As I wrote a while ago, I have been trying different approaches for server-side HTML generation in Kotlin, with focus on good support for generating partials without a single root element (which is important for htmx). Given Kotlin’s good support for internal DSLs, I decided to explore that route, and try kotlinx.html and HtmlFlow. They both make great promises of encoding the entire HTML standard and enforce valid HTML at compile time.

I have been trying out htmx with Kotlin and http4k. To use htmx, you need some way of generating HTML on the server. In Kotlin, you have plenty of options, both Kotlin specific ones and everything from the broader Java/JVM ecosystem. There are two main categories here, template languages and internal DSLs. Given Kotlin’s good support for internal DSLs, I decided to explore that route, and try kotlinx.html and HtmlFlow. They both make great promises of encoding the entire HTML standard and enforce valid HTML at compile time.