(2018-01-31) Stimulus1.0 A Modest Javascript Framework For The Html You Already Have

DHH on Stimulus 1.0: A modest JavaScript framework for the HTML you already have

it’s also not to say that the proliferation of single-page JavaScript applications hasn’t brought real benefits. Chief amongst which has been faster, more fluid interfaces set free from the full-page refresh.

This desire led us to a two-punch solution: Turbolinks and Stimulus.

Before I get to Stimulus, our new modest JavaScript framework, allow me to recap the proposition of Turbolinks.

Turbolinks maintains a persistent process, just like single-page applications do. But largely an invisible one. It intercepts links and loads new pages via Ajax. The server still returns fully-formed HTML documents.

But Turbolinks alone is only half the story. The coarsely grained one. Below the grade of a full page change lies all the fine-grained fidelity within a single page.

Prior to Stimulus, Basecamp used a smattering of different styles and patterns to apply these sprinkles. Some code was just a pinch of jQuery, some code was a similarly sized pinch of vanilla JavaScript

Stimulus rolls up the best of those patterns into a modest, small framework revolving around just three main concepts: Controllers, actions, and targets

Stimulus doesn’t bother itself with creating the HTML. Rather, it attaches itself to an existing HTML document. The HTML is, in the majority of cases, rendered on the server on either on the page load (first hit or via Turbolinks) or via an Ajax request that changes the DOM.

How Stimulus differs from mainstream JavaScript frameworks

it feels like the same kind of secret sauce we had at Basecamp when we developed Ruby on Rails. The sense that contemporary mainstream approaches are needlessly convoluted, and that we can do more, faster, with far less.

At Basecamp, we have and do use several heavier-duty approaches when the occasion calls for it. Our calendars tend to use client-side rendering. Our text editor is Trix, a fully formed text processor that wouldn’t make sense as a set of Stimulus controllers.