Grasshopper

A feature-rich and flexible MVC framework for web applications and services built on node.JS. Follow the instructions to install node.JS. Join the mailing list for further help and feedback.

This framework is licensed under the terms of Apache License, Version 2.0.

Features

Integrated support for dependency injection.
Filters for intercepting requests.
Supports i18n out of the box.
Handles updation and validation of models from forms.
Supports on the fly Gzip compression of responses.
Static files can also be pre-compressed to save compression on each request.
Supports flash messages.
Allows adding view helpers to enable smarter views.
Layout and "include" support for views.
Automatic selection of view file based on request's extension.
Support for HTTPS with automatic redirection.
Supports Basic and Digest authentication.
Session management with support for custom session storage.
Simple API to create and consume cookies.
Fast file uploads using node-formidable.
Configurable form post and upload sizes.
Makes sending files as response attachments using 'Content-Disposition' simple.
Supports partial download of static files.
Supports if-modified-since, if-none-match and if-range headers.
Plenty of documentation through examples (Wiki will be updated with more tutorials).

Hello World

Create a directory for your application.
Install grasshopper in the new directory - npm install grasshopper.

Create a file named hello.js in your application's directory with the following content.

 var gh = require('grasshopper');

 gh.get('/', function() {
         this.renderText('Hello World!');
 });

 gh.serve(8080);

From your applications directory invoke the command node hello.js.
Point your browser at http://localhost:8080.

Creating a Project

Install grashopper globally,

sudo npm install -g grasshopper
Create your new project,

grasshopper project_name
Install dependencies for the project,

cd project_name && npm install -d
Start the server and visit http://localhost:8080,

node boot.js

Arguments in URL and Template Files

Arguments passed as part of the URL can be obtained with an additional parameter in the controller function, to which a hash of arguments defined between {} in your route and their values would be passed.

Template File Format (GHP - GrassHopper Pages)

Text inside <% and %> are evaluated as Javacript code.
Text inside <%= and %> are evaluated as Javascript code and its result is included into the output after escaping HTML.
Text inside <%h and %> are evaluated as Javascript code and its result is included into the output without any modification.

Create a file named greeting.html in your application's directory with the following content. This would act as your template file.

 <html>
     <head>
         <title>Template Sample</title>
     </head>
     <body>
         <h1>Welcome, <%= name %>!</h1>
     </body>
 </html>

Create a file named template.js in your application's directory with the following content. The 'model' property of 'this' must be setup with the data items used in the template. The render function must be invoked with the name of a template file (without extension). The extension of the template file to use is determined by the extension of the request URL (.html, if none specified).
```
 var gh = require('grasshopper');

 gh.get('/greetings/{name}', function(args) {
         this.model['name'] = args.name;
         this.render('greeting');
 });

 gh.serve(8080);
```
From your applications directory invoke the command node template.js.
Point your browser at http://localhost:8080/greetings/ABC.

Dependency Injection

Hashes containing the necessary dependencies can be added to the this context of your controller functions, using the gh.addToContext() function. You can either specify all the hashes to be included in a single invocation or in multiple invocations. For example,

var gh = require('grasshopper');

var dependencies = {
    dataService: {
        getStock: function() {
            return 100;
        }
    }
};
gh.addToContext(dependencies);

gh.get('/', function() {
    this.renderText('There are ' + this.dataService.getStock() + ' units in stock!');
});

gh.serve(8080);

cskr/grasshopper

cskr

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