TailwindLive 1.0.0

TailwindLive for .NET Web Apps in VS 2022

Make sure you have git bash, npm, and node installed on your local machine. Hot reload also needs to be enabled is VS2022. Works with RazorPages and Blazor Server .NET 8

Install TailwindCSS:

• Open a terminal (e.g., Command Prompt, PowerShell, or terminal in Visual Studio).
• Navigate to your project directory.
• Initialize npm to create a package.json file:

npm init -y 

• Install TailwindCSS and its dependencies:

npm install -D tailwindcss postcss autoprefixer 

• Generate TailwindCSS configuration files:

npx tailwindcss init -p 

• This creates tailwind.config.js and postcss.config.js files.

Configure TailwindCSS:

• Edit the tailwind.config.js file:

     module.exports = { 
     	content: ["./**/*.{html,cshtml,razor,js}"], 
     	theme: { 
     		extend: {}, 
     	}, 
     	plugins: [], 
     }
  

• Create a css folder in the wwwroot directory.

• Inside the css folder, create a tailwind.css file and replace with the following content:

     @tailwind base; 
     @tailwind components; 
     @tailwind utilities;
  

• Inside the css folder, create a app-tailwind.css blank file.

• Add these scripts to your package.json to build and watch TailwindCSS

   	"scripts": {
   		"build:css": "tailwindcss build -i ./wwwroot/css/tailwind.css -o ./wwwroot/css/app-tailwind.css",
   		"watch:css": "tailwindcss -i ./wwwroot/css/tailwind.css -o ./wwwroot/css/app-tailwind.css --watch"
   	}, 
  

Implement Middleware

Install TailwindLive from nuget.

To help refreshing, also install the following extension for autosaving AutoSaveFile

• Add the following line to your Home.razor or Index.cshtml files:

<div class="mb-2 text-xl font-bold text-cyan-300 dark:text-light-100">This is Tailwind CSS</div>

• For Razor Pages add the following in the head element /Pages/Shared/Layout.cshtml

    <link href="~/css/app-tailwind.css" rel="stylesheet" />
  

• For Blazor add the following in the head element /Components/App.razor

    <link href="/css/app-tailwind.css" rel="stylesheet" />
  

• Then add the following to your Program.cs

    if (app.Environment.IsDevelopment())
    {
        app.UseGitBashMiddleware(new MiddlewareOptions
        {
            GitBashExe = "c:\\path\\to\\git-bash.exe",
            WorkingDirectory = Environment.CurrentDirectory,
            NpmBuildArguments = "-c \"npm run build:css\"", //Change these if you named your scripts differently
            NpmWatchArguments = "-c \"npm run watch:css\""
        });
    }
  

Build and run!

• Press control-f5 or f5 to begin the debugger.
• The build command will run and close out the window.
• Once complete the watch command will run and it will monitor the files and update the console as it reloads.
• You should see the elements change as they are saved and reloaded. If you use a utility class that hasn't been used it may take a second for Tailwind to pull it into the css file. If it doesn't seem to be updating control-f5 and it will restart a fresh build.