Cheat Sheet

Packages

@microsoft/fast-element

A lightweight library for building performant, memory-efficient, standards-compliant Web Components.

Provides a thin layer of opinion on top of Web Components, lifting the level of abstraction just enough to make it easier and faster to build components.
Use this library when you want to create new custom web components.

To install the fast-element library, use either npm or yarn:

npm install --save @microsoft/fast-element

yarn add @microsoft/fast-element

Within your JavaScript or TypeScript code, you can then import library APIs like this:

import { FASTElement } from "@microsoft/fast-element";

@microsoft/fast-foundation

This package is a library of Web Component classes, templates, and other utilities intended to be composed into registered Web Components by design systems.

Exports of this package can generally be thought of as un-styled base components that implement semantic and accessible markup and behavior.
Use this library when you want to create something like Google's Material Design or Bootstrap.

Example

import {
  Button as FoundationButton,
  buttonTemplate as template,
} from "@microsoft/fast-foundation";
import { css } from "@microsoft/fast-element";

export class MyButton extends FoundationButton {
  ...
}

export const buttonStyles = css`
  :host {
    background-color: azure;
  }
`;

export const myButton = MyButton.compose({
  baseName: "button",
  baseClass: FoundationButton,
  template,
  styles: buttonStyles,
  shadowOptions: {
    delegatesFocus: true,
  },
});

@microsoft/fast-components

The FAST component library and visual system FAST Frame, which implements fast-foundation.

Assembles the building blocks of @microsoft/fast-foundation to create its component set.
Use this library when you want to integrate FAST Components into an existing site or app.

To install the components, use either npm or yarn:

npm install --save @microsoft/fast-components

yarn add @microsoft/fast-components

To use a component as a custom element in HTML, the custom element must be registered.

Example

import { 
  fastButton, 
  provideFASTDesignSystem 
} from "@microsoft/fast-components";

provideFASTDesignSystem()
  .register(
    fastButton() // custom element registration
  );

Using components

Setup

Example

To register design system components:

import { 
  fastButton, 
  provideFASTDesignSystem 
} from "@microsoft/fast-components";

provideFASTDesignSystem()
  .register(
    fastButton() // custom element registration
  );

Or, register all system components:

import { 
  allComponents, 
  provideFASTDesignSystem 
} from "@microsoft/fast-components";

provideFASTDesignSystem().register(allComponents);

With the components registered, add any component to the HTML.

Example

<fast-button>Hello world</fast-button>

Launch our Component Explorer for a comprehensive list of FAST Components.

Integrations

FAST libraries can also be used in combination with a wide variety of existing technologies:

Not seeing an integration for your preferred technology? Open an issue on GitHub.

Building components

There are two main approaches to building a component:

The first approach is for simple declarations of non-shared components.
The second approach is for components designed to be published in shareable libraries.

Setup

Example

To define a custom element:

import { FASTElement, customElement } from "@microsoft/fast-element";

@customElement("name-tag") // custom element being created
export class NameTag extends FASTElement {
  ...
}

With this in place, you can now use your <name-tag> element anywhere in HTML with the following markup:

<name-tag></name-tag>

Attributes

To add attributes to your HTML element, create properties decorated by the @attr decorator.

All attributes defined this way will be automatically registered with the platform so that they can be updated through the browser's native setAttribute API as well as the property.

You can optionally add a method with the naming convention propertyNameChanged to your class, and this method will be called whenever your property changes, whether it changes through the property or the attribute API.

Example

import { FASTElement, customElement, attr } from "@microsoft/fast-element";

@customElement("name-tag")
export class NameTag extends FASTElement {
  @attr greeting: string = "Hello";

  // optional method 
  greetingChanged() {
    ...
  }
}

Example: To use a Web Component with Attributes

<name-tag greeting="Hola"></name-tag>

Customizing attributes

There are three modes available through the mode property of the attribute configuration:

Mode	Guidance
reflect	The default mode that is used if none is specified.
boolean	This mode causes your attribute to function using the HTML boolean attribute behavior.
fromView	This mode skips reflecting the value of the property back to the HTML attribute.

In addition to setting the mode, you can also supply a custom ValueConverter by setting the converter property of the attribute configuration.

The converter must implement the following interface:

interface ValueConverter {
  toView(value: any): string;
  fromView(value: string): any;
}

Example: An Attribute in Reflect Mode with No Special Conversion

import { FASTElement, customElement, attr } from '@microsoft/fast-element';

@customElement('name-tag')
export class NameTag extends FASTElement {
  @attr greeting: string = 'Hello';
}

Example: An Attribute in Boolean Mode with Boolean Conversion

import { FASTElement, customElement, attr } from '@microsoft/fast-element';

@customElement('my-checkbox')
export class MyCheckbox extends FASTElement {
  @attr({ mode: 'boolean' }) disabled: boolean = false;
}

Example: An Attribute in Reflect Mode with Custom Conversion

import { FASTElement, customElement, attr, ValueConverter } from '@microsoft/fast-element';

const numberConverter: ValueConverter = {
  toView(value: number): string {
    return String(value);
  },

  fromView(value: string): number {
    return Number(value);
  }
};

@customElement("my-counter")
export class MyCounter extends FASTElement {
  @attr({
    mode: "reflect",
    converter: numberConverter
  })
  count: number = 0;
}

Templates

To create an HTML template for an element, import and use the html tagged template helper and pass the template to the @customElement decorator.

Example

import { FASTElement, customElement, attr, html } from "@microsoft/fast-element";

const template = html<NameTag>`
  <div class="header">
    <h3>${x => x.greeting.toUpperCase()}</h3>
    <h4>my name is</h4>
  </div>

  <div class="body">TODO: Name Here</div>

  <div class="footer"></div>
`;

@customElement({
  name: "name-tag",
  template
})
export class NameTag extends FASTElement {
  ...
}

Observables

To enable binding tracking and change notification, properties must be decorated with either @attr or @observable.

Use @attr for primitive properties (string, bool, number) that are intended to be surfaced on your element as HTML attributes. Use @observable for all other property types on an HTMLElement and all observable properties on plain classes.

Example

import { Observable } from "@microsoft/fast-element";

export class Person {
  @observable firstName = "";
  @observable lastName = "";

  get fullName() {
    return `${this.firstName} ${this.LastName}`;
  }
}

Bindings

(x refers to the custom-element class instance in the examples below.)

Binding Type	Example	Notes
Content	`<p>${x => x.greeting} friend!</p>`	Creates a binding to interpolate text or child templates into element content.
HTML Attribute	`<a href=${x => x.aboutLink}></a>`	Creates a binding that uses the setAttribute API. Attribute bindings also support interpolation with text and other bindings.
HTML Boolean Attribute	`<input ?disabled=${x => x.isDisabled}>`	Creates a binding that adds or removes the attribute based on truthy/falsey values.
JS Property	`<input :value=${x => x.name}>`	Creates a binding that sets a JavaScript property on the element.
Event Handler	`<button @click=${x => x.handleClick()}>Button</button>`	Registers an event handler using addEventListener. The listener is automatically removed when the template is unbound. After your event handler is executed, preventDefault() will be called on the event object by default. You can return true from your handler to opt-out of this behavior.
HTML Element Reference	`<button ${ref("myButton")}>Button</button>`	Captures a reference to the element and assigns it to the named property on the element instance.
Slotted Node Capture	`<slot ${slotted("defaultSlotNodes")}></slot>`	Watches the slot for changes and synchronizes those to an array, assigned to the named property on the element instance.
Child Node Capture	`<div ${children("divChildren")}></div>`	Watches the element's children or changes and synchronizes those to an array, assigned to the named property on the element instance.

Directives

Use the when directive to conditionally render blocks of HTML.

Example

import { FASTElement, customElement, observable, html, when } from "@microsoft/fast-element";

const template = html<MyApp>`
 ...
  ${when(x => !x.ready, html<MyApp>`
    Loading...
  `)}
`;

@customElement({
  name: "my-app",
  template
})
export class MyApp extends FASTElement {
  @observable ready: boolean = false;
  ...
}

Use the repeat directive to render a list of data.

Example

import { FASTElement, customElement, observable, html, repeat } from "@microsoft/fast-element";

const template = html<FriendList>`
  ...
    ${repeat(x => x.friends, html<string>`
      <li>${x => x}</li>
    `)}
`;

@customElement({
  name: "friend-list",
  template
})
export class FriendList extends FASTElement {
  @observable friends: Person[] = [];
  ...
}

Properties available on the context object within a repeat block:

Property	Definition
event	The event object when inside an event handler.
parent	The parent view-model when inside a repeat block.
parentContext	The parent ExecutionContext when inside a repeat block. This is useful when repeats are nested and the inner-most repeat needs access to the root view-model.

Opt-in properties that are not available by default:

Opt-in Properties	Definition
index	The index of the current item when inside a repeat block.
length	The length of the array when inside a repeat block.
isEven	True if the index of the current item is even when inside a repeat block.
isOdd	True if the index of the current item is odd when inside a repeat block.
isFirst	True if the current item is first in the array inside a repeat block.
isInMiddle	True if the current item is somewhere in the middle of the array inside a repeat block.
isLast	True if the current item is last in the array inside a repeat block.

To opt into the positioning properties, pass options to the repeat directive, with the setting positioning: true.

Example: Rendering a list with Item Index

<ul>
  ${repeat(x => x.friends, html<string>`
    <li>${(x, c) => c.index} ${x => x}</li>
  `, { positioning: true })}
</ul>

Styles

FASTElement provides a css tagged template helper that allows for the creation of ElementStyles.

Example: Adding CSS to a FASTElement

import { FASTElement, customElement } from "@microsoft/fast-element";
import { css, customElement, FASTElement } from "@microsoft/fast-element";
import { disabledOpacity } from "../design-tokens";

const styles = css`
  :host([disabled]) {
    opacity: ${disabledOpacity};
  }
`;

@customElement({
  styles
})
export class MyElement extends FASTElement {}

Composing styles

ElementStyles can be composed with other styles.

Example

import { normalize } from "./normalize";

const styles = css`
  ${normalize}
  :host {
    ...
  }
`;

Partial CSS

Use the cssPartial tagged template literal to create reusable blocks of partial CSS.

Example

import { css, cssPartial } from "@microsoft/fast-element";

const partial = cssPartial`color: red;`;
const styles = css`:host{ ${partial} }`;

CSSDirective

To create a CSSDirective, import and extend CSSDirective from @microsoft/fast-element.

Example

import { CSSDirective }  from "@microsoft/fast-element"

class RandomWidth extends CSSDirective {}

createCSS method

CSSDirective has a createCSS() method that returns a string to be interpolated into an ElementStyles.

Example

class RandomWidth extends CSSDirective {
  createCSS() {
    return "width: var(--random-width);"
  }
}

createBehavior method

The createBehavior() method can be used to create a Behavior that is bound to the element using the CSSDirective.

Example

class RandomWidth extends CSSDirective {
  private property = "20px";
  createCSS() {
    return `width: ${this.property};`
  }

  createBehavior() {
    return {
      bind(el) {
        el.style.setProperty(this.property, Math.floor(Math.random() * 100) + "px")
      }
      unbind(el) {
        el.style.removeProperty(this.property);
      }
    }
  }
}

Design system

Creating a design system

Start with the base components defined in @microsoft/fast-foundation and compose them with your own styles.

Example

import {
  Button,
  buttonTemplate as template,
} from "@microsoft/fast-foundation";
import { buttonStyles as styles } from "./special-button.styles";

export const specialButton = Button.compose({
  baseName: "button",
  template,
  styles,
  shadowOptions: {
    delegatesFocus: true,
  },
});

export const buttonStyles = styles;

Export a provider function for your community to use in setting everything up.

Example

export function provideSpecialDesignSystem(element?: HTMLElement): DesignSystem {
  return DesignSystem.getOrCreate(element).withPrefix("special");
}

Design tokens

Example: Creating a token

import { DesignToken } from "@microsoft/fast-foundation";

// create a design token
export const specialColor = DesignToken.create<string>("special-color");

Example: Using design tokens in CSS

// use the design token to build styles
const styles = css`
  :host {
    background: ${specialColor};
  }
`;

Example: Setting values

// change the value for a given element
specialColor.setValueFor(ancestor, "#FFF");
specialColor.setValueFor(descendent, "#000");

Example: Getting values

// get the value
specialColor.getValueFor(ancestor); // "#FFF"
specialColor.getValueFor(descendent); // "#000"

Example: Deleting values

// unset the value (inherits from ancestor)
specialColor.deleteValueFor(descendent);
specialColor.getValueFor(descendent); // "#FFF"

Configuring a FAST design token

FAST exposes non-color related Design Tokens that can be used to configure components stylistically. For Design Tokens related to color, see the adaptive color system.

Example: Changing the value for the typeRampBaseFontSize design token

import { typeRampBaseFontSize } from "@microsoft/fast-components";
import { FASTElement } from '@microsoft/fast-element';

const myElement = document.querySelector("my-element") as FASTElement;

typeRampBaseFontSize.setValueFor(myElement, "20px");

Contributing to FAST

Connect with us:

Join our Discord server.
Report bugs, request features through Github.

Unsure of what to work on?

Here are good first issues.

cd packages/web-components/fast-components
yarn start

Storybook will open in a browser window at localhost:6006.

Contributing to documentation

cd sites/website
yarn start

Docusaurus will open in a browser window at localhost:3000.

Cheat Sheet

Packages

@microsoft/fast-element

@microsoft/fast-foundation

@microsoft/fast-components

Using components

Setup

Integrations

Building components

Setup

Attributes

Customizing attributes

Templates

Observables

Bindings

Directives

Styles

Composing styles

Partial CSS

CSSDirective

createCSS method

createBehavior method

Design system

Creating a design system

Design tokens

Configuring a FAST design token

Contributing to FAST

Contributor guide

Branch Guide

Contributing to `fast-components`

Contributing to documentation

Cheat Sheet

Packages​

Setup​

Setup​

Design system​

Configuring a FAST design token​

Packages

Setup

Setup

Design system

Configuring a FAST design token