Wiki - click to go there; but read below info first
Firstly, Json2web is meant for Nim-programmers, not for end-users. It can be seen as a sample-application or small framework, that a programmer can use as a base to create an end-user-app. Therefore (besides code) no executable releases are delivered, which the programmer is supposed to compile him-/herself.
Json2web started originally as a set of nim-modules plus their implementation to make it easy to create web-controls, like checkboxes. Based on the principle of separation of concerns, the idea was to create a separate gui-definition in json, from which the gui is generated by specialized procedures. But actually only the complicated elements are generated, the simple ones can be put in project_inner.html. Before Json2web, in Readibl I used nim-constructs for the definition, but that was cumbersome.
The project has turned into some subprojects of increasing complexity to showcase those posibilities. The latest subproject is Datajson, which is a generalized database-form (based on Sqlite). The project exposes different options to do things that may or may not be usefull in different situations and could be usefull for learning-purposes.
The method to do this is that you start with a json-file in which you create the definition of the needed controls or web-elements, based on a template-json-file. In this template-definition all the possible controls are written, which you can alter or copy to accomodate you gui.
The json-file-technique is usable for databases, because a module can write data from the database to the json-definition-file (g_db2json.nim). In a following pass a html-table-element can be generated from the json-def (in g_html_json.nim).
There is a slight performance-penalty for using the json-intermediate stage (in stead of writing directly from database to html-code) but that seems small in comparison to the slowness of (a larger) database and the rendering of a html-table in the browser.
As said, Json2web showcases some subprojects in increasing difficulty and capabilities. This matches my own learning experience and curve. Not being an computer-science-academic I try options to make things work easily, which I lateron may substitute for better methods. I am inclined to keep the none-used options thoe, as sort of none-used junk-dna ;-)
After a project is finished I copy it to the subfolder subprojects, thus creating projects in increasing difficulty.
This repo makes use of generic files (g_somemodule.nim) and project-specific files (projectprefix_somefunction.nim). The generic files are used in all the projects. Currently available projects (prefixes) are hello, controls and scricon (scripted controls) and datajson; so for example you have controls_startup.nim to start the controls-project. Nimwebbie was a futurally planned project to create a web-gui-builder, but now I regard that project of lower priority.
Common components that are used are jester, moustachu (substitution-engine) and json.
Further code-review is forth-coming and will be presented in the wiki.
The hello-project is allways usefull to show a minimal project, thereby showing the minimal structure needed, on which further functions can be built.
This project shows the generation of some elaborate controls: select-element/combobox, checkbox and radiobox. A simple element like a button or texarea can be entered in project_inner.html directly; its simpleness and staticness makes it unnecessary to generate.
While Controls was a pure server-side approach, in Scricon javascript is used. Scricon is showing:
- how javascript is used in basic examples, especially event-code.
- how server-code can be run from javascript thru a technique i call the cookie-tunnel. Scricon does not show:
- advanced javascript-functions, like:
- setting a select from javascript. (the cookie-tunnel makes that a lower priority).
- setting other controls or elements from javascript.
The latest project is Datajson, which is a generalized database-form (based on Sqlite). To repeat: The json-file-technique is usable for databases, because a module can write data from the database to the json-definition-file (g_db2json.nim). In a following pass a html-table-element can be generated from the json-def (in g_html_json.nim).
The technique to run specific code is based on a textarea-element "curaction" in which the current action is set on basis of an event, like a button-click, and a submit is done. In the relevant route happens something like: if curaction == "save.." then save the record.
This is a forth-worked version of scricon. The plan was twofold:
- refactor the code; done
- test and try multi-threading; suspended or even cancelled.
Related to refactoring the plan was to extract the code from the routes and move it to smaller procedures. To do so the request.params had to be copied to a non-jester structure. Also some other restructing was done.
Multi-threading-testing has been suspended, because jester-maintenance is currently low, and a maintained alternative has been presented: mummy + mummy_utils. These libs can be migrated to, which is (relatively) easy. Also mummy has better multi-threading support. Some examples of migrations of are shown in the new repo json2mummy (forthcoming).
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install the components thru nimble:
- Jester; the web-server
- Moustachu; a substitution-engine
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learning-mode: choose a (sub)project that you want to test, starting with hello, then controls, scricon and datajson. Get the project by cloning or by downloading a release (forth-coming).
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creation-mode; copy the latest project, currently datajson, because the project has the latest updates. Older subprojects are not reversely updated. You get files of the form:
- g_somegenericmodule.nim
- project_somefunction.nim
- project.db
- project_inner.html
- project_outer.html
- project_gui.json
- /public/project_sheet.css
- /public/project_script.js
- /stored_gui_nodes/ use dir only when persistOnDisk is chosen
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update the path to the database in g_database.nim
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try to compile and run the code. When you decide you want to build something based on the code do the following:
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substitute your own projectname for the project (currently datajson) both in the filenames and for constants and variables and modules in the modules themselves.
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try to run it with the new names.
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look in the latest or earlier subprojects if you need info on certain functionalities.
Version 0.2