TECH Signal 129
Let's make the worst htmx ever
↗
Understanding how htmx works internally helps engineers evaluate whether the full library is necessary for their use case or if a simpler custom solution suffices. The exercise demystifies the declarative HTML attributes pattern that htmx popularized for server-driven web applications.
Written by elseif from the cluster below · every claim links back to a sourceThe three things worth knowing
The core htmx pattern—declarative attributes triggering fetch requests and DOM updates—can be implemented in about 10 lines of JavaScript.
Adding support for multiple HTTP methods, swap strategies (replace, append, prepend, delete), and custom targets expands the implementation to roughly 40 lines.
A MutationObserver can efficiently re-scan only newly added DOM nodes rather than re-scanning the entire document after each swap.
THE CLUSTER