Attributes deep dive

You’ve just rebuilt 90% of Phlex so you know a thing or two about rendering attributes, right?

In the previous example, we rendered attributes like this:

attributes.each do |key, value|
  @buffer << " #{key}=\"#{value}\""
end

Keys

If you use symbols for keys, Phlex will replace underscores _ with dashes -. This is because the convention in HTML is to use dashes, while on the Ruby side, dashes are not allowed in symbols.

If you need to keep an underscore in the attribute name, you can use a string instead:

component

h1(data_controller: "hello") { "Hello!" }
h1("data_controller" => "hello") { "Hello!" }

output

<h1 data-controller="hello">👋 Hello World!</h1>
<h1 data_controller="hello">👋 Hello World!</h1>

Nested attributes

You can nest attributes by using a hash as the value. The hash will be flattened with a dash between each level:

component

h1(data: { controller: "hello" }) { "Hello!" }

output

<h1 data-controller="hello">👋 Hello World!</h1>

Attribute values

Symbols

Like keys, if you use symbols for values, Phlex will convert them to strings, replacing underscores _ with dashes -.

component

div(contenteditable: :plaintext_only)

output

<div contenteditable="plaintext-only"></div>

Arrays and sets

ruby

a(
  class: [
    ("button"),
    ("active" if is_active),
    ("disabled" if is_disabled)
  ]
) { "Click me" }

Booleans

Booleans are a special case. If the value is true, Phlex will render the attribute without a value. If the value is false, Phlex will not render the attribute at all.

component

textarea(disabled: true)
textarea(disabled: false)

output

<textarea disabled></textarea> <textarea></textarea>

TIP

Some HTML attributes such as contenteditable require you to pass "true" or "false" as strings. These are not really boolean attributes even though they look similar; they’re technically “enumerated” attributes.

According to the MDN Web Docs, contenteditable accepts "true", "false" or "plaintext-only". The presence of this third option explains why contenteditable is not a boolean attribute. It also means new modes could be added in the future without breaking existing code.

The style attribute

The style attribute has special behaviour. If you pass a Hash to style, Phlex will convert it to a CSS string:

component

h1(style: { color: "red", font_size: "16px" }) { "Hello!" }

output

<h1 style="color: red; font-size: 16px;">Hello!</h1>

href on an <a> tag

It’s worth noting here that Phlex will not allow you to set the href attribute to anything that begins with javascript:. This is a security feature to prevent cross-site-scripting (XSS) attacks.

Event attributes

Event attributes such as onclick are disallowed to prevent cross-site-scripting (XSS) attacks.