I share my first experience with the htmx library. I created a simple site (https://tubog-showcase.ru) consisting of a home page with an initial set of apartment cards and 5 buttons that display apartments filtered by number of rooms.
Stack: Astro + HTMX + Tailwind
Implementation is very simple:
// src/pages/index.astro
<form
id='filter-form'
hx-trigger='change'
hx-post='/api/cases'
hx-target='#serch-results'
hx-swap='innerHTML'
hx-indicator='#loading'
>
...
<label>
<input
type='radio'
name='rooms'
value='1'
class='hidden peer'
/>
<div class='hover:border-slate-500 peer-checked:opacity-100 peer-checked:shadow-xl peer-checked:border-slate-400'>
1 комната
</div>
</label>
...
</form>
<div id='loading'>
Loading...
</div>
<div id='serch-results'></div>
Соответственно, при выборе нового варианта фильтра, по адресу /api/cases
выполняется POST-запрос с данными о выбранном варианте.
Индикатором рабты запроса является <div id='loading'>
. Результат (готовый HTML) выводится внутри <div id='serch-results'></div>
.
На стороне api
код выглядит примерно так:
// src/pages/api/cases.ts
export const POST: APIRoute = async ({ request }) => {
const formData = await request.formData()
const rooms = formData.get('rooms')
// Получаем список комнат на основе rooms
return new Response(
`
<div>
${filteredFlats.map(flat => ` {some flat html here} `)}
</div>
`,
{
status: 200,
headers: {
'Content-Type': 'text/html+htmx',
},
}
)
And that's it.
First Impressions
This approach to create web applications is rather not for me. Implementing with the same React seems simpler and with more potential for improvement. What I didn't like:
- The blurring of application logic. The backend doesn't just return data, but also deals with frontend tasks;
- The need to harmonize the layout on the client side and the server side (in our case it's the default display of maps and search results output).
Yes, I made it a bit more difficult for myself by not using page partials, but their use within the same Astro in conjunction with HTMX seemed a bit too far-fetched to me.
Still, I have a number of tasks where HTMX is a perfect fit: I have several old static sites and sites implemented on CMS like WordPress. For these, the will to add interactivity (especially using page partials) is a great prospect. For sites written in Next or Astro, I haven't seen a use for it yet.
P.S. An unexpected problem
In this project I've connected View Transitions and it seems to break the HTMX library. As soon as you make a transition between pages, the site ends up static. Fortunately, I came across this article which describes the solution: you need to add the following script to the page with HTXM code.
// src/pages/index.astro
<script>
document.addEventListener('astro:page-load', () => {
const contentElement = document.getElementById('filter-form')
if (contentElement) {
htmx.process(document.body)
}
})
</script>
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