Implant

🌱 asynchronous inline content replacement

Support the development of Implant.

Install

$ yarn add implant

Fetching Network Resources

Reference an Implant handler from your HTML:

<p>{get: "https://f1lt3r.github.io/foobar/bazqux.html"}</p>

Write the Implant handler:

const request = require('request')
 
const handlers = {
    get: url => new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
        request(url, (err, res, body) => {
            if (err) {
                return reject(err)
            }
 
            resolve(body)
        })
    })
}
 
const result = implant(html, handlers)'

The content of bazqux.html is fetched from the web when implant handler is executed.

Checkout the result:

<p><h1>Hello, wombat!</h1></p>

Using JavaScript Objects

You can use plain JavaScript object within your HTML:

<div>
    <!-- Implant reference object -->
    {article: {
        id: 8421,
        section: 3
    }}
</div>

Your Implant handler can reference data using the properties you pass:

// Some store of data
const articles = {
    8421: {
        sections: {
            3: 'Foo. Or foo not. There is no bar.'
        }
    }
}
 
// Implant handler returns data from store
const handlers = {
    article: ref => {
        const {id, section} = ref
        return articles[id].sections[section]
    }
}
 
const result = implant(html, handlers)

Result:

<div>Foo. Or foo not. There is no bar.</div>

Using Illegal JavaScript Values

It is also possible to use illegal JavaScript values, such as references to objects that do not exist. For example:

<div>{foo: i.find.your.lack.of.qux.disturbing}</div>

When an illegal value is encountered, Implant pass back a stringified version of the handler.

const handlers = {
    foo: uri => console.log
    // 'i.find.your.lack.of.qux.disturbing'
}

Handling values this way allows you to write cleaner syntax in your content templates by excluding quotes; or designing your own custom syntax.

You might use this feature to reference filenames without quotes:

<div>{article: programming-101.md}</div>

Then you could fetch and render the article like this.

const handlers = {
    foo: uri => fetchPost(uri)
}

Recusion

You can recurse through the result of you implant like this:

const html = {
    level1: '<div>1 {include: level2}</div>',
    level2: '<div>2 {include: level3}</div>',
    level3: '<div>3 {include: level4}</div>'
}
 
const handlers = {
    include: ref => {
        return html[ref]
    }
}
 
const opts = {
    maxRecursion: 3
}
 
;(async () => {
    const result = await implant(html.level1, handlers, opts)
 
})()

Result:

<div>1 <div>2 <div>3 {include: level4}</div></div></div>

Why Recusion?

You may want to use recursion if you are building a just-in-time dependancy tree. For example: if your implant fetched a dependency that contained a reference to another depdendancy.

Note: if you do not specify the maxRecusion option, implant will only run once.

Credits

Thanks to the following designers from the Noun Project for the vectors used in the lead graphic.

• Sarah Rudkin
• Alex Tai