extended-spine

extended-spine

Extended spine framework. It gives you ability to work with controllers almost like in Angular.

You can use it for example with SimQ.

Installation

$ npm install extended-spine

Setup

Before everything, you have to add this one line of code into your javascript.

Controller = require 'extended-spine'
Controller.init($)

Usage

Now only spine controller is extended.

Controller = require 'extended-spine/Controller'

class MyController extends Controller

	constructor: (@el) ->
		super


module.exports = MyController

As you can see, everything is same like in classic spine, only extended class is different.

Creating controllers from data-controller attribute

This module will automatically look for elements in your page with data-application attribute. If it will not find it, whole html page will be used. Every element inside this data-application element with data-controller element will be used for controller. Example is much better for explain.

...
<div data-application>
	...
	<div data-controller="/path/to/controller/for/this/element">...</div>
	...
</div>
...

Text in data-controller attribute is path used in require method.

This means that now you don't have to instantiate controllers on your own. :-)

Using dependency-injection

If you like dependency injection pattern with autowired dependencies (again for example like in angular), you can use this feature also with this module.

Uses dependency-injection module.

DI = require 'dependency-injection'
di = new DI

Controller.init($, di)

Some controller:

Controller = require 'extended-spine/Controller'

class Chat extends Controller


	http: null

	jquery: null

	model: null


	constructor: (@el, @http, @jquery, @model) ->


module.exports = Chat

Chat module is dependent on three services. First argument will always be the container element and others will be services from DI container.

Check documentation of dependency-injection module to see how to add services into your DI container.

This works only with controllers which were created with data-controller attribute.

Refreshing elements

If your application uses for example ajax for repainting elements, you can use two methods, showed below for refreshing your controllers.

Controller = require 'extended-spine/Controller'
Controller.init($)

el = $('#element-which-will-be-repainted')

$.get(url, (data) ->
	Controller.unbind(el)
	el.html(data)
	Controller.refresh(el)
)

Methods unbind and refresh manipulates also with element on which it was called. You can of course disable that.

Controller.unbind(el, false)
Controller.refresh(el, false)

Finding controllers

From jQuery element:

menu = $('#menu').getController()
// or
menu = $('[data-controller="/app/controller/Menu"]').getController()

Otherwise:

menu = Controller.find('/app/controller/Menu')

Lazy controllers

If you don't want to instantiate some controller immediately, you can add html attribute data-lazy to.

<div data-controller="/path/to/my/controller" data-lazy></div>

Now when you want to create instance of this controller, you have to get it's controller factory and use it.

factory = Controller.find('/path/to/my/controller')		// for lazy controllers, factory function is returned
controller = factory()									// just call it and it will return created controller

Mobile/computer specific controllers

You can also set if some of your controllers is only for mobile or only for computers.

<div data-controller="/app/controllers/just/for/mobile" data-mobile>
<div data-controller="/app/controllers/just/for/computer" data-computer>

Tests

$ npm test

Changelog

• 1.3.0

  • Refactoring
  • Added dependency injection (package extended-spine-di will be removed)
  • Added property fullName into controllers
  • Updated dependencies
  • Better find method

• 1.2.0

  • Tests modules does not need to be installed globally
  • Some updates
  • Added find method
  • Added lazy controller option
  • Added lazy option
  • Added badges
  • Added travis

• 1.1.0

  • Automatically creates html id
  • Some optimization

• 1.0.4

  • Wrong variable names

• 1.0.2 - 1.0.3

  • Bug with inheritance

• 1.0.1

  • Typo in tests
  • Better documentation

• 1.0.0

  • Initial version