Named Group Modifiers for Tailwind CSS

A Tailwind CSS (>= 3.0.0) plugin for using multiple themable group modifiers.

Use as many group interlocking group modifiers as you wish by configuring them in your tailwind.config.js like so:

module.exports = {
    ...
    theme: {
        groups: {
            hover: ['card', 'section'],
            focusWithin: ['form'],
        },
    }
}

Requirements

Tailwind CSS >= v3.0.0

Installation

Install via NPM:

$ npm i tailwind-named-group-modifiers

Install via Yarn:

$ yarn add tailwind-named-group-modifiers

Why this Plugin?

Tailwind 3 offers group-* variants that allow styling an element based on a parent's state (read from pseudo-classes), so applying group on a parent and group-hover:opacity-100 on a child would result in CSS like this, making the child opaque when the parent is hovered over:

.group:hover .group-hover:opacity-100 {
    opacity: 1
}

This is great for simpler views, but it runs into problems when we need more than one group modifers downstream from each other in a branch of the DOM. Every element we apply group to will trigger all the group-* children further down the DOM, causing unexpected behaviour. We can only use group once on a given branch of the DOM.

This plugin conveniently handles these use cases by giving you the option of adding named groups to your tailwind.config.js.

You can also just use the plugin if you want to have a better overview of your group modifier usage.

Features

• As of Tailwind 3, the group-* pattern can be applied to all 25(!) pseudo-class modifiers shipped with the new JIT compiler, this plugin includes all of them.

• Using the config keeps you organized and maximally flexible with regards to other Tailwind features.

• Follows Tailwind naming conventions whereever possible.

About the Configuration

Modifier names are the same as with the built-in group features, so group-focus e.g. becomes group-card-focus. Note that Tailwind e.g. shortens the :last-child pseudo-class to last:. We follow core as much as possible here.

The plugin is configured under the groups key in tailwind.config.js. In keeping with a Tailwind convention to have the config keys point to the actually used CSS more than the class naming, subkeys for the different pseudo-classes in the Tailwind config are usually the actual pseudo-class rendered in camelCase (e.g. last: must be configured under lastChild).

The exception to this are odd: and even:, which can be configured under oddChild and evenChild, respectively. Aside from the fact that nthChild(odd) (nthChild(Odd)?) seems kind of hard to remember, this also keeps greater consistency with first:, last: and only:.