floating gui library for the web
gooey.braebo.dev

🚧 Pre v1.0.0

Changes are frequent and breaking 𛱠

• Features
• Getting Started
  • 1. Install
  • 2. Create a new Gooey
• Basics
• Inputs
  • add vs bind
  • add
  • bind
• About
• Roadmap

Features

       Preset Manager    ·   Theme Manager    ·   Draggable / Resizable / Placeable    ·   Local Storage Integration    ·   Generators    ·   Reset Mechanism    ·   Undo/Redo History    ·   Flexible API    ·   Fully Typed    ·   Zero Dependencies

Getting Started

1. Install

npm install gooey

import { Gooey } from 'gooey'

2. Create a new Gooey

const gui = new Gooey()

Basics

Use add to create a new input

gooey.add('hello', 'world')

gooey.add('count', 1, { min: -1 })

Use addMany to create multiple inputs at once:

gooey.addMany({
    stuff: true,
    more_stuff: {
        like_colors: '#4aa7ff' as const,
        or_buttons: () => alert('thanks!'),
    },
})

Do stuff on change:

const greetingInput = gooey.add('greeting', 'hello')

greetingInput.on('change', console.log) // logs the text value when changed

Instead of using add with event callbacks, you can use bind to automatically sync an object's values with an input. For example:

const data = {
    size: 12,
    color: '#4aa7ff' as const,
}

gooey.bind(data, 'size')
gooey.bind(data, 'color')

Bind to an entire object with bindMany

const data = {
    wght: 100,
    wdth: 75,
}

gooey.bindMany(data)

Create folders with addFolder

const outer = gooey.addFolder('outer')

const inner = outer.addFolder('inner')

inner.add('say sike', () => outer.close(), {
    text: 'sike',
})

Inputs

add vs bind

There are two ways to create inputs; add or bind (along with addMany / bindMany for multiple inputs). The return value will be the generated Input instance.

• add inputs when you have no data and just want to generate some values and hook into change events. The value will be created and managed by Gooey.

• bind inputs when you have an existing object, and you want its value(s) to stay in sync with the generated input(s) automatically. This is useful for data that's integrated into a larger system, like reactive state in a web app or entities in a 3D scene graph.

add

The Folder.add method can be used to create any input.

type add = <T>(
  title: string,
  initialValue: T,
  options?: InputOptions<T>
): Input<T>

It accepts a title, initialValue, and options object.

[!TIP] Passing an empty string as the title will omit the title's <div> element, allowing the input to fill the entire width of the parent folder.

The type of input generated depends on the type of the initialValue argument. For example, passing a string results in an InputText instance, while passing a number results in an InputNumber instance.

gooey.add('my text', 'foo') // string -> InputText

gooey.add('my number', 1) // number -> InputNumber

The type of the options object in the third argument will change depending on the type of input, for example:

const countInput = gooey.add('count', 1, {
    min: -1,
    max: 10,
    step: 0.1,
})

Because the initial value (1) is a number, gooey infers the options in the third argument as NumberInputOptions — which is why it accepts min, max, and step.

If we pass a string instead, it'll infer TextInputOptions:

const textInput = gooey.add('greeting', 'hello', {
    maxLength: 10,
})

This should get you some nice, dynamic intellisense. However, you can always fall back to the more specific adders (like addNumber, addColor, etc.) if need be.

addMany

The Folder.addMany method can be used to create multiple inputs at once.

type addMany = <T>(
  target: T,
  options?: Record<keyof T, InputOptions<T>> & {
    exclude?: Array<keyof T>
    include?: Array<keyof T>
  },
) => {
  folders: Folder[];
  inputs: Input<T>[];
}

It takes in any object, and generates a set of inputs based on the object's keys and values.

Nested objects will result in child folders being created.

Options can be passed to the second argument to customize the inputs being generated, and/or to include/exclude specific keys from generation.

While the simplified version of the type signature for addMany above might seem a bit complex, it's actually quite simple in practice! Let's break it down:

The addMany method takes two arguments:

1. target: The object to create inputs from.
2. options: Options to customize the inputs generated, as well as include and exclude arrays to omit certain keys.

It returns an object with two properties:

1. folders: An array of Folder instances created from the object's nested objects, if any.
2. inputs: An array of Input instances created from the object's primitive values.

Let's look at an example to see how this works in practice.

const {inputs, folders} = gooey.addMany({
  myNumber: 5,
  myFolder: {
    myColor: '#4aa7ff',
  }
})

This will result in an InputNumber, and a Folder titled myFolder containing an InputColor.

inputs.myNumber  // -> InputNumber
inputs.myColor   // -> InputColor

folders.myFolder // -> Folder

Suppose we want to configure the min and max options for myNumber. To do this, we can specify them in the second argument:

const { inputs, folders }  = gooey.addMany({
  myNumber: 5,
  myFolder: {
    myColor: '#4aa7ff',
  }
}, {
  myNumber: {
    min: 0,
    max: 10,
  }
})

And that's it! If all goes well, you should get strong intellisense for all available options in the second argument. If you don't, please file an issue!

Sometimes, relying on inference won't be enough, and you'll need an escape-hatch to get the exact inputs you want. In that case, you can exclude a key from generation, and create it manually with a more specific adder:

const { inputs, folders }  = gooey.addMany({
  myNumber: 5,
  myFolder: {
    myColor: 'hsl(200, 100%, 50%)', // -> InputText (wrong! let's exclude it)
  }
}, {
  exclude: ['myColor'],
})

// ...and now we can add it manually:
gooey.addColor('myColor', 'hsl(200, 100%, 50%)', {
  // and customize it a bit:
  mode: 'hsl'
})

bind

type bind = <T>(
  target: T,
  key: keyof T,
  options?: InputOptions<T>
): Input<T>

The Folder.bind method can be used to create an input that is bound to a key on a target object. When an input created with bind is changed, the target object's value for the given key will be updated automatically.

const data = {
    size: 12,
    color: '#4aa7ff' as const,
}

gooey.bind(data, 'size') // -> InputNumber
gooey.bind(data, 'color') // -> InputColor

About

I built this to scratch an itch, and to pave the way for more advanced features related to WebGL / WebAudio / audio-reactive 3D in the future.

tweakpane was the main inspiration for this project. I recommend it over gooey -- it's a more lightweight solution with more features and an awesome, highly active developer!

Other, similar projects:

• lil-gui
• dat.gui

Roadmap

• [ ] Graph / Monitor Input
• [ ] LFO / Envelope Manager
• [ ] Bezier Curve Editor Input
• [ ] Plugins
• [ ] Framework Wrappers (svelte 5 runes "just work", but other frameworks need wrappers)