hinatk / erlang_js

A linked-in driver for Erlang to Mozilla's Spidermonkey Javascript runtime.

erlang_js

Overview

Travis-CI ::

erlang_js is a linked-in driver, API, and OTP application that embeds Mozilla’s Spidermonkey Javascript Virtual Machine in Erlang. Originally created to facilitate usage of Riak’s MapReduce by non-Erlang programmers, it supports multiple concurrent Javascript VMs, runtime evaluation of Javascript code, and invocation of Javascript functions.

erlang_js builds and executes only on Unix-based platforms, including Linux, Mac OS/X, and Solaris. It includes version 1.8.0 of Spidermonkey and Douglas Crockford’s json2.js JSON parser. More information about the features available to Javascript inside erlang_js are detailed on the Mozilla Developer Center.

Quick Start

You must have Erlang/OTP R13B04 or later and a GNU-style build system to compile and run erlang_js.

git clone git://github.com/basho/erlang_js.git
make all test

Start up an Erlang shell with the path to erlang_js included.

erl -pa path/to/erlang_js/ebin -boot start_sasl

Start the erlang_js application and create a Javascript VM.

1> application:start(erlang_js).

=PROGRESS REPORT==== 17-Feb-2011::11:31:51 ===
          supervisor: {local,erlang_js_sup}
             started: [{pid,<0.46.0>},
                       {name,cache},
                       {mfargs,{js_cache,start_link,[]}},
                       {restart_type,permanent},
                       {shutdown,2000},
                       {child_type,worker}]

=PROGRESS REPORT==== 17-Feb-2011::11:31:51 ===
         application: erlang_js
          started_at: nonode@nohost
ok
2> {ok, JS} = js_driver:new().

Now you can evaluate Javascript expressions and call Javascript functions.

3> js:define(JS, <<"var addOne = function(a){ return a + 1; }">>).
ok
4> js:call(JS, <<"addOne">>, [3]).
{ok,4}

Documentation

Documentation about the API is extensive and can be generated by edoc.

$ make docs
$ open docs/index.html

Contributing

We encourage contributions to erlang_js from the community.

1. Fork the erlang_js repository on Github.
2. Clone your fork or add the remote if you already have a clone of the repository.

git clone [email protected]:yourusername/erlang_js.git
# or
git remote add mine [email protected]:yourusername/erlang_js.git

1. Create a topic branch for your change.

git checkout -b some-topic-branch

1. Make your change and commit. Use a clear and descriptive commit message, spanning multiple lines if detailed explanation is needed.
2. Push to your fork of the repository and then send a pull-request through Github.

git push mine some-topic-branch

1. A Basho engineer or community maintainer will review your patch and merge it into the main repository or send you feedback.