Goober
π₯ goober, a less than 1KB π css-in-js alternative with a familiar API
Install / Use
/learn @cristianbote/GooberREADME
π₯ goober, a less than 1KB css-in-js solution.
πͺ The Great Shave Off Challenge
Can you shave off bytes from goober? Do it and you're gonna get paid! More info here
Motivation
I've always wondered if you could get a working solution for css-in-js with a smaller footprint. While I was working on a side project I wanted to use styled-components, or more accurately the styled pattern. Looking at the JavaScript bundle sizes, I quickly realized that I would have to include ~12kB(styled-components) or ~11kB(emotion) just so I can use the styled paradigm. So, I embarked on a mission to create a smaller alternative for these well established APIs.
Why the peanuts emoji?
It's a pun on the tagline.
css-in-js at the cost of peanuts! π₯goober
Talks and Podcasts
- React Round Up π https://reactroundup.com/wrangle-your-css-in-js-for-peanuts-using-goober-ft-cristian-bote-rru-177
- ReactDay Berlin 2019 π https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4-AVy3acqk
- PodRocket by LogRocket π https://podrocket.logrocket.com/goober
- ngParty π https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKFvOBDPeB0
Table of contents
Usage
The API is inspired by emotion styled function. Meaning, you call it with your tagName, and it returns a vDOM component for that tag. Note, setup needs to be ran before the styled function is used.
import { h } from 'preact';
import { styled, setup } from 'goober';
// Should be called here, and just once
setup(h);
const Icon = styled('span')`
display: flex;
flex: 1;
color: red;
`;
const Button = styled('button')`
background: dodgerblue;
color: white;
border: ${Math.random()}px solid white;
&:focus,
&:hover {
padding: 1em;
}
.otherClass {
margin: 0;
}
${Icon} {
color: black;
}
`;
Examples
Comparison and tradeoffs
In this section I would like to compare goober, as objectively as I can, with the latest versions of two most well known css-in-js packages: styled-components and emotion.
I've used the following markers to reflect the state of each feature:
- β Supported
- π‘ Partially supported
- π Not supported
Here we go:
| Feature name | Goober | Styled Components | Emotion |
| ---------------------- | ------- | ----------------- | ------- |
| Base bundle size | 1.25 kB | 12.6 kB | 7.4 kB |
| Framework agnostic | β
| π | β
*3 |
| Render with target *1 | β
| π | π |
| css api | β
| β
| β
|
| css prop | β
| β
| β
|
| styled | β
| β
| β
|
| styled.<tag> | β
*2 | β
| β
|
| default export | π | β
| β
|
| as | β
| β
| β
|
| .withComponent | π | β
| β
|
| .attrs | π | β
| π |
| shouldForwardProp | β
| β
| β
|
| keyframes | β
| β
| β
|
| Labels | π | π | β
|
| ClassNames | π | π | β
|
| Global styles | β
| β
| β
|
| SSR | β
| β
| β
|
| Theming | β
| β
| β
|
| Tagged Templates | β
| β
| β
|
| Object styles | β
| β
| β
|
| Dynamic styles | β
| β
| β
|
Footnotes
- [1]
goobercan render in any dom target. Meaning you can usegooberto define scoped styles in any context. Really useful for web-components. - [2] Supported only via
babel-plugin-transform-goober - [3] Emotion has a framework-agnostic
cssfunction. See https://emotion.sh/docs/@emotion/css
SSR
You can get the critical CSS for SSR via extractCss. Take a look at this example: CodeSandbox: SSR with Preact and goober and read the full explanation for extractCSS and targets below.
Benchmarks
The results are included inside the build output as well.
Browser
Coming soon!
SSR
The benchmark is testing the following scenario:
import styled from '<packageName>';
// Create the dynamic styled component
const Foo = styled('div')((props) => ({
opacity: props.counter > 0.5 ? 1 : 0,
'@media (min-width: 1px)': {
rule: 'all'
},
'&:hover': {
another: 1,
display: 'space'
}
}));
// Serialize the component
renderToString(<Foo counter={Math.random()} />);
The results are:
goober x 200,437 ops/sec Β±1.93% (87 runs sampled)
styled-components@5.2.1 x 12,650 ops/sec Β±9.09% (48 runs sampled)
emotion@11.0.0 x 104,229 ops/sec Β±2.06% (88 runs sampled)
Fastest is: goober
API
As you can see, goober supports most of the CSS syntax. If you find any issues, please submit a ticket, or open a PR with a fix.
styled(tagName: String | Function, forwardRef?: Function)
@param {String|Function} tagNameThe name of the DOM element you'd like the styles to be applied to@param {Function} forwardRefForward ref function. UsuallyReact.forwardRef@returns {Function}Returns the tag template function.
import { styled } from 'goober';
const Btn = styled('button')`
border-radius: 4px;
`;
Different ways of customizing the styles
Tagged templates functions
import { styled } from 'goober';
const Btn = styled('button')`
border-radius: ${(props) => props.size}px;
`;
<Btn size={20} />;
Function that returns a string
import { styled } from 'goober';
const Btn = styled('button')(
(props) => `
border-radius: ${props.size}px;
`
);
<Btn size={20} />;
JSON/Object
import { styled } from 'goober';
const Btn = styled('button')((props) => ({
borderRadius: props.size + 'px'
}));
<Btn size={20} />;
Arrays
import { styled } from 'goober';
const Btn = styled('button')([
{ color: 'tomato' },
({ isPrimary }) => ({ background: isPrimary ? 'cyan' : 'gray' })
]);
<Btn />; // This will render the `Button` with `background: gray;`
<Btn isPrimary />; // This will render the `Button` with `background: cyan;`
Forward ref function
As goober is JSX library agnostic, you need to pass in the forward ref function for the library you are using. Here's how you do it for React.
const Title = styled('h1', React.forwardRef)`
font-weight: bold;
color: dodgerblue;
`;
setup(pragma: Function, prefixer?: Function, theme?: Function, forwardProps?: Function)
The call to setup() should occur only once. It should be called in the entry file of your project.
Given the fact that react uses createElement for the transformed elements and preact uses h, setup should be cal
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