How to create a skeleton loading screen with Tailwind CSS and Javascript

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It’s Monday again, yay! Today, we’re going to build a skeleton loading screen using JavaScript and Tailwind CSS. Dang, aren’t we fancy?

What are skeleton loaders?

A skeleton loader is a loading screen that appears while content is being loaded. It’s a visual representation of the content that’s being loaded, giving the user a sense of progress and a better understanding of what’s happening. Skeleton loaders are commonly used in web development to provide a more polished and professional look to the user interface.

Use cases

Skeleton loaders are useful in a variety of scenarios, including:

Loading content: When fetching data from an API or loading a large amount of data, a skeleton loader can provide a visual representation of the content being loaded, giving the user a sense of progress.
Loading states: When a user is interacting with a form or a page, a skeleton loader can be used to provide a loading state, giving the user a better understanding of what’s happening.
Empty states: When a user has not yet interacted with a page or a feature, a skeleton loader can be used to provide a visual representation of an empty state, giving the user a sense of progress.
Placeholders: When a user is searching for something, a skeleton loader can be used to provide a placeholder for the search results, giving the user a better understanding of what’s happening.

and many other similars use cases.

Lets get to the markup

The skeleton loader

Id’s

id="content": Assigns a unique ID to the content element.

 <div id="content">
   <!-- Skeleton loader will be here -->
 </div>

The skeleton

The skeleton is made with a series of divs with different widths and heights without content. It’s a visual representation of the content that’s being loaded.

<div class="animate-pulse p-4 space-y-4">
  <div class="h-4 bg-neutral-200 rounded w-3/4"></div>
  <div class="h-4 bg-neutral-200 rounded w-1/2"></div>
  <div class="h-20 bg-neutral-200 rounded"></div>
  <div class="flex flex-col gap-2">
      <div class="h-4 bg-neutral-200 rounded w-5/6"></div>
      <div class="h-4 bg-neutral-200 rounded w-4/6"></div>
  </div>
</div>

The actual content

The actual content is the content that the customr will be consuming, using, etc,…

<div class="p-4 prose">
   <h4>Actual Content</h4>
   <p>This is the real content that has finished loading.</p>
   <img src="https://i.pinimg.com/564x/a4/ae/54/a4ae54bdd21cbbdb2ccc377ab07b6c6f.jpg" alt="Placeholder" class="w-full rounded mt-4">
   <p>Additional text content goes here. It can be as long as needed.</p>
</div>

Lets get to the script

The createSkeletonLoader function

The createSkeletonLoader function

function createSkeletonLoader(): This function creates the skeleton loader markup.
return: This line of code returns the skeleton loader markup.
return: This line of code returns the skeleton loader markup. The createContent function
function createContent(): This function creates the actual content markup.
return: This line of code returns the actual content markup. The contentDiv variable
const contentDiv = document.getElementById("content");: This line of code selects the content element with the ID content. Showing the skeleton loader
contentDiv.innerHTML = createSkeletonLoader();: This line of code sets the inner HTML of the content element to the skeleton loader markup. Simulating content loading
setTimeout(() => {: This line of code sets a timeout function that will be executed after 2 seconds.
contentDiv.innerHTML = createContent();: This line of code sets the inner HTML of the content element to the actual content markup.
}, 2000);: This line of code sets the timeout duration to 2 seconds.

function createSkeletonLoader() {
    return `
                <div class="animate-pulse p-4 space-y-4">
                    <div class="h-4 bg-neutral-200 rounded w-3/4"></div>
                    <div class="h-4 bg-neutral-200 rounded w-1/2"></div>
                    <div class="h-20 bg-neutral-200 rounded "></div>
                   <div class="flex flex-col gap-2>
                        <div class="h-4 bg-neutral-200 rounded w-5/6"></div>
                        <div class="h-4 bg-neutral-200 rounded w-4/6"></div>
                   </div>
                </div>
            `;
}

function createContent() {
    return `
                <div class="p-4 prose">
                    <h4>Actual Content</h4>
                    <p>This is the real content that has finished loading.</p>
                    <img src="https://i.pinimg.com/564x/a4/ae/54/a4ae54bdd21cbbdb2ccc377ab07b6c6f.jpg" alt="Placeholder" class="w-full rounded mt-4">
                    <p>Additional text content goes here. It can be as long as needed.</p>
                </div>
            `;
}

const contentDiv = document.getElementById("content");

// Show skeleton loader
contentDiv.innerHTML = createSkeletonLoader();

// Simulate content loading
setTimeout(() => {
    contentDiv.innerHTML = createContent();
}, 2000); // Change content after 2 seconds

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we learned how to create a skeleton loading screen using JavaScript and Tailwind CSS. We saw how to create a skeleton loader and an actual content section, and how to show and hide them using JavaScript.

I hope you found this tutorial helpful and have a great day!

/Michael Andreuzza

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