Unlock the Power of SolidJS: A Lightning-Fast JavaScript Framework
SolidJS is revolutionizing the world of JavaScript frameworks with its innovative approach to reactivity and performance. Created by Ryan Carniato and open-sourced in 2018, SolidJS has been gaining popularity rapidly, thanks to its unique features and blazing-fast speeds.
What Sets SolidJS Apart
SolidJS shares many philosophies with React, but with some key differences. It doesn’t use a virtual DOM, and components are rendered only once, making it one of the fastest JavaScript frameworks available today. In this tutorial, we’ll dive into the world of SolidJS and build a sample “to-do” app to showcase its capabilities.
Getting Started with SolidJS
There are two ways to get started with SolidJS: using their online REPL or cloning pre-existing templates. We’ll use the latter method, which is more convenient for our purposes. We’ll work with the vanilla JavaScript version of the template.
The Building Blocks of SolidJS: Components
Components are the heart of any JavaScript framework. In SolidJS, components are written in JSX and are essentially JavaScript functions that return a mix of HTML and JavaScript code.
Signals: The Foundation of Reactivity
Signals are the backbone of reactivity in SolidJS. They contain values that automatically update whenever a change occurs. To create a signal, we need to import createSignal from solid-js and use it in our component.
Stores: Handling Nested Reactivity
Stores are SolidJS’s way of handling nested reactivity. A store’s return value is a proxy object whose properties can be tracked. We can create and use a store to manage our to-do list app.
Lifecycle Methods: Operating on Components
Lifecycle methods are special methods built into SolidJS that operate on components throughout their duration in the DOM. SolidJS has several lifecycles, including onMount and onCleanup.
Control Flow: Conditional Rendering and Looping
SolidJS has built-in helpers for conditional rendering, looping, and more. These helpers avoid wastefully recreating all DOM nodes on every update.
Creating Our Views
We’ll create two new components: Todolist.jsx and About.jsx, along with a stylesheet for Todolist.jsx. We’ll also set up routing using solid-app-router.
Routing: Enabling Navigation
To implement routing in SolidJS, we’ll install solid-app-router and configure our routes. We’ll create links that users can use to move between pages.
The Final Result
We’ve successfully built a small to-do list application demonstrating some of the features of SolidJS. With its blazing-fast speeds and innovative approach to reactivity, SolidJS is an exciting new addition to the world of JavaScript frameworks.