roosevelt

roosevelt.js

Roosevelt is a web framework for Node.js which uses teddy.js for HTML templating.

Built on Express, Roosevelt abstracts most of Express' boilerplate, sets sane defaults with mechanisms for override, and provides a uniform MVC structure for your app.

Installation

Install command line tool globally (may require sudo):

npm install -g roosevelt

Make an app

Use the command line tool to create a sample app:

roosevelt create myapp

Change into your new app's directory and then install dependencies (may require sudo):

cd myapp
npm install .

Run the app:

node .

That's pretty much it.

What's in app.js?

Just this:

var app = require('roosevelt')({
  /**
   * params:
   * 
   * param name:      default value
   * name:            'Roosevelt Express'
   * port:            43711
   * controllersPath: 'mvc/controllers/'
   * viewsPath:       'mvc/views/'
   * imagesPath:      'statics/i/'
   * cssPath:         'statics/css/'
   * jsPath:          'statics/js/'
   * customConfigs:   function() { put custom Express config code here }
   */
});

Roosevelt is designed to have a minimal amount of boilerplate so you can focus on just writing your app. All params are optional.

Params

Here's what the params mean:

• name: the name of your app
• port: the port your app will run on (default is 43711)
• controllersPath: path on filesystem to where your controller files are located (default is "mvc/controllers")
• viewsPath: path on filesystem to where your view files are located (default is "mvc/views")
• imagesPath: path on filesystem to where your image files are located (default is "statics/i")
• cssPath: path on filesystem to where your CSS files are located (default is "statics/css")
• jsPath: path on filesystem to where your JS files are located (default is "statics/js")
• customConfigs: use this to define a custom function to be executed during the Express config stage if you need one

How do I make new routes?

URL endpoints are defined by controller files.

The Roosevelt framework will automatically assign a route matching each controller's filename.

As such, to make a new route, just make a new file in the controllers directory.

For example, suppose we make a new file in mvc/controllers called hello.js:

module.exports = function(req, res) {
  res.render('hello.html', require('../models/helloModel'));
};

That will make a new URL endpoint called "hello" on your app which will attempt to render a template in the mvc/views directory called hello.html and pass a model from the mvc/models directory called helloModel.js.

Missing features

Here are some things still left to be implemented:

• Support for templating engines other than teddy
• HTTPS support
• Support for more custom HTTP status code error pages
• Probably many other things

Dependencies

• fs (bundled with Node.js) - a default Node.js module which provides filesystem access
• http (bundled with Node.js) - a default Node.js module which provides HTTP web server support
• express - a minimal and flexible node.js web application framework
• teddy - an easy-to-read, HTML-based, mostly logic-less DOM templating engine
• wrench - used by the CLI tool to help you create your sample app

License

All original code in Roosevelt is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Commercial and noncommercial use is permitted with attribution.