How to build a spinner (loader) component using Flowbite and Tailwind CSS
Tags: tailwindcss, webdev, opensource, tutorial
Published: 2022-01-30 10:03:00

One of my favourite front-end technologies to work with at this moment is Tailwind CSS coupled with the components from Flowbite.

Tailwind CSS is great because of its utility first approach when building UI components, sections, and pages for a website and [Flowbite](https://flowbite.com) is great for offering a library of such components to help you get started even faster.

Today I want to show you how you can build an animated spinner component using an SVG element from Flowbite and using the utility classes from Tailwind CSS.

The final result should look like this:

![Tailwind CSS Spinner - Flowbite](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/hc2qudc1j2kztqs0s91k.png)

Let's get started!

## Tailwind CSS spinner

First of all, we need the SVG element for the spinners. Great thing that we can use the spinner components from Flowbite's [Figma Design System](https://flowbite.com/figma/) and export the SVG element.

![Spinner components Figma - Flowbite](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/advwk6czbo94v8uio5u2.png)

After the export we should have the following HTML markup:

```
<svg role="status" viewBox="0 0 100 101" fill="none" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
    <path d="M100 50.5908C100 78.2051 77.6142 100.591 50 100.591C22.3858 100.591 0 78.2051 0 50.5908C0 22.9766 22.3858 0.59082 50 0.59082C77.6142 0.59082 100 22.9766 100 50.5908ZM9.08144 50.5908C9.08144 73.1895 27.4013 91.5094 50 91.5094C72.5987 91.5094 90.9186 73.1895 90.9186 50.5908C90.9186 27.9921 72.5987 9.67226 50 9.67226C27.4013 9.67226 9.08144 27.9921 9.08144 50.5908Z" fill="currentColor"/>
    <path d="M93.9676 39.0409C96.393 38.4038 97.8624 35.9116 97.0079 33.5539C95.2932 28.8227 92.871 24.3692 89.8167 20.348C85.8452 15.1192 80.8826 10.7238 75.2124 7.41289C69.5422 4.10194 63.2754 1.94025 56.7698 1.05124C51.7666 0.367541 46.6976 0.446843 41.7345 1.27873C39.2613 1.69328 37.813 4.19778 38.4501 6.62326C39.0873 9.04874 41.5694 10.4717 44.0505 10.1071C47.8511 9.54855 51.7191 9.52689 55.5402 10.0491C60.8642 10.7766 65.9928 12.5457 70.6331 15.2552C75.2735 17.9648 79.3347 21.5619 82.5849 25.841C84.9175 28.9121 86.7997 32.2913 88.1811 35.8758C89.083 38.2158 91.5421 39.6781 93.9676 39.0409Z" fill="currentFill"/>
</svg>
```

As you can see, I've also added the `role="status"` attribute to indicate that this is a loader element.

Next we should add some size and colors to the spinner element:

```
<svg role="status" class="h-8 w-8 text-gray-200 fill-blue-600" viewBox="0 0 100 101" fill="none" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
    <path d="M100 50.5908C100 78.2051 77.6142 100.591 50 100.591C22.3858 100.591 0 78.2051 0 50.5908C0 22.9766 22.3858 0.59082 50 0.59082C77.6142 0.59082 100 22.9766 100 50.5908ZM9.08144 50.5908C9.08144 73.1895 27.4013 91.5094 50 91.5094C72.5987 91.5094 90.9186 73.1895 90.9186 50.5908C90.9186 27.9921 72.5987 9.67226 50 9.67226C27.4013 9.67226 9.08144 27.9921 9.08144 50.5908Z" fill="currentColor"/>
    <path d="M93.9676 39.0409C96.393 38.4038 97.8624 35.9116 97.0079 33.5539C95.2932 28.8227 92.871 24.3692 89.8167 20.348C85.8452 15.1192 80.8826 10.7238 75.2124 7.41289C69.5422 4.10194 63.2754 1.94025 56.7698 1.05124C51.7666 0.367541 46.6976 0.446843 41.7345 1.27873C39.2613 1.69328 37.813 4.19778 38.4501 6.62326C39.0873 9.04874 41.5694 10.4717 44.0505 10.1071C47.8511 9.54855 51.7191 9.52689 55.5402 10.0491C60.8642 10.7766 65.9928 12.5457 70.6331 15.2552C75.2735 17.9648 79.3347 21.5619 82.5849 25.841C84.9175 28.9121 86.7997 32.2913 88.1811 35.8758C89.083 38.2158 91.5421 39.6781 93.9676 39.0409Z" fill="currentFill"/>
</svg>
```

As you can see, the spinner element starts to look pretty decent. However, it's still not spinning!

We should add the `animate-spin` from Tailwind CSS:

```
<svg role="status" class="h-8 w-8 animate-spin mr-2 text-gray-200 fill-blue-600" viewBox="0 0 100 101" fill="none" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
    <path d="M100 50.5908C100 78.2051 77.6142 100.591 50 100.591C22.3858 100.591 0 78.2051 0 50.5908C0 22.9766 22.3858 0.59082 50 0.59082C77.6142 0.59082 100 22.9766 100 50.5908ZM9.08144 50.5908C9.08144 73.1895 27.4013 91.5094 50 91.5094C72.5987 91.5094 90.9186 73.1895 90.9186 50.5908C90.9186 27.9921 72.5987 9.67226 50 9.67226C27.4013 9.67226 9.08144 27.9921 9.08144 50.5908Z" fill="currentColor"/>
    <path d="M93.9676 39.0409C96.393 38.4038 97.8624 35.9116 97.0079 33.5539C95.2932 28.8227 92.871 24.3692 89.8167 20.348C85.8452 15.1192 80.8826 10.7238 75.2124 7.41289C69.5422 4.10194 63.2754 1.94025 56.7698 1.05124C51.7666 0.367541 46.6976 0.446843 41.7345 1.27873C39.2613 1.69328 37.813 4.19778 38.4501 6.62326C39.0873 9.04874 41.5694 10.4717 44.0505 10.1071C47.8511 9.54855 51.7191 9.52689 55.5402 10.0491C60.8642 10.7766 65.9928 12.5457 70.6331 15.2552C75.2735 17.9648 79.3347 21.5619 82.5849 25.841C84.9175 28.9121 86.7997 32.2913 88.1811 35.8758C89.083 38.2158 91.5421 39.6781 93.9676 39.0409Z" fill="currentFill"/>
</svg>
```

Awesome! One last thing would be to also add the dark mode classes when [switching to dark mode with Tailwind CSS](https://flowbite.com/docs/customize/dark-mode/) and Flowbite.

```
<svg role="status" class="h-8 w-8 animate-spin mr-2 text-gray-200 dark:text-gray-600 fill-blue-600" viewBox="0 0 100 101" fill="none" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
    <path d="M100 50.5908C100 78.2051 77.6142 100.591 50 100.591C22.3858 100.591 0 78.2051 0 50.5908C0 22.9766 22.3858 0.59082 50 0.59082C77.6142 0.59082 100 22.9766 100 50.5908ZM9.08144 50.5908C9.08144 73.1895 27.4013 91.5094 50 91.5094C72.5987 91.5094 90.9186 73.1895 90.9186 50.5908C90.9186 27.9921 72.5987 9.67226 50 9.67226C27.4013 9.67226 9.08144 27.9921 9.08144 50.5908Z" fill="currentColor"/>
    <path d="M93.9676 39.0409C96.393 38.4038 97.8624 35.9116 97.0079 33.5539C95.2932 28.8227 92.871 24.3692 89.8167 20.348C85.8452 15.1192 80.8826 10.7238 75.2124 7.41289C69.5422 4.10194 63.2754 1.94025 56.7698 1.05124C51.7666 0.367541 46.6976 0.446843 41.7345 1.27873C39.2613 1.69328 37.813 4.19778 38.4501 6.62326C39.0873 9.04874 41.5694 10.4717 44.0505 10.1071C47.8511 9.54855 51.7191 9.52689 55.5402 10.0491C60.8642 10.7766 65.9928 12.5457 70.6331 15.2552C75.2735 17.9648 79.3347 21.5619 82.5849 25.841C84.9175 28.9121 86.7997 32.2913 88.1811 35.8758C89.083 38.2158 91.5421 39.6781 93.9676 39.0409Z" fill="currentFill"/>
</svg>
```

Great job! The spinner should look like this:

![Tailwind CSS Spinner - Flowbite](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/1b34f4ftmnmmekwz3pxp.png)

And in the dark mode it should look like this:

![Tailwind CSS Spinner Dark Mode - Flowbite](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/gs6a9qqame4w3hv53r1n.png)

## Flowbite - Tailwind CSS Components

If you want to learn how to change the colors, sizes, and how to use the spinner component inside buttons, check out the official [Tailwind CSS Spinner](https://flowbite.com/docs/components/spinner/) component from Flowbite and other components like dropdowns, modals, navbars, and more.

👉 [Spinner component](https://flowbite.com/docs/components/spinner/)
👉 [Flowbite - Tailwind CSS components](https://flowbite.com/docs/getting-started/introduction/)