django-htmx VS django-unicorn

If you don't already, you should use django-htmx. This will allow you to check if the request was made with HTMX. You can then do something like this:

To make things easier, install the django-htmx package. Then, in your Page model's serve(), you can do things like if request.htmx: and return an HTML snippet instead of the full page in that case.

The great thing about HTMX is it fits really nicely with templated server-rendered frameworks like Django.

You can have a page with a list of items. The page is one template, and it includes a sub-template which is just the

items. Then you have a separate view for "get list fragment" which just returns the updated/sorted/filtered

. If you toggle the ordering, or filter the list, HTMX will automatically call the fragment renderer and replace just the

items, without reloading the page.

See this example: https://github.com/adamchainz/django-htmx/blob/8054f049f53f0...

This approach solves the common interactivity use-cases requiring JS in a server-rendered app, without having to write any JS, and without having to build a REST API. Instead you just render HTML, which your framework is excellent at.

If you use django-htmx, it's pretty simple to get the "this HTTP request came from HTMX" flag and branch accordingly in your view. The docs give a simple example of the logic here:

https://django-htmx.readthedocs.io/en/latest/middleware.html...

The examples give a fleshed-out version: https://github.com/adamchainz/django-htmx/blob/main/example/...

Though that's very slightly different than how I described it above, but it's basically the same idea; in this case you commonize the `main` block between the two contexts.

HTMX has a HX-Trigger response header that enables you to trigger events in the browser that Javascript code can listen for. Assuming you already have Django-HTMX library set up, you could write a middleware like this:

Nice. I've written some less complete, less consistent variant of this a couple times now. That alone may be worth taking the dependency.

Full URL for django-htmx: https://github.com/adamchainz/django-htmx (creator here)

I think it's fair to clarify that Adam Johnson (aka adamchainz on Reddit and GitHub) didn't create HTMX but did write the django-htmx app to make it easier to use HTMX in Django.

django-htmx also comes with it's own version of HttpResponseHtmxRedirect (called HttpResponseClientRedirect).

Then there are stack-specific libraries: StimulusReflex for Rails, Phoenix LiveView, Laravel Livewire, Unicorn and Tetra for Django, Blazor for .NET, … and the list goes on.

- you get one of the best ORMs in existence with great relationship handling and generated admins

https://www.django-unicorn.com/

Not 1.0 yet but I'm using it in production and omgosh is it easy to crank out UIs.

There's a brilliant project called Django Unicorn that aims to be the equivalent of Laravel Livewire for Django. You should take a look.

https://www.django-unicorn.com/

That and HTMX + Alpine.js are a strong combination.

(I also had a bash at building a similar tool for Django called Tetra but unfortunately haven't had the time needed to commit to it: https://www.tetraframework.com)

I think all LiveView frameworks should be part of this.

Here are two Python ones I've tried:

https://www.django-unicorn.com/

I'm biased since I created https://www.django-unicorn.com/, but I have a few thoughts. :)

Have you looked into Django Unicorn?

Check out https://www.django-unicorn.com/ it is like htmx but is closer to Django.

When I was exploring the space, django-unicorn looked interesting also. But HTMX got me so far, so easily, that I didn't give unicorn a fair shake.