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Ben Croker

@bencroker.com
224 followers 42 following 88 posts

Founder of putyourlightson.com and core maintainer of data-star.dev

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Ben Croker @bencroker.com · 25/09/2026
A year ago I presented Datastar at Dot All 2025. I’ve released an edited version with ums and ahs, long pauses and detours removed, and the audio quality significantly improved. The talk content seems just as relevant today as it was back then. www.youtube.com/watch?v=48M7...
youtube.com
Real-Time Collaboration with Sprig and Datastar [Edited]
YouTube video by Datastar
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Ben Croker @bencroker.com · 21/09/2026
Rocket, Datastar’s answer to web components, is now free for all 🚀 www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhCm...
youtube.com
Rocket reaches escape velocity
YouTube video by Datastar
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Ben Croker @bencroker.com · 24/08/2026
I wrote about image transformation services and my current service of choice, Small Pics, by the team at Foster Commerce. putyourlightson.com/articles/sma...
putyourlightson.com
Small Pics for larger-than-life Images
Images can bring a website to life. They are a crucial piece of the content puzzle, and are extremely impactful when communicating a message. They also…
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Reposted by Ben Croker
drk @drk.wtf · 18/08/2026
Screenshot of the sheetstream spreadsheet app at hypersheets.yagni.club, with a diagonal band of orange, blue, and dark red colored cells filling the grid. Chrome DevTools is open below, showing a Largest Contentful Paint of 0.08 s and a performance monitor reading 0% CPU, 2.9 MB JS heap, and 2,475 DOM nodes.Screenshot of the sheetstream spreadsheet app at hypersheets.yagni.club, with a diagonal band of orange, blue, and dark red colored cells filling the grid. Chrome DevTools is open below on the Network panel, showing the whole page loaded in 4 requests and 18.9 kB transferred, with DOMContentLoaded at 65 ms.
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Reposted by Ben Croker
Brandon Kelly @brandonkelly.io · 07/08/2026
¡AI, caramba!
brandonkelly.io
¡AI, caramba!
I generally despise AI. Even ignoring the ethical and existential concerns, if I could trade every second I’ve had to spend reading/conversing about AI for time spent actually working , I’d probably be more productive. And happier. But I was recently forced to partake, as we had a security vulnerability report (AI-discovered, I’m quite sure) that was way over my head, and I needed to tap into the Pluribus for some help. The end result was craftcms/url-validator , a new package that helps protect against SSRF vulnerabilities for applications that support uploading files via user-provided URLs. Just the sort of thing I always pictured myself worrying about when I grew up. That experience opened my eyes to the potential, a bit, I guess. I love to code, but if I’m being honest, there are definitely aspects of it that I don’t love. Such as: Resolving merge conflicts Line-by-line code reviews with all potential breaking change/security side effects in mind Debugging complex bugs, especially when third party plugin/project-specific code is involved, which I have zero incentive to commit to memory Debugging npm issues Writing tests I’ve started leaning on it more for those sorts of things. And I have to admit, it’s pretty nice to not spent so many brain cycles on shit work. So I guess I’m kind of coming around. Slowly. Contentiously. I’m still mad about every app that tries to cram it down my throat at every opportunity. And fuck everyone using it for content creation. That’s a human’s job.
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Ben Croker @bencroker.com · 03/07/2026
A wonderful write-up of building unac (Ultimate Noughts & Crosses) using Go and #Datastar. Highly recommended reading, and a really fun two-player game!! threadgold.nz/writing/proj...
threadgold.nz
Project retrospective: unac
A reflection on my project, Ultimate Noughts & Crosses, written in Go using Datastar.
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Reposted by Ben Croker
Vienna JS @viennajs.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
The moment we've all been waiting for: @bencroker.com, our first speaker of today's @viennajs.bsky.social meetup, gives his talk: Realtime Multiplayer with #Datastar
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Ben Croker @bencroker.com · 22/06/2026
We finally managed to get @swannodette.bsky.social on the podcast to discuss his experience using Datastar, and what a cracking episode this was. Go watch it now!! www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ECu...
youtube.com
Datastar: It’s Pretty Good — with David Nolen
YouTube video by Datastar
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Ben Croker @bencroker.com · 18/06/2026
Less than a week to go until I speak to a room full of @viennajs.bsky.social developers about building realtime multiplayer applications. I hear it’s a big room in the @sentry.io offices in Vienna... should be a good time!! www.meetup.com/viennajs/eve...
meetup.com
ViennaJS June Meetup, Wed, Jun 24, 2026, 6:00 PM | Meetup
Bring your JS interest and a good vibe! Everybody is welcome & feel free to share this invitation! **Talks and info:** All details: [https://viennajs.org/en/meetup/vienna-j
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Ben Croker @bencroker.com · 09/06/2026
I’ll be speaking about Datastar at ViennaJS in two weeks. If anyone in and around the city feels like dropping in, entry is free and it should be a good time!! www.meetup.com/viennajs/eve...
meetup.com
ViennaJS June Meetup, Wed, Jun 24, 2026, 6:00 PM | Meetup
Bring your JS interest and a good vibe! Everybody is welcome & feel free to share this invitation! **Talks and info:** All details: [https://viennajs.org/en/meetup/vienna-j
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Ben Croker @bencroker.com · 20/04/2026
In case you were waiting for a stable version of Datastar to drop, it did. Datastar is now at 1.0, including the #CraftCMS plugin (and the #Laravel package) 🚀 putyourlightson.com/plugins/data...
putyourlightson.com
Datastar – A template-driven, reactive hypermedia framework for Craft.
This plugin integrates the Datastar framework with Craft CMS, allowing you to create reactive frontends driven by Twig templates. It aims to replace the…
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Ben Croker @bencroker.com · 27/03/2026
My favourite Datastar discord channel just got its very own page on the site. Thanks to everyone who contributed. This the BEST type of user-generated content!! data-star.dev/gratitude
data-star.dev
Gratitude
Gratitude received from the Discord community.
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Ben Croker @bencroker.com · 09/03/2026
Published some thoughts… for humans. If AI overlords take over, I’ll be the first to fall. putyourlightson.com/articles/hum...
putyourlightson.com
Human on the Other Side
Chat bots and AI agents are everywhere now, and while LLMs are great for contextualising information and rubber ducking, they are dead inside. They have…
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Ben Croker @bencroker.com · 02/02/2026
Just published an edited version of last week’s Datastar online meetup with timestamped chapters, for anyone who missed it or wants to watch a particular part again. Thanks again to our guests and to everyone who joined the stream!! youtu.be/xN30XVJpwLU
youtu.be
Datastar Online Meetup Q1 2026 (edited version)
YouTube video by Datastar
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Ben Croker @bencroker.com · 29/01/2026
We’ll be going live in an hour and have some fantastic demos coming. You might even see yourself in one of them!! youtube.com/live/lc48MUn...
Datastar Discord server avatars on a world map.
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Reposted by Ben Croker
Craft CMS @craftcms.com · 27/01/2026
Craft 5.9 is here, bringing new ways to organize your content, and a slew of improvements to authoring, accessibility, development, performance, and security. #CraftCMS craftcms.com/blog/craft-5...
craftcms.com
Craft 5.9 Released | Craft CMS
Craft 5.9 brings new ways to organize your content, and a slew of improvements to authoring, accessibility, development, performance, and security.
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Ben Croker @bencroker.com · 26/01/2026
Join us live on YouTube for the first Datastar Online Meetup this coming Thursday, and hear about http-nu from @ndyg.ca, Stario from Adam Bobowski, Rocket from @zangster.bsky.social , and Stellar CSS from @data-star.dev. Mark your calendars and see you there! www.youtube.com/live/lc48MUn...
youtube.com
Datastar Online Meetup
YouTube video by Datastar
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Ben Croker @bencroker.com · 28/10/2025
We had @andersmurphy.bsky.social back on the pod to discuss his One Billion Checkboxes and other demos. youtu.be/DFYuHGKMit8
youtu.be
Billionaire Anders Murphy
YouTube video by Datastar
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Ben Croker @bencroker.com · 27/10/2025
Going back to fundamentals and building a completely custom merch store using Datastar and Go has been extremely gratifying. Here’s the end result. data-star.dev/shop
data-star.dev
Shop
Official not-a-cult shop.
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Ben Croker @bencroker.com · 15/10/2025
Blinksy just learned to redraw itself on Checkboxes when things get out of sync. It has achieved sentience. I am now obsolete.
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Ben Croker @bencroker.com · 14/10/2025
Datastar demos have started cross-pollinating. Soon they’ll form a hive mind and ship the next release themselves. Blinksy: play.putyourlightson.com/blinksy Checkboxes: checkboxes.andersmurphy.com?x=1312&y=1310
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Ben Croker @bencroker.com · 01/10/2025
Dot All 2025 was a wonderful event (big thanks to @leahstephenson.bsky.social and the entire @craftcms.com crew)!! In case you missed it, here’s my recap. putyourlightson.com/articles/dot...
putyourlightson.com
Dot All 2025 Recap
Dot All 2025 was as invigorating and lively as the city it was held in: Lisbon. I gave a talk entitled ​“Real-time Collaboration” in which I introduced…
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Ben Croker @bencroker.com · 30/09/2025
This feels like the right move and the right way to make it happen. Great decision!!
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Ben Croker @bencroker.com · 10/09/2025
Having a blast making some final demos for my upcoming #CraftCMS talk at Dot All Lisbon 🇵🇹, using Datastar.
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Ben Croker @bencroker.com · 28/08/2025
My upcoming #CraftCMS Dot All conference talk will feature real-time demos with audience participation. This is me load testing 100 virtual users, each clicking on a random cell to toggle it on/off every 1 second. The CPU purrs along at 100% and memory remains well within capacity.
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Ben Croker @bencroker.com · 28/08/2025
Just published a Datastar & #CraftCMS Demo site with source code for common patterns such as live search, pagination, load more, and filters. craftcms.data-star.dev
craftcms.data-star.dev
Datastar & Craft CMS Demos
Demos and source code for common patterns such as live search, pagination, load more, and filters.
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Ben Croker @bencroker.com · 19/08/2025
Load testing a VPS ahead of my upcoming #CraftCMS conference talk, in which I’ll be inviting audience participation. This tests up to 100 users hitting the server every second for 30s. Datastar has no problem receiving almost 90MB in over 1k events, and the server purrs along at 100% CPU.
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Ben Croker @bencroker.com · 16/08/2025
Inspector... Rocket... Stellar... Laravel... you’d think we were building a spaceship instead of a frontend framework! youtu.be/AH1-1BIR2wk
youtu.be
Datastar Tooling
YouTube video by Datastar
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Ben Croker @bencroker.com · 31/07/2025
I love simple, transparent benchmarks, and this one doesn’t disappoint: measuring the time to swap large numbers of DOM elements. The repo can be forked and tests varied thanks to excellent work by Zach Williams 🚀 github.com/zachwill/ben...
Measurements of the time to swap large numbers of DOM elements.
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Ben Croker @bencroker.com · 21/07/2025
Great conversation with @data-star.dev on launching Datastar V1 🚀 youtu.be/u0I7f6NMZvk
youtu.be
Datastar V1: Everything you need to know about the full-stack framework of the future
YouTube video by hypermedia-tv
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Ben Croker @bencroker.com · 16/07/2025
A big shout out to @arcustech.com for supporting the cause by sponsoring Datastar with a 2 GB, 2 core, self-hosted VPS, which has been performing exceptionally well with all the traffic recently received 🚀
arcustech.com
Home Page - Arcustech
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Ben Croker @bencroker.com · 15/07/2025
The Datastar package for @laravel.com has been updated with all the goodies that shipped in Datastar v1.0.0-RC.1. Read the release notes (some breaking changes included) and check out the new docs 🚀 github.com/putyourlight...
github.com
GitHub - putyourlightson/laravel-datastar: A reactive hypermedia framework for Laravel.
A reactive hypermedia framework for Laravel. Contribute to putyourlightson/laravel-datastar development by creating an account on GitHub.
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Ben Croker @bencroker.com · 15/07/2025
The Datastar plugin for @craftcms.com has been updated for all the goodies that shipped in Datastar v1.0.0-RC.1. Read the release notes (some breaking changes included) and check out the new docs 🚀 putyourlightson.com/plugins/data...
putyourlightson.com
Datastar – A template-driven, reactive hypermedia framework for Craft.
This plugin integrates the Datastar framework with Craft CMS, allowing you to create reactive frontends driven by Twig templates. It aims to replace the…
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Ben Croker @bencroker.com · 10/07/2025
Louis Sunchine is livestreaming a Datastar V1 release party 🎉 Come hang out!! www.twitch.tv/arum_titan
twitch.tv
arum_titan - Twitch
Chill pre-live then V1 RELEASE!
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Ben Croker @bencroker.com · 10/07/2025
It finally happened – we launched the new Datastar site and V1 (RC) 🚀 It’s been an incredible journey, and I feel honoured to be working with people like @data-star.dev and Johnny Stevers. And there’s so much more yet to come!! data-star.dev
The new Datastar homepage.
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Ben Croker @bencroker.com · 25/06/2025
In which we discuss internal changes that are making everything better, while pushing to make everything ready for a public release candidate of Datastar... youtu.be/tNH3Tyc1s1k
youtu.be
Everything is fine
YouTube video by Datastar
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Ben Croker @bencroker.com · 02/06/2025
We discussed making Datastar videos and building demos with the very French, very upbeat Louis Sunshine 🇫🇷☀️ www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ib0n...
youtube.com
Collecting Dragon Balls, with Louis Sunshine
YouTube video by Datastar
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Ben Croker @bencroker.com · 20/05/2025
Datastar is developed and maintained by a handful of core contributors and backed by Star Federation—a nonprofit organization. We added the ability to sponsor our work just a few days ago, and WOW is the community showing its support!! Take a peek 👀 github.com/sponsors/sta...
github.com
Sponsor @starfederation on GitHub Sponsors
Support the development and ongoing maintenance of Datastar and our other open-source work.
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Ben Croker @bencroker.com · 12/05/2025
To become a billionaire: Step 1: Become a millionaire. Step 2: Do that 999 more times. Easy. #datastar
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Ben Croker @bencroker.com · 01/05/2025
The Blitz Hints utility, first introduced three years ago, has been retired in version 5.10.0. #CraftCMS putyourlightson.com/articles/one...
putyourlightson.com
One Last Hint: Eager-Load All the Things
The Blitz Hints utility, first introduced three years ago, has been retired in 5.10.0.
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Ben Croker @bencroker.com · 22/04/2025
In this episode we discussed the Game of Life demo that was featured on Hacker News with Anders Murphy, Clojure, and making the most of Datastar. (Also on the podcast players.) #datastar #hypermedia #clojure youtu.be/xzC3g0qIRro
youtu.be
Anders and the Game of Life
YouTube video by Datastar
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Ben Croker @bencroker.com · 18/04/2025
In this episode we discussed surviving Hacker News, and spoke with Johnny “Zignals” about getting more performance out of less code. #datastar #hypermedia #framework youtu.be/x_Hu30V01iY
youtu.be
Johnny Zignals: more perf, less code
YouTube video by Datastar
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Ben Croker @bencroker.com · 15/04/2025
Datastar was featured in this week’s Changelog news 🚀
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Ben Croker @bencroker.com · 04/04/2025
Added a videos page to the Datastar site – embedding lots of YouTube videos makes page loads extremely slow, so guess what we’re doing instead... using `data-on-click` to only load the player when thumbnails are clicked. Dogfooding is the best 🚀 data-star.dev/videos
data-star.dev
Videos
A day without a good video is like a joke without a punchline—pointless.
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Ben Croker @bencroker.com · 30/03/2025
Datastar v1.0.0-beta.11 adds more fine-grained wildcard support (* to match a single path segment, ** to match multiple path segments). The beta phase is now officially unofficially over, and the next release should be v1.0.0 🚀 github.com/starfederati...
github.com
Release v1.0.0-beta.11 · starfederation/datastar
This release adds wildcard support to data-on-signals-change-*, data-persist, @setAll and @toggleAll using * to match a single path segment and ** to match multiple path segments. Note that this do...
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Reposted by Ben Croker
CraftEntries @craftentries.io · 09/03/2025
Are you bored on a Sunday? Maybe you'll learn something about Datastar in the new #podcast episode. #craftcms craftentries.io/podcast/reac...
craftentries.io
Reactive Craft CMS frontends with Datastar
In Episode 21 of the CraftEntries podcast, host Thomas interviews Ben Croker from PutYourLightsOn about Datastar. This hypermedia framework aims to…
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Reposted by Ben Croker
John F Morton @johnfmorton.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
I've published a post about using Datastar and the Datastar for Craft CMS plugin. Thank you to Ben Croker for looking it over and offering suggestions along the way. #craftcms #datastar supergeekery.com/blog/unlocki...
supergeekery.com
Unlocking Real-Time Reactive Search in Craft CMS with Datastar - SuperGeekery
This blog post showcases creating a reactive search page in Craft CMS using the Datastar plugin. Datastar, a lightweight JavaScript framework, provides real-time search functionality without necessita...
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Ben Croker @bencroker.com · 03/03/2025
📺 In which we discuss Datastar beta 8, immutability, and event sourcing. 🎧 Also available on the podcast players. youtu.be/OV6xS865pF0
youtu.be
Immutability & Event Sourcing
YouTube video by Datastar
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Ben Croker @bencroker.com · 25/02/2025
In case you missed last week’s @craftquest_io livestream in which I introduced and showed real-time demos using #CraftCMS, the recording is now online. www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVjU...
youtube.com
Intro to Datastar (and Craft CMS)
YouTube video by CraftQuest
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Ben Croker @bencroker.com · 19/02/2025
Here’s a teaser of something I’m going to demo in tomorrow’s @craftquest.io livestream. I think you’ll want to see it! #CraftCMS craftquest.io/livestreams
A teaser of a demo entitled “Live Edit”.
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