Ketza - HTML defined in python

Contents

• Rationale
• Basics
• Example with an unordered list
• Formatting
• Future Intentions

Rationale

This project provides a framework for defining reusable units of HTML in python code, as opposed to being a runtime or a templating engine.

My intention is to provide a powerful but simple interface, allowing for extensibility and interplay with other technologies without headaches.

Basics

At the core of Ketza is the tag function, which allows you to build a html element in a series of function calls as follows:

from ketza import tag

main = tag("main") # Apply element name

app = main({"id": "app"}) # Apply attributes as key-value pairs

hello_world = app("Hello World!") # Apply inner string content

# hello_world is now equal to `<main id="app">Hello World!</main>`

However, Ketza also provides pre-defined named tags for recognised HTML elements based on the WHATWG living standard. A further example is presented below, making use of predefined tags.

Example with an unordered list

Let's say, for argument's sake, I would like to define a list like this:

<ul id="list-of-three">
    <li class="list-triplet">
        Foo
    </li>
    <li class="list-triplet">
        Bar
    </li>
    <li class="list-triplet">
        Baz
    </li>
</ul>

This can be done as follows:

from ketza import ul, li

list_of_three = ul({"id": "list-of-three"})(
    li({"class": "list-triplet"})(
        "Foo"
    ),
    li({"class": "list-triplet"})(
        "Bar"
    ),
    li({"class": "list-triplet"})(
        "Baz"
    ),
)

However, we can simplify this even further:

from ketza import ul, li

triplet = li({"class": "list-triplet"})

list_of_three = ul({"id": "list-of-three"})(
    triplet("Foo"),
    triplet("Bar"),
    triplet("Baz")
)

For our purposes, this yields html which is functionally equivalent to our intended list-of-three. Even so, the raw html will look more like this:

<ul id="list-of-three"><li class="list-triplet">Foo</li><li class=.... 

While this does essentially result in pre-minified HTML output, there are situations which call for human-readable raw HTML. As such, the following section shall briefly touch on formatting.

Formatting

Ketza provides a utility function for indenting minified html:

from ketza.formatters import indent 

list_of_three = indent(list_of_three)

The indent function turns this:

<ul id="list-of-three"><li class="list-triplet">Foo</li><li class=.... 

Into this!

<ul id="list-of-three">
    <li class="list-triplet">
        Foo
    </li>
    <li class="list-triplet">
        Bar
    </li>
    <li class="list-triplet">
        Baz
    </li>
</ul>

Future Intentions

Though I am confident that Ketza provides the means to define components representing common HTML boilerplate, I am also considering defining utilities to further streamline HTML boilerplate creation.

I am also open to feedback for how I can improve and extend Ketza, as well as its interoperability with other web technologies.