Using HTMX

Terms defined: spread arguments

Overview

Outline

• Go back to the models, views, and server from Serving HTML
  • Strip out row and column views
  • Add a button for each row
  • Styling is ugly, so add a handler for static files in server.py as well
• Add an empty div with ID experiments
• Add htmx.js to head of page to use htmx
• Modify buttons to use it
  • hx-get: get from URL
  • hx-trigger: event that triggers action
  • hx-target: ID of page element to modify in place
  • hx-swap: replace inner HTML (as opposed to the entire element with outerHTML)
• htmx searches document for properties starting hx- and adds appropriate callbacks

<button hx-get="/exp/{row.staff_id}" hx-trigger="click" hx-target="#experiments" hx-swap="innerHTML">
  x
</button>

• Running it now produces 404 error
• So implement /exp/id in server, models, and views
  • experiments function in models.py uses an inner join
  • Add *args to handle_format to spread arguments for convenience
• More common for server to return JSON that a JavaScript library in the browser translates into HTML
• But that approach leads to large (slow) libraries in the browser
  • Unfair to people using mobile, on slow connections, etc.