exygen

Exygen

Not so much a framework, closer to boilerplate... but maintained and bundled with useful connectors. An out-of-box (and slightly opinionated) foundation for building "universal" React/Redux applications.

Install

npm install --save exygen

Quickstart

The guiding principal behind Exygen is to reduce boilerplate (and boilerplate maintenance), without getting in the way of your use of the core libraries it bundles (react, redux, react-router,...). At its most basic, Exygen cares about just two things: your routes and your root reducer.

routes.js

import { Dashboard } from './pages';

export const routes = [
  {
    path: '/',
    exact: true,
    component: Dashboard
  }
];

export default routes;

reducer.js

import { combineReducers } from 'redux';

import { todos } from './modules/todos/reducer';

export default combineReducers({
  todos
});

Pass those into the entry points for client and server, and... voila!

server.js

import path from 'path';
import server from 'exygen/server';

import routes from './routes';
import reducer from './reducer';

server({
  routes,
  reducer,
  assets: path.resolve( __dirname, './public' )
});

client.js

import client from 'exygen/client';

import routes from './routes';
import reducer from './reducer';

client({
  routes,
  reducer
});

This is an incomplete setup, but it gives you a good sense of the flavor of Exygen.

Features

Hot Module Replacement

The Exygen connectors provide webpack and React hot-module-replacement out-of-box, in the development environment.

Route Actions

"Route Actions" are actions that are dispatched to the Redux store when a route matches. Their most important use is pre-fetching data based on routes, for server-side rendering. They are managed by the Exygen connectors, and fire on both server and client.

routes.js

import { Dashboard, TodoList } from './pages';
import { fetchList } from './actions';

export const routes = [
  {
    path: '/',
    exact: true,
    component: Dashboard
  },
  {
    path: '/list/:listId',
    component: TodoList,
    fetch: ({ params }) => fetchList( params.listId )
  }
];

export default routes;

actions.js

export const fetchList = ( listId ) => {
  return dispatch => {
    dispatch({ type: 'LIST_REQUESTED', listId });

    return fetch( `/api/lists/${ listId }` )
      .then(
        res => dispatch({ type: 'LIST_RECEIVED', list: res }),
        err => dispatch({ type: 'LIST_ERROR' })
      );
  }
}

Boilerplate

This project isn't simply boilerplate, but it does offer a quick starting point for your project.

npm install -g exygen
exygen init

Exygen will install a minimal project template (directory structure and essential files) into the current working directory.

API Documentation

Server

server( options )

• initialState. A state initializer—object or function.
  • If a function, receives the express request object.