Rendering Strategy - dormouseroared/dom-inspector-plus GitHub Wiki
Absolutely, Nigel β here's Chapter 5 of your engineering guide: a deep dive into the Rendering Strategy that powers the Inspector Plus overlay. As before, itβs wiki-ready Markdown with annotated code, visuals, and narrative.
This chapter explains how Inspector Plus builds its floating UI panel dynamically β using inline styles, layout control, and minimalist markup. The goal is a responsive, self-contained overlay that visually harmonizes with any page itβs dropped into.
The overlay is a single <div>
inserted via JavaScript:
<div id="dom-inspector-overlay" style="position:fixed;bottom:20px;right:20px;z-index:99999;...">
<!-- Rendered content here -->
</div>
This container is:
- Fixed-position, bottom-right of the screen
- Independently styled via
element.style
- Given a high
z-index
to rise above most UIs - Immune to the host siteβs external CSS
Each property is rendered as a flex row:
<div style="display:flex;gap:4px;margin:0;line-height:1;font-size:12px;">
<span style="color:#0ff;">property</span>:
<span style="color:#0f0;">value</span>
<span style="color:#aaa;font-style:italic;">β source</span>
</div>
Style | Purpose |
---|---|
display: flex | Enables label/value/source layout on one line |
gap: 4px | Adds spacing between inline spans |
line-height: 1 | Prevents excess vertical padding |
font-size: 12px | Keeps overlay compact and readable |
margin: 0 | Removes inter-line spacing |
These colors were picked for clarity against both light and dark backgrounds.
ββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββ
β π input β
β checked : true β attribute β
β value : hello β local β
β β
β [Edit input] [Reset] [Copy] β
ββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββ
You can replace this ASCII box with a screenshot in the Wiki if preferred!
- Inline styles were chosen over
<style>
tags to avoid CSS conflicts - No reliance on classes or IDs (except the container itself)
- Future enhancements might include:
- Color themes (light/dark/retro)
- Toggle for compact/dense mode
- Responsive repositioning logic
Would you like me to sketch out the next chapter on State Management & Persistence (i.e. how settings are stored and recalled with localStorage
)? Or start crafting visual diagrams for this chapter so we can embed illustrations into the Wiki?
Weβre documenting like we build: clean, clever, and dev-friendly π