An tiny and easy to use web framework based on making custom HTML elements.
An elem is just a folder who's name is the tag name.
ui
widget
widget.js
widget.html.jade
widget.css.styl
hello.txt
window
jquery.js
-
Files with extensions like
widget.html.jadeare caught by the pre-processor and becomewidget.html. -
When a
<widget>appears on the pageelem/loaderwill pull down all of the files in thewidgetfolder. -
If there is a
widget.htmlthe element's inner html will be replaced with it. -
If there is a
widget.cssthe css will be added to the document. -
If there is a
widget.jsit will be treated like a node module. Here we can export a function that applies the behavior. This function is called for every instance of<widget>and passed an object containing all of the file contents of the folder.
widget.js:
module.exports = function widget() {
$(this).find('.hello').text('hello');
}
Giving the function two arguments makes it async, delaying rendering and loading child elements:
module.exports = function widget(done) {
var self = this;
$.get('/content.txt', function(text) {
$(self).text(text);
done();
});
}
-
*/libis recursively pre-loaded before the element is applied. Put anything you want to require() in here so it is available when the element implementation. -
*/componentsare parsed as installed components and can be required globally. -
*/windowis recursively pre-loaded but executed without a module.exports.This is where you would put classic global libraries like jQuery.
You could also
component install component/jqueryandrequire('jquery'). But jQuery was always designed to extend window. Using it as a module breaks plugins.Everything in
windowis run in top-down order of directory depth. So to make jQuery plugins run after jQuery, you can put them in awindow/jquery-plugins/folder.
var express = require('express');
var elem = require('elem');
var server = express();
var app = elem(__dirname+'/app');
var production = process.env.NODE_ENV == 'production';
server.use('/app', ui.loader({production: production}));
// Remove this route and include
// <script src="/app/loader.js">
// in a template if you don't want to use the bootloader.
app.get('*', ui.boot('/app'));
app.listen(3000);
Elem has has built-in supports for component.
$ npm install -g component
$ component install visionmedia/page.js
body.js
var page = require('page');
You can use libraries from bower or npm if you need to by symlinking:
bower install jquery
ln -s bower_components/jquery/dist/jquery.js frontend/window/
widget
widget.js
template.js.jade
widget.js
var template = require('template');
module.exports = function(render) {
var locals = {};
render( template(locals) );
}
component install page
body.html
hello.js
body.html
<hello></hello>
hello.html
<h1>Hi!</h1>
<img src="reallybigimage.jpg">
hello.js
var page = require('page');
module.exports = function(files, render) {
// hello.html will not be injected
// until the route is matched
page('/hello', render);
}
... can be deleted. Try making a dynamic <body> element instead.
- app
- frontend
- body
- body.html.jade
- body.css.styl
- header
- header.html.jade
- header.css.styl
- header.js
- page
- page.css.styl
- page.js
- window
- jquery.js
The pre-processor keys off of sequential file extensions. e.g. any template.html.jade will envoke the .html.jade pre-processor and result in a static template.html build that is exposed to the element.
The standard pre-processors elem supports are:
.html.jade.css.styl.css.less
To add additional pre-processors, or override the built-in ones:
frontend.prep('.html.md', function(str, done){
marked(str, done);
});
Note that if you override a built-in pre-processor, it will only apply to your own elements. Not installed ones.
By supporting these standard pre-processors element authors are able to use their templating language of choice without incuring a setup penalty. Since they are just pre-processors so there is no overhead.
If you think there is a pre-processor that should be standard make a pull request. The only requirement is that it be a well-known standard format.
Elem is built with the premise that your development and debugging workflow can never be impeded by the build process. In development mode, it actually enhances your workflow making it clear what code is responsible for what is happening on the page.
Development Mode:
- All files are requested independently.
- File names and line numbers are preserved.
- CSS is linked to the page, not injected.
- The final DOM is annotated with HTML comments that indicate how and where the markup was generated.
- Files are rebuilt on request, and only when they have changed.
elem(1) is provided as a convenience for developing isolated elements. It is not meant to be a real web server.
$ npm install -g elem
Usage: elem [options] <file ...>
Commands:
index [options] build index
Options:
-h, --help output usage information
-V, --version output the version number
elem create widget
elem run widget
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