ajaxs v0.1.7
Express Simple Ajax
This will simplify the ajax calls, and runs as middleware for express.
The interface was modelled after zerver, with a compatible interface with a few extra parameters.
To install:
npm install ajaxsAdvantages
I have found with working with zerver, that it leads you to develop API-first services. One of the main issues that I found is that zerver was too bloated with unessary functionality as it was attempting to be a full web service, where most of the time I just wanted to use the ajax call simplicafication methods.
So without further adieu, I present AJAXsimple. It is a lightweight piece of express middleware that simplifies the process of making ajax web calls to you express application.
Overview
Server Side
Check out the examples directory, but as recap:
On your server side you must import the library, and set up express to use the middleware functionality:
var AJAXs = require('ajaxs');
var myAjaxMiddleware = new AJAXs();
app.use( myAjaxMiddleware.middleware() );By default all the api objects will be read from ajaxs ( if unspecified in the constructor ). This can be changed to any base folder by altering the folling line in the previous example: ( the api folder will be referred to as api from now on)
var myAjaxMiddleware = new AJAXs('api');Create a your api functions:
exports.logwithcallback = function( logstring, callback ) {
console.log( "Client says: " + logstring );
var result = [ { name: "asdf" } ]; // do some work...
callback( result );
}Client Side
Next in your client html you simply include the script refered to by /api/{{yourapifile}}.js. Then you are good to call any functions on your client side without having to worry about the backend ajax calls.
<html>
<head>
<title>Test</title>
</head>
<body>
</body>
<script src="//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.9.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script src="/api/logger.js"></script>
<script>
logger.log("Message From client!");
</script>
</html>The client side depends on jquery so you must include html before you include the your api.
Angular
Also Packaged in is an angular service generator. You can check out the ajaxsimplecall for an example:
<html>
<head>
<script src="//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/angularjs/1.2.0/angular.min.js"></script>
<!-- if you use the {apiname}Service as the script name it will download the angularjs client code -->
<script src="/ajaxs/loggerService.js"></script>
</head>
<!-- Standard Application Initilization -->
<body ng-app="app">
<div id="main" ng-controller="MyController">
</div>
<script>
////////////////////// Use with Angular ////////////////////////////////
// 1. Create our application
var app = angular.module('app',[]);
// 2. Initialize the service with the angular application
loggerService(app);
// 3. create a new controller that will require the logger as a dependancy
app.controller("MyController",function($scope, logger) {
logger.log("Message #2 From Client").then(function() {
console.log("Message recieved by the server!!");
});
});
</script>
</body>
</html>Additions
Need the request object?
If you define the static property needRequest as true on the API object then the request will be passed through as the first parameter. This is useful if you have a cookie parser middleware running before ajaxs. For example check ajaxsimplewithreq.
Need more time ?
There is a default timeout of 30 seconds before the server will respond with a 500 error, if you set timeout as a Numeric property on the API object ( in milli-seconds ) then you will be granted more time. Please check ajaxsimplewithreq. If you set timeout to be -1 than your request will not timeout.
Enforce api method Arity
if you set enforceArity on the module then the api will require you to provide the correct number of paramters ( This is a lot safer and wont result in mismatched params ).