Unicycle NPM | npm.io

unicycle

Minimalist unidirectional data flow for CRUD

Unicycle minimizes the amount of boilerplate needed to get a Flux flow up and running. You get basic CRUD support for free as data in all stores are treated as arrays.

No constants are used - instead action types are autogenerated from store and action creator method names (eg. a store named book and an action creator method named rate would yield an action type of BOOK_RATE).

Usage

// ./unicycle.js
var Unicycle = require("unicycle");

module.exports = new Unicycle(); // Create a unicycle instance.


// ./stores/BookStore.js
var unicycle = require("../unicycle");

module.exports = unicycle.crudStore("book", function (data) {
	return {
		title: data.title || "Untitled",
		author: data.author || "anonymous",
		published: data.published || null;
	};
});


// ./actions/BookActions.js
var unicycle = require("../unicycle");

module.exports = unicycle.crudActions("book");


// ./index.js
var React = require("react");
var App = require("./components/App");
var BookStore = require("./stores/BookStore");
var BookActions = require("./actions/BookActions");
var data = require("./data/books.json"); // Get data from somewhere.

BookStore.register(render); // Register a function to be called on changes.

BookActions.read(data); // Read data into store via action.

function render () {
	var books = BookStore.getAll();
	React.render(<App books={books} />, document.body);
}

API

Unicycle

This is the main API for unicycle. Simply create a single instance to use throughout your app.

Returns

(Object) - A Unicycle instance.

Example

var Unicycle = require("unicycle");

module.exports = new Unicycle();

unicycle

unicycle.dispatcher

The Flux dispatcher instance.

unicycle.actions

Creates an object with action creator methods.

Arguments

name (String) - A name that is used to identify the action creators.
signatures (Object) - An object describing the signature of the action creators to be created. The keys will be turned into names of methods and values turned into arguments signature of said methods.

Returns

(Object) An object with action creator methods.

Example

var BookActions = unicycle.actions("book", {rate: ["id", "rating"]});

/*
BookActions == {
	rate: function (id, rating) { ... }
}
*/

// Later on...

BookActions.rate(book.id, 3);

// The dispatcher would then send the following action to stores:
// {type: "BOOK_RATE", id: "id-of-that-book", rating: 3}

unicycle.crudActions

An extension of [unicycle].actions that will automatically include the signatures for basic CRUD actions:

{
	create: ["data"],
	read: ["data"],
	update: ["id", "data"],
	delete: ["id"]
}

You can override the included signatures as you like.

Arguments

See [unicycle].actions. The signatures argument becomes optional.

Returns

(Object) An object with action methods.

unicycle.store

Creates a store with handlers for actions.

Arguments

name (String) - A name to identify the store.
handlers (Object) - And object with handler functions for reacting to actions. In handlers this refers to the Store instance. If you want the store to handle action types other than from action creators of the same name - simply name the handlers with full action types: uppercased name + "_" + method, eg. action creator named "author" and a method named "wrote" would be predefined as "AUTHOR_WROTE".

Returns

(Object) A storefront object.

unicycle.crudStore

Creates a store with handlers for actions - but with added handlers for CRUD:

{
	create: function (action) {
		/* creates new store item using `create` with added `id`, `c_time` and `m_time` properties */
	},
	read: function (action) {
		/* read data into store items */
	},
	update: function (action) {
		/* update existing item via `id` - including autoupdate of `m_time` */
	},
	delete: function (action) {
		/* delete item from store items via `id` */
	}
}

Arguments

name (String) - A name to identify the store.
create (Function) - Optional. A function to create items in the store. If not supplied raw data is used for item initiation.
handlers (Object) - Optional. See [unicycle].store.