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What's new in Svelte: August 2022

Changes to SvelteKit's `load` before 1.0 plus support for Vite 3 and `vite.config.js`!

Dani Sandoval

There's a lot to cover this month... big changes are coming to SvelteKit's design before 1.0 can be completed. If you haven't already, check out Rich's Discussion, Fixing load, and tightening up SvelteKit's design before 1.0 #5748.

Also, @dummdidumm (Simon H) has joined Vercel to work on Svelte full-time and @tcc-sejohnson has joined the group of SvelteKit maintainers! We're super excited to have additional maintainers now dedicated to working on Svelte and SvelteKit and have already been noticing their impact. July was the third largest month for SvelteKit changes since its inception!

Now onto the rest of the updates...

What's new in SvelteKit

  • Dynamically imported styles are now included during SSR (#5138)
  • Improvements to routes and prop updates to prevent unnecessary rerendering (#5654, #5671)
  • Lots of improvements to error handling (#4665, #5622, #5619, #5616)
  • Custom Vite modes are now respected in SSR builds (#5602)
  • Custom Vite config locations are now supported (#5705)
  • Private environment variables (aka "secrets") are now much more secure. Now if you accidentally import them to client-side code, you'll see an error (#5663, Docs)
  • Vercel's v3 build output API is now being used in adapter-vercel (#5514)
  • vite-plugin-svelte has reached 1.0 and now supports Vite 3. You'll notice new default ports for dev (port 5173) and preview (port 4173) (#5005, vite-plugin-svelte CHANGELOG)

Breaking changes:

  • mode, prod and server are no longer available in $app/env (#5602)
  • svelte-kit CLI commands are now run using the vite command and vite.config.js is required. This will allow first-class support with other projects in the Vite ecosystem like Vitest and Storybook (#5332, Docs)
  • endpointExtensions is now moduleExtensions and can be used to filter param matchers (#5085, Docs)
  • Node 16.9 is now the minimum version for SvelteKit (#5395)
  • %-encoded filenames are now allowed. If you had a % in your route, you must now encode it with %25 (#5056)
  • Endpoint method names are now uppercased to match HTTP specifications (#5513, Docs)
  • writeStatic has been removed to align with Vite's config (#5618)
  • transformPage is now transformPageChunk (#5657, Docs)
  • The prepare script is no longer needed in package.json (#5760)
  • adapter-node no longer does any compression while we wait for a bug fix in the compression library (#5560)

For a full list of changes, check out kit's CHANGELOG.

What's new in Svelte & Language Tools

  • The @layer CSS at-rule is now supported in Svelte components (3.49.0, PR)
  • The inert HTML attribute is now supported in Svelte's language tools and plugins (105.20.0, PR)
  • The Svelte plugin will now use SvelteComponentTyped typings, if available (105.19.0, PR)

Community Showcase

Apps & Sites built with Svelte

  • PocketBase is an open source Go backend with a single file and an admin dashboard built with Svelte
  • Hondo is a word guessing game with multiple rounds
  • Hexapipes is a site for playing hexagonal pipes puzzle
  • Mail Must Move is an email made for those who want to get more done
  • Jot Down is a Visual Studio Code extension for quick and simple note taking
  • Kadium is an app for staying on top of YouTube channels' uploads
  • Samen zjin we #1metS10 is a campaign website to support S10, the dutch Eurovision finalist, by sending a drawing or a wish
  • On Writing Code is an interactive website to learn programming design patterns
  • Svelte-In-Motion lets you create Svelte-animated videos in your browser
  • Svelte Terminal is a terminal-like website
  • Bulletlist is a simple tool with a single purpose: making lists
  • Remind Me Again is an app for toggleable reminders on Mac, Linux and Windows
  • Heyweek is a timetracking app built for freelancers craving that extra pizzazz

Learning Resources

Starring the Svelte team

To Watch

To Read

Tech Demos

Libraries, Tools & Components

  • Lucia is a simple, JWT based authentication library for SvelteKit that connects your SvelteKit app with your database
  • Skeleton is a UI component library for use with Svelte + Tailwind
  • pass-composer helps you compose your postprocessing passes for threlte scenes
  • @crikey/stores-* is a collection of libraries to extend Svelte stores for common use-cases
  • Svelte Chrome Storage is a lightweight abstraction between Svelte stores and Chrome extension storage
  • Svelte Schema Form is a form generator for JSON schema
  • svelte-gesture is a library that lets you bind richer mouse and touch events to any component or view
  • Snap Layout and universal-title-bar bring Windows 11 snap layout and title features to webapps and PWAs. Both can be imported as a .svelte module or as a web component
  • svelte-adapter-bun is an adapter for SvelteKit apps that generates a standalone Bun server
  • json2dir converts JSON objects into directory trees
  • Svelte Command Palette is a drop-in command palette component
  • svelte-use-drop-outside is a Svelte action to drop an element outside an area
  • PowerTable is a JavaScript component that turns JSON data into an interactive HTML table
  • svelte-slides is a slide show template for Svelte using Reveal.js
  • Svelte Theme Light is a Visual Studio Code theme based on the Svelte REPL

Did we miss anything? Let us know on Reddit or Discord!

Still looking for something to do in September? Come join us at the Svelte Summit in Stockholm! Get your tickets now.

See ya next month!