image created by Margaux Peltat for the Chilled Cow YouTube channel
Time for #DEVDiscuss — right here on DEV 😎
Inspired by @quii's Top 7 post, tonight’s topic is...HTMX!
Unlike SPAs, HTMX doesn't throw away the architectural approach of REST; it augments the browser, improving its hypermedia capabilities and making it simpler to deliver a rich client experience without having to write much JavaScript if any at all.
Questions:
- Do you think HTMX is the future? Why or why not?
- Have you had a chance to implement HTMX yet? What did you think?
- If you haven't used HTMX...why not?
- Any triumphs, fails, or other stories you'd like to share on this topic?
Top comments (5)
I must have missed something, but why is HTMX coming up everywhere just now? Yes, I used it. It was like 2 or 3 years ago.
Is it the future? Nothing so far pointed to it, so unless something really changed recently, probably not.
I’ve used htmx for 2hobby projects
It’s best compared to Alpine.js and Stimulus.
Personally I don’t like overblown SPA sites . They have their place for some use-cases - but are overblown out of proportion, and often misused, creating unwieldy and unmaintanable software .
IMHO 95% of SPA apps would be better off as server-rendered apps with some sprinkle of js . HTMX helps bring interactivity in those cases .
It could be also a great companion tool together with Hyperscript to something like Elixir’s Liveview , making that bit of interactivity on the page that needs to be client based - easier and faster to implement .
I’ve used Htmx in a Rails app as well as Hanami app . Really liked it
Two years ago I tried to use it, but syntax is meh.
So I built uajax (this one even published on github) and js-ajax-button.
I don't think any of these is the future.
If you need a lot of js - use spa framework.
If you need sprinkle of js - write some functions or use uajax or similar.
htmx's ideas can be integrated into new versions of HTML.
Not a future of HTML.
Just a tool, there are many other tools…