Tailwind

You can style your Dioxus application with whatever CSS framework you choose, or just write vanilla CSS.

One popular option for styling your Dioxus application is Tailwind. Tailwind allows you to style your elements with CSS utility classes. This guide will show you how to setup tailwind CSS with your Dioxus application.

Setup

  1. Install the Dioxus CLI:

    cargo install --git https://github.com/DioxusLabs/cli
    
  2. Install npm: https://docs.npmjs.com/downloading-and-installing-node-js-and-npm

  3. Install the tailwind css cli: https://tailwindcss.com/docs/installation

  4. Initialize the tailwind css project:

    npx tailwindcss init
    

    This should create a tailwind.config.js file in the root of the project.

  5. Edit the tailwind.config.js file to include rust files:

    module.exports = {
        mode: "all",
        content: [
            // include all rust, html and css files in the src directory
            "./src/**/*.{rs,html,css}",
            // include all html files in the output (dist) directory
            "./dist/**/*.html",
        ],
        theme: {
            extend: {},
        },
        plugins: [],
    }
    
  6. Create a input.css file with the following content:

    @tailwind base;
    @tailwind components;
    @tailwind utilities;
    
  7. Create a Dioxus.toml file with the following content that links to the tailwind.css file:

    [application]
    
    # App (Project) Name
    name = "Tailwind CSS + Dioxus"
    
    # Dioxus App Default Platform
    # desktop, web, mobile, ssr
    default_platform = "web"
    
    # `build` & `serve` dist path
    out_dir = "dist"
    
    # resource (public) file folder
    asset_dir = "public"
    
    [web.app]
    
    # HTML title tag content
    title = "dioxus | ⛺"
    
    [web.watcher]
    
    # when watcher trigger, regenerate the `index.html`
    reload_html = true
    
    # which files or dirs will be watcher monitoring
    watch_path = ["src", "public"]
    
    # uncomment line below if using Router
    # index_on_404 = true
    
    # include `assets` in web platform
    [web.resource]
    
    # CSS style file
    style = ["/tailwind.css"]
    
    # Javascript code file
    script = []
    
    [web.resource.dev]
    
    # serve: [dev-server] only
    
    # CSS style file
    style = []
    
    # Javascript code file
    script = []
    

Bonus Steps

  1. Install the tailwind css vs code extension

  2. Go to the settings for the extension and find the experimental regex support section. Edit the setting.json file to look like this:

    "tailwindCSS.experimental.classRegex": ["class: \"(.*)\""],
    "tailwindCSS.includeLanguages": {
        "rust": "html"
    },
    

Development

  • Run the following command in the root of the project to start the tailwind css compiler:

    npx tailwindcss -i ./input.css -o ./public/tailwind.css --watch
    

Web

  • Run the following command in the root of the project to start the dioxus dev server:

    dx serve --hot-reload
    
  • Open the browser to http://localhost:8080.

Desktop

  • Add a custom head pointing to the generated tailwind CSS file in your main. It looks like:

    dioxus_desktop::launch_cfg(
      App,
      dioxus_desktop::Config::new()
        .with_custom_head(r#"<link rel="stylesheet" href="public/tailwind.css">"#.to_string()))
    
  • Launch the dioxus desktop app:

    cargo run