charlotte v0.1.8

Introduction

Charlotte is a framework for building mobile hybrid web/native apps using Express and PhoneGap. It allows you to build a web app using a traditional web development approach and then to reuse that web app and progressively enhance it for a native app.

By extending Express to the web browser Charlotte allows the rendering of view templates to transparently move to the client where it can be combined with CSS3 animations to provide page transitions with native feel. It leverages the PhoneGap File API to provide reliable and granular control over the caching of application assets and data on the device.

Charlotte provides a browser abstraction in JS that effectively produces, within the single-page application environment of PhoneGap, a multi-page web application development environment with user-defined page transition animations, robust error handling, and the performance characteristics (minimal network overhead) of an architecture based on a JavaScript MVC framework and JSON server API.

(Charlotte is not a JavaScript MVC framework, though, and does not require you to build an API.)

Charlotte is an implementation of the html bundle concept. Read the wiki doc for some background.

Also, check out the charlotte demo app.

Requirements

• underscore >=1.3.1

• async >=0.1.16

• Express ~2.5.6

• zepto >=1.0rc1

• PhoneGap >=1.5.0

• jade (optional)

Express Setup

Install charlotte:

npm install charlotte

Require charlotte:

var charlotte = require('charlotte');

Set a version:

charlotte.version = "1.0";

Support express (do this just before you use the router middleware):

charlotte.supportExpress(app);
app.use(app.router);

Serve up views statically:

app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/views'));

Use the charlotte.byPassViews route middleware in routes:

var bypassViews = process.env.NODE_ENV == 'development' ? 
                    charlotte.bypassViews() : function(req, res, next) { next(); };

app.get('/', bypassViews, function(req, res) {
...

The above assumes that we don't need to worry about bypassing views in non-development environments as static asset files will be served out of a different server.

Create a symlink to the charlotte module's lib directory somewhere in your views directory:

[~/projects/foo/node/views/lib]$ ln -s ../../node_modules/charlotte/lib charlotte

Create a versions directory in the views directory. Create a symlink within the versions directory that points to the views directory above it for each new version of your app :

[~/projects/foo/node/views]$ mkdir versions
[~/projects/foo/node/views]$ cd versions
[~/projects/foo/node/views/versions]$ ln -s .. 1.0

Layout Structure

Create a layout template and a layout body partial, which gets included by the layout:

layout.jade:

!!! 5
html(xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml")
  head
    meta(name="viewport", content="user-scalable=no, width=device-width")
    meta(name="apple-touch-fullscreen", content="yes")
    meta(name="apple-mobile-web-app-status-bar-style", content="black")
    - if (!requestId)
      != stylesheets('foo')
    != javascripts("/lib/underscore", "/lib/async", "/lib/zepto", "/lib/jade")
    != javascripts("/lib/charlotte/shared", "/lib/charlotte/charlotte", "/lib/charlotte/util")
    script(type="text/javascript")
      charlotte.baseUrl = 'http://foo.com/';
      charlotte.assetRootUrl = '#{assetRootUrl}';
      charlotte.version = '#{version}';
  
  body
    #content.content-container
      - if (isBlank("layoutBody"))
        !=partial('layout_body')
      - else if (layoutBody)
        !=partial(layoutBody)
      - else
        != body

layout_body.jade:

- if (!requestId)
  != stylesheets('foo')

!= body

This layout body is rather empty but the bulk of the layout content for your pages should go in the layout body partial, which should also include the body of the response. The outer layout template should just be a basic html skeleton with a content container that includes the layout body partial. It should include charlotte and its dependencies.

The actual layout body partial to use should be given in the layoutBody parameter, and should default to layout_body; if not blank (undefined, null, or '') and not truthy we just include the body of the response directly rather than go through the layout body.

Use the javascripts() and stylesheets() helper functions provided by Charlotte to include JavaScript and CSS files. Simply pass paths to source files to the functions (you can omit the '.js' and '.css' extensions) and they will output script tags or link tags, respectively.

Note that the inclusion of the stylesheets partial is either in the outer layout template or in the inner layout body depending on the presence of a requestId.

The outer layout partial will only be used when rendering templates on the server in node. We do some basic client-side charlotte setup in it, setting the baseUrl, assetUrl, and version attributes on the global charlotte object. When running in html bundle mode and rendering templates on the client, the baseUrl and assetUrl attributes will be set by the bootstrap process , which you can see in the Client window setup section of this document, and the version will be handled in a different manner.

Client window Setup

Include charlotte and its dependencies in your index.html file to bootstrap charlotte. Also include a link to your own boot script which should create a charlotte browser and a tab and load the home page.

<script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8" src="lib/cordova-1.5.0.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8" src="lib/underscore.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8" src="lib/async.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8" src="lib/zepto.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8" src="lib/charlotte/shared.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8" src="lib/charlotte/charlotte.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8" src="boot.js"></script>

(You'll need to have a process setup wherein these files are copied to your xcode project's www directory when building. For instance, the charlotte demo project has a shell script called copy_boot_scripts.sh that is called from a "Run Script" build stage in the xcode project.)

Create tab containers and tab content containers in the index.html:

<body onload="onBodyLoad()">
  <div id="foo-tab" class="tab">
    <div id="content" class="content-container"></div>
  </div>
  <div id="bar-tab" class="tab">
    <div id="content" class="content-container"></div>
  </div>
</body>

In your boot script, initialize the global charlotte object:

charlotte.baseUrl = 'http://foo.com/';
charlotte.rootUrl =  'http://local.host:3000/';
charlotte.htmlBundleMode = true;

Then create a charlotte browser and some tabs:

browser = charlotte.createBrowser();

_.each(['foo', 'bar'], function(name) {
  browser.createTab({
    name: name, 
    container: '#' + name + '-tab'
  });
});

And load the initial page into the initial tab:

var fooTab = browser.switchTab('foo');
fooTab.load({ url: '/' });

There are a number of possible options that you can and should specify when you create a browser and when you load a page. Refer to the API documentation below and check out the charlotte demo app to learn more.

Optionally, may want to load newer versions of the core scripts required for bootstrap from the server:

charlotte.assets({ 
  javascripts: {
    urls: [
      "/lib/underscore", "/lib/async", "/lib/zepto", "/lib/jade",
      "/lib/charlotte/shared", "/lib/charlotte/charlotte"
    ]
  }
}, next);

You'll want to do this before you create a browser. charlotte.assets() is async so you should pass a callback method as the final argument which will be invoked when all the assets have been loaded.

You may also may want to clean up the file cache on startup. This will clean up all of the version caches except for the current version:

if (charlotte.inNativeApp) {
  charlotte.clearFileCache(localStorage.getItem("version"), next);        
} 

charlotte.clearFileCache() is also async and takes a callback as the final argument.

Template API

The template API provides a common set of variables and helper functions that templates can use whether they are running on the server within node or on the client.

Asset Helpers

Asset helpers should always be used to include application assets. The output shown below can be considered to be the logical output of these helpers. When running in node on the server, the output is literally what is shown and is rendered inline in the template output. When running in html bundle mode on the client there's a bit more going on.

javascripts

this:

!= javascripts('/js/underscore', '/js/async')

will output this:

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://local.host:3000/versions/1.0/js/underscore.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://local.host:3000/versions/1.0/js/async.js"></script>

stylesheets

this:

!= stylesheets('/css/foo', '/foo/bar')

will output this:

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://local.host:3000/versions/1.0/css/foo.css"></link>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://local.host:3000/versions/1.0/css/bar.css"></link>

img

this:

!= img({src: '/img/foo.jpg'})

will output this:

<img src="http://local.host:3000/versions/1.0/img/foo.jpg"></img>

Do not use the img helper to include non-application-asset images such as user-generated content. Should only be used for images that are part of the application itself, i.e. icons.

Utility Helpers

• isBlank(varName) - returns true is the variable named varName in this scope is undefined, null or an empty string.

Dynamic Helpers / Variables

• NODE_ENV - the value of the NODE_ENV environment variable (e.g., development, production, etc.).

• rootUrl - the root url of the charlotte object, browser, or tab within which this template is rendered.

• assetRootUrl - the root url of the server for downloading application assets, i.e. javascripts, stylesheets, and image assets.

• version - the version of this request.

• requestId - the request id of this request (always null on the server).

• viewOnly - whether this is a view-only request.

• referer - the referer for this request -- use this instead of checking the Referer header.

• inNativeApp - this tells the template if it's running within a native app and device APIs are available.

Client window API

The client side of the charlotte framework runs within the window of a web browser or web view of a PhoneGap-based native app. The progressive enhancement of your web app for a native environment happens within this context.

Callback Style

A side note here on callback style. Charlotte uses the standard node callback style wherein an error is passed as the first argument to the callback; it uses this style on the client as well as the server. This is true for user-provided callbacks as well as the callbacks that Charlotte provides for the user to call. So check the first argument for an error on any callbacks that you pass to Charlotte. Send an Error object as the first argument when invoking any Charlotte-provided callbacks to pass an error back to Charlotte.

Event handler callbacks, such as ready event handlers, are the exception to this rule. By definition they are invoked to handle specific -- generally non-error -- states and do not need an optional error argument.

charlotte.ready(requestId, handler)

As with a typical web page, the action begins when the page is ready, and we register a function to be invoked when it is.

Call the charlotte.ready() method to register functions to execute when the page is ready:

script(type="text/javascript")
  charlotte.ready('#{requestId}', function(callback) {
    $('#body-frame', this.container).height(window.innerHeight - 40);
    callback();
  });

charlotte.ready() takes 2 arguments:

• requestId - the id of the current request. you don't need to worry about what this is or how to get it -- charlotte provides it to you through the requestId helper in the template API. just interpolate the value into the template and pass it to the ready() method.
• your handler.

Charlotte provides two things to your handler function.

First it provides, as the only argument to the handler, a callback that must be invoked when the handler is done doing what it has to do. This callback is in the node style -- pass an error as the first argument to it if an error occurs within your handler.

Ready event handlers are invoked in a chain, in order of their registration in the flow of the HTML. The next handler is not invoked until the current one has signaled completion by invoking its callback. Passing an error to the callback halts the execution chain.

The second thing that charlotte provides to your handler is the value of this. What is this, you ask? Read on to learn more ...

Charlotte, Browsers, and Tabs

A page in a charlotte-based app can be executing in one of three possible scopes or contexts, depending on how the page was loaded into the window. The execution context defines the value of this in the page's ready event handlers.

this is useful in a few of ways in your handler:

• you can access properties of the execution context, such as container and rootUrl.

• you can access asset loading methods of the execution context, such as javascripts() and require(), that are auto-versioned with the version of the current request.

• you can do some duck-typing on it to do different things depending on what the execution context is. for example, you will usually only want to override anchor tag click handlers when executing within a tab context.

Global charlotte object

When not executing in html bundle mode, with templates being rendered on the server in node, this in your ready handler is the global window.charlotte object.

Charlotte browser tab

Most pages in your app will be loaded into a charlotte browser tab. Tabs maintain history as you load pages into them. You can go back and you can reload. This is when you'll want to override anchor tag click handlers to load linked pages into the current tab, or to go back in the history.

function(callback) {
  var self = this,
      container = self.container;

  if (container) {

    $(self.contentContainer, container).on('click', '#nav-bar .button.left', function(e) {
      e.preventDefault();
      self.back();
    });

    $(self.contentContainer, container).on("click", 'a.post.show', function(e) {
      e.preventDefault();
      // this load is not very interesting without some load and back transitions
      // but i'm keeping this example short
      self.load({url: this.href});
    });

  }
  callback();
}        

Only tabs have a container property so we use it above to determine if we're in a tab execution context. It should also be used to scope any selector-based operations. We use the tab container property above and it's contentContainer property to select the root for event delegation.

Charlotte browser

When you load a page into the DOM using the request() method on a charlotte browser instance, this in your ready handler will be the browser object. This will generally be the case when issuing AJAX-style requests to retrieve page data or to update parts of a page outside of the normal tab history flow.

Typically, these types of requests occur to update part of a page within a tab, so it is not necessary to add event event handlers so long as event delegation was used properly when the tab was loaded. See the charlotte demo app for an example of this.

DOM Event Handling

Because a charlotte-based application is underneath-the-hood still a single-page application, and pages are removed from the DOM as they are popped off the stack, it is important that event delegation be used properly. Use zepto's on() method to attach event handlers, not bind(). In a tab execution context, use the supplied container and contentContainer properties to select the root for event delegation:

function(callback) {
  var self = this,
      container = self.container;

  if (container) {

    $(self.contentContainer, container).on('click', '#nav-bar .button.left', function(e) {
      e.preventDefault();
      self.back();
    });

  }
  callback();
}

Charlotte will detach all event handlers from a page's content container when tab.back() is called, to prevent any possible memory leaks. If you are attaching event handlers to elements outside of the context of tabs in your app then you are responsible for detaching those handlers when you remove the elements from the DOM.

Common properties

All of the execution contexts have these properties:

• baseUrl - this is the logical base url for the execution context. it is used in 2 ways:

  1. to resolve relative module names passed to the require() method.

  2. whenever a module is encountered whose name is under baseUrl it will be retrieved using the rootUrl.

  only required if using AMD.

• rootUrl - the root url of the node server, used to resolve all relative paths (except for AMD module names). defaults to '/'; should be set to a full absolute URL in a native app execution environment. will typically be equal to the baseUrl only in production.

• assetRootUrl - the root url of the static asset server, used to resolve all relative asset paths. if no assetRootUrl is provided, the rootUrl will be used.

Generally, it is only necessary to set these properties on the global charlotte object, as browsers created by it will inherit these values, and tabs will inherit these values from browsers.

It is theoretically possible, however, to have multiple browsers in an app with different bases/roots, or tabs within a browser that have different bases/roots.

Common methods

Asset methods

All of the execution contexts have methods to dynamically load application assets:

• stylesheets(options, callback) - load CSS stylesheets.

• javascripts(options, callback) - load JavaScript files.

The options for each of these methods are:

• urls - an array of resource paths minus the filename extensions (i.e. "/foo/bar", instead of "/foo/bar.js")

• version - version of assets to load. relative resource paths will be versioned using this value (e.g. "/foo/bar" -> "/versions/1.0/foo/bar")

• rootUrl - url of node server; this server will be used to retrieve the current version if none is provided

• assetRootUrl - static asset server that assets will be downloaded from; the rootUrl will be used if no assetUrl is provided here or on the object itself.

If the version, rootUrl, and assetRootUrl options are not provided, the properties of the execution context will be used.

There's also a wrapper around these methods that can be used to load both stylesheets and JavaScripts at once:

• assets(options, callback)

The two possible options are:

• javascripts - options for the JavaScripts load

• stylesheets - options for the stylesheets load

AMD

In addition to the asset methods described above, Charlotte provides an AMD module loading mechanism. Each of the execution contexts has a require() method.

• require(options, callback)

The options are the same as the options to the other asset loader methods plus:

• dependencies - array of module names.

• baseUrl - used to resolve relative module names in the dependencies list

Modules are defined using the charlotte.define() method.

Ready event handler modules

In many cases, all you want to do in your ready event handlers is require a module and invoke it in this manner:

charlotte.ready('#{requestId}', function(callback) {
  this.require(
    {
      dependencies: ['foo/bar']
    }, 
    function(err, foobar) {
      if (err) return callback(err);
      foobar.call(this, callback);
    });
});

Modules names can be specified as ready event handlers. When this is done Charlotte will automatically require the module and call it using the execution context as this, and pass the ready handler callback as the only argument. The code below is equivalent to the above:

charlotte.ready('#{requestId}', 'foo/bar');

charlotte

In addition to the common ones, the charlotte object has these properties and methods:

• htmlBundleMode - flag indicating whether charlotte is in html bundle mode.

• cacheSeedLocation - url of cache seed. should be relative to the app location and will be resolved relative to the www directory in the native app. defaults to './cache_seed'.

• readyRegistryTimeToLive - how long ready event handlers should live before being purged, in milliseconds. defaults to 15000.

• tempCacheSize - the size, in characters, of the in-memory temp cache. older entries in the cache will be purged when this size is exceeded to make room for newer ones.

• define(name, [dependencies,] callback)

  • name - the name is required and should be a fully-qualified absolute url.

  • dependencies - array of module names. relative names will be resolved using the fully-qualified name of the module itself, and interpreted as root-relative to that name. e.g. if the name of the module is "http://foo.bar/foo", then a dependency with the name "/bar" will be resolved as "http://foo.bar/bar".

• createBrowser(options) - options to this method are discussed in detail in the browser API section.

• clearFileCache(options, callback) - clears the filesystem cache for a particular rootUrl. options are:

  • rootUrl - the root url of the cache to to clear; if not provided rootUrl of browser instance will be used.

  • versionExceptions - an array of version strings that should be not be cleared.

• clearRamCache(options) - clears the RAM cache for a particular rootUrl (including the temp cache). options are the same as those for clearFileCache(). this method is mainly used internally to clear the RAM cache when a version change is detected.

browser

In addition to the common ones, a charlotte browser has the following methods.

createBrowser(options)

The createBrowser() method is actually on the charlotte object, but it plays the role of constructor for a browser instance so we discuss its details here.

The baseUrl, rootUrl, and assetUrl can be provided as options. If not provided, the browser instance will inherit those of the charlotte object that created it. Other options are described below.

followRedirects

Whether redirects on a request() should be followed. If false, a charlotte.RedirectError will be generated. Default is true.

layoutBody

The default layout body template. Default is 'layout_body'.

templateCompilers

A hash of compilers for different template types. Default is:

{
  '.jade': function(text) {
    return jade.compile(text);
  }
}

defaultTemplateExtname

Template extension to use for template paths that omit the filename extension. Default is ".jade".

helpers

Static helpers that will be available to templates. You'll want to use the same ones here that you use on the server.

dynamicHelpers

Dynamic helpers that will be available to templates. You'll want to use the same ones here that you use on the server.

Dynamic helpers that depend on the res argument are not supported. There is limited support for dependence on the req argument -- basically just the referer and viewOnly properties and the flash() method, currently.

timeout

Timeout value for any network operations. charlotte.ServerUnavailableError's will be generated when requests take longer than the timeout.

cachedBundles

Used to configure what html bundle resources (pages, essentially) will be cached and in what manner. Each of these options takes a set of matchers against which the url for a resource will be tested. A matcher can be a regular expression or a function that returns a boolean. A matcher function takes two arguments:

function(url, parsedUrl):

• url - the url as a string

• parsedUrl - the url as a parsed object with attributes.

The different cachedBundles options are:

• urlMatchers - any array of matchers for resources to be cached permanently.

• tempUrlMatchers - any array matchers for resources to be cached in the in-memory temp cache.

• viewOnlyUrlMatchers - a hash of named matchers for view-only resources. since many resources can share the same view-only representation we give that representation its own name and store it under that name rather than name of the resource itself, to avoid duplication. see the charlotte demo for examples.

errorHandlers

Error handler callbacks to be invoked when an error occurs while processing a request() or tab.load().

global: function(err, tab)

The global error handler always gets invoked for every error. You want to log the error somewhere in this function.

default: function(err, tab, next)

This is the default error handler for any request() calls or tab.load() calls that do not specify an onError option. The next argument is a callback that you should invoke if you'd like to continue processing and for the error to be passed on to the request/load callback.

onCacheMiss(url, tab, afterViewLoad)

Callback that is invoked if the network is accessed at any point while processing a request() or tab.load() call. Only invoked once per request/load even if multiple network accesses occur.

The url argument is of the actual resource on which the first cache miss occurred while processing the request, i.e. potentially a JavaScript file that has to be downloaded if the html bundle was retrieved from the cache. Thus, the url may not be the same as the url of the page that was being loaded.

The afterViewLoad argument indicates whether this cache miss occurred on a view-only load after the view has been completely loaded.

This callback will not be invoked if overridden at the request/load level.

onRequestEnd(settings, tab)

Callback that is invoked when any request() (which is also used internally by tab.load()) is fully processed. One use case for this is to hide a "loading" status message that you displayed on cache miss.

This callback will not be invoked if overridden at the request/load level.

onVersionChange(localVersion, remoteVersion, callback)

Callback that is invoked whenever a version change is detected while processing an html bundle request. localVersion is the current local version and remoteVersion is the new remote version returned from the server. Invoke callback if you'd like the processing of the request to continue, otherwise don't.

createTab(options)

The options to this method are discussed in detail in the tab API section.

currentTab()

Returns the currently selected tab.

switchTab(name)

Switches to the tab with the give name.

request(settings, callback, renderWait)

Issues an html bundle request.

The settings are the same settings accepted by a zepto ajax() request, plus:

• viewOnly - whether this is a view-only request

• container - the DOM container into which the page should be loaded.

• followRedirects - override of the browser option with the same name.

• layoutBody - ""

• onCacheMiss - ""

• uploadOptions - a PhoneGap FileUploadOptions object. should have a fileUri attribute in addition to the standard PhoneGap attributes. when this is option is passed, an upload using the PhoneGap FileTransfer object is done.

The callback is invoked when the request is complete and has this signature:

function(err, bundle, html, triggerReady)

• bundle - the html bundle object.

• html - the html content that was loaded into the specified container.

• triggerReady - a function to call to trigger the ready event on the page. ready event handlers will not be executed until this function is called. you can also pass a callback to this function to be invoked after the execution of the ready event handler chain is complete, though you will rarely need to do this.

The optional renderWait argument is a callback that can be used to delay the rendering of the bundle into HTML until some condition is met. If provided, it is given a callback to invoke when you're ready to render. (tab.load() uses this internally to delay the rendering of the full page on view-only-first loads until the page transition is complete.)

tab

In addition to the common ones, a charlotte tab has the following methods.

createTab(options)

The baseUrl, rootUrl, and assetUrl can be provided as options. If not provided, the tab instance will inherit those of the browser object that created it.

Other options are:

• name - a unique name for the tab.

• container - CSS selector identifying the container element for the tab.

• contentContainer - CSS selector identifying the container element for the content within the tab. Scoped to the tab container. Defaults to '#content'.

• createContentContainer - an optional callback that should be invoked when creating a new content container to load a new page into.

The default createContentContainer function is:

function defaultCreateContentContainer() {
  var container = document.createElement('div');
  container.className = 'content-container';
  container.style.display = 'none';
  return container;
}

load(settings)

Loads a new page into the tab. Accepts all the of the settings that zepto's ajax() method takes plus:

• followRedirects - override of the browser option with the same name.

• onCacheMiss - ""

• onViewLoad - options for the view-only load event.

• onLoad - options for the load event.

• onBack - options for the back event (loaded page is popped off the stack).

• onError - override of the errorHandler.default browser option.

onViewLoad, onLoad, and onBack all take the same options, both of which are optional.

• transition - callback to handle the transition of the loaded content from staging container to current content container.

• callback - callback to be invoked when the processing of the load, including optional transition, is complete.

The signature for the onViewLoad and onLoad callbacks looks like:

function(err, bundle, triggerReady)

• err - an error object if an error occurred while processing the load. any errors passed to ready event handler callbacks will end up here, too.

• bundle - html bundle response.

• triggerReady - a function to call to trigger the ready event on the page. ready event handlers will not be executed until this function is called. you can also pass a callback to this function to be invoked after the execution of the ready event handler chain is complete, though you will rarely need to do this.

If the callback option is not provided for these events, triggerReady() will be automatically executed.

The onBack callback looks like:

function(options)

The options are user-defined, and are whatever was passed in the tab.back() call.

Transitions

The transition option is a function that takes a content container, a content stage container, and callback:

transition: function(contentCtr, contentStageCtr, callback)

It causes the contentStageCtr to take over the viewing area currently occupied by the contentCtr, as well as assume its identity. It invokes the callback argument when the transition is complete.

The transition could involve moving the contentCtr out of the way, covering it, etc. It will be removed from the DOM when the callback is called.

For on[View]Load events, the contentStageCtr contains the newly loaded page content. For the onBack event, the contentStageCtr contains the previous page in the tab history.

View-only first loads

Responsive user interfaces require that some sort of view be displayed to the user upon the touch of a button, even if some latency is involved in rendering the full content of a page. The view-only-first mechanism helps to address that need.

When an onViewLoad setting is specified in a load() call, charlotte will actually coordinate the handling of 2 distinct html bundle requests:

• one request with a viewOnly=true query string param appended to the url
• one request with the provided url

The Express route for the url can detect this parameter with the charlotte-provided req.viewOnly property and should render a response that does not block on any external IO and returns a response immediately:

app.get('/posts', function(req, res) {

  if (req.viewOnly) {
    res.render('posts/index', {
      title: "Post list",
      posts: [] 
    });
  } else {
    Posts.all(function(posts) {
      res.render('posts/index', {
        title: "Post list",
        posts: posts
      });      
    });
  }

});

Charlotte will fire off the two requests in parallel but it will always invoke the onViewLoad callbacks first, even if for some reason the regular load returns a response first. Also, it will not invoke the onLoad callback until the triggerReady for onViewLoad is called, even if the regular load returns while the onViewLoad callback is being executed.

Caching of view-only responses, which is discussed in the Caching and Versioning section, will avoid network roundtrips and allow for minimal latency between the touch of a button and the display of the view, and we can typically cache them forever as they will generally be essentially static and have no dynamic components.

Redirects

The tab.load() method has some special handling for redirects when the followRedirects option is true (the default). If the location being redirected to is the current page, the tab will automatically reload() the current page. If the location being redirected to is equal to the previous page, the tab will automatically call back() on itself and then reload() that previous page. This is useful, for instance, in a modal form when you want the tab to automatically go back to the previous page after posting the form and refresh that page's contents.

There is some magic going on to make this happen as true redirects are transparent to XHR clients. Charlotte monkeypatches the Express res.redirect() method to make these pseudo-redirects visible to the charlotte client runtime. As long as res.render() is used to do redirects, this behavior will be observed. Issuing a true redirect by setting a 302 status and setting a Location header will bypass this magic. (Note: for non-html-bundle requests res.redirect() will continue to do the normal thing and send a 302 with a Location header)

Currently this is only enabled for posts and uploads. I don't remember why. If I come across a good reason to enable it for gets I will.

Posts

The tab.load() method also has some special handling for posts.

One kind of special handling is for posts that redirect back to the page that the post was submitted from, or to the previous page. As mentioned above, the tab will automatically reload() those pages in such cases. When such loads that are the result of redirects from posts occur, Charlotte will ignore the cache and always go to the server for the page (specifically, for the html bundle -- the cache will still be consulted for assets). It will also not cache the response. This allows any errors sent by the req.flash() method to be displayed, and not cached. The cached page will still be used for initial get loads of the page with the form.

Also, posts that return a normal non-redirect response do not affect tab history. This fits the use case of a form that repeatedly returns errors to the client until valid data is submitted. Going back in the tab history from the point when a successful submit eventually occurs should not have to go through a series of error response pages. See the charlotte demo for an example of this and it should be more clear why this special handling is a good thing for native apps.

reload(callback)

Reloads the current page in the tab.

back(options)

Goes back in the tab history, causing the previous page in the tab history to be displayed. The onBack options -- transition and callback -- specified when the page was loaded will be invoked. The current page will be popped from the stack and permanently removed from the DOM.

Error Handling

The Error Handler Chain

Error Types

charlotte.ServerUnavailableError

charlotte.ResourceNotFoundError

charlotte.RedirectError

charlotte.AssetLoadError

charlotte.util.VersionMismatchError

completeBundleProcess

charlotte.util

• propertyHelper() this method can be used to create request scope properties that can be set and accessed from templates. this allows a template used to render the body of a response to set a property used by the layout body that includes it, i.e. where the cancel link should point to in the modal form layout body.

charlotte.pagetransitions

Caching and Versioning

Versioning

Charlotte is very aggressive in its caching. It caches resources in the local filesystem and in memory and will always consult caches before reaching across the network for them. It only hits the network when it has to, and an app-level version change (more precisely, a rootUrl-level version change) is the signal that tells it to do so. The assumption of this signal is also what allows it to avoid any network costs (i.e. even the relatively small cost of a conditional GET to check if particular resource has changed) most of the time for cached data. It also allows for partial functionality in offline conditions.

onVersionChange

Filesystem Cache

Charlotte uses the PhoneGap File API to cache resources locally. The cache is organized by root url/version/resource host.

Here's what the charlotte demo cache directory tree looks like:

|-local.charlottedemo.com_3000_
 |---1.0
 |-----local-assets.charlottedemo.com_3000
 |-------versions
 |---------1.0
 |-----------lib
 |-------------charlotte
 |-------------common
 |-----------messages
 |-----------posts
 |-----------tab_menu
 |-----------users
 |-----local.charlottedemo.com_3000
 |-------posts
 |---------new
 |-------tab_menu
 |-------view_only_bundles

RAM Cache

Resource types

Templates

JavaScripts

Stylesheets

Images

Html Bundles

Disabling Caching for Development

Versioned Asset Deployment

Some general guidelines

• use the charlotte asset helper methods to output script tags, link tags, and image application assets.

• view templates should be specified with full root-relative paths in res.render() calls. charlotte will not apply the view lookup logic that Express does.

• view templates should only access locals, not session or global state.

• locals should only be accessed in templates as pure data, no method calls.

• be careful not to include any sensitive information in your template source code as the source files will eventually be served statically, with no authentication, for distribution to native apps.

• undefined values do not get serialized in JSON. attributes with a value of undefined are simply excluded. when rendering client-side in a native app, attempts to access absent locals in your templates will result in reference errors. make sure all locals are defined, setting them to an appropriate default if necessary, before calling res.render. or, alternatively make sure your template accounts for such potentially undefined values my testing if 'undefined' === typeof myVar before attempting to access them. charlotte provides a helper method isBlank(myVarName) that will safely check if the variable named myVarName is undefined, null, or an empty string.

• dynamic helpers that depend on the res argument are not supported. there is limited support for dependence on the req argument -- basically just the referer and viewOnly properties and the flash() method, currently.

• the flash() method will work slightly differently when running in a native app than it does when running in node. flash messages will only be accessible in a native app on the immediately subsequent request, after which they will be cleared even if not accessed during that request. that also means they will not be accessible on the same request that they are created. this fits with the general use case for the flash() method; your app should not depend on support for other use cases.