TABbing through the attributes, we can fill in new values for the blank ones as well as overwrite any default values already filled in. When we expand textarea, we get the following, fairly complete, markup: Expanding form gives us the following, with | being the cursor waiting for us to fill in the form action: Īha! Now we generated an HTML tag together with an attribute. Let’s try another tag, with a mandatory attribute this time. Since this should also work with custom tags, how about expanding awesome then? ? This will result in the following markup: Ĭool, but pretty unspectacular. In some HTML context (e.g., in a real HTML file, or in the HTML scope of a PHP file), we type div, and then expand by using TAB. Emmet will provide you with appropriate attributes that you just have to fill (or remove, if you don’t want/need them). This is not limited to existing tags, but you can use any valid string and expand it. The most basic thing with Emmet is expanding an HTML tag (or element).
Since the official Emmet documentation is pretty comprehensive, I won’t provide a full coverage of all the things you can do. But let’s have a look at that by means of some examples. In PhpStorm, this is done with the TAB key, although this can easily be configured otherwise.ĭepending on where you are (i.e., in what type of file, and in what scope), one and the same abbreviation might generate (slightly) different code. Once activated (and enabled), you can just go ahead and type abbreviations and expand them. I am pretty sure, though, that using most of the other plugins doesn’t vary too much.ĭepending on your editor and the plugin, respectively, there might be several options that you either have to or can set as you see fit. Note: Since I am using PhpStorm, the following descriptions and screenshots are specific to this tool and the according plugin. The according plugin is bundled with these tools already. In case you are using PhpStorm (or WebStorm): no need to do anything.
In order to use Emmet in your IDE (or text editor) of choice, you just have to install a plugin. These abbreviations are heavily based on (a subset of) CSS selectors, and thus very easy to get used to for almost any front-end developer.
In its core, Emmet is a combination of a parser for a specific kind of abbreviation syntax, and a generator for markup, CSS code, and even XSL, respectively. Emmet? Isn’t that one of these Twilight vampire guys?”: sorry, wrong blog. Now, doing the React For Beginners course by Wes Bos-a course that I just can’t recommend enough-I learned (again) of something easy to use, and at the same time something very powerful: Emmet. The last time that I was involved in the development of a complete and complex theme, however, was more than two years ago. As a WordPress Engineer at Inpsyde, I not only write PHP code, but also work on the front end.