pageboard-core -- Web pages content management

This README is deprecated, see pageboard/pageboard README.md instead.

command-line usage

pageboard --listen 3000 --database "postgres://myuser@localhost/myappdb"
	--plugins pageboard-prerender --plugins ./plugins/myapp

pageboard uses rc to load configuration from files and cli arguments, and plugins can act upon actions:

pageboard --data.url=/test \
	--data.template=test.html \
	--data.domain=test \
	page.add

pageboard --data.url=/test --data.domain=test page.get --connection.debug

or even

pageboard migrate seed

The All object

All useful functions are available through All:

• All.app (the express app)
• All.opt
• All.tag, All.scope, All.vary (the upcache plugin)
• All.api.Block
• All.api.Href
• All.api.DomainBlock(domain) -> promise
• All.install({domain, dependencies})
• All.objection, All.migrate
• All.page.get, All.site.add, All.user.save, All.page.save, etc..

A plugin must not populate All - it is supposed to be read-only, but nothing actually prevents that. It simply has to use exports instead.

By default, All is a global object, but that can be disabled by setting configuration option global to false.

Plugins

config.plugins parameter is a list of modules names or paths.

A plugin is a module with set up like this:

module.exports = function(config) {
	config.stuff = Object.assign({ stuff: true }, config.stuff);
	return {
		service: init,
		name: 'test'
	};
}
exports.mystuff = function(thing) { /* ... */ }

function init(All) {
	All.app.get('/api/test', function(req, res, next) {
		exports.mystuff(req.query).then(function(data) {
			res.send(data);
		}).catch(next);
	});
}

Exported symbols are assigned to the global All object. If name has been defined: All.test.mystuff, and if it has not been defined: All.mystuff.

The module.exports function can return any of file, service, or view init functions. Those functions can return a promise, are run one after another, first files, then services, then views.

This allows express routes to be setup in predictable order, with separate error handlers.

Sites, mounts, elements

config.directories and config.elements are arrays of paths that can be populated by plugins when pageboard is started.

A site (with a domain) can also declare dependencies on npm modules, each of which can contain a package.json with pageboard.directories and pageboard.elements lists of relative paths.

Mounts declared this way are accessible through /.files/<module>/<path> and are only accessible through the same domain.

Elements declared this way are loaded into a new Block per-domain model, All.api.DomainBlock(domain) (returns a promise because it might need to install the domain if the site was never installed before).

Elements entries can point to a directory, in which case all files with .js extensions in that directory are loaded as elements.

pageboard-core is responsible for building the directories and elements arrays, and then calls

All.statics.install({mounts, domain})
All.api.install({elements, directories, domain})

HttpError

Is global, meaning you can throw new HttpError.notFound(message) anywhere you like. See the http-errors documentation.

configuration

Using rc.

Default values coming from package.json:

• name
• version
• plugins

From command-line or from http request's hostname

• site

Other configurations not set in package.json:

• global (wether All is available as a global or not)
• listen
• database (connection string) database.user database.dump (can be set to anything) database.dump.interval (in days) database.dump.dir (dir name in xdg data dir) database.dump.keep (in days)
• logFormat (for morgan)
• seeds, migrations (lists of directories)
• components (list of files)
• statics.root
• statics.favicon
• statics.mounts (list of directories to mount as statics public dirs)
• statics.maxAge (default maxAge for static files)
• scope.issuer (defaults to name)
• scope.maxAge (default maxAge for jsonwebtoken)
• inspector.providers (optional path to custom providers)
• prerender.stall, prerender.allow (and all express-dom settings)
• prerender.pool.max (and all pool settings)
• sharpie.q, sharpie.rs, sharpie.bg (and all sharpie settings)