stencil-tailwind-plugin

This package is used to integrate tailwindcss and StencilJS. This plugin for Stencil is specifically focused on the integration between tailwindcss v3.x and the Stencil build. While tailwindcss can be integrated into a Stencil build, this plugin aims to ease the integration, while providing an optimised inclusion of styles across the shadow DOM. For tailwind v2 support, please see the v0.6+ versions and branch.

This plugin also aims to allow users to make use of all the tailwindcss classes and postcss plugins like @apply. In such both styles of tailwindcss usage can be used in a single component. This plugin also aims to allow the use of object initialisers to conditionally set styles.

For an example of a basic Stencil integration, see the example.

Getting started

This guide assumes that a Stencil project has already been initialized and configured.

Installation

Install the necessary dependencies:

npm install -D stencil-tailwind-plugin tailwindcss

Configuration

In the Stencil configuration, consume the plugin:

// stencil.config.ts
import { Config } from '@stencil/core';
import tailwind from 'stencil-tailwind-plugin';

export const config: Config = {
  plugins: [
    tailwind()
  ],
  devServer: {
    reloadStrategy: 'pageReload'
  }
};

In some configurations, the reloadStrategy can be left as hmr but on occasions new styles are not applied as expected. For more on HMR, see below.

There are also a number of options that can be given to the plugin:

| Property | Description | Default | | ----------------- | --------------------------------------------------------- | ------------ | | tailwindCssPath | Path to a css file to read for tailwind css configuration. When not specified a default layers of @base, @utilities and @components are used. | undefined | | tailwindCssContents | Instead of providing the file path, the plugin accepts string details. If both are supplied, the file contents will be taken as the source of truth ignoring this configuration | @tailwind base;@tailwind utilities;@tailwind components; | | tailwindConf | Configuration object to be used for tailwind processing | The default set of tailwind options or configuration function | | stripComments | Indicate if the comment headers should be stripped as well | false | | minify | Indicate if the css should be minified by using cssnano | true | | useAutoPrefixer | Indicate if the auto-prefixer should be used used autoprefixer | true | | postcss | Path to postcss configuration object or an object that contains the postcss configuration. If a postcss configuration is found in the default paths, it will be used. | process.cwd() |

The default options can be referenced from the plugin as well:

// stencil.config.ts
import tailwind, { PluginOpts } from 'stencil-tailwind-plugin';

const opts = {
  ...PluginOpts.DEFAULT,
  debug: false,
  stripComments: true
};

export const config: Config = {
  // ...
  plugins: [
    tailwind(opts)
  ],
  // ...
};

Default configuration

All the plugins can be configured (as detailed) below. Given that there are 3 potential use cases, each plugin should have the same configuration. Hence repeating the configuration could cause bloat if a single configuration intended to be used. Hence, there is a support function that can update the configuration used when using subsequent plugins - setPluginConfigurationDefaults.

The configuration of the options can be done as such:

// stencil.config.ts
import tailwind, { setPluginConfigurationDefaults, tailwindGlobal, tailwindHMR } from 'stencil-tailwind-plugin';

const opts = {
  debug: false,
  stripComments: true
};

setPluginConfigurationDefaults(opts);

export const config: Config = {
  // ...
  plugins: [
    tailwindGlobal(),
    tailwind(),
    tailwindHMR()
  ],
  // ...
};

Here the PluginOpts.DEFAULT will be automatically applied and only the delta options need to be set.

All the plugins that are not provided configuration will receive the configuration from setPluginConfigurationDefaults. This does not preclude setting different options per plugin:

// stencil.config.ts
import tailwind, { setPluginConfigurationDefaults, tailwindGlobal, tailwindHMR } from 'stencil-tailwind-plugin';

const opts = {
  debug: false,
  stripComments: true,
  minify: true
};

setPluginConfigurationDefaults(opts);

export const config: Config = {
  // ...
  plugins: [
    tailwindGlobal(),
    tailwind(),
    tailwindHMR({
      ...opts,
      minify: false
    })
  ],
  // ...
};

In the above, the tailwindHMR plugin will not minify the source, but the other will.

Configuration per file

There can be situations whereby a Tailwind configuration needs to be applied to a specific file/component. This can be accomplished by providing a configuration function rather than a configuration object. In the examples above and object is used, but in this scenario we will configure the plugin with a function:

// stencil.config.ts
import tailwind, { TailwindConfig } from 'stencil-tailwind-plugin';

const twConfigurationFn = (filename: string, config: TailwindConfig): TailwindConfig => {
  if (filename.includes('the-chosen-one.tsx')) {
    return {
      ...config,
      safelist: [
        'bg-red-500',
        'text-3xl',
        'lg:text-4xl'
      ]
    };
  }
  return config;
};

const opts = {
  tailwindConf: twConfigurationFn
};

export const config: Config = {
  // ...
  plugins: [
    tailwind(opts)
  ],
  // ...
};

In the above code tailwindConf is given a callback function to be able to modify the Tailwind configuration that'll be used for the file.

The argument filename is the full path to the component that will be processed by Tailwind processor, and the config is the plugin's configuration that has been determined by the plugin. This configuration can then be updated accordingly and this will be the final configuration applied to the component.

Important considerations for function based configuration

It is important to note that updating the content file array to remove/change the file being processed can have interesting effects. Care must be taken to ensure that the file list is properly preserved. Because the configuration is incomplete at the point of calling this function, the config parameter might not be appropriate for direct returning. This is because the configuration represents the default configuration. If there are "basic" level configurations that need to be applied, then they need to be applied to the configuration before returning.

For instance, if there is an external configuration:

// tailwind.config.js
module.exports = {
  plugins: [require('@tailwindcss/forms')]
};

which them would need to be applied by default:

// stencil.config.ts
import cfg from './tailwind.config';

const twConfigurationFn = (filename: string, config: TailwindConfig): TailwindConfig => {
  if (filename.includes('the-chosen-one.tsx')) {
    return {
      ...config,
      ...cfg,
      safelist: [
        'bg-red-500',
        'text-3xl',
        'lg:text-4xl'
      ]
    };
  }
  return {
    ...config,
    ...cfg
  };
};

Here cfg is applied to both paths.

The other consideration is that the file being processed will be the raw file for StencilJS compiler. This means the filename will contain query parameters as well:

some-component.scss?tag=some-component

The example about merely checks the includes option as this negates the use of tags by StencilJS.

If there are multiple distributions enabled in the StencilJS configuration, then the configuration function will be called multiple times. StencilJS handles each distribution output separately so each time a file is processed per distribution the configuration is required for that distribution. Presently there is no indication of which distribution Stencil is processing so configuration per file per distribution output is not possible.

Postcss custom configuration

There are a number of postcss plugins that might be wanted when processing the tailwind output specifically. The nature of the stencil build makes it difficult to pass the custom css directly back into the css pipeline building. Hence, the postcss configuration can be completely overridden by specifying the postcss configuration path, or by creating a postcss configuration file.

The plugin uses the default postcss-load-config package. Hence, any the configuration options can be used as a file. If a postcss configuration file exists in the process.cwd(), then that postcss configuration will be used over the built-in postcss configuration.

The postcss config option can be used to specify the path. If the configuration file is not found in that path, the plugin will quietly fall over to use the built-in configuration. If there are modules not found, these will be reported to the user.

As an example of a postcss configuration that could be used:

// postcss.config.js
module.exports = {
  plugins: [
    require('postcss-import'),
    require('tailwindcss'),
    require('autoprefixer'),
    require('postcss-sort-media-queries'),
    require('postcss-combine-duplicated-selectors'),
    require('cssnano')
  ]
};

or as a Stencil configuration:

// stencil.config.ts
import tailwind from 'stencil-tailwind-plugin';

export const config: Config = {
  // ...
  plugins: [
    tailwind({
      postcss: {
        plugins: [
          require('postcss-import'),
          require('tailwindcss'),
          require('autoprefixer'),
        ]
      }
    })
  ],
  // ...
};

If the tailwindcss plugin is not specified, it is assumed that the plugins should be run before the default tailwind options. The tailwindcss plugin options will be overwritten by the tailwind configuration provided by the plugin, hence, the postcss tailwindcss is used as a marker for where tailwindcss should be used in the postcss chain of plugins.

Configuration with other plugins

It is important to note that when using sass files, that the sass Stencil plugin appears before the tailwind plugin. The sass plugin needs to process the sass files first before the raw css is pasted to the tailwind postcss processor. An example configuration could look like:

// stencil.config.ts
import { Config } from '@stencil/core';
import { sass } from '@stencil/sass';
import autoprefixer from 'autoprefixer';
import tailwind from 'stencil-tailwind-plugin';
import { inlineSvg } from 'stencil-inline-svg';
import tailwindConfig from './tailwind.config';

export const config: Config = {
  outputTargets: [ /* ... */],
  plugins: [
    inlineSvg(),
    sass({
      includePaths: [
        /* ... */
      ]
    }),
    tailwind({
      tailwindCssPath: './src/styles/tailwind.pcss',
      tailwindConf: tailwindConfig,
      postcss: {
        plugins: [
          autoprefixer()
        ]
      }
    }),
  ]

HMR considerations

Stencil's compiler does support HMR, however, for inline styles produced by tailwind, another plugin is required in order for the correct dependencies to be mapped to the file watcher. The HMR plugin can be included by:

// stencil.config.ts
import { Config } from '@stencil/core';
import tailwind, { tailwindHMR } from 'stencil-tailwind-plugin';
import tailwindConfig from './tailwind.config';

export const config: Config = {
  // ...
  plugins: [
    sass(),
    tailwind({
      tailwindConf: tailwindConfig,
      tailwindCssPath: './src/styles/tailwind.css'
    }),
    tailwindHMR()
  ]
};

The tailwindHMR plugin will register all the tsx files against the css files. This allows Stencil to watch for changes on those tsx files and update the css accordingly.

The tailwindHMR function takes an optional configuration parameter. If the stylesheets use the @apply syntax, then the configuration maybe required to transform the styles correctly compared to the standard configuration used with the main tailwind plugin. The configuration usage:

// stencil.config.ts
import { Config } from '@stencil/core';
import tailwind, { tailwindHMR } from 'stencil-tailwind-plugin';
import tailwindConfig from './tailwind.config';

export const config: Config = {
  // ...
  plugins: [
    sass(),
    tailwind({
      tailwindConf: tailwindConfig,
      tailwindCssPath: './src/styles/tailwind.css'
    }),
    tailwindHMR({
      tailwindConf: tailwindConfig
    })
  ]
};

Unfortunately, as of v2.12.0 of the compiler, this cannot be done as a single plugin and two plugins are required.

Global styles with @apply

If you use a global style sheet, but want to use Tailwind styles in that sheet, there is another plugin that facilitates this. The global stylesheet plugin takes the same configuration options as the main plugin, but can be tailored with different options as desired. The global plugin can be used as:

import tailwind, { tailwindHMR, tailwindGlobal } from 'stencil-tailwind-plugin';

// ... other config
export const config: Config = {
  globalStyle: 'src/styles/global.scss',
  outputTargets: [
    // targets
  ],
  plugins: [
    sass(),
    // This takes the same configuration options as the main plugin. You can use different configurations if you want
    tailwindGlobal({
      tailwindCssPath: './src/styles/tailwind.pcss',
      tailwindConf: tailwindConfig,
      postcss: {
        plugins: [
          atImport(),
          tailwindcss(),
          autoprefixer()
        ]
      }
    }),
    tailwind({
      tailwindCssPath: './src/styles/tailwind.pcss',
      tailwindConf: tailwindConfig,
      postcss: {
        plugins: [
          atImport(),
          tailwindcss(),
          autoprefixer()
        ]
      }
    }),
    tailwindHMR()
  ]
};

Usage

This plugin hooks into the build process for Stencil. The tailwind JIT process run as a secondary build set and as such the css classes are applied after the component has been transpiled.

For an example of a basic Stencil integration, see the example.

Using @apply is css/sass files

The tailwind @apply directive can be used in any css/sass file as per tailwind spec:

.apply-styles {
  @apply text-red-100;
}

The @apply directive will be applied as expected:

.apply-styles {
  --tw-text-opacity: 1;
  color: rgba(254, 226, 226, var(--tw-text-opacity));
}

Using inline classes

Assuming a component declares a render function of:

render() {
  return (
    <div class="text-red-100">
      This is a test
    </div>
  );
}

Inline classes will be added to the component style definition.

Using conditional styles

Assuming a component declares a render function of:

render() {
  const styles = {
    'text-red-100': true,
    'text-red-200': this.someCondition
  };
  return (
    <div class={styles}>
      This is a test
    </div>
  );
}

In this case, both text-red-100 and text-red-200 styles will be added to the components style definition.

Using style urls

Assuming the component has declared:

@Component({
  tag: 'component',
  styleUrls: {
    md: 'component.md.scss',
    ios: 'component.ios.css',
  },
  shadow: true,
})

In this case, all tailwind styles will be added to both md and ios style definitions.

Caveat on Function Components (1)

There are some issues around functional components when they are located in external files to a component. The plugin attempts to insert the Function Component styles into the host component and in so doing, the Stencil HMR does not detect the changes correctly and will require a rebuild when this happens.

As an example, given:

// component-A.tsx
import { FuncComp } from '../common/UtilsFunctionalComponents'

// rest of the normal component that uses <FuncComp />

And:

// component-B.tsx
import { FuncComp } from '../common/UtilsFunctionalComponents'

// rest of the normal component that uses <FuncComp />

And:

// common/UtilsFunctionalComponents.tsx
export const FuncComp: FunctionalComponent<FunctionalCompProps> = ({ name }) => (
  <h1 class="text-indigo-700">This is a functional one - Hello, {name}!</h1>
);

In this example, component-A and component-B will both contain the style definition for text-indigo-700 because they both import FuncComp.

If common/UtilsFunctionalComponents.tsx is updated, neither component-A.tsx or component-B.tsx will be build by Stencil's HMR, hence the style class change from FuncComp will not reflect.

Caveat on Function Components (2)

Functional components can be composed of other functional components. However, there is a known issue where the subsequent functional component (the component that is being used inside the functional component) will not generate any styles. The styles are only generated for the first level of functional components. This is due to the way the Stencil compiler handles stylesheets and functional component building.

Caveat on base reset styles

This plugin does not include base tailwind reset styles as this would bloat all the components with base styles. If based reset styles are required, the best is to place them in the :host selector. The plugin keeps the :host selector for being purged.

Peer Dependencies

This plugin requires the following peer dependencies:

• tailwindcss
• typescript

These are provided as peer dependencies so consumers can override the versions.

Development

Clone the repo and install the dependencies:

npm install

Run tests:

npm run tests

Honourable mentions

A lot of inspiration for this plugin was taken from the similarly named plugin, stencil-tailwind by Jack Rowlingson.

Inspiration also taken from proto-stencil-tailwind that moves stencil-tailwind forward by Richard Hess.

Special thanks to the above.

Other options

For other ways of integrating Tailwind into your project, Anthony Giuliano wrote a blog post:

https://ionicframework.com/blog/how-to-integrate-tailwind-css-into-your-stencil-project/