vite-plugin-php-components

Write class-based PHP components as HTML-like elements in files processed by Vite. This plugin converts component tags into calls to nititech/html-components before vite-plugin-php executes the PHP.

<components.Button type="submit">
    Save changes
</components.Button>

becomes:

<?php $c_123456789 = new \components\Button(['type' => 'submit']); ?>
    Save changes
<?php $c_123456789->close(); ?>

Requirements

• Vite >6.0.0
• vite-plugin-php >=3.0.0
• PHP >=7.0 with Composer
• nititech/html-components

Prop spreading uses PHP array unpacking with string keys and requires PHP >=8.1.

Installation

Install the Vite plugins:

npm install --save-dev vite-plugin-php vite-plugin-php-components

Install the PHP component library:

composer require nititech/html-components

Load Composer's autoloader from your PHP entry point. Your application components must also be available through Composer or another autoloader.

<?php

require __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

Configuration

Add both plugins to your Vite config. transpilePHPComponents() must come before usePHP() so component tags are transpiled before PHP runs.

// vite.config.ts
import { defineConfig } from 'vite';
import transpilePHPComponents from 'vite-plugin-php-components';
import usePHP from 'vite-plugin-php';

export default defineConfig({
	plugins: [transpilePHPComponents(), usePHP()],
});

The plugin checks for vendor/nititech/html-components under the Vite project root when a build starts. If your Composer dependencies live elsewhere, disable that check:

transpilePHPComponents({
	skipLibCheck: true,
});

Disabling the check does not remove the runtime dependency on nititech/html-components.

Component Syntax

Use a dot-separated tag name to address a namespaced PHP class. For example, <layouts.Centered> maps to \layouts\Centered.

<layouts.Centered
    title="Search"
    query="<?= $_GET['query'] ?? ''; ?>">
    <components.Button type="submit">
        Search
    </components.Button>
</layouts.Centered>

The plugin converts paired components into a constructor call and a matching close() call:

<?php $c_123456789 = new \layouts\Centered([
    'title' => 'Search',
    'query' => $_GET['query'] ?? '',
]); ?>
    <?php $c_987654321 = new \components\Button(['type' => 'submit']); ?>
        Search
    <?php $c_987654321->close(); ?>
<?php $c_123456789->close(); ?>

The generated variable names are internal implementation details. The examples use placeholders for readability; generated output uses inline PHP calls.

Self-closing Components

Components without child content use the static closed() method:

<components.Icon name="search" />

becomes:

<?php \components\Icon::closed(['name' => 'search']); ?>

Attribute Values

Static values become PHP strings:

<components.Button type="submit" class="button-primary" />

A value containing only a PHP output block stays a native PHP expression:

<components.Message variant="<?= $variant; ?>" />

You can also mix text and PHP in one value:

<components.Avatar class="avatar avatar-<?= $size; ?>" />

Prop Spreading

Use the ... attribute to merge an array into the component props:

<components.Button
    ...="<?= ['type' => 'submit', 'disabled' => $isDisabled]; ?>"
    class="button-primary">
    Save
</components.Button>

Explicit props that follow the spread use PHP array unpacking semantics.

Prop spreading is useful when a component forwards selected props to another component:

<?php

namespace components;

class StyledButton extends \HTML\Component {
    public function render() {
        ?>
        <components.Button
            ...="<?= $this->__props__->filter(['*', '!class']); ?>"
            class="button-primary">
            <?= $this->children; ?>
        </components.Button>
        <?php
    }
}

See the nititech/html-components prop documentation for filtering and escaping behavior.

Native Element Spreading

You can use the same syntax to spread attributes onto standard HTML elements:

<button
    ...="<?= $this->__props__->filter(['*', '!class']); ?>"
    class="button-primary">
    <?= $this->children; ?>
</button>

The plugin rewrites a native element with a spread attribute to the library's \HTML\Element component, then transpiles it like any other component:

<HTML.Element
    element="button"
    ...="<?= $this->__props__->filter(['*', '!class']); ?>"
    class="button-primary">
    <?= $this->children; ?>
</HTML.Element>

The rewrite handles paired elements and common HTML void elements such as img, input, and meta. Native elements without a ... attribute remain unchanged.

Avoid entity-encoded double quotes such as " in other attributes on a native element that uses spreading. The current rewrite reconstructs parsed attributes with double-quoted values and cannot preserve that case safely.

Issues

Report bugs and request features in the GitHub issue tracker.

Support

If this project helps you, you can support its continued development:

Ko-fi	Buy Me a Coffee	PayPal
Support on Ko-fi	Buy me a coffee	Donate with PayPal

License

MIT