svg-sprites/docs/en/guides/alpine-vite.md

SVG Sprite for Alpine.js with Vite

A quick guide to creating an SVG sprite in an Alpine.js application built with Vite.

Generate the sprite

Choose a directory for the future SVG sprite, for example assets/app-icons, and create svg-sprite.config.json inside it. In input, specify the path to existing SVG files relative to the configuration file. There is no need to move or copy the icons.

{
  "mode": "alpine@vite",
  "name": "app",
  "input": "../svg-icons/**/*.svg"
}

The generator does not need to be added to the application dependencies: run it through npx.

Add generation before development and production builds:

{
  "scripts": {
    "sprites": "npx --yes @gromlab/svg-sprites assets/app-icons/svg-sprite.config.json",
    "predev": "npm run sprites",
    "dev": "vite",
    "prebuild": "npm run sprites",
    "build": "vite build"
  }
}

Use the sprite

The value name: "app" creates the Alpine plugin appAlpinePlugin, the x-app-icon directive, and the $appIconHref magic.

Create assets/app-icons/index.js:

export * from './.svg-sprite/index.js'

Register the generated plugin before starting Alpine:

import Alpine from 'alpinejs'
import { appAlpinePlugin } from '../assets/app-icons/index.js'

Alpine.plugin(appAlpinePlugin)
Alpine.start()

Use the reactive directive on an SVG element:

<svg
  x-data="{ iconName: 'icon-name' }"
  x-app-icon="iconName"
  role="img"
  aria-label="Done"
  style="width:24px;height:24px;color:#334155;--icon-color-2:#f59e0b"
></svg>

The directive expression resolves to a source SVG file name without the extension. A monochrome icon inherits color; override multicolor icon layers with --icon-color-N. Vite loads the generated CSS and emits sprite.svg as a separate production asset.

Debug and preview

Viewer displays all icons on one page and is only needed during development. Install it separately:

npm install --save-dev @gromlab/svg-sprites

Add Viewer to a development page:

<gromlab-sprite-viewer viewer-title="Project icons"></gromlab-sprite-viewer>
<script type="module" src="/src/svg-sprite-debug.js"></script>

Create src/svg-sprite-debug.js:

import '@gromlab/svg-sprites/viewer/element'
import spriteManifest from '../assets/app-icons/.svg-sprite/svg-sprite.manifest.js'

document.querySelector('gromlab-sprite-viewer').sources = [spriteManifest]

Run npm run dev and open the development page. Viewer is independent from the Alpine plugin.