frontity

Apart from being the package that executes the Frontity commands in the terminal, frontity also exports functions, objects, etc. to be imported and used by other Frontity packages.

You can import any of these utils using:

import { connect, styled, Head, ... } from "frontity";

Table of Contents⁠#

• Overview
  • React
  • CSS in JS
  • Code Splitting
  • fetch and URL
• API Reference
  • connect
  • useConnect
  • styled
  • css
  • Global
  • keyframes
  • loadable
  • Head
  • useFills
  • fetch
  • URL
  • error & warn
    • error
    • warn
  • decode
  • Slot

Overview⁠#

React⁠#

Use connect to inject state, actions and libraries in your React components.

If you are familiar with React hooks, you can use also useConnect to do the same.

Use the Head component whenever you want to add HTML tags inside the <head> of any of your site's pages. You can read more in the Head page of the Core Concepts section.

Use the Slot component whenever you want to add a 'placeholder' to your theme which will be filled with a Fill. Fills are added to the state in the state.fills namespace.

CSS in JS⁠#

styled creates new React components from HTML tags, or other React components, with styles attached to them. css lets you to add inline styles to an element if you don't want to create a new component. If you want to add styles for the whole app, use Global. And keyframes is used to define and use animations in your CSS.

You can read more in the Styles page of the Core Concepts section of the docs.

Code Splitting⁠#

Use loadable in order to separate you code into different bundles that will be dynamically loaded at runtime. This helps you to reduce your page size.

You can read more in this Code Splitting page of the docs.

fetch and URL⁠#

Frontity exports fetch and URL with the same API they have in the browser, but they work the same both in the client and in the server.

API Reference⁠#

connect⁠#

It's a function that receives a React component and returns the same component but connected to the Frontity state, actions and libraries. Any instance of that component will receive three new props: state, actions and libraries, allowing the component to read the state, manipulate it through actions or use any code other packages have exposed in libraries.

Also, that instance will re-render automatically whenever any value from the state which the component is using is changed.

If you don't want to inject the Frontity state props in your connected components, you can use the injectProps option set to false. Components will still be reactive to changes in the state but without receiving more props.

For these components to access the state use the useConnect hook.

Syntax⁠#

ConnectedComponent = connect(Component, options?);

Arguments⁠#

Return value⁠#

• The same component as passed in as the first argument but connected to the Frontity state

Example⁠#

import React from "react";
import { connect } from "frontity";
import { Loading, List, Post, PageError } from "./components";

const Page = ({ state }) => {
  // The next line will trigger a re-render whenever
  // the value of "state.router.link" changes.
  const data = state.source.get(state.router.link);

  return (
    <Switch>
      <Loading when={data.isFetching} />
      <List when={data.isArchive} />
      <Post when={data.isPostType} />
      <PageError when={data.isError} />
    </Switch>
  );
};

// Connect Page to the Frontity state.
export default connect(Page);

useConnect⁠#

It's a React hook that returns the Frontity state, allowing the component to consume state, actions and libraries in components without passing them as props.

Syntax⁠#

const { state, actions, libraries } = useConnect();

Return value⁠#

• The Frontity state (state, actions and libraries)

Example⁠#

import React from "react";
import { connect, useConnect } from "frontity";
import { Loading, List, Post, PageError } from "./components";

const Page = () => {
  // Get state using useConnect hook.
  const { state } = useConnect();

  // The next line will trigger a re-render whenever
  // the value of "state.router.link" changes.
  const data = state.source.get(state.router.link);

  return (
    <Switch>
      <Loading when={data.isFetching} />
      <List when={data.isArchive} />
      <Post when={data.isPostType} />
      <PageError when={data.isError} />
    </Switch>
  );
};

// Connect Page to the Frontity state.
export default connect(Page);

Use Case of { injectProps: false } with connect⁠#

Most of the times you'll use useConnect in this way:

const Input = ({ name, type }) => {
  const { state } = useConnect();
  // Do something with `state`.

  return <input name={name} type={type} />;
};

export default connect(Input);

But if you want to pass down props to a HTML tag, like in this case:

const Input = ({ name, type, ...props }) => {
  const { state } = useConnect();
  // Do something with `state`.

  return <input name={name} type={type} {...props} />;
};

export default connect(Input);

You'll end up passing actions and libraries to <input> as well, because they are injected by connect.

To avoid this you can:

• Add { injectProps: false } to connect
• Use const { state, actions, libraries } = useConnect();

const Input = (props) => {
  const { state } = useConnect();
  // Do something with `state` (or `actions` and `libraries`).

  return <input {...props} />;
};

// Avoid injecting `state`, `actions` and `libraries` so they are not present in `...props`.
export default connect(Input, { injectProps: false });

styled⁠#

styled is a function that receives an HTML tag or a React component as the argument and returns a function that can be used as a tagged template literal. Inside, you write the CSS code for your component.

The styled tag function returns a styled component with the CSS you wrote.

Also, styled has built-in tag functions for every HTML tag so in those cases it is not necessary to call styled directly.

Syntax⁠#

// You can use an HTML tag like this.
const StyledDiv = styled.div`
  font-size: 24px;
`;

// Or use it like a function and pass a React component.
const StyledComponent = styled(Component)`
  background: aliceblue;
`;

Arguments⁠#

• A template literal containing CSS code

Return value⁠#

• A React component with the styles defined

Example⁠#

import { styled } from "frontity";
import { Page } from "./page";

const Main = () => (
  <Container>
    <StyledPage background="aliceblue" />
  </Container>
);

const Container = styled.div`
  display: flex;
  justify-content: center;
`;

const StyledPage = styled(Page)`
  background: ${(props) => props.background};
`;

css⁠#

It's a tagged template literal to add an inline style to React Components.

The usage is quite similar to styled except that css doesn't return a React Component but a special object that can be passed to a component through the css prop.

Syntax⁠#

const styleObject = css`
  background: pink;
`;

Arguments⁠#

• A template literal containing CSS code

Return value⁠#

• A style object to be passed to a css prop or to the <Global>'s styles prop

Example⁠#

import { css } from "frontity";

const Component = () => (
  <div
    css={css`
      background: pink;
    `}
  >
    Styling my theme
  </div>
);

Global⁠#

It's a React component that creates global styles for the whole Frontity site.

Syntax⁠#

<Global styles={styleObject} />

Props⁠#

• styles: an style object created with css

Example⁠#

import { Global, css } from "frontity";

const Page = () => (
  <>
    <Global
      styles={css`
        body {
          margin: 0;
          font-family: "Roboto";
        }
      `}
    />
    <OtherContent />
  </>
);

keyframes⁠#

It's a function used to define and use animations in your CSS.

Syntax⁠#

const animation = keyframes`
    from { ... } to { ... };
`;

Arguments⁠#

• A template literal containing CSS @keyframes code

Return value⁠#

• An animation object to be used inside a template literal passed to styled or css

Example⁠#

import { styled, keyframes } from "frontity";

// Create the keyframes.
const rotate = keyframes`
  from {
    transform: rotate(0deg);
  }
  to {
    transform: rotate(360deg);
  }
`;

// Add the animation to the styled component.
const Button = styled.button`
  background-color: hotpink;
  animation: ${rotate} 2s linear infinite;
`;

const Component = () => <Button>Styling my theme</Button>;

loadable⁠#

It's a function that loads a component asynchronously generating a different bundle for it. Frontity has integrated and configured Loadable Components, in case you want to check its docs.

You can also take a look at the Code Splitting page of the docs.

Syntax⁠#

const HeavyComponent = loadable(importFunction, options);

Arguments⁠#

Return value⁠#

• A React component

Example⁠#

import { loadable } from "frontity";
import Content from "./components/content";

// Thanks to loadable we prevent comments from loading until it's needed.
const HeavyComments = loadable(() => import("./components/comments"));

const Post = ({ state }) => (
  <>
    <Content />
    {state.comments.areOpened && <HeavyComments />}
  </>
);

export default connect(Post);

Head⁠#

Syntax⁠#

<Head>{children}</Head>

It's a React component that injects their children in the HTML <head> tag. It allows you to change the title while navigating, add meta tags, scripts, etc.

As we use react-helmet under the hood, you may check its reference guide.

Props⁠#

• children: the HTML tags you want to appear inside <head>

Example⁠#

import { Head } from "frontity";

const Theme = () => (
  <Head>
    <title>My awesome blog</title>
    <meta name="description" content="This blog is just for being awesome" />
    <html lang="en" />
    <link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com" />
  </Head>
);

useFills⁠#

A React hook to ease the creation of Slot components.

Syntax⁠#

const fills = useFills("Slot Name");

Arguments⁠#

Return value⁠#

Fill[]

An array of configuration objects for the fills that want to fill the slot passed by the slotName parameter. The values in those objects will come from the fills defined by the user of the slot in state.fills.

Mind that a user might define more than one fill for a particular slot. Because of this, we always return a list of slots sorted in ascending order by their priority.

Each configuration object has this structure:

Example⁠#

Import the hook in your React component and use it to create a component:

import { useFills } from "frontity";

const Comp = () => {
  const fills = useFills("slot 1");

  return (
    <>
      {fills.map(({ Fill, props, key }) => (
        <Fill key={key} {...props} />
      ))}
    </>
  );
};

export default connect(Comp);

Debug mode⁠#

If you want to see all the slots added to a theme/package without having to add fills for all of them, you can turn the debug mode on:

state.frontity.debug = true;

If you want to do this on the console, remember that you need to access the state using frontity.state, like this:

fetch⁠#

It's a function with the WHATWG API for fetching a resource from the network.

This function is safe to use both server and client-side, but you have to import it first.

Syntax⁠#

const fetchResponsePromise = fetch(resource, init);

Arguments⁠#

Return value⁠#

• A Promise that resolves to a Response object

Example⁠#

import { fetch } from "frontity";

const getFromSomeAPI = async (resource) => {
  const response = await fetch("https://site.com/api/v1" + resource);
  const body = await response.json();
  return body;
};

URL⁠#

Syntax⁠#

const url = new URL(url, base);

It's a constructor with the WHATWG API to create URL objects.

This constructor is safe to use both server and client side, but you have to import it first.

Arguments⁠#

Return value⁠#

• A URLobject

Example⁠#

import { URL } from "frontity";

const getApiPathname = ({ state }) => {
  const { pathname } = new URL(state.source.api);
  return pathname;
};

error & warn⁠#

The frontity package exports an error and warn helpers to be used by package developers when they need to either throw an error or log a warn in the console.

error⁠#

This error method throws an error. In development, it adds a message that encourage users to visit the Frontity community if they need help.

Example of error usage

try {
      new URL(api);
    } catch (e) {
      error("Add the URL of your WordPress REST API in state.source.api.");
    }

Syntax

error(((message: string), (options: ErrorOptions = {})));

Arguments

warn⁠#

Logs a warning in the console, adding a message that indicates users to visit the Frontity community if they need help. It's intended to be used by Frontity packages.

Example of warn usage

 ...
 if (hasInvalidComponent) {
    warn("Children of <Switch /> component should be a type of ReactNode");
  }

Syntax

warn((message: string));

Arguments

decode⁠#

An entity decoder that decodes HTML numeric entities and XML named entities. It works both in the server and the client and it's optimized to be both lightweight and performant.

Syntax⁠#

const decodedText = decode(text);

Arguments⁠#

Return value⁠#

• string

Example⁠#

import { decode } from "frontity";

const decodedText = decode("milk & cookies");

console.log(decodedText); // "milk and cookies"

Slot⁠#

The <Slot /> component enables the use of a powerful pattern called Slot and Fill. This allows for any React component to be inserted into, or hooked onto, different places within the app, thereby improving extensibility.

This component allows a theme developer to insert named <Slot> components in various places in a theme. Other package developers are then able to add 'fill' components which will be hooked onto the named slots.

Rationale⁠#

When developing a site the developer is often required to make certain customisations to the structure and/or appearance of the site. This can be difficult to do and necessitates modifying the core code of the theme.

Theme developers are able to facilitate such customisations by adding <Slot /> components at various places in the theme, e.g. above the header, below the header, before the content, etc...

These 'slots' can then be filled with custom components that have been added by the site developer and which are then 'hooked' onto a particular 'slot' to insert the content in that place on the page.

An example might be as follows - the site developer wants to place a third party ad above the content of each page. The theme developer has thoughtfully provided a slot in that position in the theme:

//...
const Content = () => {
  //...
  <Container>
  <Slot name="Before Content">
  //...
  </Container>
  //...
}

The site developer is now able to 'hook' a component that returns an ad onto that slot, so that the ad gets rendered in that position on the page. This component is referred to as a 'fill'.

Syntax⁠#

<Slot name="name of the slot" data={data} myprops={myprops} />

or

<Slot name="name of the slot" data={data} myprops={myprops}>
  {children}
</Slot>

Props⁠#

All the following props can be passed to the <Slot/> component.

Examples⁠#

The simplest example of a Slot would be:

import { Slot } from "frontity";

const Theme = ({ state }) => (
  <>
    <Slot name="Above Header" />
    <Header />
    <Slot name="Below Header" />
    {/* ... */}
  </>
);

Slots can also pass data to the Fill components that will be inserted in place of those slots:

import { Slot } from "frontity";

const Carousel = ({ state }) => {
  // Get latest posts.
  const homeData = state.source.get("/");

  return homeData.items.map((post, index) => {
    const data = state.source.get(post.link);
    return (
      <>
        <Slot data={data} name={`Before post ${index}`} />
        <PostCard />
        <Slot data={data} name={`After post ${index}`} />
      </>
    );
  });
};

Slots can also pass arbitrary props to the Fill components that will be inserted in place of those slots. In this example we're using 'index' to pass the value of index to the Fills:

import { Slot } from "frontity";

const Carousel = ({ state }) => {
  // Get latest posts.
  const homeData = state.source.get("/");

  return homeData.items.map((post, index) => {
    const data = state.source.get(post.link);
    return (
      <>
        <Slot data={data} index={index} name="Before post" />
        <PostCard />
        <Slot data={data} index={index} name="After post" />
      </>
    );
  });
};

The Slot component supports optional children that are rendered if no fills are present. You can use any type of data that is valid as a react element:

const Post = () => (
  <>
    {/* ... */}
    <PostTitle />
    <Slot name="Between post title and post meta">
      <Separator />
    </Slot>
    <PostMeta />
    {/* ... */}
  </>
);

Fills⁠#

Fills are added to the state, to a common namespace called fills. Each fill consists of a configuration object that should be given a unique key and assigned to a namespace. To learn more about namespaces see this section of the docs.

More than one Fill can be hooked onto any single Slot, and these can be ordered according to a priority attribute assigned to the Fill.

// my-frontity-app/packages/my-theme/src/index.js

const state = {
  fills: {
    namespace: {
      nameOfTheFill: {
        slot: "Name of the slot they want to fill", // This has to match the `name` prop passed to <Slot/>
        library: "libNamespace.ComponentName",
        priority: 5,
        props: {
          // Object with props that will be passed to the component.
        },
      },
    },
  },
};

Fills configuration objects structure:

Fills configuration objects can have a false value. This is useful if a package creates a fill by default and a user (or another package) wants to turn it off.

// my-frontity-app/packages/my-theme/src/index.js

const state = {
  fills: {
    namespace: {
      nameOfTheFill: false,
    },
  },
};

The actual components that will be hooked onto a <Slot> should be exposed in libraries.fills by Frontity packages. They can be defined anywhere you like, as long as you can import them and pass to libraries.fills. For example:

// my-frontity-app/packages/my-theme/src/fills.js

export const FillComponent = ({
  // If the Slot creator has passed a `data` prop to the Slot,
  // you can access it here. Otherwise, this prop will be automatically
  // populated with the value of `state.source.get(state.router.link)`
  data,

  // Any other props passed by the creator of the Slot will be available as well!
  ...props
  }) => (
    <div>
      This is the fill content
    </div>
  )
}

// my-frontity-app/packages/my-theme/src/index.js

import { MyFillComponent } from "./fills"; // This is the component defined below

export default {
  state: {
    //...
  },
  actions: {
    //...
  },
  libraries: {
    fills: {
      libNamespace: {
        ComponentName: MyFillComponent,
      },
    },
  },
};

Note that libNamespace.ComponentName here matches the value of state.fills.namespace.nameOfTheFill.library above. FillComponent here is the actual component which is defined elsewhere and may be imported. The return value of this component, i.e. FillComponent, is the content that will be inserted into HTML at the position of the <Slot> that it is attached to.