Shoelace components are just regular HTML elements, or "custom elements" to be precise. You can use them like any other element. Each component has detailed documentation that describes its full API, including properties, events, methods, and more.
Many components have properties that can be set using attributes. For example, buttons accept a `size` attribute that maps to the `size` property which dictates the button's size.
In rare cases, a property may require an array, an object, or a function. For example, to customize the color picker's list of preset swatches, you set the `swatches` property to an array of colors. This can be done with JavaScript.
You can listen for standard events such as `click`, `mouseover`, etc. as you normally would. In addition, some components emit custom events. These work the same way as standard events, but are prefixed with `sl-` to prevent collisions with standard events and other libraries.
Refer to a component's documentation for a complete list of its methods and their arguments.
### Slots
Many components use slots to accept content inside of them. The most common slot is the _default_ slot, which includes any content inside the component that doesn't have a `slot` attribute.
For example, a button's default slot is used to populate its label.
```html
<sl-button>Click me</sl-button>
```
Some components also have _named_ slots. A named slot can be populated by adding a child element with the appropriate `slot` attribute. Notice how the icon below has the `slot="prefix"` attribute? This tells the component to place the icon into its `prefix` slot.
```html
<sl-button>
<sl-iconslot="prefix"name="gear"></sl-icon>
Settings
</sl-button>
```
The location of a named slot doesn't matter. You can put it anywhere inside the component and the browser will move it to the right place automatically!
Refer to a component's documentation for a complete list of available slots.
### Don't Use Self-closing Tags
Custom elements cannot have self-closing tags. Similar to `<script>` and `<textarea>`, you must always include the full closing tag.
```html
<!-- Don't do this -->
<sl-input/>
<!-- Always do this -->
<sl-input></sl-input>
```
### Differences from Native Elements
You might expect similarly named elements to share the same API as native HTML elements. This is not always the case. Shoelace components **are not** designed to be one-to-one replacements for their HTML counterparts.
For example, `<button>` and `<sl-button>` both have a `type` attribute, but it does different things. The former controls whether the button submits a form and the latter controls the button's appearance.
?> **Don't make assumptions about a component's API!** To prevent unexpected behaviors, please take the time to review the documentation and make sure you understand what each attribute, property, method, and event is intended to do.
Shoelace ships with a file called `vscode.html-custom-data.json` that can be used to describe its components to Visual Studio Code. This enables code completion for Shoelace components (also known as "code hinting" or "IntelliSense"). To enable it, you need to tell VS Code where the file is.
If `settings.json` already exists, simply add the above line to the root of the object. Note that you may need to restart VS Code for the changes to take affect.
### Other Editors
Most popular editors support custom code completion with a bit of configuration. Please [submit a feature request](https://github.com/shoelace-style/shoelace/issues/new/choose) for your editor of choice. PRs are also welcome!
React [doesn't play nice](https://custom-elements-everywhere.com/#react) with custom elements —it's a bit finicky about props.
> React passes all data to Custom Elements in the form of HTML attributes. For primitive data this is fine, but the system breaks down when passing rich data, like objects or arrays. In these instances you end up with stringified values like `some-attr="[object Object]"` which can't actually be used.
Event handling can also be cumbersome.
> Because React implements its own synthetic event system, it cannot listen for DOM events coming from Custom Elements without the use of a workaround. Developers will need to reference their Custom Elements using a ref and manually attach event listeners with addEventListener. This makes working with Custom Elements cumbersome.
Fortunately, there's a package called [@shoelace-style/react](https://www.npmjs.com/package/@shoelace-style/react) that will let you use Shoelace components as if they were React components. You can install it using this command.
Vue [plays nice](https://custom-elements-everywhere.com/#vue) with custom elements. You just have to tell it to ignore Shoelace components. This is pretty easy because they all start with `sl-`.
One caveat is there's currently [no support for v-model on custom elements](https://github.com/vuejs/vue/issues/7830), but you can still achieve two-way binding manually.
You can use [this utility](https://www.npmjs.com/package/@shoelace-style/vue-sl-model) to add a custom directive that will work just like `v-model` but for Shoelace components. To install it, use this command.
Now you can use the `v-sl-model` directive to keep your data in sync!
```html
<sl-inputv-sl-model="name">
```
## Angular
Angular [plays nice](https://custom-elements-everywhere.com/#angular) with custom elements. Just make sure to apply the custom elements schema as shown below.
```js
import { BrowserModule } from '@angular/platform-browser';
import { NgModule, CUSTOM_ELEMENTS_SCHEMA } from '@angular/core';