jml-h

JsonML + Virtual Hypertext generator

Super light-weight 60-line package to work with JsonML and Virtual Hypertext functions to generate XML/HTML or virtual DOM from JsonML.

var lib = require('jml-h');
var h = lib.h;

var html =
    h('div', {'class': 'wrapper'},
        h('div', {'class': 'avatar'},
            h('img', {src: '...'}),
            h('span', {},
                'Hello there'
            ),
            h('br')
        )
    );
console.log(html);
// <div class="wrapper"><div class="avatar"><img src="..."/><span>Hello there</span><br/></div></div>

Or using JsonML:

console.log(lib.dom(
    ['div', {'class': 'wrapper'},
        ['div', {'class': 'avatar'},
            ['img', {src: '...'}],
            ['span',
                'Hello there'
            ],
            ['br']
        ]
    ]
));
// <div class="wrapper"><div class="avatar"><img src="..."/><span>Hello there</span><br/></div></div>

Reference

type JsonMLNode         = [tag: string, attributes?: {}, ...children: JsonMLNode[]];
type JsonMLNodeReplaced = any|[tag: string, attributes?: {}, ...children: (any|JsonMLNode)[]];
type VHypertext         = (tag: string, attributes: {}, ...children: JsonMLNodeReplaced[]) => JsonMLNodeReplaced;

attr(obj: {}): string

Formats a collection of tag attributes into an HTML string.

var attributes = {id: 'header', 'class': 'floating'};
console.log(lib.attr(attributes));
// id="header" class="floating"

h(tag: string, attributes: {}, ...children: string[]): string

The most basic Virtual Hypertext function that directly generates an HTML string.

var h = lib.h;
var html = h('div', {'class': 'main'},
    h('a', {href: '...'},
        'Click me'
    )
);
console.log(html);
// <div class="main"><a href="...">Click me</a></div>

traverse(jml: JsonMLNode, callback: (node: JsonMLNodeReplaced) => any): any

Traverses JsonML object starting from leaf nodes calling callback for every node. callback receives a JsonML node as a single argument.

The value returned by callback is used to replace that node when the callback is called for its parent node.

lib.traverse(
    ['div', {'class': 'wrapper'},
        ['div', {'class': 'avatar'},
            ['img', {src: '...'}],
            ['span',
                'Hello there'
            ],
            ['br']
        ]
    ], function(node) {
        console.log(node);
        return node;
    }
);

dom(jml: JsonMLNode, h: VHypertext): any

dom accepts two arguments: a JsonML tree and a Virtual Hypertext function h, it feeds JsomML nodes one-by-one to the, Virtual Hypertext effectively creating a Virtual DOM.

By default it uses the bundled h function:

var vdom = lib.dom(
    ['div', {'class': 'wrapper'},
        ['a', {'href': '#link'}, 'Click me!']
    ]
);
console.log(vdom); // <div class="wrapper"><a href="#link">Click me!</a></div>

Alternatively you can provide the Virtual Hypertext function of your framework, for example:

var jml = ['div', {'class': 'wrapper'},
    ['a', {'href': '#link'}, 'Click me!]
];

// React.js
lib.dom(jml, React.createElement.bind(React));

// Mithril.js
lib.dom(jml, m);

// virtual-dom
var h = require('virtual-dom/h');
lib.dom(jml, h);

map(transform: (node: JsonMLNode) => JsonMLNode, h: VHypertext): VHypertext

Based on existing hypertext function h creates a new hypertext function that applies transform function to every JsonML node before giving it to the original h.

For example, replace div tags with span tags:

var jml = ['div', null, 'Hello'];
function divToSpan(node) {
    if(node[0] === 'div') node[0] = 'span';
    return node;
}
var new_h = lib.map(divToSpan, lib.h);
console.log(lib.dom(jml, new_h));

What is JsonML

JsonML is a compact representation of XML/HTML as JSON or JavaScript objects. Consider the following HTML snippet:

<ul class="my-list">
    <li><a href="#link1">Click 1</a></li>
    <li><a href="#link2">Click 2</a></li>
</ul>

In JsonML it can be represented as follows:

['ul', {'class': 'my-list'},
    ['li',
        ['a', {href: '#link1'}, 'Click 1'],
    ]
    ['li',
        ['a', {href: '#link2'}, 'Click 2'],
    ]
]

Basically, every node is represented by an array, where first element is a tag name, the second element is a collection of attributes and all the rest elements represent child nodes.

type JsonMLNode = [tag: string, attributes?: {}, ...children: JsonMLNode[]];

Virtual Hypertext Generator h

Virtual Hypertext generator function, frequently represented by h and has a similar syntax to JsonML.

It is frequently used in virtual DOM templating libraries, such as React.js, Mithril.js, virtual-dom, etc.

Even if your virtual DOM templating library does not have a Virtual Hypertext function, you can create it yourself.

To generate the above HTML with h, you would write this:

h('ul', {'class': 'my-list'},
    h('li', null,
        h('a', {href: '#link1'}, 'Click 1'),
    ),
    h('li', null,
        h('a', {href: '#link2'}, 'Click 2'),
    )
);

Virtual Hypertext function is defined as follows:

h(tag: string, attributes: {}, ...children: any[]): any;

Virtual Tag Functions

Create convenience function div(), span(), etc..

var h = lib.h;
lib.tags(h, h, ['div', 'span']);
var {div, span} = h;
console.log(div({'class': 'test'}, span(null, 'Hello')));
// <div class="test"><span>Hello</span></div>

Usage with React.js

The second argument to the dom() function is a Virtual Hypertext generator function, you can provide React.createElement.bind(React) to it to generate React's virtual DOM.

Generate React Virtual DOM representations from JsonML lists instead of using React.createElement or .jsx files and compiling them to .js:

var react_dom = lib.dom(
    ['div', {className: 'test'},
        ['span', null,
            'Hello world!'
        ]
    ], React.createElement.bind(React)
);

This is equivalent to:

var react_dom = React.createElement('div', {className: 'test'},
    React.createElement('span', null, 'Hello world!'));

You might consider creating the React's Virtual Hypertext function for convenience:

React.h = React.createElement.bind(React);

And then create JsonML to virtual DOM generator:

React.dom = function(jml) {
    return lib.dom(jml, React.h);
};

So now, instead of installing .jsx to .js compiler and writing XML in your JavaScript projects, like so:

var CommentBox = React.createClass({
    render: function() {
        return (
            <div className="commentBox">
                Hello, world! I am a CommentBox.
            </div>
        );
    }
});

You can do everything in 100% JavaScript:

var CommentBox = React.createClass({
    render: function() {
        return React.dom(
            // BONUS:
            // You can now add plain comments to your React templates,
            // without the required {/* */} syntax (in some places).           
            ['div', {className: 'commentBox'},
                'Hello, world! I am a CommentBox.'
            ]
        );
    }
});

TypeScript definitions for your extension:

declare namespace __React {
    export var h: (...jml: any[]) => React.ReactElement<any>;
    export var dom: (jml: any[]) => React.ReactElement<any>;
}