PlasmaJS

An isomorphic NodeJS framework powered with React for building web apps.

Features

Declarative syntax
Isomorphic routing
Isolated routing for API endpoints
Middlewares that are maintanable
ES6 syntax with babel

Installation

Install with npm npm i --save plasmajs(you can also install it globally with npm i -g plasmajs)
To run the server, plasmajs path/to/server.js(Add it to your package.json scripts for local install)

Guide

Import it to your app.js

import { Server, Route, Router, NodeHistoryAPI } from 'plasmajs';

Writing A Server

const HeadLayout = props => (
  <head>
    <title>{props.title}</title>
  </head>
);
const WrapperLayout = props => <body>{props.children}</body>;
const HomeLayout = props => <div>Hello World</div>;
const ErrorLayout = props => <div>404 Not Found</div>;

export default class App extends React.Component {
  // Port number (Default=8080)
  static port = 8080;

  render() {
    const history = new NodeHistoryAPI(this.props.request, this.props.response);
    return (
      <Server>
        <HeadLayout title="Test" />
        <Router history={history} wrapper={WrapperLayout}>
          <Route path="/" component={HomeLayout} />
          <Route errorHandler={true} component={ErrorLayout} />
        </Router>
      </Server>
    );
  }
}

Middlewares

Writing custom Middlewares

In MyMiddleWare.jsx...

import { MiddleWare } from 'plasmajs';

export default class MyMiddleWare extends MiddleWare {
  onRequest(req, res) {
    // Do your magic here
    // Run this.terminate() to stop the render and take over
  }
}

And in App's render method...

<Server>

  <MyMiddleWare {...this.props} />

  // ...
</Server>

Logger Middleware

It logs information about the request made to the server out to the console.

import {Logger} from 'plasmajs' // and add it in the server but after the router declaration.

<Server>
  // ...

  <Logger {...this.props} color={true} />
</Server>

Props
- color (boolean) - Adds color to the logs if true

StaticContentRouter Middleware

Allows you to host a static content directory for public files

import {StaticContentRouter} from 'plasmajs'

<Server>
  <StaticContentRouter {...this.props} dir='public' hasPrefix={true} />

  // ...
</Server>

Props
- dir (string) - The name of the static content folder to host
- hasPrefix (boolean) - If set to false, will route it as http://example.com/file instead of http://example.com/public/file
- compress (boolean) - If true, will enable gzip compression on all static content if the client supports it

APIRoute Middleware

Allows you to declare isolated routes for requests to api hooks

  import {APIRoute} from 'plasmajs'
  
  //...
  // API request handler for api routes
  _apiRequestHandler() {

    // Return a promise
    return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {

      resolve({
        wow: "cool cool"
      });
    });
  }

  render() {
    return (
      <Server>
        <APIRoute {...this.props} method='POST' path='/api/stuff' controller={this._apiRequestHandler} />
        //...
      </Server>
    );
  }

Props
- method (string) - The http request method
- path (string or regex) - The path to match
- controller (function) - The request handler

Routing

Isomorphic routing which renders the content on the server-side and then lets the javascript kick in and take over the interactions. (The server side rendering only works for Push State routing on the client side, not Hash routing).

NOTE: Its better to isolate the route definitions to its own file so that the client-side and the server-side can share the components

History API

There are 3 types of routing available - Backend routing(new NodeHistoryAPI(request, response)), Push State routing(new HistoryAPI(options)), Hash routing(new HashHistoryAPI(options))(NOTE: The naming is just for consistency)

The Router

<Router history={history} wrapper={Wrapper}>
  {allRouteDeclarations}
</Router>

Props
- history (object) - It's the history api instance you pass in depending on the kind of routing you require.
- wrapper (React component class) - It is a wrapper for the routed contents

Declaring a route

If Homepage is a react component class and / is the url.

<Route path='/' component={HomePage} />

Props
- path (string or regex) - The url to route the request to
- component (React component class) - The component to be rendered when the route is triggered
- statusCode (integer) - The status code for the response
- caseInsensitive (boolean) - Set to true if you want the url to be case insensitive
- errorHandler (boolean) - Set to true to define a 404 error handler

Want to help?

PRs are welcome. You can also join us on discord for discussions about plasmajs.

phenax/plasmajs

phenax

Reviews

Repository Details