svelte-htable

This is a hierarchical table component for Svelte. This means that it is a table that may be provided with items that contain items, and said contained items need to be displayed as a sub-table. The process can be repeated, producing an arbitrary amount of nested tables. An image is worth a thousand words:

The styling shown in the example is not provided in the component itself. It must be provided by assigning a CSS class to the table or by styling the <table> element and its sub-elements (<th>, <td>, etc). Inner tables inherit any CSS classes that are applied to the parent, but further styling can be applied down the sub tables. See the Styling the Table section of this ReadMe for details on the matter.

Features

1. It is a recursive component.
2. Sub-tables can show a path and a level on top of it (this uses the table's <caption> element).
3. Sub-tables can be targetted for further styling.
4. It can group items so all items with sub-items are grouped together either before or after the items with no sub-items.
5. The summary of the elements with sub-items can be specified freely using either the value of a property, using completely arbitrary logic via a function, or creating HTML markup using the summary slot.
6. The path in sub-tables can be generated by the value of a property or by using a function.
7. Column data can be rendered using the datacell slot to allow for complex HTML content.
8. If needed, the entire row can be freely designed using the datarow slot.
9. Column definitions allow the definition of a renderValue() function to easily control data formatting or support computed columns.

Quickstart

Install the package:

npm i svelte-htable

Now use it as <Htable /> in a page or component. The following example is in TypeScript to show how to extend the Item type to have Intellisense. This is optional, as all of TypeScript. Feel free to use JavaScript if you want.

NOTE: This is an example use in a Svelte page (it receives the data from its load() function).

<script lang="ts">
    import
        Htable, { // Table component.
        CaptionOrder, // Enumeration to control the order of the data in captions.
        ItemGrouping, // Enumeration to control the item grouping behavior.
        type Column, // TypeScript type.  It represents a single table column definition.
        type Item, // Base TypeScript item type.  Extend this type as shown below.
    } from "svelte-htable";

    interface DataItem extends Item {
        first_name: string;
        last_name: string;
        email: string;
        gender: string;
        country_code: string;
        manager_id: number;
    }
    // This page expects the data to be provided through its load() function (Svelte stuff).
    export let data: { data: DataItem[] };
    // Define your table columns.
    const columns: Column[] = [
        {
            key: "id", // property name in the JS object
            title: "ID", // title shown in the column header
        },
        {
            key: "first_name",
            title: "First Name",
        },
        {
            key: "last_name",
            title: "Last Name",
        },
        {
            key: "birth_date",
            title: "Birth Date",
            renderValue: (i, k) => new Date(i[k]).toLocaleDateString(), // Date formatting
        },
        {
            key: "age", // Computed column.
            title: "Age",
            renderValue: (i, k) => {
                const diff = Date.now() - Date.parse(i.birth_date);
                return Math.floor(
                    diff / (365 * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000)
                ).toString();
            },
        },
        {
            key: "gender",
            title: "Gender",
        },
        {
            key: "country_code",
            title: "Country Code",
        },
        {
            key: "manager_id",
            title: "Manager's ID",
        },
    ];
</script>
<!-- Now use the component. -->
<Htable
    items={data.data}
    {columns}
    level={true}
    showPath={true}
    summary={(i) => `${i.last_name}, ${i.first_name}`}
    pathSegment={(i) => i.last_name}
    pathSeparator=" > "
    maxPathSegmentLength={10}
/>

First import the Htable component, and if you need to, also import the CaptionOrder and the ItemGrouping enumerations, which are used to control the order of things in sub-tables' captions as well as item ordering in the tables (not shown in the example).

IMPORTANT This quickstart example will come out without styles. It is up to you to provide the needed styling.

Required Data Structure

If you haven't realized yet, your data needs to follow a specific structure. Each item is expected to have id and subItems properties as per the definition of the Item data type. Data items with a non-empty array in their subItems property will generate a sub-table whose rows will be generated from the data items found in said array.

Styling the Table

There are two ways to style the tables generated by svelte-htable. The most straightforward approach would be to target the <table> element using a regular CSS file (so the classes are not scoped to a component), or a Svelte page/component file using :global() to avoid Svelte from scoping the CSS. Then the table automatically picks the styles up as per the usual CSS rules.

The second way is to apply a CSS class to the component, declaring its styles either in a regular CSS file or a Svelte page/component file with :global(). I would say this is probably the saner option because most likely you don't want to target other tables in your project by mistake.

This should cover the basics for styling, but the component allows finer targetting of its internal parts.

Styling Sub-Tables

All sub-tables are decorated with the sub CSS class and also inherit the parent's CSS class. This means that one can write CSS selectors of the form table.sub|table.someClass.sub (or :global(table.sub|table.someClass.sub)) to only target sub-tables. The screenshot shown in this ReadMe used this technique to apply sub-tables a different text color. Something like this:

table.data {
    /* Main table and sub-tables obtain this background color because they all inherit the data class. */
    background-color: darkblue;
}

/* But wait!  We want a different background color for sub-tables. */
table.data.sub {
    background-color: darkgreen;
}

NOTE: I hope those color names exist! :-)

This CSS will grant the main table a dark blue background, while sub-tables will gain a dark green background.

But maybe this is not good enough. Maybe we want alternating background colors. No problem. Sub-tables also get either the sub-odd or sub-even CSS classes depending on whether their level is odd or even. This can be used to accomplish alternating per-table styling. The image shown at the beginning was created using these clases to apply alternating greenish backgrounds to sub-tables. Hopefully this doesn't need an example? I'll just mention a sample CSS selector: table.data.sub.sub-odd.

Finally, the sub-X CSS class is applied to the tables, where X is the table's level. The main table is level 1, while all immediate sub-tables are level 2. The main table has no extra CSS classes; the immediate sub-tables will have the sub and sub-2 CSS classes. This CSS class should help you style exact-level tables.

Styling Sub-Table Captions

Sub-tables can show a caption on top with up to two pieces of information: The table's level and the item's path value. Since this is a table that displays hierarchical data, the concept of a path should be natural, and this is what is meant to be shown in the table's caption. See the next section for information about this and other features.

The table's caption (a <caption> HTML element) is made up of two <span> elements inside an inline-flexed <span> element. Each of these are assigned a CSS class based on their position. The one to the left has the cpt-l CSS class; the one to the right, cpt-r. Use these classes to style the pieces of information shown in the caption.

NOTE: What's shown to the left or the right depends on the value of the captionOrder prop as explained in the next section.

Styling Expansibles

The expansibles are <details> HTML elements. As per their usage, what is shown when the contents are collapsed is inside a <summary> HTML element. You may style by targetting this element. This is an example CSS that assumes the tables have been applied the data CSS class:

table.data details > summary {
    /* Add the CSS for what is visible when the elements are collapsed. */
}

This <details> element spans all table columns. The row that contains the element is further applied a sub CSS class to help styling. An equivalent to the above could be:

table.data tr.sub details > summary {
    /* Add the CSS for what is visible when the elements are collapsed. */
}

This is more specific than the previous example, so this should help in case specificity comes into play.

Styling Data Rows

The most common need is to style a table's rows in an alternating fashion. svelte-htable covers this case by adding either the odd or even CSS class to every row in the <tbody> element of the table. Style targetting these CSS classes.

Htable's Props

The following is the complete list of supported props:

| Property | Type | Description | Example | | - | - | - | - | | columns | Column[] | Required. Column definitions. | [{ key: 'id', name: 'ID'}] | | items | Item[] | Required. Data items. | [{ id: 1, name: 'John', subItems: [{ id: 2, name: 'Clara' }]}] | | class | String | Optional. Used to apply CSS class(es). | "my-css-data-table" | | level | boolean \| ((level: number) => string) | Optional. When using a Boolean value, it shows or hides the level in caption; when providing a function, it is used to create what shows up as Level in the caption. | true; l => 'Level: ' + l | | showPath | Boolean | Optional (defaults to false). Set to true to show the sub-tables' paths in their captions. | true | | pathSeparator | String | Optional (defaults to '.'). Divider used to join path segments to create sub-tables' paths. | ' > ' | | captionOrder | Number (CaptionOrder) | Optional (defaults to CaptionOrder.PathLevel). Specifies which data goes where in sub-tables' captions. | CaptionOrder.LevelPath | | grouping | Number (ItemGrouping) | Optional (defaults to ItemGrouping.ExpansiblesFirst). Specifies how to group data items based on the existence of sub-items in them. | ItemGrouping.ExpansiblesLast | | summary | string \| ((item: Item) => string) | Optional. Used to control what is shown as the expansible item's summary. | i => i.name | | pathSegment | string \| ((item: Item) => string) | Optional. Used to define sub-tables' paths. | i => i.employeeId | | maxPathSegmentLength | Number | Optional. If specified, path segments that exceed this length will be truncated. | 10 | | initialOpenLevel | Number | Optional (defaults to 1). Assign a number greater than one to expand items with tables equal or less than the specified number. | 5 (will show table levels 2 through 5 as open) | | nullText | String | Optional (defaults to (---)). Sets the representation of null property values used by the default value-rendering function. | '(null)' |

Caption-Related Props

A sub-table's caption may display up to two pieces of data: The sub-table's level and path. One can specify on which side of the caption each value appears using the captionOrder prop, and whether or not they appear using the level and showPath props.

The captionOrder prop accepts any value of the CaptionOrder enumeration:

| Name | Numerical Value | Description | | - | - | - | | PathLevel | 1 | The sub-tables' captions will show the table's path to the left and the table's level to the right. | | LevelPath | 2 | The sub-tables' captions will show the table's level to the left and the table's path to the right. |

About Path

A sub-table's path is automatically constructed by using the data item's first property as defined by the column definitions, unless the pathSegment prop is specified with either a data item's property name, or a function that takes the data item as function argument and returns the actual path segment value to use. Each path segment is joined with other segments using the value of the pathSeparator prop. If not specified, the default path separator is a period (.). Any string can be used as path separator, but since the sub-table's caption's real estate is very limited, try not to use long separators.

Because of this limited real estate in captions, and most likely because your data will be dynamic in nature and therefore unpredictable, this component allows the specification of a maximum path segment length to help prevent overrunning the available space for both the level and the path data. It works like this: A path segment's value is obtained and measured against the value specified in the maxPathSegmentLength prop. If the length exceeds the specification, then the path segment is truncated and ellipsis (...) is added at the end, so that the combined length is equal to maxPathSegmentLength.

The value of maxPathSegmentLength must be greater than 2. The component doesn't check this in runtime; you'll just see an error if you go below this value.

About Level

The level is just a measure of how deep the data has gone in terms of recursion. The top table is level 1, and as tables are recursively created, the level is increased by one. Tables with a level greater than one are called sub-tables and are granted special CSS classes as seen in the Styling the Table section.

Since the table can be used to display text in any language, svelte-htable cannot possibly add any text to the label by itself. So, in order to be able to display a simple string like Level: 2, you must provide a function via the level prop. Sure, you can just set level={true} and the level is displayed, but it will only display the number, which turns out to be uninformative. Still, the use of this prop is simple enough:

<Htable {columns} {items} level={l => `Level: ${l}`} />

This does the simple trick of outputting the level labeled with the word Level.

Grouping Items

It may be desirable to rearrange the tables' rows according to their nature (expansible vs. non-expansible), so this component exposes the grouping prop. This prop accepts any value of the ItemGrouping enumeration.

| Name | Numerical Value | Description | | - | - | - | | Undefined | 0 | The provided data items will be presented in the order they were provided. | | ExpansiblesFirst | 1 | The provided data items will be rearranged so the ones with sub-items will be shown first. | | ExpansiblesLast | 2 | The provided data items will be rearranged so the ones with sub-items will be shown last. |

Defining the Summaries

The summaries are the the text shown for expansible items. Said items are represented with a <details> HTML element that spans all table columns and its content is configurable. As per the HTML specification, the first child of this <details> element is a <summary> element.

The contents of the <summary> element are what's displayed when the element is collapsed. It is called the summary for obvious reasons. After the summary, the sub-table is shown.

There are two ways to control what is shown in the summary: By using the summary prop, or by using the summary slot.

The Summary Slot

This would be the preferred option. Use the named slot summary to customize what is shown as the expansible conent.

This is taken from the test application in this repository:

<Htable
    class="data"
    items={buildData(data.data)}
    {columns}
    level={l => `Level: ${l}`}
    showPath={true}
    captionOrder={CaptionOrder.LevelPath}
    summary={(i) => `${i.last_name}, ${i.first_name}`}
    grouping={ItemGrouping.ExpansiblesFirst}
    pathSegment={(i) => i.last_name}
    pathSeparator=" > "
    maxPathSegmentLength={10}
>
    <svelte:fragment slot="summary" let:item>
        <img class="flag" src="https://flagcdn.com/{item.country_code.toLowerCase()}.svg" alt={item.country_code} />&nbsp;{item.last_name},&nbsp;{item.first_name}
    </svelte:fragment>
</Htable>

A Svelte fragment is being used to set the slot's content to an image and the employee's name in the <last name>, <first name> format. This is what you see in the example screenshot at the beginning of this document.

NOTE: The slot itself provides the item currently being rendered.

The example also shows the use of the summary prop. When both are specified, the slot version will win.

The Summary Prop

The other way to set the the summary would be to use the summary prop. It can be a string, in which case it is assumed to be the name of a property in the item, or it can be a function that accepts the item and returns whatever you want as text in the summary.

If the example above did not use the summary slot, the function you see in the summary prop would be used, creating a very similar summary, only this one would not contain the image the summary-slotted version produces.

Controlling Column Content

It is sometimes necessary to format data because the raw data might not be very friendly. For example, dates in the ISO-8601 format are not much of a looker. To account for this, column definitions may define a renderValue() function that is called to obtain the column's contents. If the function is not defined, svelte-htable provides a default function that only does 2 things:

1. Undefined values are exchanged with empty strings.
2. Null values are represented as (---).

The null string is actually configurable through the nullText prop. If you don't like this default, just set a new one using this prop.

All value-rendering functions are given 2 arguments: The row's item, and the column's key.

IMPORTANT: Any empty strings are replaced by the column slot's default template with a non-breaking space ( ) to ensure cell formatting, and you should too, if you opt to use the column slot. To assist with this, svelte-htable exports the StdCell component with this logic. See details here.

Computed Columns

The render() function can be used to create calculated columns. The example screenshot at the top shows the Age column, which is calculated by using the following column definition in the columns array:

        {
            key: "age",
            title: "Age",
            render: (i, k) => {
                const diff = Date.now() - Date.parse(i.birth_date);
                return Math.floor(
                    diff / (365 * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000)
                ).toString();
            },
        },

The renderValue() method will only take you so far, and if complex HTML is needed inside the table cell, then you must opt to use the column slot.

Tip: You can, and is encouraged to, combine the use of render() with the column slot.

Using Slots for Table Data

The Htable component offers two mutually-exclusive slots to render data: The datarow slot, and the datacell slot. The latter is highly recommended because the former will incur in loss of certain features.

The datacell Slot

Dynamic slots don't seem to be a thing (yet) in Svelte, so there is a single slot for all columns, and in order to use it, one must use an {#if} block to differentiate between table cells.

This following example is what has been used to create the example screenshot:

<svelte:fragment slot="datacell" let:item let:col let:renderValue>
    {@const value = renderValue(item, col.key)}
    {#if col.key === "id"}
        <div class="inverted">{value}</div>
    {:else if col.key === "country_code"}
        <a
            href="https://flagpedia.net/{item.country_code.toLowerCase()}"
            target="_blank">{value}</a
        >
    {:else}
        <StdCell itemData={value} />
    {/if}
</svelte:fragment>

The slot provides 3 pieces of data: The row's item, the column definition object and the column's renderValue() function, but it is not exactly the one found in the column definition object. While column definitions may not carry a renderValue() function (and therefore col.renderValue may very well be undefined), this slot-provided function is guaranteed to exist. How? Simple: This is the defined renderValue() function inside the column definition object, or the default renderValue() function explained in the previous section.

The example also features the use of the StdCell component. Let's quickly explain it.

StdCell

This is a tiny component that has only one prop: itemData. It encapsulates the logic mentioned previously about exchanging empty strings with  . Its use is super simple:

<Htable
    ...
>
    <div class="my-class" slot="column" let:item let:col let:renderValue>
        {@const itemData = renderValue(item, col.key)}
        {#if somethingSpecial}
            <SpecialMarkup />
        {:else}
            <StdCell {itemData} />
        {/if}

Basically we use it as a default.

The datarow Slot

If you ever need to gain control of how many columns a <td> element spans, or if you must apply CSS classes to the <tr> element, you may opt to use the datarow slot.

WARNING: The use of this slot carries the loss of stock features. Keep reading to learn about this.

Because you gain full control over the <tr> element, the Htable component can no longer provide the following functionality:

• Automatic odd/even CSS classes in the <tr> element.
• StdCell logic in the <td> elements.

Furthermore, you must provide the <tr> element as the slot's root element.

Still, your gains are evident. Now you can:

• Apply any styles or attributes to the <tr> element because you fully control it.
• You may write the <td> elements more naturally, without the need of {#if} blocks to switch between the various HTML markups for each of the table columns.
• You gain full control of the <td> elements, including but not limited to, the ability to make it span mutliple columns.

This example creates the same table as the previous example, but making use of the datarow slot:

<tr slot="datarow" class:flag={item.country_code === flagCountryCode} let:item let:index let:renderValue>
    {#each columns as col}
        {@const value = (col.renderValue ?? renderValue)(item, col.key)}
        <td>
            {#if col.key === "id"}
                <div class="inverted">{value}</div>
            {:else if col.key === "country_code"}
                <a
                    href="https://flagpedia.net/{item.country_code.toLowerCase()}"
                    target="_blank">{value}</a
                >
            {:else}
                <StdCell itemData={value} />
            {/if}
        </td>
    {/each}
</tr>

Yes, I know, I still used {#each} + {#if} to create the columns. I did not feel like re-writing this for 2 special columns out of possible 8. But that's not the point here, so focus.

The point of the example is that now we can manipulate <tr>. In this case, a CSS class named flag is conditionally applied to the row to produce a highlight effect based on a variable (flagCountryCode) bound to an input textbox.

Controlling Header Content

What is shown in the tables' headers is the text of the property title of the individual Column objects passed to the component via its columns prop.

However, if you need or want, you may opt to use the headercell slot. It provides the column definition object and it is pretty much very simple to use. This next example assumes the column definition objects also have a custom property named uom (stands for Unit of Measure).

<Htable
    ...
>
    <svelte:fragment slot="headercell" let:col>
        <em>{col.title} ({col.uom})</em>
    </svelte:fragment>

This would produce a header with a text similar to, say, Distance (km).

Functionality

You can control which sub-tables are initially displayed using the initialOpenLevel prop. Assign a number greater than 2 to this prop and any sub-tables whose level is that number or less will be expanded by default.

You may also listen to the toggle event. It is triggered whenever any sub-table is opened or closed. The event carries the following data:

• item: The data item used to generate the sub-table (the one with the sub-items).
• level: The sub-table's level.
• path: The sub-table's path.
• open: A Boolean value indicating if the table was opened (and its current state is open).

If you have questions, would like to report a bug or request a feature, feel free to open an issue.