reng

This package is currently in BETA

Overview

This is a node package that contains an implementation of the flux pattern using Angular2 and the redux package.

Guide

To install this package execute the following command in the console from within your project.

npm install --save reng

This package is a collection of classes that loosley correspond to each of the items defined in the flux pattern. A short description of each class in this package is below. See the API section for more detailed information on each class.

• Page - The main entry point which is used for launching an application.
• View - Corresponds to a flux view component.
• Reducer - Contains all of the business logic for managing data.
• PageBuilder - Used on the server side to generate pages as well as for unit testing.

Example Application

What follows is an example of an application built using this package.
For this example I will create an application that allows a user to log questions with a subject and body input. Note that you will need to use a bundle and transpiler package to transpile from ECMAScript6/TypeScript and deliver your code to the client which is not shown in the examples.

Reducer

The first thing I'll do is define a reducer for my application. For this example the reducer is simply going to save and retrieve data from memory but normally there would be some kind of communication with a backend service. Below is code that I've put in a file named questionReducer.js:

import Reng from 'reng';
 
export default class QuestionReducer extends Reng.Reducer {
 
  constructor() {
    this.mQuestionIdNext = 0;
  }
 
  actionAddQuestion(state, action) {
    return [...state, {
      id: ++this.mQuestionIdNext,
      subject: action.subject,
      body: action.body
    }];
  }
}

As you can see above the QuestionReducer class code is pretty simple. The name given to the actionAddQuestion function has significance as it begins with the text action. Any function defined in a Reducer class that begins with the text action will be called automatically by the dispatcher when the text that follows action is set in type. For my example this function gets executed whenever a dispatch is sent with the action.type set to AddQuestion.

You can also use action types with periods if you want. These get translated into underscores in function names. For eaxmple the action .My.Example.Action will map to the function action_My_Example_Action.

View

Now that I have my Reducer defined I'm going to define what will be displayed for UI on the page. To do this I'm going to break up the different parts of my display into a couple of different views. First up I'll write the view for displaying questions that have been added. This code will be in a file called QuestionListView.js:

import Reng from 'reng';
 
@Reng.Component({
  selector: 'QuestionListView',
  template: `<div>
    <div *ngFor="let question of input">
      <b>{{question.subject}}</b> - {{question.body}}
    </div>
  </div>`
})
export default class QuestionListView extends Reng.View {
}

This class extends Reng.View and uses the Reng.component annotation. Reng.Component is equivalent to @angular/core/Component but it adds some additional logic. For example the change detection strategy will be set to OnPush by default. Now that I've defined the view for displaying questions I'll define the view for adding questions in a file named QuestionAddView.js:

import Reng from 'reng';
 
@Reng.Component({
  selector: 'QuestionAddView',
  template: `<div>
    <form>
      <input id="questionSubject" [(ngModel)]="data.subject" type="text" placeholder="subject" />
      <input id="questionBody" [(ngModel)]="data.body" type="text" placeholder="body" />
      <button id="questionAdd" type="button" (click)="handleClick()">Create</button>
    </form>
  </div>`
})
export default class QuestionAddView extends Reng.View {
 
  handleClick() {
    // emit an addQuestion event
    this.emit(
      'AddQuestion',
      {
        subject: this.data.subject,
        body: this.data.body
      });
 
    // clear out inputs after creating question
    this.data.subject = '';
    this.data.body = '';
  }
}

There are a number of things going on in the code above. First, the user input is being stored in the local data object of the view and the data is tied to the text input boxes through the template.
You'll also notice that the handleClick function is raising an event using the emit function defined in the base View class. The emit function will raise an Angular2 event by default or it can be configured to dispatch a Redux message.

App View

Now that I've defined all of the views I'll need I can create a class that will bring them together to be displayed. I'll do this with another View I'll define in a file named QuestionAppView.js:

import Reng from 'Reng';
import QuestionListView from './questionListView';
import QuestionAddView from './questionAddView';
import QuestionReducer from './questionReducer';
 
@Reng.Component({
  selector: 'QuestionAppView',
  template: `<div>
    <QuestionAddView [emitter]="{ type: 'DISPATCH' }"></QuestionAddView>
    <div>Size: <span id="questionSize">{{input.questions.length}}</span></div>
    <QuestionListView [input]="input.questions"></QuestionListView>
  </div>`,
  directives: [QuestionAddView, QuestionListView],
  reduce: { questions: QuestionReducer }
})
export default class QuestionAppView extends Reng.View {
}

As you can see the QuestionAppView class extends the Reng.View class. In this class I've brought together the QuestionAddView and QuestionListView views and I am displaying the one on top of the other. The emitter for the QuestionAddView is configured so that events will be dispatched to the Redux store instead of being raised as an Angular2 event. I've also defined a reduce function for the view using the reduce parameter. This decorator will create a reduce function that returns a state that includes a questions property that is set to the results from a call to an instance of the QuestionReducer class.

Page

Now that I have all the parts needed for my application I can render it into a page. First I'll use the PageBuilder to generate html that will be rendered on the browser. I will also need to write some code to have my app load when the browser loads the page.

The following is the code needed to generate html for the browser.

import PageBuilder from 'reng/lib/local/pageBuilder';
import QuestionAppView from './questionAppView';
 
const pb = new PageBuilder();
pb.scripts = ['<script src="myscripts.js"></script>']; // this would be set with the scripts that load the application
const html = pb.renderToTemplate(QuestionAppView, { questions: [] });

The value that is held in the html variable is a string that is the rendered value of the QuestionAppView page which would then be returned from a server call or maybe written out to an html file to ultimately be loaded into a browser.

This is the code that is needed in order to load the application when the page loads. It should be included in the scripts that are rendered by the PageBuilder class in the example above.

import Reng from 'reng';
import QuestionAppView from './questionAppView';
 
Reng.Page.load(QuestionsAppView).then(page => {
  console.log('the page has been loaded');
});

The Reng.Page.load function returns a promise that will resolve with the page that has been loaded.

API

Page (class)

Page objects are created from calls to Page.load which create a new Page instance with the specified View loaded.

Members

title : String

This is a property that corresponds to the title displayed in the browser. It can be both read from and updated.

Functions

navigate(url) ⇒ void

Navigate to the given url when in the browser context. If not in the browser context this function will have no effect.

Parameters:

Param	Type	Attributes	Description
url	String		The url to navigate to.

Returns: void

(static) load(view, inputᵒᵖᵗ, optsᵒᵖᵗ) ⇒ Promise

This is a static function that creates a new page instance with the given view and loads it.

Parameters:

Param	Type	Attributes	Description
view	View		The view to load into the page.
input	Object	optional	The input for the view that is loaded.
opts	Object	optional	Options for the page.
opts.title	String	optional	The title for the page.

Returns: Promise
The promise that is returned will resolve with the instance of the page that is loaded.

(static) setConfig(opts) ⇒ void

This function is used to set configuration for any pages that are created in the future. This is useful for setting mock data options.

Parameters:

Param	Type	Attributes	Description
opts	Object		The configuration options. This is the same as the options provided to the load function.

Returns: void

(static) bootstrap(view, inputᵒᵖᵗ, optsᵒᵖᵗ) ⇒ Promise

This function calls the static load method but only when in the browser context. All of the parameters are passed through.

Parameters:

Param	Type	Attributes	Description
view	View		The view to load into the page.
input	Object	optional	The input for the view that is loaded.
opts	Object	optional	Options for the page.
opts.title	String	optional	The title for the page.

Returns: Promise
The promise that is returned will resolve with the instance of the page that is loaded.

tick() ⇒ void

This function is used to manually run a check for any changed state on the page.

Returns: void

View (class)

Abstract definition of a View. View classes are not intended to be used directly but rather to be extended by other classes to provide custom logic.

Members

errors : Errors

The service used to handle errors.

debug : Debug

The debug client used by the application.

input : Object

This property will hold an immutable state object that is passed in from the container of the view and will contain input values for the view. Defaults to an empty object.

data : Object

This property is used to store state that is local to the view. Defaults to an empty object.

emitter : Object

An object used to configure how the view will emit events. It can have three properties:

• type: One of the following strings: EVENT, DISPATCH, BOTH. The default is EVENT which raises Angular2 events on the output parameter. DISPATCH will dispatch events to the Redux store. BOTH will raise Angular2 events and dispatch Redux messages.
• map: An object that maps event names in the view to new event names. For example if a view has an 'add' event then you can change this to 'AddQuestion' by setting map to { 'add': 'AddQuestion' }.
• context: Any value provided here will be set on the event that is raised and can be used to provided additional context.

Functions

reduce(state, action) ⇒ Object

When this function is defined for a root level view it will be called by the system in response to actions that are dispatched. It will take precedence over a reduce function that is defined in metadata with the Reduce decorator.

Parameters:

Param	Type	Attributes	Description
state	Object		The current state in the application.
action	Object		The action to perform on the state. The type property of the action is used to uniquely identify the action.

Returns: Object The new state after the given action has been performed.

onInit() ⇒ void

This function is called by the framework when the view has been initialized.

Returns: void

onDestroy() ⇒ void

This function is called by the framework when the view has been destroyed.

Returns: void

createReducer(Type, initialStateᵒᵖᵗ) ⇒ Reducer

This function creates and configures the base Reducer class for the given Reducer type.

Parameters:

Param	Type	Attributes	Description
Type	Class		The type of Reducer to create.
initialState	Object	optional	The initial state the reducer should return to start.

Returns: Reducer The reducer of the given type.

emit(eventName, eventArgsᵒᵖᵗ) ⇒ void

Use the function to emit an event. The way in which the event is raised can be configured by parent views.

Parameters:

Param	Type	Attributes	Description
eventName	String		The event name.
eventArgs	Object	optional	Arguments to pass with the event.

Returns: void

subscribe(map, targetᵒᵖᵗ, event) ⇒ void

This function is used to subscribe to events raised through the output event emitter of a view.
Example:

<MyElement (output)="subscribe('change', onChange, $event)"></MyElement>
<MyElement (output)="subscribe({ 'change': onChange, 'focus': onFocus }, $event)"></MyElement>

Parameters:

Param	Type	Attributes	Description
map	String or Object		If a string then the name of the event to subscribe to. If an object then it's a map of event name to function to call.
target	Function	optional	When map is a string then this is the function that is called when the named event is raised.
event	Event		The event that has been raised

Returns: void

Reduce (decorator)

This decorator is used to define the reduce function to be used on a root level view. The following example shows the decorator being used to define a reduce function that will return a new state object with the count property on that object set to the result from calling the reduce function on an instance of CountReducer and the name property on that object set to the result from calling the reduce function on an instance of NameReducer.

@Reng.Reduce({
  count: CountReducer,
  name: NameReducer
})
export default class MyView {
}

Event (object)

Events that are raised using the emit funciton in View will be an Event object.

Members

type: String

The name of the event.

args: Object

The arguments for the event provided by the View.

sender: View

The view that raised the event.

context: Object

Context provided by the parent of the View that raised the event.

Reducer (class)

This class is a base class for all Reducer classes. It is not intended to be used directly but rather to be extended by other classes to provide custom logic. Classes that override this class can wire up functions to be called when a given action is dispatched. Any function that has a name that begins with the text action will be wired up to the corresponding action name.

Reducer.constructor(opts)

Type: Function

The constructor for reducer classes.

options

Type: Object

The options for the reducer.

options.initialState

Type: Object

When this is set it will be returned from calls to the initialState function of this class.

Members

page: Page

The page this view belongs to.

errors : Errors

The service used to handle errors.

store : Store

The store used by the application.

http: Http

The http client used by the application.

storage : Storage

The storage client used by the application.

debug : Debug

The debug client used by the application.

appInput : Object

The input for the application.

Functions

initialState() ⇒ Object

This function will return the value passed into the constructor of this class by default. It can also be overridden by sub classes to provide a different behavior.

Returns: Object Defaults to the value passed into the constructor of this object or an empty object if no value was provided in constructor.

PageBuilder (class)

This class is intended to be used on the server to render Pages on the server to be delivered to client browsers.

Members

styles : String or String[]

A property that contains the style sheet tags that should be included in the page.

scripts : String or String[]

A property that contains the script tags that should be included in the page.

baseUrl : String

A property that contains the base url for the page. Defaults to '/'.

Functions

renderToTemplate(view, inputᵒᵖᵗ) ⇒ String

This function generates an HTML string that will load the given page when the HTML is loaded in a browser.

Parameters:

Param	Type	Attributes	Description
view	View		The view to render.
input	Object	optional	The input for the view.

Returns: String The HTML that will load the given view.

(static) renderToTemplate(opts) ⇒ String

A static version of the renderToTemplate instance function.

Parameters:

Param	Type	Attributes	Description
opts	Object		Options for the function.
opts.view	View		The view to render.
opts.input	Object	optional	Input to render the view with.
opts.styles	String or String[]	optional	Style sheet tags for the page.
opts.scripts	String or String[]	optional	Script tags for the page.
opts.baseUrl	String	optional	The base url for the page.

Returns: String The HTML that will load the given view.

TestHarness (class)

This class contains functions used to perform unit tests.

Functions

(static) run(type, inputᵒᵖᵗ, optsᵒᵖᵗ) ⇒ Promise

This function is used to help with unit testing of views and reducers. It returns a promies that resolves with the loaded view or reducer.

Parameters:

Param	Type	Attributes	Description
type	View or Reducer		The view or reducer to load for testing.
input	Object	optional	The input for the loaded view or reducer.
opts	Object	optional	The options for the application.
opts.errors	Function	optional	A function that will be called instead of the built in handle function in the Errors service.
opts.storage.session	Object	optional	Values to set for session storage.
opts.storage.local	Object	optional	Values to set for local storage.
opts.store.action	Object or Function	optional	This is used to listen to the application state after certain actions have been dispatched and finished being processed. If this is an object then any function on the object that matches the name of an action that has been processed will be called with an object that includes the current state and the name of the action that was executed. If it is a function then that function will be executed whenever any action has been processed and will be passed the current state and the name of the action that was executed.
opts.store.reducer	Object	optional	When this is set to an object it will override reducing actions. Set a property on this object to the same name as an action.type and it will be used instead of the normal reducing function. The property can be a reducing function or an object which will be merged with the current state.
opts.http.request	Object or Function	optional	This is used to override results that would normally come back from a call to Http.request. See below for a more details.

For the opts.http.request option, when it is a function then it must match the signature and return type of the Http.request function as it will be used instead.

When it is an Object then the property names will be matched up with the method and url for calls to the Page.request function. The following table describes how to create mappings with property names and are ordered by the precedence:

• 'GET:http://fake.org/' will be used when Http.request({ method: 'GET', url: 'http://fake.org' }) is called.
• Any property that begins with a / will be treated as a javascript regular expression and used to match against requests that are formatted as a string in the form METHOD:URL.
• 'GET:*' will be used when any calls to Http.request have method: 'GET'.
• '*' will be used for any calls to Http.request that don't have any other match.

Each property can be any one of the following:

• A function which must match the signature and return type of the Page.request function as it will be used instead.
• An object that has a property named reject which will be returned with Promise.reject.
• An object that has a property named resolve which will be returned with Promise.resolve.
• An object with neither reject or resolve properties which will be returned with Promise.resolve. |

Returns: Promise A promise that resolve to the page that is loaded for the test.

(static) exists(element) ⇒ Boolean

Check to see if the given element exists.

Parameters:

Param	Type	Attributes	Description
element	String or Element		This can be the actual element or a query string used to identify the element.

Returns: Boolean true if the element is found, false if it isn't.

(static) getInnerHTML(element) ⇒ String

Get the inner html for the given element.

Parameters:

Param	Type	Attributes	Description
element	String or Element		This can be the actual element or a query string used to identify the element.

Returns: String The inner html for the given element.

(static) getAttribute(element, attributeName) ⇒ String

Get the named attribute for the given element.

Parameters:

Param	Type	Attributes	Description
element	String or Element		This can be the actual element or a query string used to identify the element.
attributeName	String		The name of the attribute to get the value from.

Returns: String The value of the named attribute.

(static) setValue(element, value) ⇒ void

Set the value parameter for the given element and raise the appropriate events.

Parameters:

Param	Type	Attributes	Description
element	String or Element		This can be the actual element or a query string used to identify the element.
value	String		The value to set for the element

Returns: void

(static) setValueAll(elements, value) ⇒ void

Set the value parameter for the given elements and raise the appropriate events.

Parameters:

Param	Type	Attributes	Description
elements	String or Element[]		This can be the actual elements or a query string used to identify the elements.
value	String		The value to set for the elements

Returns: void

(static) click(element) ⇒ void

Raise the click event for the given element.

Parameters:

Param	Type	Attributes	Description
element	String or Element		This can be the actual element or a query string used to identify the element.

Returns: void

Errors (class)

This class contains all of the logic for handling errors that may occur.

Functions

handle(err) ⇒ void

Handle the given error.

Parameters:

Param	Type	Attributes	Description
err	Error or string		The error to handle. If this is not a truthy value it will be ignored.

Returns: void

Store (class)

This class contains all of the logic for interacting with a redux store.

Functions

getState() ⇒ Object

Get the current state object from the store.

Returns: Object
The current state in the store.

dispatch(action) ⇒ void

Dispatch an action in an asynchronous fashion.

Parameters:

Param	Type	Attributes	Description
action	Object		The action to dispatch. The type property is used to route the action to the appropriate function.

Returns: void

dispatchSync(action) ⇒ void

Dispatch an action in a synchronous fashion.

Parameters:

Param	Type	Attributes	Description
action	Object		The action to dispatch. The type property is used to route the action to the appropriate function.

Returns: void

Http (class)

This class is used to make http requests.

Functions

request(opts) ⇒ Promise

Execute an http request. This will return a promise that resolves to the resulting object if the response has a content type of application/json otherwise it will resolve with the completed XMLHttpRequest.

Param	Type	Attributes	Description
opts	Object		The options for the request.
opts.method	String		The type of http method. i.e. GET, POST, PUT, etc.
opts.url	String		The url for the request.
opts.body	String or Object	optional	The body for the request. If this is a string it is sent as is in the body. If it is an object then it will be stringified and the content type will be set to application/json.
opts.headers	String[]	optional	An array of header objects for the request that each must have a key and value parameter.
opts.responseType	String	optional	The type of response to return.
opts.format	Function	optional	This function will be called with the result of a sucessful call and the return from this function will be what is resolved in the promise.

Storage (class)

The storage functions for the application.

Members

local : Storage

The storage container for local data.

session : Storage

The storage container for session data.

Debug (class)

A classed used for debugging.

Functions

log(category, title, text) ⇒ void

Create a new log entry.

Parameters:

Param	Type	Attributes	Description
category	String		The category to create debug entries under.
title	String		The title to give the log.
text	String		The text to log.

Returns: void

logger(category) ⇒ Logger

Create a logger for the given category.

Parameters:

Param	Type	Attributes	Description
category	String		The category the logger will log entries under.

Returns: Logger A function that can be used to create logs under the given category without having to specify the category with each call.