Fluff

Web app management system.

REQUIREMENTS:

• Node.js
• MongoDB

INSTALL on local machine:

1. install Node.js and MongoDB first
2. clone this repo or download the zip package
3. cd to the root dir of the app
4. type "npm install"
5. type "node fluff"
6. open http://localhost:3000/fluff/admin in your browser
7. login with "[e-mail]", password "fluff"

INSTALL on Heroku:

1. clone this repo or download the zip package
2. cd to the root dir of the app
3. create a new app on Heroku and get the MongoLab addon
4. push to Heroku (type "git push heroku master")
5. open the Heroku app url in your browser
6. login with "[e-mail]", password "fluff"

INSTALL on AppFog:

1. clone this repo or download the zip package
2. cd to the root dir of the app
3. create a new app on AppFog and bind the MongoDB service
4. push to AppFog (type "af update [name of app]")
5. open the AppFog app url in your browser
6. login with "[e-mail]", password "fluff"

ADMIN GUIDE:

Fluff Admin is located at http://../fluff/admin by default. Within the admin app you can manage most of what Fluff does.

• PAGES tab manages pages. Each page must use a view template. When editing a page (or view), you can hit Esc to toggle full screen edit view.
• VIEWS tab manages templates for page layout. Just drop {{content}} into a view's template, right where you want your page content to render, then assign that view to your page. That is the extent of the page design tools. Let the multitude of Javascript UI toolkits do the rest; that's what they're there for.
• VARS tab manages custom variables. Vars are an easy way to manage strings you use often. Drop {{var.[name]}} into any page or view, where [name] is the name of the var.
• MODELS tab manages database models you create for your app. Each model is a collection in the Mongo database, and each model is accessible via REST-style resource route at [fluff_path]/api/[model name]. See README-API.md for more. A model's schema format looks like: { name: String, color: String, size: Number }. See the Mongoose docs on schema types for a list of allowed types and options.
• USERS tab manages all users including admins. The 'Admin' role can access everything; the 'User' role cannot access the Admin app or pages with access restricted to admins.
• SITE tab manages site-wide configuration. Some of these settings can be accessed from within a page. The following tags are available: {{site.name}}, {{site.url}}, {{site.domain}}, {{site.protocol}}, {{site.fluff_path}}

FLUFF.JS:

The fluff.js library is an easy way to get automatic scaffolding of data into your pages. By simply adding model=[model name] attribute to elements like tables, you can auto-populate the table with data from that model. You can also include query=[query params] attribute with the model attribute to specify necessary query params. There is also the option to include 'noharvest' attribute to avoid initial harvest, and 'norender' attribute to avoid render on initial harvest. Some sub elements can accept a field=[field name] attribute when nested within an element containing a model attribute. There is an example page created upon initialization which includes the fluff.js library. The fluff.js library requires jQuery and Backbone.js which are also included for convenience.

FLUFF-UI.JS:

The fluff-ui.js library is a reusable set of UI components for basic user-facing functions including user signup, user login, password reset, profile editing, user email verification, and basic alert dialogs. The fluff-ui.js library requires fluff.js. No coding is needed to use the components in their standard form. You simply add an attribute to HTML elements in your page and the components come alive. See the example user portal page at http://../fluff/user. Currently all UI components are available as modal dialogs, but there is a plan to include a non-modal option at some point.

REST API:

See the README-API.md for a list of APIs.

PLUGINS:

You can simply put your plugin code into a subfolder in the "plugins" folder. Fluff will scan for plugins on startup. More docs on plugins coming soon, for now you can look at the example plugin to get started. Note that writing plugins is really only necessary when you have back-end processing you need to add to your app. Most front-end development can be done using pages and models in Fluff, often with very little code.

TESTS:

Currently there is only a basic set of smoke tests. Feel free to add more test cases if you're feeling testy. To run the smoke test, in the root dir of the app type "mocha". If you don't have Mocha, type "npm install -g mocha", then cd to /test and type "npm install".

LICENSE:

The Fluff project, including the source code, documentation and example plugin, is provided under the MIT License. Plugins other than the example plugin may be provided under a different license, check the plugin code for more info.

TO DO:

• optimize fluff.js to harvest all collections before rendering
• paging of api GET results
• paged display in admin
• sort in admin list views
• search users in admin
• ability to change display name of a model's columns in admin

WOULD BE NICE:

• list of domains to redirect in site config (for cmspages)
• manage error pages
• page versioning
• move session timeout to be user specific
• move apikeys to be tied to users
• move CORS domains to be tied to users
• pubsub data updates