Boost your productivity & easily create component based web UIs in pure Ruby. Reactivity included if desired.

matestack-ui-core enables you to craft maintainable web UIs in pure Ruby, skipping ERB and HTML. UI code becomes a native and fun part of your Rails app. Thanks to reactive core components, reactivity can be optionally added on top without writing JavaScript, just using a simple Ruby DSL.

You end up writing 50% less code while increasing productivity, maintainability and developer happiness. Work with pure Ruby. If necessary, extend with pure JavaScript. No Opal involved.

The main goals are:

• More maintainable UI code, using a component-based structure written in Ruby
• Increased development speed and happiness, offering prebuilt UI-Components for typical requirements
• Modern, dynamic UI feeling without the need to implement a separate JavaScript Application

matestack-ui-core can progressively replace the classic Rails-View-Layer. You are able to use it alongside your classic views and incrementally turn your Rails-App into a dynamic Web-App.

Documentation can be found here

A getting started guide can be found here

Changelog can be found here

As a low-barrier feedback channel for our early users, we have set up a Discord server that can be found here. You are very welcome to ask questions and send us feedback there!

We are happy to accept contributors of any kind! In order to make it as easy and fun as possible to contribute to matestack-ui-core, we would like to onboard contributors personally! Best way to become a contributor: Ping us on Discord! We will schedule a video call with you and show you, how and what to work on :)

Here are some good first issues for first time contributors: good first issues

On our landingpage, we're presenting the following features alongside some live demos!

Craft your UI based on your components written in pure Ruby. Utilizing Ruby's amazing language features, you're able to create a cleaner and more maintainable UI implementation.

Create Ruby classes within your Rails project and call matestack's core components through a Ruby DSL in order to craft your UIs. The Ruby method "div" for example calls one of the static core components, responsible for rendering HTML tags. A component can take Strings, Integers Symbols, Arrays or Hashes (...) as optional properties (e.g. "title") or require them (e.g. "body").

app/matestack/components/card.rb

class Components::Card < Matestack::Ui::Component requires :body optional :title optional :image def response div class: "card shadow-sm border-0 bg-light" do img path: image, class: "w-100" if image.present? div class: "card-body" do heading size: 5, text: title if title.present? paragraph class: "card-text", text: body end end end end

Register your Ruby UI component classes with your desired DSL method and use the "matestack_component" helper in order to render your component within existing ERB views or Rails controllers. The Ruby method "card" for example calls your "Card" class, enabling you to create a reuseable card components, abstracting UI complexity in your ow components.

app/views/your_view.html.erb

<!-- some other erb markup --> <%= matestack_component :card, title: "hello", body: "world" %> <!-- some other erb markup -->

app/matestack/components/registry.rb

module Components::Registry Matestack::Ui::Core::Component::Registry.register_components( card: Components::Card, #... ) end

Split your UI implementation into multiple small chunks helping others (and yourself) to better understand your implementation. Using this approach helps you to create a clean, readable and maintainable codebase.

app/matestack/components/card.rb

class Components::Card < Matestack::Ui::Component requires :body optional :title optional :image optional :footer def response div class: "card shadow-sm border-0 bg-light" do img path: image, class: "w-100" if image.present? card_content card_footer if footer.present? end end def card_content div class: "card-body" do heading size: 5, text: title if title.present? paragraph class: "card-text", text: body end end def card_footer div class: "card-footer text-muted" do plain footer end end end

app/views/your_view.html.erb

<!-- some other erb markup --> <%= matestack_component :card, title: "hello", body: "world", footer: "foo" %> <!-- some other erb markup -->

Because it's just a Ruby class, you can use class inheritance in order to further improve the quality of your UI implementation. Class inheritance can be used to easily create variants of UI components but still reuse parts of the implementation.

app/matestack/components/blue_card.rb

class Components::BlueCard < Components::Card def response div class: "card shadow-sm border-0 bg-primary text-white" do img path: image, class: "w-100" if image.present? card_content #defined in parent class card_footer if footer.present? #defined in parent class end end end

app/matestack/components/registry.rb

module Components::Registry Matestack::Ui::Core::Component::Registry.register_components( blue_card: Components::BlueCard, #... ) end

app/views/your_view.html.erb

<!-- some other erb markup --> <%= matestack_component :blue_card, title: "hello", body: "world" %> <!-- some other erb markup -->

Just like you used matestack's core components on your own UI component, you can use your own UI components within other custom UI components. You decide when using a Ruby method partial should be replaced by another self contained UI component!

app/matestack/components/card.rb

class Components::Card < Matestack::Ui::Component requires :body optional :title optional :image def response div class: "card shadow-sm border-0 bg-light" do img path: image, class: "w-100" if image.present? # calling the CardBody component rather than using Ruby method partials card_body title: title, body: body end end end

app/matestack/components/card_body.rb

class Components::CardBody < Matestack::Ui::Component requires :body optional :title def response # Just an example. Would make more sense, if this component had # a more complex structure div class: "card-body" do heading size: 5, text: title if title.present? paragraph class: "card-text", text: body end end end

app/matestack/components/registry.rb

module Components::Registry Matestack::Ui::Core::Component::Registry.register_components( card: Components::Card, card_body: Components::CardBody, #... ) end

Sometimes it's not enough to just pass simple data into a component. No worries! You can just yield a block into your components! Using this approach gives you more flexibility when using your UI components. Ofcourse yielding can be used alongside passing in simple params.

app/matestack/components/card.rb

class Components::Card < Matestack::Ui::Component requires :body optional :title optional :image def response div class: "card shadow-sm border-0 bg-light" do img path: image, class: "w-100" if image.present? card_body do # yielding a block into the card_body component heading size: 5, text: title if title.present? paragraph class: "card-text", text: body end end end end

app/matestack/components/card_body.rb

class Components::CardBody < Matestack::Ui::Component def response # Just an example. Would make more sense, if this component had # a more complex structure div class: "card-body" do yield_components end end end

If you need to inject multiple blocks into your UI component, you can use "slots"! Slots help you to build complex UI components with multiple named content placeholders for highest implementation flexibility!

app/matestack/components/card.rb

class Components::Card < Matestack::Ui::Component requires :body optional :title optional :image def response div class: "card shadow-sm border-0 bg-light" do img path: image, class: "w-100" if image.present? card_body slots: { heading: heading_slot, body: body_slot } end end def heading_slot slot do heading size: 5, text: title if title.present? end end def body_slot slot do paragraph class: "card-text", text: body end end end

app/matestack/components/card_body.rb

class Components::CardBody < Matestack::Ui::Component requires :slots def response # Just an example. Would make more sense, if this component had # a more complex structure div class: "card-body" do div class: "heading-section" do slot slots[:heading] end div class: "body-section" do slot slots[:body] end end end end

What about going even one step further and implement REACTIVE UIs in pure Ruby? Matestack's reactive core components can be used with a simple Ruby DSL enabling you to create reactive UIs without touching JavaScript!

Matestack offers an event hub. Reactive components can emit and receive events through this event hub. "onclick" and "toggle" calling two of these reactive core components. "onclick" emits an event which causes the body of the "toggle" component to be visible for 5 seconds in this example.

app/matestack/components/some_component.rb

class Components::SomeComponent < Matestack::Ui::Component def response onclick emit: "some_event" do button text: "click me" end toggle show_on: "some_event", hide_after: 5000 do plain "Oh yes! You clicked me!" end end end

Core components offer basic dynamic behaviour and let you easily call controller actions and react to server responses on the client side without full page reload. The "action" component is configured to emit an event after successfully performed an HTTP request against a Rails controller action, which is receive by the "toggle" component, displaying the success message.

app/matestack/components/some_component.rb

class Components::SomeComponent < Matestack::Ui::Component def response action my_action_config do button text: "click me" end toggle show_on: "some_event", hide_after: 5000 do plain "Success!" end end def my_action_config { path: some_rails_route_path, method: :post, success: { emit: "some_event" } } end end

Create dynamic forms for ActiveRecord Models (or plain objects) and display server side responses, like validation errors or success messages, without relying on a full page reload. Events emitted by the "form" component can be used to toggle parts of the UI.

app/matestack/components/some_component.rb

class Components::SomeComponent < Matestack::Ui::Component def prepare @new_active_record_instance = MyActiveRecordModel.new end def response form my_form_config do form_input key: :some_attribute, type: :text form_submit do button text: "click me" end end toggle show_on: "submitted", hide_after: 5000 do span class: "message success" do plain "created successfully" end end toggle show_on: "failed", hide_after: 5000 do span class: "message failure" do plain "data was not saved, please check form" end end end def my_form_config { for: @new_active_record_instance, path: some_rails_route_path, method: :post, success: { emit: "submitted" }, failure: { emit: "failed" } } end end

Using matestack's built-in event system, you can rerender parts of the UI on client side events, such as form or action submissions. Even server side events pushed via ActionCable may be received! The "async" component requests a new version of its body at the server via an HTTP GET request after receiving the configured event. After successfu server response, the DOM of the "async" component gets updated. Everything else stays untouched.

app/matestack/components/some_component.rb

class Components::SomeComponent < Matestack::Ui::Component def response form my_form_config do #... end #... async rerender_on: "submitted", id: "my-model-list" do ul do MyActiveRecordModel.last(5).each do |model| li text: model.some_attribute end end end end def my_form_config { #... success: { emit: "submitted" }, failure: { emit: "failed" } } end end

"async" rerenders its whole body - but what about just appending the element to the list after successful form submission? The "cable" component can be configured to receive events and data pushed via ActionCable from the server side and just append/prepend new chunks of HTM (ideally rendered through a component) to the current "cable" component body. Updating and deleting is also supported!

app/matestack/components/some_component.rb

class Components::SomeComponent < Matestack::Ui::Component def response form my_form_config do #... end #... ul do cable prepend_on: "new_element_created", id: "mocked-instance-list" do MyActiveRecordModel.last(5).each do |model| li text: model end end end end end

app/controllers/some_controller.rb

# within your controller action handling the form input ActionCable.server.broadcast("matestack_ui_core", { event: "new_element_created", data: matestack_component(:li, text: params[:some_attribute]) })

Matestack's dynamic parts are built on Vue.js. If you want to implement custom dynamic behaviour, you can simply create your own Vue components and use them along matestacks core components. It's even possible to interact with matestack's core components using the built-in event bus.

app/matestack/components/some_component.rb

class Components::SomeComponent < Matestack::Ui::Component def response my_vue_js_component toggle show_on: "some_event", hide_after: "3000" do span class: "message success" do plain "event triggered from custom vuejs component" end end end end

app/matestack/components/my_vue_js_component.rb

class Components::MyVueJsComponent < Matestack::Ui::VueJsComponent vue_js_component_name "my-vue-js-component" def response div class: "my-vue-js-component" do button attributes: {"@click": "increaseValue"} br plain "{{ dynamicValue }}!" end end end

app/matestack/components/my_vue_js_component.js

MatestackUiCore.Vue.component('my-vue-js-component', { mixins: [MatestackUiCore.componentMixin], data: () => { return { dynamicValue: 0 }; }, methods: { increaseValue(){ this.dynamicValue++ MatestackUiCore.matestackEventHub.$emit("some_event") } } });

The last step in order to leverage the full Matestack power: Create app (~Rails layout) and page (Rails ~view) classes and implement dynamic page transitions without any JavaScript implementation required.

The app class is used to define a layout, usually containing some kind of header, footer and navigation. The page class is used to define a view. Following the same principles as seen on components, you can use components (core or your own) in order to create the UI. The "transition" component enables dynamic page transition, replacing the content within "yield_page" with new serverside rendered content.

app/matestack/some_app/app.rb

class SomeApp::App < Matestack::Ui::App def response nav do transition path: page1_path do button text: "Page 1" end transition path: page2_path do button text: "Page 2" end end main do div class: "container" do yield_page end end end end

app/matestack/some_app/pages/page1.rb

class SomeApp::Pages::Page1 < Matestack::Ui::Page def response div class: "row" do div class: "col" do plain "Page 1" end end end end

app/matestack/some_app/pages/page2.rb

class SomeApp::Pages::Page2 < Matestack::Ui::Page def response div class: "row" do div class: "col" do plain "Page 2" end end end end

Instead of referencing Rails layouts and views on your controllers, you just use apps and pages as substitutes. Work with controllers, actions and routing as you're used to! Controller hooks (e.g. devise's authenticate_user) would still work!

app/controllers/some_controller.rb

class SomeController < ApplicationController include Matestack::Ui::Core::ApplicationHelper include Components::Registry matestack_app SomeApp::App def page1 render SomeApp::Page1 end def page2 render SomeApp::Page2 end end

app/config/routes.rb

Rails.application.routes.draw do root to: 'some#page1' get :page1, to: 'some#page1' get :page2, to: 'some#page2' end

Use matestack's css classes applied to the wrapping DOM structure of a page in order to add CSS animiations, whenever a page transition is performed." You can even inject a loading state element, enriching your page transition effect.

app/matestack/some_app/app.rb

class SomeApp::App < Matestack::Ui::App def response nav do transition path: page1_path do button text: "Page 1" end transition path: page2_path do button text: "Page 2" end end main do div class: "container" do yield_page slots: { loading_state: loading_state_element } end end end def loading_state_element slot do div class: 'some-loading-element-styles' end end end

app/assets/stylesheets/application.scss

.matestack-page-container{ .matestack-page-wrapper { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 0.2s ease-in-out; &.loading { opacity: 0; } } .loading-state-element-wrapper{ opacity: 0; transition: opacity 0.3s ease-in-out; &.loading { opacity: 1; } } } 

matestack-ui-core is an Open Source project licensed under the terms of the LGPLv3 license