Building Applications With

Bricks.js

git://github.com/JerrySievert/nodepdx-bricksjs.git

Jerry Sievert - @jerrysievert

What is Bricks.js?

• An instant static webserver

    $ bricks --help
    Usage: bricks
        --port port     [default 8080]
        --ipaddr ipaddr [default 0.0.0.0]
        --path path     [default "."]
        --log log       [default none]
        

• A fast routing framework

    appServer.addRoute("/api/.+", apiHandler);
    appServer.addRoute("/login", loginHandler);
          

• Built-in plugins to get you going

    appServer.addRoute(".+", appServer.plugins.filehandler);
    appServer.addRoute("/admin/", appServer.plugins.session);
          

Routes

Multiple routes (think Apache hooks)

    #define 	APR_HOOK_REALLY_FIRST   (-10)
    #define 	APR_HOOK_FIRST          0
    #define 	APR_HOOK_MIDDLE         10
    #define 	APR_HOOK_LAST           20
    #define 	APR_HOOK_REALLY_LAST    30
      

• Pre - writeable
• Main - writeable
• Post - writeable
• Final - read-only

Routes in Action

    // pre - writeable
    appServer.addRoute(".+", star, { section: "pre" });


    // main - writeable
    appServer.addRoute("/api/(.+)", api, { section: "main" });


    // post - writeable
    appServer.addRoute(".+\.(js|css)", compress, { section: "post" });


    // final - housekeeping
    appServer.addRoute(".+", log, { section: "final" });
      

Matching is Easy

• Regular Expressions

    appServer.addRoute("^/wiki/(.+)$", wiki);
        

• Functions

    appServer.addRoute(function (path, request) {
      return path.match("^/wiki/(.+)$");
    }, wiki);
        

• Custom Routing

    appServer = new bricks.appserver({ checkRoute: myRouter });
        

Flow Control

• response.next(); // process the next matching route
• response.end(); // done with this routing level, move on
• response.final(); // done with any writing

    function hello (request, response, options) {
      response.write("Hello world!");

      // finished responding
      response.end();
    }
      

Built-in Plugins

• filehandler - simple static file handler
• fourohfour - basic 404 route
• redirect - simple redirect logic
• loghandler - Apache style logging
• sessionhandler - basic sessions
• request - enhance the request object

Plugins in Action

    // add request to any /wiki/ routes
    appServer.addRoute(
      "^/wiki/.+",
      appServer.plugins.request,
      { section: "pre" }
    );

    // add the wiki routes, match for /edit first
    appServer.addRoute("^/wiki/(.+)/edit$", wiki.edit);
    appServer.addRoute("^/wiki/(.+)$", wiki);

    // static files
    appServer.addRoute(
      ".+",
      appServer.plugins.filehandler,
      { basedir: "./htdocs" }
    );

    // anything else gets 404'd
    appServer.addRoute(".+", appServer.plugins.fourohfour);

    // log the results
    appServer.addRoute(
      ".+",
      appServer.plugins.loghandler,
      { section: "final", filename: "access.log" }
    );
      

Anatomy of a Plugin

What makes it different than a function()?

    // executed at route creation
    exports.init = function init (options) {
      console.log("inside init");
      console.dir(options);
    };


    // executed for a route match
    exports.plugin = function plugin (request, response, options) {
      console.log("in plugin");
      console.dir(options);
      
      response.next();
    };

    
    // meta data
    exports.meta = {
        name:        'sample plugin',
        description: 'An awesome plugin that does sample like things'
    };
      

Getting Bricks.js

• npm install bricks [-g]
• http://bricksjs.com/
• https://github.com/JerrySievert/bricks

Let's Create a Wiki!

• git clone git://github.com/JerrySievert/nodepdx-bricksjs.git
• backend - Node.js/MongoDB (via MongoHQ)
• front end - plain old HTML
• what we will implement:
  • read - /wiki/(page)
  • edit - /wiki/(page)/edit
  • save - /wiki/(page)/save

Me

• https://github.com/JerrySievert
• code@legitimatesounding.com
• http://legitimatesounding.com/blog/
• @JerrySievert on Twitter
• Technologist/Visionary at Daily Insight Group