jaxify

Generate client and server side ajax calls code.

why

• Code less. In the README.md example, I wrote an input file of 16 lines, and got two necessary files with a sum of around 30.
• It forces the developer to use the promise returned from $.ajax instead of success, error and complete properties. This is better because promises make code more readable.
• When you change something (ie: the url), you only have to modify one codebase. This is also true because of the previous point, ajax calls are meant to be defined once client side.
• It automatically maps parameters of fn that are in the url (like id in /find/:id) to req.params. And, the parameters of fnthat are not in the url are mapped to req.body. No confusion between req.params and req.body. And because of this, client ajax methods can be called with simple code, for example: ajax.find(1, false) even if the first parameter is a url parameter, and the other is mapped to data.

how

1. Write a jaxi.js file like this:

var ajax = {
    find: {
        method: 'get',
        url: '/find/:id',
        fn: function(id, filter) {
            if (filter) reply('James');
            reply(['Jimmy', 'James', 'Found'][id]);
        }
    },
    delete: {
        method: 'delete',
        fn: function() {
            reply('Deleted');
        }
    }
}

2. Run jaxify in a terminal to generate a client.jaxi.js and a server.jaxi.js

3. Look at the magic:

client.jaxi.js

var ajax = {
    find: function(id, filter) {
        return $.ajax({
            url: '/find/' + id,
            method: 'get',
            data: {filter: filter}
        })
    },
    delete: function() {
        return $.ajax({
            url: '/delete',
            method: 'delete'
        })
    }
}
// $.ajax returns a jqXHR, that implements the promise interface, so you can do 
ajax.find(1, false).done(function(res) { });

server.jaxi.js

function setExpress(app) {
    for (var name in ajax) {
        var action = ajax[name];
        var url = action.url ? action.url : '/' + name;
        app[action.method](url, function(req, res) {
            action.fn(req, res);
        });
    }
}

var ajax = {
    find: {
        method: 'get',
        url: '/find/:id',
        fn: function(req, res) {
            var id = req.params.id;
            var filter = req.body.filter;
            if (filter) res.send('James')
			res.send(['Jimmy', 'James', 'Found'][id]);
        }
    },
    delete: {
        method: 'delete',
        fn: function(req, res) {
            res.send('Deleted');
        }
    }
}
module.exports = setExpress;

4. Add client.jaxi.jsas a script to HTML.
5. Require server.jaxi.js in server and invoke with Express, for example:

var app = require('express')();
require('server.jaxi')(app);

install

With npm do:

npm install -g jaxify

usage

Usage: jaxify {OPTIONS}

Standard Options:

    --clientfile, -c  Write the client output to this file.
                      If unspecified, use 'client.jaxi.js'
		      
    --serverfile, -s  Write the server output to this file.
                      If unspecified, use 'server.jaxi.js'

     --inputfile, -i  Use this file as input.
                      If unspecified, use 'jaxi.js'
    		     
     --webserver, -w  Use the specified webserver.
                      Options are 'express'.

          --ajax, -a  Use the specified client side ajax library.
                      Options are 'jquery'.

          --help, -h  Show this message

license

MIT