invisible

Invisible.js

Invisible is a JavaScript (and CoffeeScript!) library that leverages browserify to achieve the Holy Grail of web programming: model reuse in the client and the server.

Usage

First wire up Invisible into your app:

express = require("express");
path = require("path");
invisible = require("invisible");

app = express();
invisible.server(app, path.join(__dirname, "models"))

To make your models available everywhere, define them and call Invisible.createModel

Invisible = require("invisible");
crypto = require("crypto");
_s = require("underscore.string");

function Person(firstName, lastName, email){
    this.firstName = firstName;
    this.lastName = lastName;
    this.email = email;
}

Person.prototype.fullName = function(){
    return this.firstName + ' ' + this.lastName;
}

Person.prototype.getAvatarUrl = function(){
    cleanMail = _s.trim(this.email).toLowerCase();
    hash = crypto.createHash("md5").update(cleanMail).digest("hex");
    return "http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/" + hash;
}

module.exports = Invisible.createModel("Person", Person);

Require your models as usual in the server:

Person = require("./models/person");
john = new Person("John", "Doe", "[e-mail]");
john.fullName(); //John Doe

In the client, just add the invisible script and your models will be available under the Invisible namespace:

<script src="invisible.js"></script>
<script>
    jane = new Invisible.Person("Jane", "Doe", "[e-mail]");
    alert(jane.fullName()); //Jane Doe
</script>

Invisible extends your models to handle your MongoDB persistence, no matter if you are at the client or the server:

jane.save();
Invisible.Person.query({firstName: "Jane"}, function(results){
    console.log(results[0].fullName()); //Jane Doe
});