Unlock the Power of Interactive Code Snippets
When it comes to statically generated sites, engaging users is crucial. One effective way to achieve this is by incorporating interactive and runnable code snippets into your content. These snippets enhance the user experience, allowing readers to experiment with code in real-time, make edits, implement new functionalities, execute, and see the results – all while still reading your content.
The Benefits of Interactive Code Snippets
So, why should you bother adding interactive code snippets to your site? For starters, they provide an improved learning experience. By allowing users to execute code examples directly within your content, they can grasp complex concepts more effectively and see immediate results. Additionally, interactive code snippets can lead to increased engagement time, as users are more likely to stay on your site and explore your resources. They also provide a playground for readers, where they can intentionally introduce errors to observe the consequences and learn from their mistakes.
Introducing blog-cells: A Library for Interactive Code Notebooks
To add interactive code snippets to your site, you can use the blog-cells library. This open-source library transforms any web page into an interactive code notebook, written in TypeScript and running entirely in the browser without requiring a server-side component. You can add blog-cells to your projects via the CDN, and it works with HTML websites and static site generators like Hugo, Jekyll, Middleman, and others.
Getting Started with blog-cells
Installing blog-cells is simple. You just need to add the JavaScript and CSS imports to the root HTML file of your project. Then, you can create code cells – the interactive code snippets – with the script. When the browser renders the page, blog-cells will transform the script tags with the attributes of type=”text/notebook-cells into interactive and runnable code snippets.
Using blog-cells with Middleman
To demonstrate the capabilities of blog-cells, let’s build a Middleman demo. First, we’ll create a Middleman project and add the blog-cells JavaScript and CSS files to the project. Then, we’ll create blog post files and add some dummy content to them. Finally, we’ll update the homepage with links to these two posts.
Exploring More blog-cells Features
blog-cells offers a range of interesting features to incorporate interactive code snippets into a website. You can execute functions, export values from one cell and access them in another, make API calls to fetch data, import third-party ES modules, and more. Additionally, blog-cells supports multiple console functions, multilingual support, and auto-run snippets.
Considerations While Working with blog-cells
When working with blog-cells, keep in mind that it’s an open-source project maintained by a single contributor. This means resources are limited, and you won’t find many example implementations or guides outside the documentation. Additionally, blog-cells doesn’t work out of the box with static site generators that block the injection of HTML tags into its final HTML output.
By incorporating interactive code snippets into your site using blog-cells, you can provide a better user experience and increase engagement time. With its range of features and capabilities, blog-cells is an excellent choice for adding interactive code notebooks to your website.