Styling Remix using Tailwind and PostCSS

How to style a Remix app using Tailwind and PostCSS

Saturday, December 4, 2021

TL;DR: Source and Demo

Here's a live demo

Link to the source code

Link to step by step commits

Introduction

In my last blog post, I discussed how to style a Remix app using Vanilla CSS. This blog will show how to integrate Tailwind and PostCSS into our Remix app.

Dependencies

• autoprefixer
• postcss
• postcss-cli
• postcss-import
• tailwindcss
• cssnano

Installation

shCopy
npm install -D autoprefixer postcss postcss-cli postcss-import tailwindcss cssnano

OR if you prefer yarn

shCopy
yarn add -D autoprefixer postcss postcss-cli postcss-import tailwindcss cssnano

Add scripts to package.json

Add Script for CSS generation

package.jsonCopy
1234567"scripts": {  // ...  "css:watch": "npm run css:build -- --watch",  "css:build": "postcss styles/**/*.css --dir app/styles",  "css:prod": "npm run css:build -- --env production",  // ...},

Replace npm run with yarn if you prefer to use yarn

I don't want to commit those generated CSS files to the repo, so I'll be adding them to .gitignore

.gitignoreCopy
app/styles/*.css

Add Script for cleaning up build files

package.jsonCopy
123456"scripts": {  // ...  "build": "npm run css:prod && remix build",  "prebuild": "rimraf ./public/build \"./app/styles/**/*.css\""  // ...},

Running the scripts

• Development

Run npm run css:watch in one terminal and remix dev in another

shCopy
1npm run css:watch

shCopy
1npm run dev

DISCLAIMER: Don't expect it will work immediately. We still need to configure a few things with Tailwind and PostCSS.

OPTIONAL: Run multiple scripts in a single command

• Production

shCopy
1npm run build

If you are not a fan of multiple terminals, use concurrently to run css:watch and remix dev in parallel

package.jsonCopy
12345"scripts": {  // ...  "dev": "concurrently npm run css:watch && remix dev",  // ...}

Tailwind and App styles presets

Tailwind styles

We need to explicitly declare the features we want to use in our CSS. Here's a reference of what you can use.

styles/tailwind.cssCopy
1234@tailwind base;@tailwind components;@tailwind utilities;@tailwind screens;

App CSS presets

Some CSS defaults I prefer

styles/app.cssCopy
12345678910111213141516171819202122232425:root {  --color-primary-light: hsl(210, 100%, 98%);  --color-primary-100: hsl(210, 100%, 95%);  --color-primary-200: hsl(210, 100%, 85%);  --color-primary-300: hsl(210, 100%, 80%);  --color-primary-400: hsl(210, 100%, 75%);  --color-primary-500: hsl(210, 100%, 60%);  --color-primary-600: hsl(210, 100%, 50%);  --color-primary-700: hsl(210, 100%, 40%);  --color-primary-800: hsl(210, 100%, 30%);  --color-primary-900: hsl(210, 100%, 20%);  --color-primary-dark: hsl(210, 100%, 2%);}
input,select,textarea {  @apply text-black;}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {  html {    @apply bg-black text-white;  }}

PostCSS and Tailwind configuration

PostCSS Config File

postcss.config.jsCopy
1234567891011module.exports = {  plugins: [    require("tailwindcss"),    require("autoprefixer"),    require("postcss-import"),    process.env.NODE_ENV === "production" &&      require("cssnano")({        preset: "default",      }),  ],};

Tailwind Config File

tailwind.config.jsCopy
1234567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829module.exports = {  mode: process.env.NODE_ENV ? "jit" : undefined,  // To purge CSS in .ts .tsx files  purge: ["./app/**/*.{ts,tsx}"],   darkMode: "media", // Use media queries for dark mode  theme: {    extend: {      colors: {        // color scheme is defined in /app.css        // To enable text-primary-xxx, bg-primary-xxx, or border-primary-xxx        primary: {          light: "var(--color-primary-light)",          100: "var(--color-primary-100)",          200: "var(--color-primary-200)",          300: "var(--color-primary-300)",          400: "var(--color-primary-400)",          500: "var(--color-primary-500)",          600: "var(--color-primary-600)",          700: "var(--color-primary-700)",          800: "var(--color-primary-800)",          900: "var(--color-primary-900)",          dark: "var(--color-primary-dark)",        },      },    },  },  variants: {}, // activate any variant you want here  plugins: [], // add any plugin you need here};

Integrating styles in Remix Code

Add a reference of the generated CSS files using links in app/root.tsx

app/root.tsxCopy
123456789101112131415// ...import type { LinksFunction } from "remix";import tailwindStyles from "~/styles/tailwind.css";import appStyles from "~/styles/app.css";
export let links: LinksFunction = () => {  return [    { rel: "stylesheet", href: tailwindStyles },    {      rel: "stylesheet",      href: appStyles,    },  ];};// ...

Styling a component

Use Tailwind, as usual; add Tailwind's class names added inside the className prop.

app/components/word-form/index.tsxCopy
123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536373839404142434445464748495051525354import { Form, useTransition } from "remix";import { Word, WordType } from "~/models/word";import { Button } from "../basic/button";import { Input } from "../basic/input";import { Select } from "../basic/select";import { TextArea } from "../basic/textarea";
export function WordForm({ word }: { word?: Word }) {  let transition = useTransition();
  return (    <Form      method="post"      className={`        px-3 py-4 rounded flex flex-col gap-2 border-2      `}    >      <div>Form State: {transition.state}</div>      <div>        <label className="block text-xs" htmlFor="name">          Word        </label>        <Input          id="name"          name="name"          type="text"          placeholder="Word"          required          defaultValue={word?.name ?? ""}          disabled={Boolean(word?.name)}        />      </div>      <div>        <label className="block text-xs" htmlFor="type">          Type        </label>        <Select          id="type"          name="type"          defaultValue={word?.type ?? WordType.NOUN}        >          <option value={WordType.NOUN}>Noun</option>          <option value={WordType.VERB}>Verb</option>          <option value={WordType.ADJECTIVE}>Adjective</option>        </Select>      </div>      {/*TextAreas*/}      <Button type="submit" color="primary">        Submit      </Button>    </Form>  );}// ...

If you're wondering where the above file came from, that is from my last blog post.

VSCode Plugins

Here are some plugins that you can use to get a better experience using Tailwind and PostCSS in VSCode.

• PostCSS Language Support
• Tailwind CSS IntelliSense

Conclusion

Integrating Tailwind and PostCSS in Remix is straightforward as we don't need to hack into the framework to make them work. We quickly achieved an extendable and customizable CSS generation boilerplate by adding a few configurations.