AlpineJS is a minimalist javascript library with a goal of being simple, lightweight, and powerful. Built with only 15 attributes, 6 properties, and 2 methods, it definitely lives up the minimal lightweight approach. The ability to rapidly build out components on the fly, refactor and reuse components, and install plugins for additional functionality does make an argument for how powerful this small library really is.
AlpineJS isn’t a heavy-weight hitter. It’s a minimalist library. It isn’t going to be best for every use case, but it is best for situations you probably face in your own development projects from time to time. I’ve always found that AlpineJS excels in two things; rapid development and refactoring for performance. This is always something I need done when working through landing pages, light weight dashboards, and form validation. Simply put, AlpineJS is best used when the performance challenge is often less about how your render the DOM and more about when you load your assets.
AlpineJS’s minimal nature does have one drawback; the inlining bloat. Similar to tailwindcss, AlpineJS lets you code entirely inline, which can lead to bloat and performance issues. This is why I defined a clear process for how I work with AlpineJS to work fast and stay performant. Fortunately, it’s really easy to follow, and only involves two steps. First, rapidly develop your scripts. Get it working and tested. Second, extract your components. AlpineJS allows you to inline all of your scripts but also allows you to extract them into reusable components. This not only reduces the inline bloat but remove repeated code. This process as a whole is excellent because it lets me rapidly get the page working as intended and then easily increase the performance.
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