React-Magic and HTMLtoJSX
React-Magic is an experimental library that uses the power of Facebook's
React library to inject AJAX-loading
goodness into plain old HTML webpages, without having to write any custom
JavaScript. You can even use CSS transitions between the pages. Simply add a
single script tag (or click a bookmarklet) and "it just works".
HTMLtoJSX is a component of React-Magic that converts
HTML to JSX. It can be used standalone, either on the web or via Node.js.
Under the covers
React-Magic intercepts all navigation (link clicks and form posts) and loads
the requested page via an AJAX request. React is then used to "diff" the old
HTML with the new HTML, and only update the parts of the DOM that have been
changed.
Demos
Usage
To use React-Magic, add a <script> tag to the bottom of your page, right above
the </body>:
<script src="http://magic.reactjs.net/magic-loader.js"></script>
This handles loading all the required scripts. Alternatively, you can put all
the required scripts instead:
<script src="http://fb.me/react-0.13.3.min.js"></script>
<script src="http://fb.me/JSXTransformer-0.13.3.js"></script>
<script src="http://magic.reactjs.net/magic.min.js"></script>
The end result is the same.
A fun party trick is adding a bookmarklet to your browser which can be used to
Reactify any plain HTML site. Click it and mystify your friends:
javascript:(function(b){function c(){if(0!==d.length){var e=d.shift(),a=b.createElement("script");a.src=e;a.onload=c;b.body.appendChild(a)}}var d=["http://fb.me/react-0.13.3.min.js","http://fb.me/JSXTransformer-0.13.3.js","http://magic.reactjs.net/magic.min.js"];c();return!1})(document);
This just loads the same scripts as referenced above.
Caveat Emptor
Even magic comes with its limitations. Since this project is experimental, it may not
work properly in all browsers. If you're looking for something that works in
IE6, you've come to the wrong place.
Development
Run gulp watch from the root to automatically rebuild the compiled JavaScript
files as you edit them. To run the unit tests, point a web server to
build/site then navigate to test.htm. If you use the LiveReload browser
extension, the tests will automatically reload and rerun when you modify any of
the JavaScript.
Similar Projects
This project has been inspired by the
Ajaxify project, which achieves a
similar outcome but using jQuery. What makes React-Magic different is that it
only updates the DOM nodes that have changed, whereas Ajaxify and similar
solutions just blow away the whole document.body on every page load.