Pure JavaScript Web Components

Masterclass

Pure JavaScript Web Components

About

An in-depth hands-on workshop about building interactive web components using modern JavaScript. No frameworks, no libraries; learn how to create fast, responsive user experiences, built with 100% native code.

JavaScript runs in every web browser, tablet and smartphone on the planet. It’s used to create all kinds of applications, from business productivity tools to social media apps and online games. Modern JavaScript is a flexible, powerful development platform – but it’s a platform that comes with a dizzying array of standards, frameworks and tools. From the dark days of document.layers , through jQuery and prototype, to modern ecosystems like React and vueJS, developers have long relied on frameworks and libraries when it comes to building client-side components and systems using JavaScript.

With modern JavaScript, you don’t need to. Technologies like web components, custom elements and the shadow DOM are natively supported by over 90% of browsers, and using these technologies, we can create lightweight, responsive web components that leverage modern browsers’ native APIs to deliver blisteringly fast performance.

In this two-day workshop, you’ll find out how to design, build and deploy custom web components built with pure native JavaScript. Over the course of the workshop, attendees will build several web components, from a simple “Hello World” app to an interactive puzzle game implemented entirely as a custom element built with HTML and JavaScript.

Course contents

Overview of modern web component architecture

Modern browser APIs: web components, custom elements
Understanding events and event handlers
Client-side tooling: working with the DOM inspector
Server-side tooling: introducing Webpack and Babel

Working with the Shadow DOM

What is a shadow DOM, why does it matter?
Rendering HTML elements via JavaScript
Working with templated HTML
Styling components with CSS

Architecture of a web component

Working with JavaScript classes
Registering custom elements
Structuring your code: models, views, renderers and handlers
Putting it all together: building your first web component

Rendering strategies for web components

Managing state via models and views
CSS layouts: document, flex and grid
Working with the HTML <canvas> element
Responsive design considerations for web components

User interactions and events

Handling mouse and keyboard events
Mobile and tablet interfaces: working with touch events
Animations, loops and timeouts
Interacting with components via custom events

Testing web components with Jest

Introduction: unit testing JavaScript with Jest
Application testing: validating behaviour with the arrange/act/assert pattern
Interaction testing: simulating events and mocking handlers
Testing strategies for web components: how much test coverage is enough?

Web component tooling

Bundling and publishing your component using Webpack
Working with SASS and SCSS
Supporting older browsers using Babel
Versioning and release management

Target audience and prerequisites

This workshop is aimed at software professionals with some web development experience. You don’t need to be a JavaScript expert – if you’re comfortable editing code in a text editor, you know what document.getElementById does, and you can write some basic HTML, you should be able to pick up the rest as we go.

Attendees will need a laptop running a modern web browser (Chrome, Firefox or Microsoft Edge). For the sections of the workshop based on SASS/SCSS, Webpack, and Babel, you will need a nodeJS v12 or higher runtime – instructions will be provided on installing this if you don’t already have it set up.

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- 27 October 2021