View Transitions for Multi-page Apps
View Transitions for Multi-page Apps
By Dave Bitter
4 min read
We finally have (experimental) View Transitions for Multi-page Apps (MPA)! Let’s explore why this is cool and how we can use it.
- Authors
- Name
- Dave Bitter
- linkedinDave Bitter
- twitter@dave_bitter
- Github
- githubDaveBitter
- Website
- websiteBlog
Time to look at an, at the time of writing, experimental feature on the web! It might be a bit early to write about it, but View Transitions, proven by this being my third article about them, really excites me!
What are View Transitions again?
The View Transition API is an effort to bring a smoother user experience to the web much like our users are familiar with in native applications. In essence, it lets you animate elements from one view to the next one with ease.
Between “pages”
Consider this transition below:
Before, you had to load the markup for the next page, put it on top of the card, make the animation, make sure to clean up the old view and finally update the URL. Quite a bit of effort for relatively simple transitions. Luckily, the View Transition API makes this incredibly easy.
Read more on how this exactly is done technically in my article The View Transitions API: Enhancing the feel of the web. This, however, only works with client-side navigation in a Single Page App (SPA)
Between “views”
But of course, this doesn’t just apply to transitioning between two “pages”. You can also use this powerful API to transition between two “views” on the page. For example, when adding or deleting an item in a grid:
If you want to read more on how this is done, head over to my article Make awesome animated interactions with two lines of code.
So why the excitement for MPAs?
Well, the previous examples rely solely on having client-side JavaScript. If you don’t have an SPA, you don’t get to use it for transitioning pages. We want to be able to transition two completely separate pages, or documents to be precise.
Ease-of-use
Now, you could’ve made something yourself where you intercept the request for a page, fetch the content yourself, update the DOM and make sure that the client-side View Transition is taking care of making an animation. This, just like in the past, requires a lot of effort and introduces a whole new list of potential issues. No, we just want to easily animate between two views, they’re just two documents.
How do I use it?
Making this work for an MPA is fortunately quite similar to the approach for an SPA. If you've followed my previous articles, you'll remember that we used to call document.startViewTransition. However, that is no longer necessary. Now, all you need are the view-transition-name CSS properties as before, plus one additional piece of CSS:
@view-transition {
navigation: auto;
}
That’s it! Adding this CSS does a couple of things. First, it creates a default "fade" transition between pages. Additionally, it ensures that any elements with the view-transition-name property (along with any other relevant CSS) will behave just as they did when using document.startViewTransition:
Experimental
Yeah, so of course my demo GIF above works really well, but in practice I saw it sometimes not work at all and other times it did. Luckily, this is an enhancement and nothing breaks if it doesn’t transition. I feel like this is because of the experimental state of this API. Do however check it out and try to see if you can make a cool transition. If you want to see all the demo code, you can view the project on GitHub. If you’d like to see the demo in action, head over here. Keep in mind that at the time of writing, only Chrome has experimental support for this and you need to turn the feature flags on:
chrome://flags#view-transition
chrome://flags#view-transition-on-navigation
That’s all! See you next time when I inevitably talk about the View Transitions API again!
Upcoming events
Mastering Event-Driven Design
PLEASE RSVP SO THAT WE KNOW HOW MUCH FOOD WE WILL NEED Are you and your team struggling with event-driven microservices? Join us for a meetup with Mehmet Akif Tütüncü, a senior software engineer, who has given multiple great talks so far and Allard Buijze founder of CTO and founder of AxonIQ, who built the fundaments of the Axon Framework. RSVP for an evening of learning, delicious food, and the fusion of creativity and tech! 🚀 18:00 – 🚪 Doors open to the public 18:15 – 🍕 Let’s eat 19:00 – 📢 Getting Your Axe On Event Sourcing with Axon Framework 20:00 – 🍹 Small break 20:15 – 📢 Event-Driven Microservices - Beyond the Fairy Tale 21:00 – 🙋♀️ drinks 22:00 – 🍻 See you next time? Details: Getting Your Axe On - Event Sourcing with Axon Framework In this presentation, we will explore the basics of event-driven architecture using Axon Framework. We'll start by explaining key concepts such as Event Sourcing and Command Query Responsibility Segregation (CQRS), and how they can improve the scalability and maintainability of modern applications. You will learn what Axon Framework is, how it simplifies implementing these patterns, and see hands-on examples of setting up a project with Axon Framework and Spring Boot. Whether you are new to these concepts or looking to understand them more, this session will provide practical insights and tools to help you build resilient and efficient applications. Event-Driven Microservices - Beyond the Fairy Tale Our applications need to be faster, better, bigger, smarter, and more enjoyable to meet our demanding end-users needs. In recent years, the way we build, run, and operate our software has changed significantly. We use scalable platforms to deploy and manage our applications. Instead of big monolithic deployment applications, we now deploy small, functionally consistent components as microservices. Problem. Solved. Right? Unfortunately, for most of us, microservices, and especially their event-driven variants, do not deliver on the beautiful, fairy-tale-like promises that surround them.In this session, Allard will share a different take on microservices. We will see that not much has changed in how we build software, which is why so many “microservices projects” fail nowadays. What lessons can we learn from concepts like DDD, CQRS, and Event Sourcing to help manage the complexity of our systems? He will also show how message-driven communication allows us to focus on finding the boundaries of functionally cohesive components, which we can evolve into microservices should the need arise.
| Coven of Wisdom - Utrecht
Go to page for Mastering Event-Driven DesignThe Leadership Meetup
PLEASE RSVP SO THAT WE KNOW HOW MUCH FOOD WE WILL NEED What distinguishes a software developer from a software team lead? As a team leader, you are responsible for people, their performance, and motivation. Your output is the output of your team. Whether you are a front-end or back-end developer, or any other discipline that wants to grow into the role of a tech lead, RSVP for an evening of learning, delicious food, and the fusion of leadership and tech! 🚀 18:00 – 🚪 Doors open to the public 18:15 – 🍕 Let’s eat 19:00 – 📢 First round of Talks 19:45 – 🍹 Small break 20:00 – 📢 Second round of Talks 20:45 – 🙋♀️ drinks 21:00 – 🍻 See you next time? First Round of Talks: Pixel Perfect and Perfectly Insane: About That Time My Brain Just Switched Off Remy Parzinski, Design System Lead at Logius Learn from Remy how you can care for yourself because we all need to. Second Round of Talks: Becoming a LeadDev at your client; How to Fail at Large (or How to Do Slightly Better) Arno Koehler Engineering Manager @ iO What are the things that will help you become a lead engineer? Building Team Culture (Tales of trust and positivity) Michel Blankenstein Engineering Manager @ iO & Head of Technology @ Zorggenoot How do you create a culture at your company or team? RSVP now to secure your spot, and let's explore the fascinating world of design systems together!
| Coven of Wisdom - Amsterdam
Go to page for The Leadership MeetupCoven of Wisdom - Herentals - Spring `24 edition
Join us for an exciting web technology meetup where you’ll get a chance to gain valuable insights and knowledge about the latest trends in the field. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to expand your knowledge, network with fellow developers, and discover new and exciting possibilities. And the best part? Food and drinks are on us! Johan Vervloet - Event sourced wiezen; an introduction to Event Sourcing and CQRS Join me on a journey into the world of CQRS and Event Sourcing! Together we will unravel the misteries behind these powerful concepts, by exploring a real-life application: a score app for the 'Wiezen' card game.Using examples straight from the card table, we will delve into the depths of event sourcing and CQRS, comparing them to more traditional approaches that rely on an ORM.We will uncover the signs in your own database that indicate where event sourcing can bring added value. I will also provide you with some tips and pointers, should you decide to embark on your own event sourcing adventure. Filip Van Reeth - WordPress API; "Are you talking to me?" What if the WordPress API could be one of your best friends? What kind of light-hearted or profound requests would it share with you? In this talk, I would like to introduce you to it and ensure that you become best friends so that together you can have many more pleasant conversations (calls). Wanna be friends? Please note that the event or talks will be conducted in Dutch. Want to give a talk? Send us your proposal at meetup.herentals@iodigital.com 18:00 - 19:00: Food/Drinks/Networking 19:00 - 21:00: Talks 21:00 - 22:00: Networking Thursday 30th of May, 18h00 - 22h00 CET iO Campus Herentals, Zavelheide 15, Herentals
| Coven of Wisdom Herentals
Go to page for Coven of Wisdom - Herentals - Spring `24 edition