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Getting Started with Snakeskin

Snakeskin is a modern, lightweight frontend framework designed to make building component-based web applications fast, flexible, and enjoyable. This guide will help you get started with Snakeskin.

Installation

Install via Pip
bash 
pip install snakeskin-xplnhub

For development features including hot reload:

bash 
pip install snakeskin-xplnhub[dev]

For Bootstrap integration:

bash 
pip install snakeskin-xplnhub[bootstrap]

Creating a New Project

bash 
snakeskin create my-project
cd my-project

This will scaffold a new project with the following structure:

Project Structure
text 
my-project/
├── src/
│   └── components/    # Your UI components
├── dist/              # Build output directory
├── input.css          # Tailwind CSS input file
├── main.py            # Main application entry
├── tailwind.config.js # Tailwind configuration

Creating Components

Components are the building blocks of your application. Here's how to create a simple component:

Button.py
python 
# src/components/Button.py
from snakeskin.framework import Component

class Button(Component):
    def __init__(self, **props):
        super().__init__(**props)
        self.state = {
            "clicked": False
        }
        
    def handle_click(self, event=None):
        self.set_state({"clicked": not self.state.get("clicked", False)})
        
    def render(self):
        clicked = self.state.get("clicked", False)
        button_class = "bg-blue-500 hover:bg-blue-700 text-white font-bold py-2 px-4 rounded"
        if clicked:
            button_class = "bg-green-500 hover:bg-green-700 text-white font-bold py-2 px-4 rounded"
            
        return f"""
        <button 
            class="{button_class}" 
            onclick="handleClick_{id(self)}()"
        >
            {self.props.get("text", "Click me")}
        </button>
        <script>
            function handleClick_{id(self)}() {{
                console.log("Button clicked");
                // In a real application, you would use AJAX or WebSockets to communicate with the server
            }}
        </script>
        """

Using Lifecycle Hooks

Snakeskin provides lifecycle hooks to help you manage component state:

Timer.py
python 
# src/components/Timer.py
from snakeskin.framework import Component
import time

class Timer(Component):
    def __init__(self, **props):
        super().__init__(**props)
        self.state = {
            "seconds": 0
        }
        
        # Register lifecycle hooks
        self.on('mounted', self.start_timer)
        self.on('before_unmount', self.stop_timer)
        
    def start_timer(self, component):
        self.timer_running = True
        # In a real application, you would use a proper timer mechanism
        # This is just for demonstration
        print("Timer started")
        
    def stop_timer(self, component):
        self.timer_running = False
        print("Timer stopped")
        
    def tick(self):
        if self.timer_running:
            self.set_state({"seconds": self.state["seconds"] + 1})
            
    def render(self):
        return f"""
        <div class="timer">
            <p>Seconds elapsed: {self.state["seconds"]}</p>
        </div>
        """

Composing Components

You can compose components to build complex UIs:

App.py
python 
# src/components/App.py
from snakeskin.framework import Component
from src.components.Button import Button
from src.components.Timer import Timer

class App(Component):
    def render(self):
        button = Button(text="Toggle Timer")
        timer = Timer()
        
        return f"""
        <div class="container mx-auto p-4">
            <h1 class="text-2xl font-bold mb-4">Snakeskin Demo</h1>
            {button.render()}
            {timer.render()}
        </div>
        """

Running the Development Server

Start the development server with hot reload:

bash 
snakeskin dev

This will:

  1. Build your project
  2. Start a development server at http://localhost:3000
  3. Watch for file changes and automatically reload the browser

Building for Production

When you're ready to deploy:

bash 
snakeskin build

This will create optimized files in the dist directory that you can deploy to any static hosting service.

Using Tailwind CSS

Snakeskin integrates seamlessly with Tailwind CSS. You can use Tailwind classes directly in your component's render method:

python 
def render(self):
    return """
    <div class="bg-white shadow-md rounded px-8 pt-6 pb-8 mb-4">
        <h2 class="text-gray-700 text-xl font-bold mb-2">Welcome</h2>
        <p class="text-gray-700">This component uses Tailwind CSS for styling.</p>
    </div>
    """

Using Bootstrap

Snakeskin also supports Bootstrap. You can use the BootstrapIntegration helper:

python 
from snakeskin import BootstrapIntegration

# In your main.py
html_content = f"""
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <title>My App</title>
</head>
<body>
    {app.render()}
</body>
</html>
"""

# Add Bootstrap CSS and JS
html_content = BootstrapIntegration.include_in_template(html_content, "both")

with open("dist/index.html", "w") as f:
    f.write(html_content)

Now you can use Bootstrap classes in your components:

python 
def render(self):
    return """
    <div class="container">
        <div class="row">
            <div class="col-md-6">
                <div class="card">
                    <div class="card-body">
                        <h5 class="card-title">Bootstrap Card</h5>
                        <p class="card-text">This component uses Bootstrap for styling.</p>
                        <button class="btn btn-primary">Click me</button>
                    </div>
                </div>
            </div>
        </div>
    </div>
    """

Next Steps