Why I’m Back to Web Components and Why You Should Be Too

#webdev #javascript #discuss #typescript

Web components are dead, hail to web components! I think that you should follow me in their recovery. I’m talking about “vanilla” JavaScript here (or, at least, TypeScript) and not about frameworks such as Angular, React, or Vue.js. You can easily integrate them, if you need to, later on.

You can find lots of articles on web components here on the DEV Community, but to be honest I see that they’re not so popular anymore among developers. I don’t even remember the first time I heard about them, but I think they still matters: I do believe in a web where they can be exchanged between different projects.

This is something that belongs to the open source contibution. A new Hacktoberfest will begin soon, and I will talk about it, so it’s time to consider the topic. Let’s say I’m working on a commercial solution for a customer, but it can be useful for other implementations… why not share it?

Of course, it must be cleaned up from proprietary elements. I don’t want to disclose company secrets, but I do want to share something potentially useful for others. I’m thinking about a particular component right now, and for sure I’ll publish it on my GitHub, but it’s not ready to be discussed yet.

I see web components like other best practices as Semantic Versioning and Conventional Commits. Seasoned developers can easily adapt them to meet their needs, even if they’re not ready to be added as-is to any project. Well, it would be better to have a standard.

Io ho quel che ho donato, a motto by Gabriele D’Annunzio which in English means something like I have what I have given away. I think it can be considered an open source slogan: the more I give to the community, the more I get back from it. And, trust me, as a full-stack JavaScript developer I get a lot.

So, in the next few weeks I’ll share some web components of mine with you, hoping that you enjoy it—and that you’ll make some PR to their repositories. My goal is to provide R&D that matters, not just for my company, but for the whole community. It’s not that ambitious as it seems.

I’m still trying to understand how to provide a standard markup which can be reused everywhere. That’s where you can help me. I’ll provide web, styled components with the minimum amount of elements: my goal is to create an archive of clean components that can be heavily customized.