Introducing OpalStimulus! 🎉

#opal #stimulus #ruby #javascript

Have you ever dreamed of being able to write your Stimulus controllers in Ruby instead of JavaScript?
Here's OpalStimulus, a Stimulusjs wrapper for Opal, with a Rails installer.
Obviously for now (while being functional) this project is still in development and not complete, but if you want to contribute or simply try it out, you can do so https://github.com/josephschito/opal_stimulus/pulls

Here's a small example of how it works:

Basic Example

Here's a Hello World example with OpalStimulus. Compare with the original Stimulus example.

Add this line to your Gemfile:

gem 'opal_stimulus'

Run:

bundle install
rails generate opal_stimulus:install

Start the application:

bin/dev

Create app/opal/controllers/hello_controller.rb and fill it with:

class HelloController < StimulusController
  self.targets = ["name", "output"]
  def greet
    output_target.text_content = "Hello, #{name_target.value}!"
  end
end

Add this to a view:

<div data-controller="hello">
  <input data-hello-target="name" type="text">
  <button data-action="click->hello#greet">
    Greet
  </button>
  <span data-hello-target="output">
  </span>
</div>

Result:

Enjoy! 😉

Top comments (5)

Nevo David • Jun 20

honestly this is huge for me since i never vibe with js that much. makes me wonder - you think stuff like this actually helps keep dev life fun, or does it just make us lazier over time?

Joseph Schito • Jun 21

Thank you for your interest!
I always recommend learning a bit of JavaScript if you want to work with the DOM.
I had a lot of fun creating this gem, and I think a more stable version could be beneficial for those who also want to have some fun.