Ensuring Flowbite JavaScript Initialization After HTMX Swaps

[cl3mcg]

Hello everyone,

I recently encountered an issue where Flowbite JavaScript was correctly initialized on the initial page load, but it failed to reinitialize after HTMX swapped elements in or out. This issue arises because when HTMX dynamically updates the DOM with new elements containing Flowbite components, the necessary JavaScript initialization is not automatically triggered.

The Problem

When you render HTML from the server and HTMX swaps elements on your page, any new Flowbite components introduced by these swaps will not function correctly. This is because Flowbite components requiring JavaScript need to be reinitialized by calling initFlowbite() again. You can refer to the Flowbite documentation for more details on initialization functions.

The Solution

To address this issue, I added a small script to my application to ensure that Flowbite is reinitialized after each HTMX swap. I believe this behavior should be included by default to match the expectations of most developers.
Implementation

Here is the script I added to my project:

assets/scripts.js provided by default by Gowebly

// Initial imports such as HTMX, Alpine etc... provided by default by Gowebly
// [...]
import 'flowbite';
import { initFlowbiteJS } from './flowbite_init.js'; // See below for the details of the script imported.
// Initialize Flowbite and calls it after each HTMX swaps
initFlowbiteJS();

assets/flowbite_init.js custom script created

// Import initFlowbite from the flowbite library as instructed in the Flowbite documentation
import { initFlowbite } from 'flowbite'

const initFlowbiteJS = function () {
    // Document ready function to ensure the DOM is fully loaded
    document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function () {
        // Initialize Flowbite on page load
        initFlowbite();

        // Add event listeners for HTMX events
        document.body.addEventListener('htmx:afterSwap', function (evt) {
            initFlowbite();
        });

        document.body.addEventListener('htmx:afterSettle', function (evt) {
            initFlowbite();
        });

        document.body.addEventListener('htmx:afterRequest', function (evt) {
            initFlowbite();
        });
    })
};

export { initFlowbiteJS }

Why This Should Be Included by Default

This script ensures that Flowbite components are properly initialized after any HTMX swap, providing a seamless experience for developers. Given that dynamic content updates are common in modern web applications, including this behavior by default would align with the expectations of most developers and improve the overall user experience.

[koddr]

@cl3mcg thanks for this solution!

Add this to the Gowebly v2.7.0.

[cl3mcg]

Hello,
After further checks, it would seem that the solution I provided is not optimal, I found some cases where the implemented solution actually breaks some Flowbite modals.
I tried to implement the fix mentioned in this Stackoverflow post and it seems to work better.
Maybe someone with more experience and knowledge than me can actually dive into this and see.
From my side I will try to run further tests on the fix mentioned in the Stackoverflow post and will report back if it is a better solution.

[koddr]

@cl3mcg please make PR with all of the changes 🤗