Advanced Svelte: Reactivity, lifecycle, accessibility

Clone the GitHub repo (if you haven't already done it) with:

git clone https://github.com/opensas/mdn-svelte-tutorial.git

Then to get to the current app state, run

cd mdn-svelte-tutorial/05-advanced-concepts

Or directly download the folder's content:

npx degit opensas/mdn-svelte-tutorial/05-advanced-concepts

Remember to run npm install && npm run dev to start your app in development mode.

To code along with us using the REPL, start at

https://svelte.dev/repl/76cc90c43a37452e8c7f70521f88b698?version=3.23.2

Now we'll tackle the Check All and Remove Completed buttons. Let's create a component that will be in charge of displaying the buttons and emitting the corresponding events.

1. Create a new file, components/MoreActions.svelte.

2. When the first button is clicked, we'll emit a checkAll event to signal that all the to-dos should be checked/unchecked. When the second button is clicked, we'll emit a removeCompleted event to signal that all of the completed to-dos should be removed. Put the following content into your MoreActions.svelte file:

   svelte

   <script>
     import { createEventDispatcher } from "svelte";
     const dispatch = createEventDispatcher();
   
     let completed = true;
   
     const checkAll = () => {
       dispatch("checkAll", completed);
       completed = !completed;
     };
   
     const removeCompleted = () => dispatch("removeCompleted");
   </script>
   
   <div class="btn-group">
     <button type="button" class="btn btn__primary" on:click={checkAll}>{completed ? 'Check' : 'Uncheck'} all</button>
     <button type="button" class="btn btn__primary" on:click={removeCompleted}>Remove completed</button>
   </div>
   

   We've also included a completed variable to toggle between checking and unchecking all tasks.

3. Back over in Todos.svelte, we are going to import our MoreActions component and create two functions to handle the events emitted by the MoreActions component.

   Add the following import statement below the existing ones:

   js

   import MoreActions from "./MoreActions.svelte";
   

4. Then add the described functions at the end of the <script> section:

   js

   const checkAllTodos = (completed) =>
     todos.forEach((t) => (t.completed = completed));
   
   const removeCompletedTodos = () =>
     (todos = todos.filter((t) => !t.completed));
   

5. Now go to the bottom of the Todos.svelte markup section and replace the <div class="btn-group"> element that we copied into MoreActions.svelte with a call to the MoreActions component, like so:

   svelte

   <!-- MoreActions -->
   <MoreActions
     on:checkAll={(e) => checkAllTodos(e.detail)}
     on:removeCompleted={removeCompletedTodos}
   />
   

6. OK, let's go back into the app and try it out. You'll find that the Remove Completed button works fine, but the Check All/Uncheck All button just silently fails.

To find out what is happening here, we'll have to dig a little deeper into Svelte reactivity.

To see what's happening we can log the todos array from the checkAllTodos() function to the console.

1. Update your existing checkAllTodos() function to the following:

   js

   const checkAllTodos = (completed) => {
     todos.forEach((t) => (t.completed = completed));
     console.log("todos", todos);
   };
   

2. Go back to your browser, open your DevTools console, and click Check All/Uncheck All a few times.

You'll notice that the array is successfully updated every time you press the button (the todo objects' completed properties are toggled between true and false), but Svelte is not aware of that. This also means that in this case, a reactive statement like $: console.log('todos', todos) won't be very useful.

To find out why this is happening, we need to understand how reactivity works in Svelte when updating arrays and objects.

Many web frameworks use the virtual DOM technique to update the page. Basically, the virtual DOM is an in-memory copy of the contents of the web page. The framework updates this virtual representation, which is then synced with the "real" DOM. This is much faster than directly updating the DOM and allows the framework to apply many optimization techniques.

These frameworks, by default, basically re-run all our JavaScript on every change against this virtual DOM, and apply different methods to cache expensive calculations and optimize execution. They make little to no attempt to understand what our JavaScript code is doing.

Svelte doesn't use a virtual DOM representation. Instead, it parses and analyzes our code, creates a dependency tree, and then generates the required JavaScript to update only the parts of the DOM that need to be updated. This approach usually generates optimal JavaScript code with minimal overhead, but it also has its limitations.

Sometimes Svelte cannot detect changes to variables being watched. Remember that to tell Svelte that a variable has changed, you have to assign it a new value. A simple rule to keep in mind is that The name of the updated variable must appear on the left-hand side of the assignment.

For example, in the following piece of code:

const foo = obj.foo;
foo.bar = "baz";

Svelte won't update references to obj.foo.bar, unless you follow it up with obj = obj. That's because Svelte can't track object references, so we have to explicitly tell it that obj has changed by issuing an assignment.

In our checkAllTodos() function, when we run:

todos.forEach((t) => (t.completed = completed));

Svelte will not mark todos as changed because it does not know that when we update our t variable inside the forEach() method, we are also modifying the todos array. And that makes sense, because otherwise Svelte would be aware of the inner workings of the forEach() method; the same would therefore be true for any method attached to any object or array.

Nevertheless, there are different techniques that we can apply to solve this problem, and all of them involve assigning a new value to the variable being watched.

As we already saw, we could just tell Svelte to update the variable with a self-assignment, like this:

const checkAllTodos = (completed) => {
  todos.forEach((t) => (t.completed = completed));
  todos = todos;
};

This will solve the problem. Internally Svelte will flag todos as changed and remove the apparently redundant self-assignment. Apart from the fact that it looks weird, it's perfectly OK to use this technique, and sometimes it's the most concise way to do it.

We could also access the todos array by index, like this:

const checkAllTodos = (completed) => {
  todos.forEach((t, i) => (todos[i].completed = completed));
};

Assignments to properties of arrays and objects — e.g. obj.foo += 1 or array[i] = x — work the same way as assignments to the values themselves. When Svelte analyzes this code, it can detect that the todos array is being modified.

Another solution is to assign a new array to todos containing a copy of all the to-dos with the completed property updated accordingly, like this:

const checkAllTodos = (completed) => {
  todos = todos.map((t) => ({ ...t, completed }));
};

In this case we are using the map() method, which returns a new array with the results of executing the provided function for each item. The function returns a copy of each to-do using spread syntax and overwrites the property of the completed value accordingly. This solution has the added benefit of returning a new array with new objects, completely avoiding mutating the original todos array.

All of these solutions involve an assignment in which the updated variable is on the left side of the equation. Any of this techniques will allow Svelte to notice that our todos array has been modified.

Choose one, and update your checkAllTodos() function as required. Now you should be able to check and uncheck all your to-dos at once. Try it!

We will add one usability detail to our component. We'll disable the buttons when there are no tasks to be processed. To create this, we'll receive the todos array as a prop, and set the disabled property of each button accordingly.

1. Update your MoreActions.svelte component like this:

   svelte

   <script>
     import { createEventDispatcher } from 'svelte';
     const dispatch = createEventDispatcher();
   
     export let todos;
   
     let completed = true;
   
     const checkAll = () => {
       dispatch('checkAll', completed);
       completed = !completed;
     }
   
     const removeCompleted = () => dispatch('removeCompleted');
   
     $: completedTodos = todos.filter((t) => t.completed).length;
   </script>
   
   <div class="btn-group">
     <button type="button" class="btn btn__primary"
       disabled={todos.length === 0} on:click={checkAll}>{completed ? 'Check' : 'Uncheck'} all</button>
     <button type="button" class="btn btn__primary"
       disabled={completedTodos === 0} on:click={removeCompleted}>Remove completed</button>
   </div>
   

   We've also declared a reactive completedTodos variable to enable or disable the Remove Completed button.

2. Don't forget to pass the prop into MoreActions from inside Todos.svelte, where the component is called:

   svelte

   <MoreActions {todos}
       on:checkAll={(e) => checkAllTodos(e.detail)}
       on:removeCompleted={removeCompletedTodos}
     />
   

Now that we have completed all of the app's required functionality, we'll concentrate on some accessibility features that will improve the usability of our app for both keyboard-only and screen reader users.

In its current state our app has a couple of keyboard accessibility problems involving focus management. Let's have a look at these issues.

Right now, keyboard users will find out that the focus flow of our app is not very predictable or coherent.

If you click on the input at the top of our app, you'll see a thick, dashed outline around that input. This outline is your visual indicator that the browser is currently focused on this element.

If you are a mouse user, you might have skipped this visual hint. But if you are working exclusively with the keyboard, knowing which control has focus is of vital importance. It tells us which control is going to receive our keystrokes.

If you press the Tab key repeatedly, you'll see the dashed focus indicator cycling between all the focusable elements on the page. If you move the focus to the Edit button and press Enter, suddenly the focus disappears, and you can no longer tell which control will receive our keystrokes.

Moreover, if you press the Escape or Enter key, nothing happens. And if you click on Cancel or Save, the focus disappears again. For a user working with the keyboard, this behavior will be confusing at best.

We'd also like to add some usability features, like disabling the Save button when required fields are empty, giving focus to certain HTML elements or auto-selecting contents when a text input receives focus.

To implement all these features, we'll need programmatic access to DOM nodes to run functions like focus() and select(). We will also have to use addEventListener() and removeEventListener() to run specific tasks when the control receives focus.

The problem is that all these DOM nodes are dynamically created by Svelte at runtime. So we'll have to wait for them to be created and added to the DOM in order to use them. To do so, we'll have to learn about the component lifecycle to understand when we can access them — more on this later.

Let's begin by extracting our new to-do form out to its own component. With what we know so far we can create a new component file and adjust the code to emit an addTodo event, passing the name of the new to-do in with the additional details.

1. Create a new file, components/NewTodo.svelte.

2. Put the following contents inside it:

   svelte

   <script>
     import { createEventDispatcher } from 'svelte';
     const dispatch = createEventDispatcher();
   
     let name = '';
   
     const addTodo = () => {
       dispatch('addTodo', name);
       name = '';
     }
   
     const onCancel = () => name = '';
   
   </script>
   
   <form on:submit|preventDefault={addTodo} on:keydown={(e) => e.key === 'Escape' && onCancel()}>
     <h2 class="label-wrapper">
       <label for="todo-0" class="label__lg">What needs to be done?</label>
     </h2>
     <input bind:value={name} type="text" id="todo-0" autoComplete="off" class="input input__lg" />
     <button type="submit" disabled={!name} class="btn btn__primary btn__lg">Add</button>
   </form>
   

   Here we are binding the <input> to the name variable with bind:value={name} and disabling the Add button when it is empty (i.e. no text content) using disabled={!name}. We are also taking care of the Escape key with on:keydown={(e) => e.key === 'Escape' && onCancel()}. Whenever the Escape key is pressed we run onCancel(), which just clears up the name variable.

3. Now we have to import and use it from inside the Todos component, and update the addTodo() function to receive the name of the new todo.

   Add the following import statement below the others inside Todos.svelte:

   js

   import NewTodo from "./NewTodo.svelte";
   

4. And update the addTodo() function like so:

   js

   function addTodo(name) {
     todos = [...todos, { id: newTodoId, name, completed: false }];
   }
   

   addTodo() now receives the name of the new to-do directly, so we no longer need the newTodoName variable to give it its value. Our NewTodo component takes care of that.

   Note: The { name } syntax is just a shorthand for { name: name }. This one comes from JavaScript itself and has nothing to do with Svelte, besides providing some inspiration for Svelte's own shorthands.

5. Finally for this section, replace the NewTodo form markup with a call to NewTodo component, like so:

   svelte

   <!-- NewTodo -->
   <NewTodo on:addTodo={(e) => addTodo(e.detail)} />
   

Now we want the <input> element of the NewTodo component to re-gain focus every time the Add button is pressed. For that we'll need a reference to the DOM node of the input. Svelte provides a way to do this with the bind:this={dom_node} directive. When specified, as soon as the component is mounted and the DOM node is created, Svelte assigns a reference to the DOM node to the specified variable.

We'll create a nameEl variable and bind it to the input using bind:this={nameEl}. Then inside addTodo(), after adding the new to-do we will call nameEl.focus() to refocus the <input> again. We will do the same when the user presses the Escape key, with the onCancel() function.

Update the contents of NewTodo.svelte like so:

<script>
  import { createEventDispatcher } from 'svelte';
  const dispatch = createEventDispatcher();

  let name = '';
  let nameEl; // reference to the name input DOM node

  const addTodo = () => {
    dispatch('addTodo', name);
    name = '';
    nameEl.focus(); // give focus to the name input
  }

  const onCancel = () => {
    name = '';
    nameEl.focus(); // give focus to the name input
  }
</script>

<form on:submit|preventDefault={addTodo} on:keydown={(e) => e.key === 'Escape' && onCancel()}>
  <h2 class="label-wrapper">
    <label for="todo-0" class="label__lg">What needs to be done?</label>
  </h2>
  <input bind:value={name} bind:this={nameEl} type="text" id="todo-0" autoComplete="off" class="input input__lg" />
  <button type="submit" disabled={!name} class="btn btn__primary btn__lg">Add</button>
</form>

Try the app out: type a new to-do name in to the <input> field, press tab to give focus to the Add button, and then hit Enter or Escape to see how the input recovers focus.

The next feature will add to our NewTodo component will be an autofocus prop, which will allow us to specify that we want the <input> field to be focused on page load.

1. Our first attempt is as follows: let's try adding the autofocus prop and just call nameEl.focus() from the <script> block. Update the first part of the <script> section of NewTodo.svelte (the first four lines) to look like this:

   svelte

   <script>
     import { createEventDispatcher } from 'svelte';
     const dispatch = createEventDispatcher();
   
     export let autofocus = false;
   
     let name = '';
     let nameEl; // reference to the name input DOM node
   
     if (autofocus) nameEl.focus();
   

2. Now go back to the Todos component and pass the autofocus prop into the <NewTodo> component call, like so:

   svelte

   <!-- NewTodo -->
   <NewTodo autofocus on:addTodo={(e) => addTodo(e.detail)} />
   

3. If you try your app out now, you'll see that the page is now blank, and in your DevTools web console you'll see an error along the lines of: TypeError: nameEl is undefined.

To understand what's happening here, let's talk some more about that component lifecycle we mentioned earlier.

When a component is instantiated, Svelte runs the initialization code (that is, the <script> section of the component). But at that moment, all the nodes that comprise the component are not attached to the DOM, in fact, they don't even exist.

So how can you know when the component has already been created and mounted on the DOM? The answer is that every component has a lifecycle that starts when it is created and ends when it is destroyed. There are a handful of functions that allow you to run code at key moments during that lifecycle.

The one you'll use most frequently is onMount(), which lets us run a callback as soon as the component has been mounted on the DOM. Let's give it a try and see what happens to the nameEl variable.

1. To start with, add the following line at the beginning of the <script> section of NewTodo.svelte:

   js

   import { onMount } from "svelte";
   

2. And these lines at the end of it:

   js

   console.log("initializing:", nameEl);
   onMount(() => {
     console.log("mounted:", nameEl);
   });
   

3. Now remove the if (autofocus) nameEl.focus() line to avoid throwing the error we were seeing before.

4. The app will now work again, and you'll see the following in your console:

   initializing: undefined
   mounted: <input id="todo-0" class="input input__lg" type="text" autocomplete="off">
   

   As you can see, while the component is initializing, nameEl is undefined, which makes sense because the <input> node doesn't even exist yet. After the component has been mounted, Svelte assigned a reference to the <input> DOM node to the nameEl variable, thanks to the bind:this={nameEl} directive.

5. To get the autofocus functionality working, replace the previous console.log()/onMount() block you added with this:

   js

   onMount(() => autofocus && nameEl.focus()); // if autofocus is true, we run nameEl.focus()
   

6. Go to your app again, and you'll now see the <input> field is focused on page load.

Now we will take care of the Todo component's focus management details. First of all, we want a Todo component's edit <input> to receive focus when we enter editing mode by pressing its Edit button. In the same fashion as we saw earlier, we'll create a nameEl variable inside Todo.svelte and call nameEl.focus() after setting the editing variable to true.

1. Open the file components/Todo.svelte and add a nameEl variable declaration just below your editing and name declarations:

   js

   let nameEl; // reference to the name input DOM node
   

2. Now update your onEdit() function like so:

   js

   function onEdit() {
     editing = true; // enter editing mode
     nameEl.focus(); // set focus to name input
   }
   

3. And finally, bind nameEl to the <input> field by updating it like so:

   svelte

   <input
     bind:value={name}
     bind:this={nameEl}
     type="text"
     id="todo-{todo.id}"
     autocomplete="off"
     class="todo-text" />
   

4. However, when you try the updated app, you'll get an error along the lines of "TypeError: nameEl is undefined" in the console when you press a to-do's Edit button.

So, what is happening here? When you update a component's state in Svelte, it doesn't update the DOM immediately. Instead, it waits until the next microtask to see if there are any other changes that need to be applied, including in other components. Doing so avoids unnecessary work and allows the browser to batch things more effectively.

In this case, when editing is false, the edit <input> is not visible because it does not exist in the DOM. Inside the onEdit() function we set editing = true and immediately afterwards try to access the nameEl variable and execute nameEl.focus(). The problem here is that Svelte hasn't yet updated the DOM.

One way to solve this problem is to use setTimeout() to delay the call to nameEl.focus() until the next event cycle, and give Svelte the opportunity to update the DOM.

Try this now:

function onEdit() {
  editing = true; // enter editing mode
  setTimeout(() => nameEl.focus(), 0); // asynchronous call to set focus to name input
}

The above solution works, but it is rather inelegant. Svelte provides a better way to handle these cases. The tick() function returns a promise that resolves as soon as any pending state changes have been applied to the DOM (or immediately, if there are no pending state changes). Let's try it now.

1. First of all, import tick at the top of the <script> section alongside your existing import:

   js

   import { tick } from "svelte";
   

2. Next, call tick() with await from an async function; update onEdit() like so:

   js

   async function onEdit() {
     editing = true; // enter editing mode
     await tick();
     nameEl.focus();
   }
   

3. If you try it now you'll see that everything works as expected.

Next up, we want the name <input> to automatically select all text on focus. Moreover, we want to develop this in such a way that it could be easily reused on any HTML <input> and applied in a declarative way. We will use this requirement as an excuse to show a very powerful feature that Svelte provides us to add functionality to regular HTML elements: actions.

To select the text of a DOM input node, we have to call select(). To get this function called whenever the node gets focused, we need an event listener along these lines:

node.addEventListener("focus", (event) => node.select());

And, in order to avoid memory leaks, we should also call the removeEventListener() function when the node is destroyed.

We could achieve all this in our Todo component whenever we add or remove the <input> from the DOM, but we would have to be very careful to add the event listener after the node has been added to the DOM, and remove the listener before the node is removed from the DOM. In addition, our solution would not be very reusable.

That's where Svelte actions come into play. Basically they let us run a function whenever an element has been added to the DOM, and after removal from the DOM.

In our immediate use case, we will define a function called selectOnFocus() that will receive a node as a parameter. The function will add an event listener to that node so that whenever it gets focused it will select the text. Then it will return an object with a destroy property. The destroy property is what Svelte will execute after removing the node from the DOM. Here we will remove the listener to make sure we don't leave any memory leak behind.

1. Let's create the function selectOnFocus(). Add the following to the bottom of the <script> section of Todo.svelte:

   js

   function selectOnFocus(node) {
     if (node && typeof node.select === "function") {
       // make sure node is defined and has a select() method
       const onFocus = (event) => node.select(); // event handler
       node.addEventListener("focus", onFocus); // when node gets focus call onFocus()
       return {
         destroy: () => node.removeEventListener("focus", onFocus), // this will be executed when the node is removed from the DOM
       };
     }
   }
   

2. Now we need to tell the <input> to use that function with the use:action directive:

   svelte

   <input use:selectOnFocus />
   

   With this directive we are telling Svelte to run this function, passing the DOM node of the <input> as a parameter, as soon as the component is mounted on the DOM. It will also be in charge of executing the destroy function when the component is removed from DOM. So with the use directive, Svelte takes care of the component's lifecycle for us.

   In our case, our <input> would end up like so: update the component's first label/input pair (inside the edit template) as follows:

   svelte

   <label for="todo-{todo.id}" class="todo-label">New name for '{todo.name}'</label>
   <input
     bind:value={name}
     bind:this={nameEl}
     use:selectOnFocus
     type="text"
     id="todo-{todo.id}"
     autocomplete="off"
     class="todo-text" />
   

3. Let's try it out. Go to your app, press a to-do's Edit button, then Tab to take focus away from the <input>. Now click on the <input>, and you'll see that the entire input text is selected.

Now let's make this function truly reusable across components. selectOnFocus() is just a function without any dependency on the Todo.svelte component, so we can just extract it to a file and use it from there.

1. Create a new file, actions.js, inside the src folder.

2. Give it the following content:

   js

   export function selectOnFocus(node) {
     if (node && typeof node.select === "function") {
       // make sure node is defined and has a select() method
       const onFocus = (event) => node.select(); // event handler
       node.addEventListener("focus", onFocus); // when node gets focus call onFocus()
       return {
         destroy: () => node.removeEventListener("focus", onFocus), // this will be executed when the node is removed from the DOM
       };
     }
   }
   

3. Now import it from inside Todo.svelte; add the following import statement just below the others:

   js

   import { selectOnFocus } from "../actions.js";
   

4. And remove the selectOnFocus() definition from Todo.svelte, since we no longer need it there.

To demonstrate our action's reusability, let's make use of it in NewTodo.svelte.

1. Import selectOnFocus() from actions.js in this file too, as before:

   js

   import { selectOnFocus } from "../actions.js";
   

2. Add the use:selectOnFocus directive to the <input>, like this:

   svelte

   <input
     bind:value={name}
     bind:this={nameEl}
     use:selectOnFocus
     type="text"
     id="todo-0"
     autocomplete="off"
     class="input input__lg" />
   

With a few lines of code we can add functionality to regular HTML elements in a very reusable and declarative way. It just takes an import and a short directive like use:selectOnFocus that clearly describes its purpose. And we can achieve this without the need to create a custom wrapper element like TextInput, MyInput, or similar. Moreover, you can add as many use:action directives as you want to an element.

Also, we didn't have to struggle with onMount(), onDestroy(), or tick() — the use directive takes care of the component lifecycle for us.

In the previous section, while working with the Todo components, we had to deal with bind:this, tick(), and async functions just to give focus to our <input> as soon as it was added to the DOM.

1. This is how we can implement it with actions instead:

   js

   const focusOnInit = (node) =>
     node && typeof node.focus === "function" && node.focus();
   

2. And then in our markup we just need to add another use: directive:

   svelte

   <input bind:value={name} use:selectOnFocus use:focusOnInit />
   

3. Our onEdit() function can now be much simpler:

   js

   function onEdit() {
     editing = true; // enter editing mode
   }
   

As a last example before we move on, let's go back to our Todo.svelte component and give focus to the Edit button after the user presses Save or Cancel.

We could try just reusing our focusOnInit action again, adding use:focusOnInit to the Edit button. But we'd be introducing a subtle bug. When you add a new to-do, the focus will be put on the Edit button of the recently added to-do. That's because the focusOnInit action is running when the component is created.

That's not what we want — we want the Edit button to receive focus only when the user has pressed Save or Cancel.

1. So, go back to your Todo.svelte file.

2. First we'll create a flag named editButtonPressed and initialize it to false. Add this just below your other variable definitions:

   js

   let editButtonPressed = false; // track if edit button has been pressed, to give focus to it after cancel or save
   

3. Next we'll modify the Edit button's functionality to save this flag, and create the action for it. Update the onEdit() function like so:

   js

   function onEdit() {
     editButtonPressed = true; // user pressed the Edit button, focus will come back to the Edit button
     editing = true; // enter editing mode
   }
   

4. Below it, add the following definition for focusEditButton():

   js

   const focusEditButton = (node) => editButtonPressed && node.focus();
   

5. Finally we use the focusEditButton action on the Edit button, like so:

   svelte

   <button type="button" class="btn" on:click={onEdit} use:focusEditButton>
     Edit<span class="visually-hidden"> {todo.name}</span>
   </button>
   

6. Go back and try your app again. At this point, every time the Edit button is added to the DOM, the focusEditButton action is executed, but it will only give focus to the button if the editButtonPressed flag is true.

There's still one accessibility annoyance left. When the user presses the Delete button, the focus vanishes.

The last feature we will be looking at in this article involves setting the focus on the status heading after a to-do has been deleted.

Why the status heading? In this case, the element that had the focus has been deleted, so there's not a clear candidate to receive focus. We've picked the status heading because it's near the list of to-dos, and it's a way to give a visual feedback about the removal of the task, as well as indicating what's happened to screen reader users.

First we'll extract the status heading to its own component.

1. Create a new file, components/TodosStatus.svelte.

2. Add the following contents to it:

   svelte

   <script>
     export let todos;
   
     $: totalTodos = todos.length;
     $: completedTodos = todos.filter((todo) => todo.completed).length;
   </script>
   
   <h2 id="list-heading">
     {completedTodos} out of {totalTodos} items completed
   </h2>
   

3. Import the file at the beginning of Todos.svelte, adding the following import statement below the others:

   js

   import TodosStatus from "./TodosStatus.svelte";
   

4. Replace the <h2> status heading inside Todos.svelte with a call to the TodosStatus component, passing todos to it as a prop, like so:

   svelte

   <TodosStatus {todos} />
   

5. You can also do a bit of cleanup, removing the totalTodos and completedTodos variables from Todos.svelte. Just remove the $: totalTodos = … and the $: completedTodos = … lines, and also remove the reference to totalTodos when we calculate newTodoId and use todos.length instead. To do this, replace the block that begins with let newTodoId with this:

   js

   $: newTodoId = todos.length ? Math.max(...todos.map((t) => t.id)) + 1 : 1;
   

6. Everything works as expected — we just extracted the last piece of markup to its own component.

Now we need to find a way to give focus to the <h2> status label after a to-do has been removed.

So far we saw how to send information to a component via props, and how a component can communicate with its parent by emitting events or using two-way data binding. The child component could get a reference to the <h2> node using bind:this={dom_node} and expose it to the outside using two-way data binding. But doing so would break the component encapsulation; setting focus on it should be its own responsibility.

So we need the TodosStatus component to expose a method that its parent can call to give focus to it. It's a very common scenario that a component needs to expose some behavior or information to the consumer; let's see how to achieve it with Svelte.

We've already seen that Svelte uses export let varname = … to declare props. But if instead of using let you export a const, class, or function, it is read-only outside the component. Function expressions are valid props, however. In the following example, the first three declarations are props, and the rest are exported values:

<script>
  export let bar = "optional default initial value"; // prop
  export let baz = undefined; // prop
  export let format = (n) => n.toFixed(2); // prop

  // these are readonly
  export const thisIs = "readonly"; // read-only export

  export function greet(name) {
    // read-only export
    alert(`Hello, ${name}!`);
  }

  export const greet = (name) => alert(`Hello, ${name}!`); // read-only export
</script>

With this in mind, let's go back to our use case. We'll create a function called focus() that gives focus to the <h2> heading. For that we'll need a headingEl variable to hold the reference to the DOM node, and we'll have to bind it to the <h2> element using bind:this={headingEl}. Our focus method will just run headingEl.focus().

1. Update the contents of TodosStatus.svelte like so:

   svelte

   <script>
     export let todos;
   
     $: totalTodos = todos.length;
     $: completedTodos = todos.filter((todo) => todo.completed).length;
   
     let headingEl;
   
     export function focus() {
       // shorter version: export const focus = () => headingEl.focus()
       headingEl.focus();
     }
   </script>
   
   <h2 id="list-heading" bind:this={headingEl} tabindex="-1">
     {completedTodos} out of {totalTodos} items completed
   </h2>
   

   Note that we've added a tabindex attribute to the <h2> to allow the element to receive focus programmatically.

   As we saw earlier, using the bind:this={headingEl} directive gives us a reference to the DOM node in the variable headingEl. Then we use export function focus() to expose a function that gives focus to the <h2> heading.

   How can we access those exported values from the parent? Just as you can bind to DOM elements with the bind:this={dom_node} directive, you can also bind to component instances themselves with bind:this={component}. So, when you use bind:this on an HTML element, you get a reference to the DOM node, and when you do it on a Svelte component, you get a reference to the instance of that component.

2. So to bind to the instance of TodosStatus, we'll first create a todosStatus variable in Todos.svelte. Add the following line below your import statements:

   js

   let todosStatus; // reference to TodosStatus instance
   

3. Next, add a bind:this={todosStatus} directive to the call, as follows:

   svelte

   <!-- TodosStatus -->
   <TodosStatus bind:this={todosStatus} {todos} />
   

4. Now we can call the exported focus() method from our removeTodo() function:

   js

   function removeTodo(todo) {
     todos = todos.filter((t) => t.id !== todo.id);
     todosStatus.focus(); // give focus to status heading
   }
   

5. Go back to your app. Now if you delete any to-do, the status heading will be focussed. This is useful to highlight the change in numbers of to-dos, both to sighted users and screen reader users.

To see the state of the code as it should be at the end of this article, access your copy of our repo like this:

cd mdn-svelte-tutorial/06-stores

Or directly download the folder's content:

npx degit opensas/mdn-svelte-tutorial/06-stores

Remember to run npm install && npm run dev to start your app in development mode.

To see the current state of the code in a REPL, visit:

https://svelte.dev/repl/d1fa84a5a4494366b179c87395940039?version=3.23.2

In this article we have finished adding all the required functionality to our app, plus we've taken care of a number of accessibility and usability issues. We also finished splitting our app into manageable components, each one with a unique responsibility.

In the meantime, we saw a few advanced Svelte techniques, like:

• Dealing with reactivity gotchas when updating objects and arrays
• Working with DOM nodes using bind:this={dom_node} (binding DOM elements)
• Using the component lifecycle onMount() function
• Forcing Svelte to resolve pending state changes with the tick() function
• Adding functionality to HTML elements in a reusable and declarative way with the use:action directive
• Accessing component methods using bind:this={component} (binding components)

In the next article we will see how to use stores to communicate between components, and add animations to our components.

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