DEV Community

Cover image for Simple React like button with Stylify CSS. From Utilities to Components, mangled selectors, and 50% smaller production build.
Vladimír Macháček
Vladimír Macháček

Posted on • Updated on • Originally published at stylifycss.com

Simple React like button with Stylify CSS. From Utilities to Components, mangled selectors, and 50% smaller production build.

Write CSS-like selectors directly into the template and style your React app quickly with Stylify CSS.

Learn how to use Stylify CSS. to style a button quickly using only utilities and then clean the template using components. Learn why the output in production can be 50% and more smaller🔥.

Table of content

Introduction

Stylify is a library that uses CSS-like selectors to generate optimized utility-first CSS based on what you write.

  • ✨ CSS-like selectors
  • 💎 No framework to study
  • 💡 Less time spent in docs
  • 🧰 Mangled & Extremely small CSS
  • 🤘 No purge needed
  • 🚀 Components, Variables, Custom selectors
  • 📦 It can generate multiple CSS bundles

Also we have a page about what problems Stylify CSS solves and why you should give it a try!

The Code

Here is the code behind the button:

import { useState } from 'react';
import './stylify.css';

function LikeButton() {
  const [count, setCount] = useState(0);

  return (
    <button
      className="
        color:#222
        font-weight:bold
        border:0
        background:#fff
        font-size:16px
        padding:8px_16px
        border-radius:4px
        cursor:pointer
        box-shadow:0_.3em_.6em_rgba(0,0,0,0.3)
        transition:background_0.3s,scale_0.3
        align-items:center
        display:inline-flex

        [&:hover_span:first-of-type]{transform:scale(1.5)}
        [span]{display:inline-flex}
      "
      onClick={() => setCount(count + 1)}
    >
      <span className="
          margin-right:8px 
          font-size:24px 
          transition:transform_0.3s
      ">❤️</span>
      <span className="margin-right:6px">Like</span>
      <span
        className="
          background:#eee 
          padding:4px 
          align-items:center 
          justify-content:center 
          border-radius:50% 
          min-width:24px 
          min-height:24px
      ">{count}</span>
    </button>
  );
}

export default LikeButton;
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

The generated CSS for example above:

.color\:\#222{color: #222}
.font-weight\:bold{font-weight: bold}
.border\:0{border: 0}
.background\:\#fff{background: #fff}
.font-size\:16px{font-size: 16px}
.padding\:8px_16px{padding: 8px 16px}
.border-radius\:4px{border-radius: 4px}
.cursor\:pointer{cursor: pointer}
.box-shadow\:0_\.3em_\.6em_rgba\(0\,0\,0\,0\.3\){box-shadow: 0 .3em .6em rgba(0,0,0,0.3)}
.transition\:background_0\.3s\,scale_0\.3{transition: background 0.3s,scale 0.3}
.align-items\:center{align-items: center}
.\[span\]\{display\:inline\-flex\} span,
.display\:inline-flex{display: inline-flex}
.margin-right\:8px{margin-right: 8px}
.font-size\:24px{font-size: 24px}
.transition\:transform_0\.3s{transition: transform 0.3s}
.margin-right\:6px{margin-right: 6px}
.background\:\#eee{background: #eee}
.padding\:4px{padding: 4px}
.justify-content\:center{justify-content: center}
.border-radius\:50\%{border-radius: 50%}
.min-width\:24px{min-width: 24px}
.min-height\:24px{min-height: 24px}
.\[\&\:hover\_span\:first\-of\-type\]\{transform\:scale\(1\.5\)\}:hover span:first-of-type,
.transform\:scale\(1\.5\){transform: scale(1.5)}
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Production build - 50% smaller

When you allow Stylify to mangle selectors, then the output looks like this:

.c{color:#222}
.d{font-weight:bold}
.e{border:0}
.f{background:#fff}
.g{font-size:16px}
.h{padding:8px 16px}
.i{border-radius:4px}
.j{cursor:pointer}
.k{box-shadow:0 .3em .6em rgba(0,0,0,0.3)}
.l{transition:background 0.3s,scale 0.3}
.m{align-items:center}
.b span,.n{display:inline-flex}
.o{margin-right:8px}
.p{font-size:24px}
.q{transition:transform 0.3s}
.r{margin-right:6px}
.s{background:#eee}
.t{padding:4px}
.u{justify-content:center}
.v{border-radius:50%}
.w{min-width:24px}
.x{min-height:24px}
.a:hover span:first-of-type,.y{transform:scale(1.5)}
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Also the selectors in JSX are minified

<button
  className="c d e f g h i j k l m n a b"
  onClick={() => setCount(count + 1)}
>
  <span className="o p q">❤️</span>
  <span className="r">Like</span>
  <span className="s t m u v w x">{count}</span>
</button>
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

CSS size:

  • Dev: 1101 bytes
  • Production: 556 bytes

The size savings are around 50% (The size is similar in gzipped mode). If we take the mangled HTML, the difference will be even bigger.

Template cleanup

What if we have a lot of utilities and want to move them out of the template? With Stylify you can do that using reusable components. They can be defined within a comment (expects js object without surrounding brackets) in the file where they are used or in a global config.

// ...

/* 
stylify-components
'like-button': `
  color:#222
  font-weight:bold
  border:0
  background:#fff
  font-size:16px
  padding:8px_16px
  border-radius:4px
  cursor:pointer
  box-shadow:0_.3em_.6em_rgba(0,0,0,0.3)
  transition:background_0.3s,scale_0.3
  align-items:center
  display:inline-flex
  span { display:inline-flex }
  &:hover span:first-of-type {  transform:scale(1.5) }
`,
'like-button__hearth': 'margin-right:8px font-size:24px transition:transform_0.3s',
'like-button__counter': `
  background:#eee 
  padding:4px 
  align-items:center 
  justify-content:center 
  border-radius:50% 
  min-width:24px 
  min-height:24px
`
/stylify-components
*/

function LikeButton() {
  // ...

  return (
    <button className="like-button" onClick={() => setCount(count + 1)}>
      <span className="like-button__hearth">❤️</span>
      <span className="margin-right:6px">Like</span>
      <span className="like-button__counter">{count}</span>
    </button>
  );
}

// ...
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

In production, the components are also mangled.

Syntax explanation

In the example above, you can see Stylify using CSS-like selectors. With a few differences.

  • _ within a selector is used instead of space
  • [span]{display:inline-flex} is an inline custom selector. This allows you to style custom selectors.
  • & inside [&:hover_span:first-of-type] always refers to the upper level like in SCSS
  • The indented syntax in components is also like in SCSS. Except, to keep things simple, it supports only nesting and chaining
span { 
  display:inline-flex 
}
&:hover span:first-of-type {  
  transform:scale(1.5) 
}
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Checkout Stackblitz Playground

You can try the playground on Stackblitz.

Let me know what you think!

If you like the idea, let me know that by starring Stylify repo ❤️.

I will also be happy for any feedback! The Stylify is still a new Library and there is a lot of space for improvement 🙂.


Stay in touch:
👉 @8machy
👉 @stylifycss
👉 stylifycss.com
👉 dev.to/machy8
👉 medium.com/@8machy

Top comments (1)

Collapse
 
machy8 profile image
Vladimír Macháček • Edited

Hi @jordan, and thanks! However Stylify is not "focused" on any tool. This way it works in any framework, tool and environment (it just needs node tu be executed). It's just a default behavior. Compile => generate => mangle.