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Erin Bensinger for The DEV Team

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#DEVDiscuss: HTMX

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)

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katafrakt profile image
Paweł Świątkowski

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.

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konung profile image
konung • Edited

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

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auct profile image
auct

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.

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610470416 profile image
NotFound404

htmx's ideas can be integrated into new versions of HTML.
Not a future of HTML.

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fyodorio profile image
Fyodor

Just a tool, there are many other tools…