Joined hx-target and hx-swap syntax

[imbolc]

The directives are conceptually very close. They both answer the same question "where to put the response". So why keep them separate?

Considering that hx-swap has a static set of values, can't we include them in the name of hx-target directive, like:

• hx-target - hx-swap="innerHTML" for backward compatibility
• hx-target-outer-html - hx-swap="outerHTML"
• hx-target-afterbegin - ...

[Telroshan]

Hey, those two attributes define different properties related to the swap behavior ; hx-target is indeed "where to put the response", but hx-swap is "how".

Some thoughts on this:

• Those 2 properties can be configured independently; you may have any combination of hx-target with hx-swap, so merging those 2 in a single attribute results in as many different attributes as there are hx-swap values, which implicates more attributes lookups (vs a switch case on the value of a single attribute). In this case I would ask the opposite question; why merge them?

Considering that hx-swap has a static set of values

• hx-swap supports additional modifiers (cf doc), making it more complex than simply the initial set of swap methods. Which would imply here having to parse the hx-target selector than can be any CSS selector, i.e. potentially a pretty complex one, along hx-swap modifiers in the same attribute, making the current parsing way more complex vs the current swap attribute that has a simpler syntax

To be honest, I'm not sure what benefits the suggested approach actually brings, while I'm sure of the challenges and downsides that would come along with it.