Building composable layouts in Astro
One of the things I like when working on a website is to be able to fragment all the layouts in different files.
Let’s say I want to create a landing page.
The last one I did was in plain HTML. Which is nice, can’t get simpler and more minimal than that.
But then I start to realize I also want a different page on the website, which looks similar, but has the same styling and structure.
Duplication starts to happen. Then I want another page, and finally I decide to change something in the header for all pages, and it’s frustrating.
Here’s when static site builders help.
In many tools, like Hugo, you use partials.
In Astro, it’s all based on components, so we import and embed components in JSX:
---
import Header from ../components/Header.astro
import Footer from ../components/Footer.astro
---
<html>
<body>
<Header />
<h1>A page</h1>
<Footer />
</body>
</html>Then we can copy/paste this structure in our components.
Notice that there’s still some HTML that we can extract, to avoid copy/pasting it.
We do this using layouts.
You create layouts in the src/layouts folder:
src/layouts/MyLayout.astro
---
import Header from ../components/Header.astro
import Footer from ../components/Footer.astro
---
<html>
<body>
<Header />
<slot />
<Footer />
</body>
</html>Notice the use of <slot />.
This is the way we can embed anything in there, from another component.
We use the layout in this way:
src/pages/index.astro
---
import MyLayout from '../layouts/MyLayout.astro'
---
<MyLayout>
<h1>Homepage!</h1>
</MyLayout>download all my books for free
- javascript handbook
- typescript handbook
- css handbook
- node.js handbook
- astro handbook
- html handbook
- next.js pages router handbook
- alpine.js handbook
- htmx handbook
- react handbook
- sql handbook
- git cheat sheet
- laravel handbook
- express handbook
- swift handbook
- go handbook
- php handbook
- python handbook
- cli handbook
- c handbook
subscribe to my newsletter to get them
Terms: by subscribing to the newsletter you agree the following terms and conditions and privacy policy. The aim of the newsletter is to keep you up to date about new tutorials, new book releases or courses organized by Flavio. If you wish to unsubscribe from the newsletter, you can click the unsubscribe link that's present at the bottom of each email, anytime. I will not communicate/spread/publish or otherwise give away your address. Your email address is the only personal information collected, and it's only collected for the primary purpose of keeping you informed through the newsletter. It's stored in a secure server based in the EU. You can contact Flavio by emailing [email protected]. These terms and conditions are governed by the laws in force in Italy and you unconditionally submit to the jurisdiction of the courts of Italy.