Skip to main content
Basic Svelte
Introduction
Reactivity
Props
Logic
Events
Bindings
Classes and styles
Actions
Transitions
Advanced Svelte
Advanced reactivity
Reusing content
Motion
Advanced bindings
Advanced transitions
Context API
Special elements
<script module>
Next steps
Basic SvelteKit
Introduction
Routing
Loading data
Headers and cookies
Shared modules
Forms
API routes
$app/state
Errors and redirects
Advanced SvelteKit
Hooks
Page options
Link options
Advanced routing
Advanced loading
Environment variables
Conclusion

Like transitions and animations, an action can take an argument, which the action function will be called with alongside the element it belongs to.

In this exercise, we want to add a tooltip to the <button> using the Tippy.js library. The action is already wired up with use:tooltip, but if you hover over the button (or focus it with the keyboard) the tooltip contains no content.

First, the action needs to accept a function that returns some options to pass to Tippy:

App
function tooltip(node, fn) {
	$effect(() => {
		const tooltip = tippy(node, fn());

		return tooltip.destroy;
	});
}

We’re passing in a function, rather than the options themselves, because the tooltip function does not re-run when the options change.

Then, we need to pass the options into the action:

App
<button use:tooltip={() => ({ content })}>
	Hover me
</button>

In Svelte 4, actions returned an object with update and destroy methods. This still works but we recommend using $effect instead, as it provides more flexibility and granularity.

Edit this page on GitHub

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
<script>
	import tippy from 'tippy.js';
 
	let content = $state('Hello!');
 
	function tooltip(node) {
		$effect(() => {
			const tooltip = tippy(node);
 
			return tooltip.destroy;
		});
	}
</script>
 
<input bind:value={content} />
 
<button use:tooltip>
	Hover me
</button>
 
<style>
	:global {
		[data-tippy-root] {
			--bg: #666;
			background-color: var(--bg);
			color: white;
			border-radius: 0.2rem;
			padding: 0.2rem 0.6rem;
			filter: drop-shadow(1px 1px 3px rgb(0 0 0 / 0.1));
 
			* {
				transition: none;
			}
		}
 
		[data-tippy-root]::before {
			--size: 0.4rem;
			content: '';
			position: absolute;
			left: calc(50% - var(--size));
			top: calc(-2 * var(--size) + 1px);
			border: var(--size) solid transparent;
			border-bottom-color: var(--bg);
		}
	}
</style>