From Prototype to Production: Extracting LiveBind into a Standalone TypeScript Library

The Birth of LiveBind in a Legacy PHP App

It started with a simple need: make staff search and reassignment dynamic in AustinsElite, a legacy PHP application built on a custom framework with Laravel components. No modern frontend framework—just Blade templates, jQuery sprinkles, and a growing pile of unstructured JavaScript.

I needed something lightweight but powerful enough to handle real-time DOM updates without rewriting the entire frontend. So I built LiveBind: a small utility that bound form-like behavior to arbitrary DOM containers, synced inputs, and triggered AJAX updates on change. It worked—too well. What began as a 100-line script quickly grew into something others wanted to reuse. That’s when I realized: this wasn’t just a script anymore. It was a framework in the making.

But keeping it embedded in the monolith meant tight coupling, no types, and zero reusability. So I made a call: extract LiveBind into a standalone TypeScript library.

Extracting Order from Chaos: Building the Core

The first step? Rip it out cleanly. I created a new repo, initialized it with TypeScript, and started porting the core logic. This wasn’t a rewrite—it was a refactoring under constraints. The original LiveBind had no types, relied on global DOM selectors, and assumed form-like structures even when none existed.

My goals were clear:

• Type safety from day one
• Zero dependencies (or as close as possible)
• Plugin-friendly architecture
• Backward compatibility for existing use cases

Setting up the TypeScript project was straightforward: tsc --init, strict mode enabled, targeting ES2020. I structured it around three core modules: Binder (the main orchestrator), Collector (input gathering), and Plugin (extension interface). The Collector turned out to be the trickiest part.

Originally, LiveBind assumed all inputs lived inside <form> elements. But in practice, we were binding to <div class="staff-row"> containers with scattered inputs. So I had to generalize input collection—walking DOM subtrees, filtering by name attributes, and handling dynamic additions. I landed on a recursive strategy that respected container boundaries and ignored excluded elements:

function collectInputs(container: Element): Record<string, any> {
  const inputs: Record<string, any> = {};
  const walker = document.createTreeWalker(container, NodeFilter.SHOW_ELEMENT);
  let node = walker.currentNode;

  while (node) {
    const el = node as HTMLInputElement;
    if (el.name && isValidInput(el)) {
      inputs[el.name] = getInputValue(el);
    }
    node = walker.nextNode();
  }

  return inputs;
}

This became the InputCollector class in the library, now decoupled from any Laravel or Blade assumptions.

Challenges: Types, Tests, and Not Breaking Production

Migrating to TypeScript exposed a mess of implicit assumptions. What was a string? What could be null? How did plugins interact with internal state?

I introduced interfaces early:

type LiveBindPlugin = {
  init: (binder: Binder) => void;
  destroy: () => void;
};

This forced clarity. Plugins had to conform, and the core didn’t have to guess what they’d do. I also added a basic event bus using CustomEvent so plugins could react to input changes without reaching into private methods.

But the real test was backward compatibility. The original LiveBind was already in use. I couldn’t break it.

So I built a compatibility layer: a UMD build that exposed window.LiveBind just like the old script. It wrapped the new Binder class and mimicked the old API. That way, the legacy app could keep calling LiveBind.init('.staff-search') while I worked toward a cleaner integration.

One medium-sized headache? Non-form containers. The old code assumed form elements, but we were binding to generic divs. I fixed this by decoupling container type from functionality—now any element with data-live-bind works. This was a small change, but it unlocked reuse across the app.

What’s Next: Publishing and Letting Go

LiveBind is now a standalone project with a CI pipeline, typed API, and plugin architecture. My next steps:

• Publish to npm under a scoped package (@ryandaswood/livebind)
• Version with semantic release
• Add basic docs and examples for Laravel/Blade use cases
• Support community plugins (e.g., debounce, validation)

But here’s the twist: even as I extract it, I’m also removing it from parts of AustinsElite. Why? Because sometimes the best outcome of a prototype isn’t adoption—it’s learning. In some cases, we realized a simpler Blade + Alpine.js combo worked better. In others, server-side rendering with Turbo-like patterns was overkill.

So LiveBind isn’t about replacing everything. It’s about having the right tool for the job—and knowing when to walk away.

Extracting it taught me that modularity isn’t just technical. It’s cultural. It means writing code that can leave your project and still thrive. And that’s a win, whether it stays or goes.