webcomponents.js (v1 spec polyfills)

Note. For polyfills that work with the older Custom Elements and Shadow DOM v0 specs, see the v0 branch.

Note. For polyfills that include HTML Imports, see the v1 branch.

A suite of polyfills supporting the Web Components specs:

• Custom Elements v1: allows authors to define their own custom tags (spec, tutorial, polyfill).
• Shadow DOM v1: provides encapsulation by hiding DOM subtrees under shadow roots (spec, tutorial, shadydom polyfill, shadycss polyfill).

For browsers that need it, there are also some minor polyfills included:

• HTMLTemplateElement
• Promise
• Event, CustomEvent, MouseEvent constructors and Object.assign, Array.from (see webcomponents-platform)
• URL constructor

How to use

Install polyfills

npm install @webcomponents/webcomponentsjs

You can also load the code from a CDN such as unpkg: https://unpkg.com/@webcomponents/webcomponentsjs@^2/

Using webcomponents-bundle.js

The webcomponents-bundle.js contains all of the web components polyfills and is suitable for use on any supported browser. All of the polyfill code will be loaded but each polyfill will only be used based on feature detection. The bundle includes Custom Elements, Shady DOM/CSS and generic platform polyfills (such as ES6 Promise, Constructable events, etc.) (needed by Internet Explorer 11), and Template (needed by IE 11 and Edge).

The webcomponents-bundle.js is very simple to use but it does load code that is not needed on most modern browsers, slowing page load. For best performance, use the webcomponents-loader.js.

Here's an example:

<!-- load webcomponents bundle, which includes all the necessary polyfills -->
<script src="node_modules/@webcomponents/webcomponentsjs/webcomponents-bundle.js"></script>
 
<!-- load the element -->
<script type="module" src="my-element.js"></script>
 
<!-- use the element -->
<my-element></my-element>

Using webcomponents-loader.js

The webcomponents-loader.js is a client-side loader that dynamically loads the minimum polyfill bundle, using feature detection.

webcomponents-loader.js can be loaded synchronously, or asynchronously depending on your needs.

Inlining

If you have inlined the source of webcomponent-loader.js, then you should specify window.WebComponents.root as the root from which to load the polyfills. For example:

<script>
  window.WebComponents = window.WebComponents || {};
  window.WebComponents.root = 'node_modules/@webcomponents/webcomponentsjs/';
</script> 

Synchronous

When loaded synchronously, webcomponents-loader.js behaves similarly to webcomponents-bundle.js.

The appropriate bundle will be loaded with document.write() to ensure that WebComponent polyfills are available for subsequent scripts and modules.

Here's an example:

<!-- load the webcomponents loader, which injects the necessary polyfill bundle -->
<script src="node_modules/@webcomponents/webcomponentsjs/webcomponents-loader.js"></script>
 
<!-- load the element -->
<script type="module" src="my-element.js"></script>
 
<!-- use the element -->
<my-element></my-element>

Asynchronous

When loaded asychronously with the defer attribute, polyfill bundles will be loaded asynchronously, which means that scripts and modules that depend on webcomponents APIs must be loaded using WebComponents.waitFor function.

The WebComponents.waitFor function takes a callback function as an argument, and will evaluate that callback after the polyfill bundle has been loaded.

The callback function should load scripts that need the polyfills (typically via import('my-script.js')) and should return a promise that resolves when all scripts have loaded.

Here's an example:

<!-- Load polyfills; note that "loader" will load these async -->
<script src="node_modules/@webcomponents/webcomponentsjs/webcomponents-loader.js" defer></script>
 
<!-- Load a custom element definitions in `waitFor` and return a promise -->
<script type="module">
  WebComponents.waitFor(() => {
    // At this point we are guaranteed that all required polyfills have
    // loaded, and can use web components API's.
    // The standard pattern is to load element definitions that call
    // `customElements.define` here.
    // Note: returning the import's promise causes the custom elements
    // polyfill to wait until all definitions are loaded and then upgrade
    // the document in one batch, for better performance.
    return import('my-element.js');
  });
</script> 
 
<!-- Use the custom element -->
<my-element></my-element>

The WebComponents.waitFor function may be called multiple times, and the callback functions will be processed in order.

Here's a more complicated example:

<!-- Load polyfills; note that "loader" will load these async -->
<script src="node_modules/@webcomponents/webcomponentsjs/webcomponents-loader.js" defer></script>
 
<script type="module">
  WebComponents.waitFor(async () => {
    if (!window.fetch) {
      await import('node_modules/fetch-polyfill/fetch.js');
    }
    return import('my-element.js');
  })
</script> 
 
<script type="module">
</script> 

WebComponentsReady event

The WebComponentsReady event is fired when polyfills and user scripts have loaded and custom elements have been upgraded. This event is generally not needed; however, it may be useful in some cases like testing. If imperative code should wait until a specific custom element definition has loaded, it can use the platform customElements.whenDefined API.

custom-elements-es5-adapter.js

According to the spec, only ES6 classes (https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/scripting.html#custom-element-conformance) may be passed to the native customElements.define API. For best performance, ES6 should be served to browsers that support it, and ES5 code should be serve to those that don't. Since this may not always be possible, it may make sense to compile and serve ES5 to all browsers. However, if you do so, ES5-style custom element classes will now not work on browsers with native Custom Elements because ES5-style classes cannot properly extend ES6 classes, like HTMLElement.

As a workaround, if your project has been compiled to ES5, load custom-elements-es5-adapter.js before defining Custom Elements. This adapter will automatically wrap ES5.

The adapter must NOT be compiled.

Browser Support

The polyfills are intended to work in the latest versions of evergreen browsers. See below for our complete browser support matrix:

*Indicates the current version of the browser

The polyfills may work in older browsers, however require additional polyfills (such as classList, or other platform polyfills) to be used. We cannot guarantee support for browsers outside of our compatibility matrix.

Known Issues

• Style encapsulation (inline styling in components) does not work out of the box
• Custom element's constructor property is unreliable
• ShadyCSS: :host(.zot:not(.bar:nth-child(2))) doesn't work

Style encapsulation (inline styling in components) does not work out of the box.

The ShadowDOM polyfill does not properly support CSS in ShadowDoM out of the box:

• Any styles inside components have an effect on the whole document (instead of on the component only - the encapsulation is broken).
• Any shadow-dom specific selectors (like :host) do not work.

You can fix those issues by manually calling the ShadyCSS APIs. See ShadyCSS usage.

Custom element's constructor property is unreliable

See #215 for background.

In Edge and IE, instances of Custom Elements have a constructor property of HTMLUnknownElementConstructor and HTMLUnknownElement, respectively. It's unsafe to rely on this property for checking element types.

It's worth noting that customElement.__proto__.__proto__.constructor is HTMLElementPrototype and that the prototype chain isn't modified by the polyfills(onto ElementPrototype, etc.)

ShadyCSS: :host(.zot:not(.bar:nth-child(2))) doesn't work

ShadyCSS :host() rules can only have (at most) 1-level of nested parentheses in its argument selector under ShadyCSS. For example, :host(.zot) and :host(.zot:not(.bar)) both work, but :host(.zot:not(.bar:nth-child(2))) does not.

Manually Building

If you wish to build the bundles yourself, you'll need node and npm on your system:

• install node.js using the instructions on their website
• use npm to install gulp.js: npm install -g gulp
• make sure you have Java installed per https://www.npmjs.com/package/google-closure-compiler#java-version

Now you are ready to build the polyfills with:

# install dependencies
npm install
# build
npm run build

The builds will be placed into the root directory.

Contribute

See the contributing guide

License

Everything in this repository is BSD style license unless otherwise specified.

Copyright (c) 2015 The Polymer Authors. All rights reserved.

Changes in version 2.x

• The HTML Imports polyfill has been removed. Given that ES modules have shipped in most browsers, the expectation is that web components code will be loaded via ES modules.
• When using webcomponents-loader.js with the defer attribute, scripts that rely on the polyfills must be loaded using WebComponents.waitFor(loadCallback).