Iron(Fe)

Iron (Fe) is an opinionated yet flexible FrontEnd development framework.

Why another front end tool?

We want Iron to be a foundation for projects. Like all foundations Iron(Fe) is a place to start, but a foundation is just a beginning. There can be many directions you can go after you have a firm foundation. We want to give front end developers who work with AEM access to the same tools that we have when working outside AEM. Iron makes a few decisions for you.

Where is Iron opinionated?

• Iron encourages you to write your components in small sets of independent functionality.
• All components are blueprinted common js modules.
  • with a main.js and a main.css files these small bits of code will help you stay organized as your project grows.
• Components are bundled via Browserify webpack or whatever else you fancy.
• Bundles are formed in client libraries.
  • once the code is bundled it can be moved to a client library in AEM and then built via maven.

To install Iron's Generator

npm install -g iron-fe

Use Iron with a new project

iron myProjectName

Once you have initialized Iron in your project you can use any of these commands.

Options:

    -h, --help              output usage information
    -V, --version           output the version number
    -c, --component [name]  Create a component with specified name
    -b, --bundle [name]     Create an AEM bundle with a specified name
    -l, --clientlib [name]  Create a Client Library with a specified name

API

iron.bundles

The functions nested under bundles are to help you construct the bundles that can get moved into client libraries.

bundles.match( filePath )

Bundles.match takes a file path of a component and will return a list of bundles. Each of those bundles are an explicit dependency of an individual component.

import iron from 'iron-fe'; // var iron = require( 'iron-fe' );
let myComponentPath = "the/path/to/my/component.js"
iron.bundles.match( myComponentPath )

bundles.get

Here you have the option of getting all or just one of the bundles you have generated in the aem-bundles folder.

bundles.get.one( bundleName )

This function will give you one bundle back with its relevant information.

 import iron from 'iron-fe'; // var iron = require( 'iron-fe' );
 let myBundle = iron.bundles.get.one( 'myBundle' );

 ---------
 {
    components: [
        { name: 'appEntry', isGlobal: false },
        { name: 'maps', isGlobal: false }
    ],
    name: 'mainApp',
    path: 'aem-bundles/app',
    main: 'main.directories.js',
    config:  {
        clientLibPath: '/Absolute/Path/to/bundle',
        autoGenerate: { js: true, styles: true },
        useGlobalComponents: true,
        components: [ 'appEntry', 'maps' ]
    }
 }

bundles.get.all()

This function will give you all bundles you have in your project with each bundle's relevant information.

 import iron from 'iron-fe'; // var iron = require( 'iron-fe' );
 let bundles = iron.bundles.get.all( );

 ---------
 [
    {
        components: [
            { name: 'appEntry', isGlobal: false },
            { name: 'maps', isGlobal: false }
        ],
        name: 'mainApp',
        path: 'aem-bundles/app',
        main: 'main.mainApp.js',
        config:  {
            clientLibPath: '/Absolute/Path/to/clientlib',
            autoGenerate: { js: true, styles: true },
            useGlobalComponents: true,
            components: [ 'appEntry', 'maps' ]
        }
    },
    {
        components: [
            { name: 'appEntry', isGlobal: false },
            { name: 'maps', isGlobal: false }
            { name: 'fonts', isGlobal: false }
        ],
        name: 'homePape',
        path: 'aem-bundles/homePape',
        main: 'main.homePape.js',
        config:  {
            clientLibPath: '/Absolute/Path/to/clientlib',
            autoGenerate: { js: true, styles: true },
            useGlobalComponents: true,
            components: [ 'appEntry', 'maps', 'fonts' ]
        }
    }
 ]

bundles.buildComponentTree();

This can be used in a build pre build step to generate an object of all the components listed in the bundles config json.

/**
*
* This file was generated. To edit the contents edit the
* .ironrc file for your project.
*
*/

export default {
    'nav' : require( './../../components/nav/nav.js' ),
    'footer' : require( './../../components/footer/footer.js' ),
    'video' : require( './../../components/video/video.js' )
}

Custom Iron Templates

Iron will add a iron-templates folder to you iron-fe folder. In the iron-templates folder you will find 3 sub-folders. You can add your own custom template files here for each generator. For instance if your project has a base include that ever javascript component should have you can add a project specific template there.

Creating your custom template

1. Choose the folder in which you want to add you custom template in the iron-templates folder
2. Add a new file to that folder and name it what ever you want with an extension of extension.template.
   • For example if I wanted a custom javascript template for the component generator the template file name might look like this ironDemo.js.template
3. Once you have your template open up the .ironrc file and change the key in the templateConfigs object to match the name of your new template.
   • using the same example above. I would change the templateConfigs.components.js from ironDefault to ironDemo.