frint

The base of Frint

• Guide
  • Installation
  • Terminologies
  • Usage
  • Creating and registering apps
  • Understanding Providers
• API
  • App
  • createApp
  • app

Guide

Installation

With npm:

$ npm install --save frint

Via unpkg CDN:

<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/lodash.js/4.17.4/lodash.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/rxjs/5.5.0/Rx.min.js"></script>

<script src="https://unpkg.com/frint@latest/dist/frint.min.js"></script>
<script>
  // available as `window.Frint`
</script>

Terminologies

• Root App: The top-most parent App, where other Apps get registered to.
• App: Apps that register themselves to Root App.
• Provider: Dependency for your apps.

Usage

Let's import the necessary functions from the library first:

const Frint = require('frint');
const { createApp } = Frint;

Now we can create our App:

const RootApp = createApp({ name: 'MyAppName' });

Instantiate the Root app:

const app = new RootApp(); // now you have the Root app's instance

// usually we set the root app to `window.app`,
// so apps coming in from separate bundles can register themselves
window.app = app;

Creating and registering apps

const { createApp } = Frint;

const MyApp = createApp({ name: 'MyAppName' });

To register the App in your Root App:

window.app.registerApp(MyApp);

Understanding Providers

Providers are dependencies for your Frint application (not to be confused with npm packages).

They can be set at Root app level, at App level, or even only at Root app level but cascade them to other Apps.

Direct values

For values that are already known:

const RootApp = createApp({
  name: 'MyAppName',
  providers: [
    {
      name: 'foo',
      useValue: 'foo value here'
    }
  ]
});

const app = new RootApp();
app.get('foo') === 'foo value here';

Generated values from factories

If you want to get the value from a function (will be called only once during App construction):

const RootApp = createApp({
  name: 'MyAppName',
  providers: [
    {
      name: 'bar',
      useFactory: function () {
        return 'bar value';
      }
    },
  ]
});

const app = new RootApp();
app.get('bar') === 'bar value';

Classes

You can also have classes defined as providers. They will be instantiated when the App is constructed, and then made available to you:

class Baz {
  getValue() {
    return 'baz value';
  }
}

const RootApp = createApp({
  name: 'MyAppName',
  providers: [
    {
      name: 'baz',
      useClass: Baz
    }
  ]
});

const app = new RootApp();
app.get('baz').getValue() === 'baz value';

Cascading

If you wish to cascade a provider from Root App to other Apps, you can:

const RootApp = createApp({
  name: 'MyRootApp',
  providers: [
    {
      name: 'window',
      useValue: window, // the global `window` object
      cascade: true,
    }
  ]
});

const MyApp = createApp({
  name: 'MyApp'
});

const app = new RootApp();
app.registerApp(MyApp);

app.get('window') === window;
app.getAppInstance('MyApp').get('window') === window;

Reserved provider names

• app: The current App in scope
• rootApp: Always refers to the top-most App (which is Root)

Dependencies

Providers can also list their dependencies (by their names).

class Baz {
  constructor({ foo, bar, app }) {
    // I have access to both `foo` and `bar` here.
    // And I can access the scoped `app` instance too.
  }
}

const RootApp = createApp({
  name: 'MyRootApp',
  providers: [
    {
      name: 'foo',
      useValue: 'foo value'
    },
    {
      name: 'bar',
      useFactory: function ({ foo }) {
        return `In bar, I have foo's value: ${foo}`
      },
      deps: ['foo'] // value's of provider names listed here will be fed as arguments
    },
    {
      name: 'baz',
      useClass: Baz,
      deps: ['foo', 'bar', 'app']
    }
  ],
})

Scoped

When cascading providers from Root to other Apps, it is likely you may want to scope those values by the App they are targeting. It is applicable in only useFactory and useClass usage, since they generate values.

const RootApp = createApp({
  name: 'MyRootApp',
  providers: [
    {
      name: 'theNameOfTheApp',
      useFactory: function ({ app }) {
        return app.app.getName();
      },
      deps: ['app'],
      cascade: true,
      scoped: true,
    }
  ]
});

const MyApp = createApp({
  name: 'MyApp'
});

const app = new RootApp();
app.registerApp(MyApp);

app.get('theNameOfTheApp') === 'MyRootApp';
app.getAppInstance('MyApp').get('theNameOfTheApp') === 'MyApp';

API

App

App

The base App class.

createApp

createApp(options)

Arguments

1. options (Object)
   • options.name: (String [required]): Name of your App.
   • options.methods: (Object [optional]): Object with the methods your App exposes on the instance level.
   • options.initialize: (Function [optional]): Called when App is constructed.
   • options.beforeDestroy: (Function [optional]): Called when App is about to be destroyed.
   • options.providers: (Array [optional]): Array of provider objects.

Returns

App: App class.

app

const app = new App();

The App instance

app.getOption

app.getOption(key)

Arguments

1. key (String)

Returns

Any.

Example

app.getOption('name') would give you MyAppName string.

app.getName

app.getName()

Returns

String: The App's name.

app.getRootApp

app.getRootApp()

Returns

App: Gives you the Root App instance.

app.getParentApp

app.getParentApp()

Returns

App: Gives you the immediate Parent App instance.

app.getParentApps

app.getParentApps()

Returns

Array: Array of parent apps, with immediate parent app as first element and the root app being the last.

app.getProviders

app.getProviders()

Gives you an array of provider definitions as passed while creating the App class.

Returns

Array: Array of provider definitions as passed while creating the App class.

app.getProvider

app.getProvider(name)

Gives you the provider's original definition.

Arguments

1. name (String): The name of the provider that you want

Returns

Object: The provider definition

Not to be confused with the computed value of the provider.

app.get

app.get(name)

Gives you the computed value of the provider.

Arguments

1. name (String): The name of the provider

Returns

Any: The computed value of the provider.

app.getApps$

app.getApps$(regionName = null)

Arguments

1. regionName (String [optional]): Filter the list of apps by region names if needed

Returns

Observable: That emits an array of most recent available Apps.

app.registerApp

app.registerApp(App, options = {})

Register App class to Root app.

Arguments

1. App (App): The App class.
2. options (Object [optional])
   • name (String [optional]): If the App's name needs to be overridden.
   • multi (Boolean [optional]): If the App is a multi-instance app (defaults to false)

Returns

void

app.hasAppInstance

app.hasAppInstance(name, region = null, regionKey = null)

Check if App instance is available or not.

Arguments

1. name (String): The name of the App that you are looking for
2. region (String [optional]): If you want the App of a specific region
3. regionKey (String [optional]): If it is a multi-instance App, then the lookup can be scoped by region's keys.

Returns

Boolean: A flag indicating whether an App instance whose name matches the provided name parameter is available or not

app.getAppInstance

app.getAppInstance(name, region = null, regionKey = null)

Gets the App instance if available.

Arguments

1. name (String): The name of the App that you are looking for
2. region (String [optional]): If you want the App of a specific region
3. regionKey (String [optional]): If it is a multi-instance App, then the lookup can be scoped by region's keys.

Returns

App|Boolean: The app instance, or false if not availble.

app.getAppOnceAvailable$

app.getAppOnceAvailable$(name, region = null, regionKey = null)

Returns an Observable, which emits with the App's instance once it is available.

Arguments

1. name (String): The name of the App that you are looking for
2. region (String [optional]): If you want the App of a specific region
3. regionKey (String [optional]): If it is a multi-instance App, then the lookup can be scoped by region's keys.

Returns

Observable: Emits the App instance once found, only once.

app.instantiateApp

app.instantiateApp(name, region = null, regionKey = null)

Instantiates the registered App class, (for the targetted region/regionKey if it is a multi-instance App).

Arguments

1. name (String): The name of the App that you are looking for
2. region (String [optional]): If you want the App of a specific region
3. regionKey (String [optional]): If it is a multi-instance App, then the lookup can be scoped by region's keys.

Returns

Array: The updated collection of apps.

app.destroyApp

app.destroyApp(name, region = null, regionKey = null)

Destroys App instance.

Arguments

1. name (String): The name of the App that you are looking for
2. region (String [optional]): If you want the App of a specific region
3. regionKey (String [optional]): If it is a multi-instance App, then the lookup can be scoped by region's keys.

Returns

void.