htmx gives you access to AJAX, CSS Transitions, WebSockets and Server Sent Events directly in HTML, using attributes, so you can build modern user interfaces with the simplicity and power of hypertext
htmx is small (~14k min.gz’d), dependency-free, extendable, IE11 compatible & has reduced code base sizes by 67% when compared with react
As a security and DevOps engineer, HTMX has been such a pain in my butt lately.
Something are broken? -> Web devs blame WAF -> Me debugs and researches for hours when I has better stuff to do -> Finally me: WAF is fine. Is your broken JavaScript. Wut do? -> Web devs: Not know, write in HTMX, JS is abstracted, now we fix. -> 15 minutes later web devs: We fix! We do basic thing wrong! Now learn something new about HTMX. -> Me: Great. Thanks so much for that.
It’s not HTMX (well kinda, see below). It’s devs being like “These bugs aren’t my fault until you prove they are.”
And it’s abstraction. I understand WHY we do it… I guess. I don’t AGREE, and this is why. If you’re playing with code that generates code that you don’t understand and then can’t debug… I’ve always preferred to write the code that’s going to run. Don’t give me APIs that interact with database, let me write SQL. Don’t give me something with a “simple syntax” that behind the scenes generates a bunch of JavaScript doing who knows what that no one on the team understands (HTMX), it’s gonna be easier on everybody to just write the JavaScript. The only reason the devs solved it was ChatGPT knew what they had missed… and I had to point them in that direction (I cut and pasted the errors into ChatGPT and then said “Guys, IDK what this means because I don’t know anything about HTMX. Do YOU GUYS KNOW?”)
I ended up spending hours of my life on some tech some hotshots wanted to use because it’s the “new, sexy thing” and what I learned was “Oh, this is just abstracted syntax ontop of Ajax which is ALREADY abstracted syntax ontop of JavaScript.” I find this annoying, not charming.
As a security and DevOps engineer, HTMX has been such a pain in my butt lately.
Something are broken? -> Web devs blame WAF -> Me debugs and researches for hours when I has better stuff to do -> Finally me: WAF is fine. Is your broken JavaScript. Wut do? -> Web devs: Not know, write in HTMX, JS is abstracted, now we fix. -> 15 minutes later web devs: We fix! We do basic thing wrong! Now learn something new about HTMX. -> Me: Great. Thanks so much for that.
I didn’t quite follow.
They’re using htmx, make errors, and learning something new about using it?
That’s like using any new tech though, right? Or - depending on the devs - happens even with established tech.
I’ve never seen htmx in production. I find it interesting though and want to explore using it. That won’t be at work though. :)
It’s not HTMX (well kinda, see below). It’s devs being like “These bugs aren’t my fault until you prove they are.”
And it’s abstraction. I understand WHY we do it… I guess. I don’t AGREE, and this is why. If you’re playing with code that generates code that you don’t understand and then can’t debug… I’ve always preferred to write the code that’s going to run. Don’t give me APIs that interact with database, let me write SQL. Don’t give me something with a “simple syntax” that behind the scenes generates a bunch of JavaScript doing who knows what that no one on the team understands (HTMX), it’s gonna be easier on everybody to just write the JavaScript. The only reason the devs solved it was ChatGPT knew what they had missed… and I had to point them in that direction (I cut and pasted the errors into ChatGPT and then said “Guys, IDK what this means because I don’t know anything about HTMX. Do YOU GUYS KNOW?”)
I ended up spending hours of my life on some tech some hotshots wanted to use because it’s the “new, sexy thing” and what I learned was “Oh, this is just abstracted syntax ontop of Ajax which is ALREADY abstracted syntax ontop of JavaScript.” I find this annoying, not charming.