HTA

The tiny framework for building Hyper Text Application with ease

Why HTA ?

• Write less do more
• No compiler or bundler needed
• Easy to convert HTML template to HTA
• Extremely fast DOM updating
• Built-in store and router

Installation

npm install hta --save

Comparison with Other Frameworks

Syntax

Let's create simple counter app

HTA

import { $, render } from "hta";
 
const initialState = { count: 0 };
const Increase = ({ count }) => ({ count: count + 1 });
const CounterValue = (props, select) => $`<h1>${select("count")}</h1>`;
const CounterAction = () =>
  $`<button ${{ onclick: [Increase] }}>Increase</button>`;
const App = () => $`
  ${CounterValue}
  ${CounterAction}`;
render(App, { state: initialState });

React + Redux Toolkit

import React from "react";
import { render } from "react-dom";
import { connect, Provider } from "react-redux";
import { configureStore, createAction, createReducer } from "@reduxjs/toolkit";
 
const increment = createAction("INCREMENT");
const reducer = createReducer(0, {
  [increment.type]: (state) => state + 1,
});
const store = configureStore({ reducer });
 
const CounterValue = connect((state) => ({ count: state }))(({ count }) => (
  <h1>{count}</h1>
));
const CounterAction = connect(null, { increment })(({ increment }) => (
  <button onClick={increment}>Increase</button>
));
const App = () => (
  <>
    <Provider store={store}>
      <CounterValue />
      <CounterAction />
    </Provider>
  </>
);
render(<App />, document.body);

Features

Feature	HTA	React	Vue	Angular
Compiler / Bundler needed		☑	☑	☑
Async Rendering	☑
Two Way Binding	☑		☑	☑
SVG Supported	☑		☑	☑
Directive	☑		☑	☑
Built-in Router	☑			☑
Built-in Store	☑
Suspense	☑	☑
Declarative	☑	☑
Component	☑	☑	☑	☑
Functional Hooks	☑	☑	☑
Lazy Component	☑	☑	☑	☑
Shared Context	☑	☑	☑	☑

Basic Usages

Render simple HTML

import { $, render } from "hta";
render($`<h1>Hello World</h1>`);

Using substitutions

import { $, render } from "hta";
render($`<h1>It is ${new Date().toLocaleTimeString()}.</h1>`);

If the substitution is:

• string/number/Date: It will be rendered as text node
• boolean/undefined/null: It will not be rendered
• Function: HTA understands the function is component and render the component content/result
• Tuple [Function, object]: HTA renders component with specified props (the second item of tuple)
• Promise/Plain object: By default HTA renders these text node, and the node value is toString() result, but you can add extras (please refer JSON tag extras) to handle plain object rendering.

Using element binding

import { $, render } from "hta";
render(
  // add style attribute and textContent property bindings to DIV element
  $`<div ${{ style: "font-weight: bold", textContent: "Hello World" }}></div>`
);

The binding must be placed in open tag. You can bind any element property / attribute.

Handling element event

import { $, render } from "hta";
render($`<button ${{ onclick: () => alert("Hello World") }}>Click me</button>`);

HTA treats the binding which starts with on*** as event handler.

If you want to bind some element property/attribute which starts with on*** ? Using { attr: { attrName: value } } for attribute binding and { prop: { propName: value } } for property binding

Updating element text

There are 2 ways to update element text

1. Using text / textContent binding
2. Using substitution is more flexible than above

import { $, render } from "hta";
render($`
  <button ${{ text: "Button 1" }}></button>
  <button ${{ textContext: "Button 2" }}></button>
  <button>${"Button 3"} ${"Other text"}</button>
`);

Updating element HTML

There are 2 ways to update element HTML

1. Using text / textContent binding
2. Using substitution is more flexible than above

import { $, render } from "hta";
render($`
  <button ${{ html: "<strong>Button 1</strong>" }}></button>
  <button ${{ innerHTML: "<strong>Button 2</strong>" }}></button>
  <button>${$`<strong>Button 3</strong>`} ${$("Other HTML")}</button>
`);

Component

HTA component is pure function, that receives component props and return component content

function MyComponent(props) {
  return $`<h2>Hello ${props.name}</h2>`;
}
 
function App() {
  return $`
    <h1>Component Demo</h1>
    <!-- passing tuple to substitution to render MyComponent with specified props  -->
    ${[MyComponent, { name: "World" }]}
  `;
}
 
render(App);

Component content is anything, it is the same as substitution

Advanced Usages

Examples

• Todo MVC(140 lines of code)
• Todo App (4000 todos)
• Crypto Search (5600 coins)
• Silky Smooth (Fast enough to render over 500 elements at 60fps)
• Performance testing
  • hta
  • react + redux
• SVG Animation
  • hta
  • d3js
• (more examples)[https://github.com/linq2js/hta/tree/master/examples]

API references