lily/component
Components subscribe to the Store and re-render
when their slice of the model changes. They are stateless components and
focus more on rendering, so are fairly light (lighter than Lustre or
LiveView components, for example) and having a lot of components is not
an anti-pattern in Lily.
Each component is a ComponentType plus zero or more
Decorations (the things you pipe on, like a transition or
an event listener). You never reach for the constructors directly, you call
the builder function for the type you want.
There are seven types, each with its own performance profile:
staticrenders once and never updatessimplere-renders via innerHTML when the slice changesliveapplies targeted patches instead of full re-renderseachhandles keyed lists with innerHTML renderingeach_livehandles keyed lists with patch-based renderingfragmentgroups other components into one slotswitchrenders one of several children by a discriminator, keeping DOM identity while the discriminator is unchanged
simple swaps the component’s entire DOM on every slice change, which
wipes focus, selection, and any half-typed input. live applies targeted
patches instead and leaves existing nodes untouched, so focus and typed
text survive the update. Anywhere there’s an <input> or <textarea>,
live is almost certainly what you want, and the same rule carries to
lists, prefer each_live over each when items contain inputs or must not
lose focus.
On top of its type, a component carries decorations, each applied with a
pipe: transition adds CSS enter/exit classes timed to a
duration (with deferred DOM removal so the exit animation finishes before
the element leaves), event.on and friends attach
listeners, scoped fixes the subtree an event confines itself
to, and require_connection gates the subtree on
connection status.
static, simple, and live hand their content function a slot
function as its first argument. Call slot(child_component) wherever you
want a child to appear in the parent template, it returns a placeholder of
your html type that gets swapped for the rendered child once the parent
serialises. Nest as deep as you like:
component.live(
slice: fn(model) { model.is_active },
initial: fn(slot) {
html.section([attribute.class("column")], [
html.h2([], [html.text("Title")]),
slot(component.each_live(
slice: fn(model) { cards_for(model) },
key: fn(card) { card.id },
initial: render_card,
patch: card_patches,
)),
])
},
patch: column_patches,
)
When a component has no children, just ignore the parameter:
component.simple(
slice: fn(model) { model.count },
render: fn(count, _) {
html.div([], [html.text(int.to_string(count))])
},
)
Components work with any HTML library, Lustre or raw strings, whatever you
like. The to_html function you pass at mount converts your
chosen library’s types into strings; we’d recommend
Lustre elements. If
you use nesting, also pass to_slot, a zero-argument function returning an
html placeholder that serialises to <lily-slot></lily-slot>. For
Lustre:
component.mount(
runtime,
selector: "#app",
to_html: element.to_string,
to_slot: fn() { element.element("lily-slot", [], []) },
view: app,
)
Or with raw HTML strings:
component.mount(
runtime,
selector: "#app",
to_html: fn(html) { html },
to_slot: fn() { "<lily-slot></lily-slot>" },
view: app,
)
Every component declares a slice that pulls just the data it needs out of
the model. The runtime caches the last slice and skips rendering when it’s
unchanged, using reference equality by default, or structural equality if
you pipe on structural (handy when the slice builds a new
tuple or record each time). Keep slices cheap and do the heavy lifting in
render, which the comparison gates. Here’s the whole thing end to end:
import lily/client
import lily/component
import lily/event
import lily/store
import lustre/attribute
import lustre/element
import lustre/element/html
fn decrement_button() {
html.button([attribute.data("message", "decrement")], [html.text("-")])
}
fn increment_button() {
html.button([attribute.data("message", "increment")], [html.text("+")])
}
fn app(_model: Model) {
component.simple(
slice: fn(model: Model) { model.count },
render: fn(count, _) {
html.div([], [
decrement_button(),
html.p([], [html.text(int.to_string(count))]),
increment_button(),
])
},
)
|> event.on_global_decoded(
event: event.click,
selector: "#app",
decoder: parse_click,
)
}
pub fn main() {
let runtime =
store.new(Model(count: 0), with: update)
|> client.start(shared.wiring())
runtime
|> component.mount(
selector: "#app",
to_html: element.to_string,
to_slot: fn() { element.element("lily-slot", [], []) },
view: app,
)
}
Event handlers pipe onto the component they belong to via
event.on(), and the walk that mount does
registers each binding once at startup. Events declared inside
each and each_live item bodies are not
collected, so put them on the each/each_live wrapper or any static
ancestor instead (probably a div).
Building components and rendering them to a string with
render_to_string work on both targets so that the
server can render initial components.
mount and event handling are JavaScript-only, since they drive
a live DOM.
Types
Component is the core type representing renderable content in Lily. The
constructors for Component is kept opaque, use the associated functions to
create components instead. The html type parameter is user-provided and
can be any type that represents HTML markup.
Each dynamic ComponentType variant (all but Static
and Fragment) carries a compare_structural flag. False (the
default) means slice changes are detected by reference equality (===,
O(1)); True means structural equality (==, O(n)) and is set by
piping a component through structural. Use structural
when the slice constructs new tuples, lists, or records on every call.
Components compile on both targets. The constructor functions and the
pure walker render_to_string work on Erlang and
JavaScript alike. mount is JavaScript-only because it
mutates the live DOM.
pub opaque type Component(model, message, html)
Patches are DOM updates to apply to a component, avoiding a full re-render
used for component.live and
component.each_live. The target field is a CSS selector
relative to the component’s root element, with an empty string provided
if the component’s root element is itself. Patches are scoped to their
component, preventing cross-component interference. The type compiles
on both targets so it can appear in the Component’s
patch-bearing variants on Erlang too; the patches themselves are only
applied by mount, which is JavaScript-only.
pub type Patch {
RemoveAttribute(target: String, name: String)
SetAttribute(target: String, name: String, value: String)
SetStyle(target: String, property: String, value: String)
SetText(target: String, value: String)
}
Constructors
-
RemoveAttribute(target: String, name: String)Remove an HTML attribute
-
SetAttribute(target: String, name: String, value: String)Set an HTML attribute
-
SetStyle(target: String, property: String, value: String)Set a CSS style property
-
SetText(target: String, value: String)Set the textContent of an element (wipes children)
A function that accepts a child Component and returns a placeholder
value of your html type marking where that child will be rendered.
Passed as the first parameter of every static, simple, and live
content function. Call it inline wherever you want the child to appear;
call order determines DOM position.
pub type Slotter(model, message, html) =
fn(Component(model, message, html)) -> html
Values
pub fn each(
slice slice: fn(model) -> List(item),
key key: fn(item) -> key,
render render: fn(item) -> Component(model, message, html),
) -> Component(model, message, html)
Manages a dynamic list of items with add/remove/reorder reconciliation.
Each item is identified by a unique key. When the list changes, only
the changed items are updated. component.each differs from
component.each_live in that it does a full re-render of
the HTML element instead of patches.
Avoid using each for list items that contain <input>, <textarea>,
or <select> elements, each changed item replaces its DOM via
innerHTML, destroying focus and in-progress user input. Use
each_live with targeted patches instead.
slice must return a List rather than a single element, unlike
component.simple.
While the type for key can be defined by the user, internally, these are
converted to String.
The render function is called for each item and returns a Component.
For plain HTML items, wrap with component.static.
Event bindings declared inside render are not collected. Attach
per-list events to this each component or any ancestor (selectors are
global, so one handler on .card covers every card).
component.each(
slice: fn(model) { model.counters },
key: fn(counter) { counter.id },
render: fn(counter) {
component.static(fn(_) {
html.div([class("counter")], [
html.text(int.to_string(counter.value))
])
})
}
)
pub fn each_live(
slice slice: fn(model) -> List(item),
key key: fn(item) -> key,
initial initial: fn(item) -> Component(model, message, html),
patch patch: fn(item) -> List(Patch),
) -> Component(model, message, html)
Manages a dynamic list of items with add/remove/reorder reconciliation.
Each item is identified by a unique key. When the list changes, only
the changed items are updated. component.each_live differs
from component.each in that patches to the DOM element are
applied instead of a full re-render. This is useful when list items are
updated frequently.
slice must return a List rather than a single element, unlike
component.live.
While the type for key can be defined by the user, internally, these are
converted to String.
The initial function returns a Component for each item’s first render.
Wrap plain HTML with component.static. The patch
function returns patches applied on updates (the item’s root must remain).
Event bindings declared inside initial are not collected. Attach
per-list events to this each_live component or any ancestor (selectors
are global, so one handler covers every item).
component.each_live(
slice: fn(model) { model.series },
key: fn(series) { series.id },
initial: fn(series) {
component.static(fn(_) {
html.div([class("display-data")], [
html.span([class("value")], [html.text("0")])
])
})
},
patch: fn(series) {
[SetText(".value", int.to_string(series.value))]
},
)
pub fn fragment(
children: List(Component(model, message, html)),
) -> Component(model, message, html)
Fragments allow you to return multiple components from a single
function. The children are rendered in order and concatenated into the
parent’s HTML. Similar to Lustre’s element.fragment.
fn app(_model: Model) -> Component(Model, Message, Element(Message)) {
component.fragment([
component.static(fn(_) { html.h1([], [html.text("My App")]) }),
component.simple(...),
component.each(...),
])
}
pub fn live(
slice slice: fn(model) -> a,
initial initial: fn(fn(Component(model, message, html)) -> html) -> html,
patch patch: fn(a) -> List(Patch),
) -> Component(model, message, html)
Live components render an initial HTML structure once, then apply DOM
patches on subsequent updates. This avoids the full innerHTML replacement
of simple, which means existing nodes are never destroyed
between updates.
Use live whenever the component contains <input>, <textarea>, or
<select> elements. Because the DOM nodes are preserved, focus,
cursor position, and any in-progress user input survive model updates.
This also makes live the right choice for high-frequency updates such
as drag-and-drop, animations, and real-time data (60fps rendering).
The patch function returns a list of Patch values. Each patch targets
an element relative to the component’s root using a CSS selector.
The first parameter of initial is a Slotter, call
slot(child_component) wherever you want a nested component to appear.
Ignore it with _ if no children are needed.
Example
component.live(
slice: fn(model) { model.data },
initial: fn(_) {
html.div([], [
html.span([class("value")], [html.text("0")]),
html.div([class("bar")], [])
])
},
patch: fn(data) {
[
SetText(".value", int.to_string(data)),
SetStyle(".bar", "width", int.to_string(data) <> "%"),
]
}
)
pub fn mount(
runtime: client.Runtime(model, message),
selector selector: String,
to_html to_html: fn(html) -> String,
to_slot to_slot: fn() -> html,
view view: fn(model) -> Component(model, message, html),
) -> client.Runtime(model, message)
This is the entry point for rendering, mounting a component tree to a
specific DOM element. It creates a subscription to the store, renders
the entire component tree, and walks the tree to register every event
binding attached via event.on() and friends.
selector: CSS selector for the mount point (e.g.,"#app")to_html: Function to converthtmltype toString(e.g.,element.to_stringfor Lustre orfn(html) {html}for raw HTML strings)to_slot: Zero-argument function returning anhtmlplaceholder value that serialises to<lily-slot></lily-slot>. Used when nesting components viaSlotter. For Lustre:fn() { element.element("lily-slot", [], []) }. For raw HTML strings:fn() { "<lily-slot></lily-slot>" }.view: Function that takes the model and returns the root component tree
mount can be called more than once on a shared runtime, with
different selectors, to drive multiple DOM roots from one model. This
is how overlays / portals work: mount your main view at #app and a
secondary overlays view at #overlays. Both views subscribe to the
same model and update on every dispatch. Calling mount twice on the
same selector tears down the previous mount and replaces it.
runtime
|> component.mount(
selector: "#app",
to_html: element.to_string,
to_slot: fn() { element.element("lily-slot", [], []) },
view: app,
)
pub fn render_to_string(
view view: fn(model) -> Component(model, message, html),
model model: model,
to_html to_html: fn(html) -> String,
from_string from_string: fn(String) -> html,
) -> String
Render a view to an HTML string without touching the DOM. Walks the
Component tree, calling each render / initial /
content function and piping through to_html. Compiles on both
targets, so it can produce the initial page markup ahead of time (at
build time, or from a plain request handler) rather than on a live DOM.
Pair with
transport.encode_initial_snapshot
to embed the matching initial state and
client.hydrate so the client adopts the
pre-rendered DOM instead of re-rendering it on load. This is static
pre-rendering plus hydration from a fixed snapshot, not per-request
server-side rendering.
Nested components placed via the Slotter callback are
rendered inline: the walker renders each child to a string and uses
from_string to wrap that string back as an html value the user
composes into the parent. For raw-HTML libraries where html is just
String, from_string is the identity. For Lustre, pass an
unsafe_raw_html-style constructor that inserts the string verbatim.
Event bindings, focus management, and CSS transitions are skipped:
they only make sense on a live DOM. For live and
each_live, the initial baseline is rendered; patches
only apply at runtime via mount.
let html = component.render_to_string(
view: shared.view,
model: shared.initial_model(),
to_html: element.to_string,
from_string: element.unsafe_raw_html(_, "div", [], _),
)
pub fn require_connection(
component: Component(model, message, html),
connected connected: fn(model) -> Bool,
) -> Component(model, message, html)
When you want to disable a component when the transport is disconnected,
this allows you to do that. The connected function extracts the
connection status from the model. When it returns False, Lily adds
data-lily-disabled="true" and aria-disabled="true" attributes plus a
lily-disconnected CSS class to the component’s root element, and prevents
all event handlers from firing. Custom styling, such as greying the
component out or changing opacity, can be achieved with simple CSS styling.
Pipe this after creating a component.
component.simple(
slice: fn(model) { model.transfer_amount },
render: fn(amount, _) {
html.button([], [html.text("Transfer $" <> int.to_string(amount))])
},
)
|> component.require_connection(fn(model) { model.connected })
pub fn simple(
slice slice: fn(model) -> a,
render render: fn(
a,
fn(Component(model, message, html)) -> html,
) -> html,
) -> Component(model, message, html)
This is the most common component type. It subscribes to a slice of the model and re-renders the entire component when that slice changes.
The render function receives the slice value and a Slotter.
Call slot(child_component) wherever you want a nested component to appear,
or ignore the slot parameter with _ if no children are needed.
Avoid using simple for components that contain <input>, <textarea>,
or <select> elements, every slice change replaces the component’s
entire DOM via innerHTML, which destroys focus and any in-progress user
input. Use live with targeted patches instead.
component.simple(
slice: fn(model) { model.count },
render: fn(count, _) {
html.div([], [html.text("Count: " <> int.to_string(count))])
}
)
Pipe through event.on() and friends to attach DOM
event handlers to the rendered subtree, registered once at
mount.
pub fn static(
content content: fn(fn(Component(model, message, html)) -> html) -> html,
) -> Component(model, message, html)
Static components render once and never update. Useful for headers, static text, or any content that doesn’t depend on the model.
The content function receives a Slotter. Call
slot(child_component) wherever you want a nested component to appear,
or ignore the slot parameter with _ if no children are needed.
component.static(fn(_) { html.h1([], [html.text("My App")]) })
pub fn structural(
component: Component(model, message, html),
) -> Component(model, message, html)
Switch a component’s comparison strategy from reference to structural
equality. By default, components use reference equality (===) to detect
slice changes. This works well for primitives and unchanged references.
Use structural() when your slice function returns new tuples, lists, or
other constructed values on every call.
Static and Fragment components don’t compare slices, so this returns
them unchanged; decorations are left untouched.
component.simple(
slice: fn(model) { #(model.x, model.y) }, // Returns new tuple each time
render: fn(pos, _) { ... }
)
|> component.structural // Enable deep equality check
pub fn switch(
on slice: fn(model) -> a,
case_of build: fn(a) -> Component(model, message, html),
) -> Component(model, message, html)
Single-slot dynamic switching with identity preservation. slice picks a
discriminator from the model; build turns that discriminator into a
Component. When the slice value is unchanged across renders, the wrapper
and child DOM are not touched, so focus, selection, and in-progress
input survive. When the slice changes, the old child’s handlers are
unregistered, the new Component is built and rendered, and the wrapper’s
innerHTML is replaced.
Switch compares by reference equality by default, pipe through
structural when the slice constructs new values on
every call (tuples, records). Pair with
event.on() on the Switch itself to bind events:
bindings declared inside build’s returned Component are not collected
at mount and never fire. Selectors are global, so one handler on
.panel-close covers every panel rendered by the switch.
Example
component.switch(
on: fn(model: Model) { model.route },
case_of: fn(route) {
case route {
Home -> home_page()
Profile -> profile_page()
Settings -> settings_page()
}
},
)
pub fn transition(
component: Component(model, message, html),
enter enter: String,
exit exit: String,
duration_milliseconds duration_milliseconds: Int,
) -> Component(model, message, html)
Decorate a component with enter and exit CSS classes timed to a duration.
Pipe-friendly: the component comes first, so it chains like the other
decorators (event.on*, require_connection). On
mount, the wrapper carries enter for duration_milliseconds, then
the class is removed. On unmount (when an enclosing each, each_live,
or switch removes the wrapper), exit is applied and DOM removal is
deferred by the same duration, with animationend taking precedence if
the CSS fires it first.
The CSS contract is keyframes-based:
.dialog-enter { animation: dialog-enter 200ms; }
.dialog-exit { animation: dialog-exit 200ms forwards; }
@keyframes dialog-enter { from { opacity: 0 } to { opacity: 1 } }
@keyframes dialog-exit { from { opacity: 1 } to { opacity: 0 } }
forwards on exit keeps the final state visible while the framework
holds the element in the DOM, preventing a flicker before removal.
Placement rule: transitions fire only when the framework’s
removal path runs through them. That happens for each, each_live,
and switch child removal. Placing a transition inside a simple’s
render does not run exits on parent re-render, since simple’s
innerHTML wipe is synchronous. Hoist the transition to an each_live
item or a switch child if you need exits to fire.
Example
component.each_live(
slice: fn(model) { model.toasts },
key: fn(toast) { int.to_string(toast.id) },
initial: fn(toast) {
component.static(fn(_) { render_toast(toast) })
|> component.transition(
enter: "toast-enter",
exit: "toast-exit",
duration_milliseconds: 200,
)
},
patch: fn(_) { [] },
)