue" or similar tags. These provide a starting point to dive into the codebase. Follow the code path, use failing tests as guidance, and utilize features like control-clicking to navigate to relevant implementations. Documentation and contribution guides are valuable resources for newcomers. Svelte Kit, for instance, has focused on making its codebase beginner-friendly. If you encounter difficulties, join the project's Discord channel and seek guidance from experienced contributors. Providing feedback on areas where more documentation is needed can help improve the contributor experience. You can also contribute to adjacent tools related to Svelte, such as Prettier or ESLint plugins, which are maintained by the core team. These projects are often smaller in size and provide a manageable entry point. Additionally, non-coding contributions like improving project workflows or setting up testing and CI processes are also valuable. Remember that contributions, regardless of their scale, have a positive impact on the project and the open-source community. Focus on understanding the specific area you want to work on, leverage available resources, engage with the community, and consider contributing to adjacent projects. With these steps, you can jump into contributing to open source and start making a difference. Closing Thoughts from Panelists Simon shared his enthusiasm for the future of Svelte, particularly the highly anticipated Svelte 5. The recent addition of Dominic to the team has already made a significant impact, and the brainstorming sessions have been rewarding. Exciting things are on the horizon for Svelte users. Geoff encouraged everyone to give Svelte 4 a try and welcomes feedback and issue reports as they continue to refine and improve the framework. He emphasized that they are still in the early stages after the release and appreciate the community's support in upgrading their apps and providing valuable insights. Peru gave a special shout-out to Paulo Ricca, who has been instrumental in resolving issues with the new REPL. With Paulo's assistance, the REPL is now as stable and impressive as before. Peru expresses his gratitude for the collaboration. Ben extended his appreciation to the ecosystem integrations, mentioning the Storybook team and Jesse Beech, who contributed to optimizing file sizes and ensuring Svelte's compatibility with other JavaScript projects. The Svelte team is open to supporting and collaborating with anyone seeking to integrate Svelte with other tools in the ecosystem. Overall, the panelists were thankful, excited about the future, and grateful for the community's contributions and collaborations. The energy and positive feedback drove their motivation, and they encouraged everyone to continue exploring and pushing the boundaries of what Svelte can achieve. Conclusion In this Svelte 4 Launch Party, the panelists express their gratitude to the vibrant Svelte community for their unwavering support and positive energy. The launch of Svelte 4 and the promising developments of Svelte 5 have generated excitement and anticipation among developers. The core team's commitment to continuous improvement, collaboration with ecosystem integrations, and dedication to addressing user feedback are evident. As Svelte evolves, the contributions of individuals, whether through code, documentation, or community engagement, are valued and celebrated. With the momentum and enthusiasm surrounding Svelte, the future looks bright for this innovative framework and its passionate community....

Jun 30, 2023

12 mins

Svelte

Svelte 4: Unveiled Speed Enhancements and Developer-Centric Features

Svelte 4: Unveiled Speed Enhancements and Developer-Centric Features Svelte, a widely favored framework for building user interfaces, unveiled its much-anticipated version 4 on June 22. This major release, while paving the way for future advancements, brings a plethora of remarkable enhancements. Focusing on enriching the development experience and boosting performance, Svelte 4 is indeed reshaping the landscape of frontend development. In this post, we'll delve into the specifics of this exciting release, covering the significant performance boosts, enriched developer tools and features, revamped websites, and simplified migration guide. A Deeper Look at Performance Enhancements Svelte 4 delivers remarkable improvements in performance, focusing on shrinking the Svelte package size, and enhancing hydration efficiency. Streamlined Svelte Package Svelte 4 has substantially slimmed down, reducing its overall package size from 10.6 MB to a sleek 2.8 MB - a 75% decrease. This reduction in dependencies from 61 to 16 not only lightens Svelte but also optimizes SvelteKit, significantly accelerating the REPL experience and npm install times. For instance, npm install times have been trimmed from over 5 minutes to less than a minute, a leap in quality that any developer will appreciate. NPM I Before: NPM I After: Bundle Size Before: Bundle Size After: Optimized Hydration and Performance Scores Alongside the impressive package size reduction, Svelte 4 offers more efficient code hydration, reducing the generated code size for the SvelteKit website by nearly 13%. This leaner codebase contributes to higher performance on benchmarks like Google Lighthouse. The performance score for the new Svelte 4 starter on starter.dev has soared from 75% to a near perfect 95+%. Overall, the performance enhancements introduced with Svelte 4 mean a faster, more efficient, and smoother developer experience. Before: After: Enhanced Developer Experience in Svelte 4 Localized Transitions Transitions in Svelte 4 are local by default, preventing potential conflicts during page loading. ` Improved Web Component Authoring Web Components authoring is simplified with the dedicated customElement attribute in svelte:options. ` Stricter Type Enforcement Svelte 4 introduces stricter types for createEventDispatcher, Action, ActionReturn, and onMount. ` These changes collectively offer a streamlined, robust, and efficient coding experience. Revamped Svelte Websites With Svelte 4, the team has also revamped its main website, offering an improved and more user-friendly experience. The Tutorial Website The Svelte tutorial website has been overhauled for an enhanced learning journey. New improvements include a visible file structure, fewer elements in the navbar, smoother navigation between sections, and a new dark mode. The Svelte Website The primary Svelte website received a makeover too, including better mobile navigation, improved TypeScript documentation, and a handy dark mode. These website updates aim to provide a more engaging, intuitive, and user-friendly experience for all Svelte users. A Smooth Migration to Svelte 4 Transitioning from Svelte 3 to Svelte 4 is designed to be as straightforward as possible. The Svelte team has provided an updated migration tool to simplify this process. Here is a step-by-step guide for the transition: 1. Run the Svelte migration tool. ` 2. Remove Svelte 3 packages. ` 3. Update your eslintrc.json configuration file. ` 4. Upgrade Storybook related packages to the latest v7. Note: as of the publishing of this article, the latest version is 7.0.26. ` Do note that the minimum version requirements have changed. You will now need: - NodeJS 16 or higher - SvelteKit 1.20.4 or higher - TypeScript 5 or higher For more detailed instructions and information, please refer to the official Svelte 4 migration guide or you can take a look at our Svelte 4 starter kit on starter.dev. The focus is to ensure a hassle-free transition, allowing developers to take advantage of the new features and enhancements Svelte 4 offers without significant obstacles. Conclusion Svelte 4, with its performance enhancements and streamlined development process, offers a new pinnacle in the realm of JavaScript frameworks. If you're keen on shifting from Svelte 3 to Svelte 4, a comprehensive migration guide is provided to facilitate a smooth transition. For a quick start with Svelte 4, check out our ready-to-use Svelte Kit with SCSS Starter Kit. In addition, we've developed two showcases demonstrating Svelte 4's power: 1. Svelte Kit with SCSS & 7GUIs - A comprehensive demo showcasing various UI challenges. 2. GitHub Replica Showcase - A clone of the popular code hosting platform, GitHub, demonstrating the potential of Svelte 4 in building complex and high-performance web applications. In conclusion, Svelte 4 brings numerous performance improvements and enriches the development experience, thereby increasing developer productivity and enabling the creation of more efficient applications. Its thoughtful design, alongside the streamlined migration process, is set to expand its adoption in the web development community....

Jul 26, 2023

5 mins

Svelte

How to Truncate Strings Easily with CSS

You'll often need to truncate text when working with user interfaces, especially when displaying content within a limited space. CSS provides a straightforward way to handle this scenario, ensuring that long text strings are cut off gracefully without affecting the overall layout. CSS Truncation Techniques Single-Line Truncation If you want to truncate a single line of text, CSS provides a simple solution. The key properties to use here are overflow, white-space, and text-overflow. ` Explanation of properties: * white-space: nowrap: This ensures the text stays on a single line, preventing wrapping. * overflow: hidden: This hides any content that overflows the container. * text-overflow: ellipsis: This adds the ellipsis (…) at the end of the truncated text. Multi-Line Truncation While truncating a single line of text is common, sometimes you may want to display multiple lines but still cut off the text when it exceeds a certain number of lines. You can use a combination of CSS properties such as -webkit-line-clamp along with the display and overflow properties. ` Live example: Explanation of properties: * display: -webkit-box: This is a legacy flexbox-like display property that works with the -webkit-line-clamp property. * -webkit-line-clamp: Specifies the number of lines to show before truncating. * -webkit-box-orient: vertical: Ensures the box is laid out vertically for proper multi-line truncation. * overflow: hidden: Prevents content overflow. * text-overflow: ellipsis: Adds an ellipsis after the truncated content. Why Use CSS for Text Truncation Over JavaScript Techniques? While it’s possible to truncate text using JavaScript, CSS is often a better choice for this task for several reasons. Let's explore why CSS-based truncation techniques are generally preferred over JavaScript. Performance Efficiency CSS operates directly within the browser's layout engine, meaning it doesn’t require additional processing or event handling as JavaScript does. When using JavaScript to truncate text, the script needs to run on page load (or after DOM manipulation), and sometimes, it needs to listen for events such as window resizing to adjust truncation. This can introduce unnecessary overhead, especially in complex or resource-constrained environments like mobile devices. CSS, on the other hand, is declarative. Once applied, it allows the browser to handle text rendering without any further execution or processing. This leads to faster load times and a smoother user experience. Simplicity and Maintainability CSS solutions are much simpler to implement and maintain than their JavaScript counterparts. All it takes is a few lines of CSS to implement truncation. In contrast, a JavaScript solution would require you to write and maintain a function that manually trims strings, inserts ellipses, and re-adjusts the text whenever the window is resized. Here's the JavaScript Truncation Example to compare the complexity: JavaScript Truncation Example: ` At the example above, we truncated the text to 50 characters which may be 1 line on large screens and 6 lines on mobile and in that case we will need to add more code to truncate it responsively. As you can see, the CSS solution we used earlier is more concise and readable, whereas the JavaScript version is more verbose and requires managing the string length manually. Responsiveness Without Extra Code With CSS, truncation can adapt automatically to different screen sizes and layouts. You can use relative units (like percentages or vw/vh), media queries, or flexbox/grid properties to ensure the text truncates appropriately in various contexts. If you were using JavaScript, you’d need to write additional logic to detect changes in the viewport size and update the truncation manually. This would likely involve adding event listeners for window resize events, which can degrade performance and lead to more complex code. CSS Example for Responsive Truncation: ` To achieve this in JavaScript, you’d need to add more code to handle the width adjustments dynamically, making it more complex to maintain and troubleshoot. Separation of Concerns CSS handles the presentation layer of your website, while JavaScript should focus on dynamic functionality or data manipulation. By keeping truncation logic within your CSS, you're adhering to the principle of separation of concerns, where each layer of your web application has a clear, well-defined role. Using JavaScript for visual tasks like truncation mixes these concerns, making your codebase harder to maintain, debug, and scale. CSS is purpose-built for layout and visual control, and truncation is naturally a part of that domain. Browser Support and Cross-Browser Consistency Modern CSS properties like text-overflow and -webkit-line-clamp are widely supported across all major browsers. This means that CSS solutions for truncation are generally consistent and reliable. JavaScript solutions, on the other hand, may behave differently depending on the browser environment and require additional testing and handling for cross-browser compatibility. While older browsers may not support specific CSS truncation techniques (e.g., multi-line truncation), fallback options (like single-line truncation) can be easily managed through CSS alone. With JavaScript, more complex logic might be required to handle such situations. Reduced Risk of Layout Shifting JavaScript-based text truncation risks causing layout shifting, especially during initial page loads or window resizes. The browser may need to recalculate the layout multiple times, leading to content flashing or jumpy behavior as text truncation is applied. CSS-based truncation is applied as part of the browser’s natural rendering flow, eliminating this risk and ensuring a smoother experience for the user. Conclusion CSS is the optimal solution for truncating text in most cases due to its simplicity, efficiency, and responsiveness. It leverages the power of the browser’s rendering engine, avoids the overhead of JavaScript, and keeps your code clean and maintainable. While JavaScript truncation has its use cases, CSS should always be your go-to solution for truncating strings, especially in static or predictable layouts. If you like this post, check out the other CSS posts on our blog!...

Sep 13, 2024

4 mins

CSS

Svelte 5 is Here!

Svelte 5 was finally released after a long time in development. Fortunately, we've been able to test it for some time, and now it has a stable release. Let's dig into its features and why this is such a significant change, even though Svelte 4 code is almost 100% compatible. Svelte syntax everywhere This is one of my favorite additions. Previously, Svelte syntax was limited to a component element. Refactoring code from a component and moving it to a JavaScript file worked differently. Now you can use the .svelte.js or .svelte.ts extension, which allows you to use the same syntax everywhere. It's important to note that it's a way to express that this is not just JS, and what you write may be compiled to something else, just like .svelte files are not just html even though they look very similar. Runes The introduction of runes is one of the most significant changes in Svelte. Many users felt attracted to variables being instantly reactive in previous versions. ` There was, however, a lot of magic underneath and a considerable amount of work from the compiler to make it behave reactively. $state In Svelte 5, a reactive variable has to be explicitly declared using the $state rune, which brings a clear distinction between what is reactive and what isn’t. ` In the previous code, $state is not an actual function being called; it's a hint for the compiler to do something special with this declaration. Rune names always start with a dollar sign ($) and do not need to be imported. However, there’s much more to the changes than just the way we declare reactive variables. Runes bring a lot of new features that make Svelte 5 a great improvement. In Svelte 5, objects or arrays use Proxies to allow for granular reactivity, meaning that individual properties in an object are reactive, even if they are nested objects or arrays. If you modify a property, it will only update that property and will not trigger an update on the whole object. It also supports triggering updates when methods like array.push are called. In previous versions, an assignment was required to trigger an update: ` To have a similar behavior of svelte 4 (no deep reactivity), use the $state.raw() rune. This syntax of .* is common for related features of a rune: $state.raw() will require an assignment to trigger reactivity. ` Because proxies are used, you may need to extract the underlying state instead of the proxy itself. In that case, $state.snapshot() should be used: ` $derived We will use $derived and $derived.by to declare a derived state. The two runes are essentially the same, except one allows us to use a function instead of an expression, allowing for more complex operations to calculate the derived values. ` $effect Effects are useful for running something triggered by a change in state. One of the things you'll note from the $effect rune is that dependencies don't need to be explicit. Those will be picked from reactive values read synchronously in the body of the effect function. ` Something to bear in mind is that these dependencies are picked each time the effect runs. The values read during the last run become the dependencies of the effect. ` Depending on the result of the random method, foo or bar will stop being a dependency of the effect. You should place them outside the condition so they can trigger reruns of the effect. *Variants* of the effect rune are $effect.pre, which runs before a DOM update, and $effect.tracking(), which checks for the context of the effect (true for an effect inside an effect or in the template). $props This rune replaces the export let keywords used in previous versions to define a component's props. To use the $props syntax, we can consider it to return an object with all the properties a component receives. We can use JavaScript syntax to destructure it or use the rest property if we want to retrieve every property not explicitly destructured.. ` $bindable If you want to mutate a prop so that the change flows back to the parent, you can use the $bindable prop to make it work in both directions. A parent component can pass a value to a child component, and the child component is able to modify it, returning the data back to the parent component. ` $inspect The $inspect rune only works in dev mode and will track dependencies deeply. By default, it will call console.log with the provided argument whenever it detects a change. To change the underlying function, use $inspect.with().with): ` $host The host rune gives access to the host element when compiling as a custom element: ` ` Other changes Another important change is that component events are just props in Svelte 5, so you can destructure them using the $props() rune: ` A special children property can be used to project content into a component instead of using slots. Inside the components, use the [@render[(https://svelte.dev/docs/svelte/@render) tag to place them. ` Optional chaining (?.) prevents from attempting to render it if no children are passed in. If you need to render different components in different places (named slots before Svelte 5, you can pass them as any other prop, and use @render with them. Snippets Snippets allow us to declare markup slices and render them conveniently using the render tag (@render). They can take any number of arguments. ` Snippets can also be passed as props to other components. ` ` Conclusion Some exciting changes to the Svelte syntax were introduced while, at the same time, maximum compatibility efforts were made. This was a massive rewrite with numerous improvements in terms of performance, bundle size, and DX. Besides that, a new CLI has been released, making the whole experience of starting a project or adding features delightful. If you haven't tried Svelte before, it's a great time to try it now....

Nov 27, 2024

4 mins

Svelte

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Introducing the SolidStart, TanStack Query and Tailwind CSS Starter kit

Why SolidStart?

Vite

Why Tanstack?

Why Tailwind CSS?

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