htmx VS Bootstrap

Recently, I just rewrite one of my application Stashbin from Next.js to GO. Though my main motivation of this migration was to learn GO and experimenting with HTMX. I also aiming to reduce the resource usage of my application and simplify the deployment process. Initially, Stashbin codebase are split into two seperate repository, one for the frontend that uses Next.js and another for the backend that already uses GO. The backend repository is just a REST API responsible for storing and retreiving data from the database.

HTMX is another library that gained popularity due to its server-first approach to rendering data, although seeking a much simpler way of appealing to developers.

When I work with HTMX I need isolated component that can be reusable a form. So I create a PHP Function that generate the Input Datalist.

I was inspired by htmz (which was in turn inspired by htmx) and how the author got pretty close to a basic htmx-like experience just using an iframe. I wanted to push it a little further so whipped this demo together. My submission demonstrates progressive enhancement for the form - with js enabled the request targets an iframe that is inserted into the dom, meaning the page doesn't actually navigate (similar to event.preventDefault()). The iframe receives the html response from the request and on load triggers a function to swap out it's contents into the main page.

As described on htmx.org: "htmx gives you access to AJAX, CSS Transitions, WebSockets and Server Sent Events directly in HTML, using attributes, so you can build modern user interfaces with the simplicity and power of hypertext"

Apart from the source code itself, the repo's README also gives a bit more details about the various packages I used.

1. htmx: https://htmx.org/

Also, there’s some response header juggling you have to do when submitting forms that have a validation step before redirecting: https://github.com/bigskysoftware/htmx/issues/369

I’ve tried to iron out any footguns or server requirements I’ve bumped into while using HTMX & Hotwire in my projects.

✨ In recent months, I have been developing web projects using GOTTHA stack: Go + Templ + Tailwind CSS + htmx + Alpine.js. As soon as I'm ready to talk about all the subtleties and pitfalls, I'll post it on my social networks.

I've been digging into HTMX lately (using Python web frameworks) and find the concepts and approach to be interesting and promising. The idea of hypermedia driven systems over the current practice of JavaScript based frameworks (I never really got into React, played with Vue, and enjoy Svelte/SvelteKit) and the ability to chose your language/framework for the backend while primarily leveraging HTML/CSS on the frontend just seems refreshing.

This article serves as your comprehensive guide to mastering the art of combining Bootstrap and React seamlessly. Dive in to uncover the tips, tricks, and best practices to elevate your UI design game effortlessly.

Bootstrap is already a popular framework among the web developers. And, these free templates makes it even more convenient to use Bootstrap in your projects.

Tailwind is great, but creating everything from scratch is annoying. A nice base of components which can be extended with tailwind would be great. There are a few tailwind frameworks like Flowbite, Daisy Ui, but I like Bulma, PicoCSS and Bootstrap.

In the JavaScript world, tread cautiously on this passionate topic. https://github.com/twbs/bootstrap/issues/3057

To effectively demonstrate Secutio's capabilities for rapid web development, we've chosen the popular Bootstrap framework as a foundation. Bootstrap provides a robust and user-friendly interface, making it an ideal choice for building the project's base.

With all this preamble out of the way, we can finally focus on the app. To make it easier to build a not-awful-looking website, I installed the dash-bootstrap-components which give us access to a variety of components from the bootstrap frontend framework. This will make styling and building the app easier.

For CSS, Bootstrap is the go-to framework for many developers. But there are other popular ones too, like Angular, React, and Vue. You don't have to learn every single framework out there—just pick the ones that are most relevant to your projects and match current industry trends and your learning preferences.

For those unfamiliar with Tailwind CSS, it is a utility-first framework with pre-defined classes for you to create custom designs. Before its creation, developers who wrote CSS were limited to two options: either writing custom CSS or using a toolkit like Bootstrap. However, both approaches came with drawbacks. Writing custom CSS was a lot of work, and using Bootstrap limited you in styling unless you added custom CSS on top.

bootstrap - toolkit for styling websites. Has lots of themes and capabilities. docs

To make the demo more interesting, we will use the Bootstrap framework and Flask as the backend.