docs: add guide covering routing, state, HTML DSL, pubsub, and project structure

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Ryan Hamamura
2026-02-13 10:55:07 -10:00
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# Project Structure
Via's closure-based page model pulls signals, actions, and views into a single scope — similar to Svelte's single-file components. This works well at every scale, but the way you organize files should evolve as your app grows.
## Stage 1: Everything in main.go
For small apps and prototypes, keep everything in `main.go`. This is the right choice when your app is under ~150 lines or has a single page.
Within the file, follow this ordering convention inside each page:
```go
v.Page("/", func(c *via.Context) {
// State — plain Go variables and signals
count := 0
step := c.Signal(1)
// Actions — event handlers that mutate state
increment := c.Action(func() {
count += step.Int()
c.Sync()
})
// View — returns the HTML tree
c.View(func() h.H {
return h.Div(
h.P(h.Textf("Count: %d", count)),
h.Button(h.Text("+"), increment.OnClick()),
)
})
})
```
State → signals → actions → view. This reads top-to-bottom and matches the data flow: state is declared, actions mutate it, the view renders it.
The [counter](../internal/examples/counter/main.go) and [greeter](../internal/examples/greeter/main.go) examples use this layout.
## Stage 2: Page per file
When `main.go` has multiple pages or exceeds ~150 lines, extract each page into its own file as a package-level function.
`main.go` becomes the app skeleton — setup, configuration, routes, and start:
```go
package main
import (
"github.com/ryanhamamura/via"
"github.com/ryanhamamura/via/h"
)
func main() {
v := via.New()
v.Config(via.Options{
DocumentTitle: "My App",
})
v.AppendToHead(
h.Link(h.Rel("stylesheet"), h.Href("/css/pico.css")),
)
v.Page("/", HomePage)
v.Page("/chat", ChatPage)
v.Start()
}
```
Each page lives in its own file with a descriptive name:
```go
// home.go
package main
import (
"github.com/ryanhamamura/via"
"github.com/ryanhamamura/via/h"
)
func HomePage(c *via.Context) {
greeting := c.Signal("Hello")
c.View(func() h.H {
return h.Div(h.P(h.Text(greeting.String())))
})
}
```
Components follow the same pattern — keep them in the page file if single-use, or extract to their own file if reused across pages. Middleware goes in the same file as the route group it protects, or in `middleware.go` if shared.
```
myapp/
├── main.go # skeleton + routes
├── home.go # func HomePage(c *via.Context)
├── chat.go # func ChatPage(c *via.Context)
└── middleware.go # shared middleware
```
## Stage 3: Co-located CSS and shared types
As pages accumulate custom styling, CSS strings in Go become hard to maintain — no syntax highlighting, no linting. Extract them to `.css` files alongside the pages they belong to and use `//go:embed` to load them.
```go
// main.go
package main
import "embed"
//go:embed chat.css
var chatCSS string
func main() {
v := via.New()
v.AppendToHead(
h.Link(h.Rel("stylesheet"), h.Href("https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/@picocss/pico@2/css/pico.min.css")),
h.StyleEl(h.Raw(chatCSS)),
)
// ...
}
```
When multiple pages share the same structs, extract them to `types.go`. Framework-agnostic domain logic (helpers, dummy data, business rules) gets its own file too.
```
myapp/
├── main.go # skeleton + routes + global styles
├── home.go
├── chat.go
├── chat.css # //go:embed in main.go
├── types.go # shared types
└── userdata.go # helpers, dummy data
```
The [nats-chatroom](../internal/examples/nats-chatroom/) example demonstrates this layout.
## CSS Approaches
Via doesn't prescribe a CSS strategy. Two approaches work well:
**CSS framework classes in Go code** — Use Pico, Tailwind, or similar. Classes go directly in the view via `h.Class()`. Good for rapid prototyping since there's nothing to extract.
```go
h.Div(h.Class("container"),
h.Button(h.Class("primary"), h.Text("Save")),
)
```
**Co-located `.css` files with `//go:embed`** — Write plain CSS in a separate file, embed it, and inject via `AppendToHead`. You get syntax highlighting, linting, and clean separation.
```go
//go:embed chat.css
var chatCSS string
// in main():
v.AppendToHead(h.StyleEl(h.Raw(chatCSS)))
```
Use a framework for quick prototypes and dashboards. Switch to co-located CSS files when you have significant custom styling or want tooling support.
## Next Steps
- [Getting Started](getting-started.md) — The core loop and configuration
- [State and Interactivity](state-and-interactivity.md) — Signals, actions, components, validation