node-simple-mvc v1.0.8

Node Simple MVC

A simple MVC implementation usind Node and Express, based on ASP NET MVC.

Features

1. ASP NET MVC like folder structure
2. Sessions
3. Static files
4. Form handling
5. Template files
6. Angular like data binding with view
7. Examples to help the understanding

How to use

Download and start app

Just download one of the releases and run in your powershell: npm install to install dependencies. Then, to start your app, run node server.js

Project settings

The project settings are specified inside the ./server.js, in the config constant.

The config structure must be like this:

class Config{
    controllers; //a array of strings, with the name of the controllers
    port; //the port that your project will run
    defaultPath; //the default path, here the value normally are 'index'
    defaultController; //the default controller, if no folder are requested by the user
    sessionSecret; //any secret value, to encrypt the session
    sessionDuration; //the session duration, in days
    staticFolders; //a array of static folders
}

• Static folders:

To set static folders, just import the StaticFolder class in your server.js file:

const StaticFolder = require("./src/classes/StaticFolder");

The constructor of this class must be like this:

new StaticFolder("folderInYourComputer", "/folderInTheRequest");

Folder structure

The folder structure is extremely similar to Asp.NET MVC folder structure, and is mandatory to work:

.
├── src                   
│   ├──controller           # All .js controller files, with name like 'nameController.js'
│   ├──view                 # All controller folders, and inside the controller folder, the .html view files
│   └──layout               # All .html layout files
└── server.js    

Creating controllers

To add a controller named example, follow these steps: 1. Create a file named exampleController.js in the ./src/controller project folder 2. Add example to the controllers array in the ./server.js file, inside the config 3. Create a example folder in the ./src/view project folder

To make the exampleController.js work, just import the Action class, and your controller file must export a function that returns a array of Action: 1. Import the Action class:

const Action = require("../classes/Action");

2. Make your controller export a function, the only parameter that you will receive is the View function, and your return must be a array:

module.exports = (View) =>{
    return [

    ];
}

• The constructor of the Action class must be like this:

new Action(
    (Send, RequestData) => {
        //Your action script here
    },
    "yourPathHere",
    "get" //Here you can pass a single method like this, or a array of methods, like ["get", "post", "put"...]
)

• The params Send and RequestData are used, respectively, to send a response to the request and access the information of the request, this is the RequestData structure:

class RequestData{
    form;
    files;
    queryString;
    session;
    params;
}

• To make a redirect, just pass this syntax to the Send function:

redirect: https://google.com.br

• The View function received by the controller are necessary to return a view file with your action, example, guessing you have a exampleFile.html in your ./src/view/example folder, you can do that:

...
(Send, RequestData) => {
    Send(
        View("exampleFile",
            {
                //Your model here
            }
        );
    )
}
...

Creating Views

To create view just create a .html file with the name of your view inside the ./src/view/yourController folder.

• Data binding

To bind a information sended by your controller with your model, in your html file, just do that:

{{ yourModelParamNameHere }}

• Layout files

To create a layout file, just add a .html file in the ./src/layout project folder. Inside the layout .html file the marker @content will be replaced by your action specific content.

In your controller, to specify a layout in your Action, just add a parameter in your model named "layout". The value of this parameter must be the layout file name without the .html part.