ender-view

Smooth DOM view transitions made easy

A lightweight TypeScript utility for managing View Transitions and CSS animations in modern browsers
It provides a simple API to trigger animated transitions between DOM states, leveraging the View Transition API when available, and falling back gracefully otherwise

Features

Ultra-lightweight: just 1kb minified
Simple API to create and trigger view transitions
Dynamic CSS injection for custom animations
TypeScript types for strong typing and autocompletion
Works with both HTMLElement and SVGAElement
Graceful fallback if View Transition API is not supported
Utility $ selector exported for convenience
Methods to add/remove elements from a transition group
Cleanup method to remove injected styles

Installation

npm install ender-view

Demos

Usage

Basic Example

import { createEnderView, animate } from 'ender-view'

// Select and setup the element to animate
createEnderView('#my-element', {
  enterCss: 'opacity: 0;',
  leaveCss: 'opacity: 0;',
  easing: 'ease',
  duration: 300,
})

// Trigger the animation when updating the DOM
animate(() => {
  document.querySelector('#my-element')!.textContent = 'New Content!'
})

Multiple Elements Example

import { createEnderView, animate } from 'ender-view'

createEnderView('li', {
  enterCss: 'transform: scale(0.5); opacity: 0;',
  leaveCss: 'transform: scale(0.8); opacity: 0;',
  enterProps: { easing: 'ease-in', duration: 400, delay: 0 },
  leaveProps: { easing: 'ease-out', duration: 400, delay: 0 },
})

animate(() => {
  // Update all list elements in the DOM
})

Complex SPA Page Transitions

import { createEnderView, animate } from 'ender-view'

createEnderView('.header', {
  enterCss: 'transform: scale(0.5); opacity: 0;',
  leaveCss: 'transform: scale(0.8); opacity: 0;',
  enterProps: { easing: 'ease-in', duration: 400, delay: 0 },
  leaveProps: { easing: 'ease-out', duration: 400, delay: 0 },
})

createEnderView('.footer', {
  leaveCss: 'transform: translateY(-100%)',
})

createEnderView('.main', {
  enterCss: 'opacity: 0;'
  leaveCss: 'opacity: 0;'
})

animate(() => {
  // update the whole page
})

API

`createEnderView(target, options)`

Returns an EnderView object with the following methods:

cleanup(): EnderViewController
Removes all applied styles and injected CSS
updateOptions(newOptions: Partial<EnderViewOptions>): EnderViewController
Updates the transition options
addElement(el: HTMLElement | SVGElement): EnderViewController
Adds a single element to be managed by the transition
removeElement(el: HTMLElement | SVGElement): EnderViewController
Removes a single element from management
addElements(selector: string): EnderViewController
Adds multiple elements by selector
removeElements(selector: string): EnderViewController
Removes multiple elements by selector

`animate(domUpdateFn)`

Triggers a view transition animation. Accepts a function that updates the DOM as its argument. If the View Transition API is supported, the transition will use it; otherwise, it will gracefully fall back to a View Transition mock API

Example:

animate(() => {
  // Update your DOM here
})

Utility Export

$: A selector utility exported from bianco.query for convenience

Edge Cases & Notes

If the View Transition API is not supported, transitions fall back to CSS animations
If a selector matches no elements, the transition will be a no-op
If you call cleanup(), all injected styles are removed and further transitions will not apply styles
You can dynamically add or remove elements from the transition group at any time using addElement|s and removeElement|s

See the source for full type documentation and advanced options

Name Origin

The name ender-view is inspired by the Ender Pearl from Minecraft. Just as the Ender Pearl allows players to teleport instantly to another location, this library "teleports" your DOM elements to new states with smooth, animated transitions. The goal is to make moving between different views or UI states as seamless and magical as using an Ender Pearl in the game

Inspiration

This project is inspired by my previous work on animore, and is a continuation of the experience made with animore, building upon its concepts to provide even smoother and more flexible DOM view transitions