liaisonjs

ES6/2015 library that allows for passing of view data to ES6/2015 modules. This is an alternative to storing data in HTML data attributes that clutter the DOM. Supports two way data binding and has a base model class for persistent data structures.

Each module can be run independent of the rest of the modules. Data is stored within each module rather than the global namespace.

Example usage:

Example.js

import Liaison from './Liaison'
import Binding from './Binding'

export class Example {
  constructor(data) {
    this.bind = new Liaison(data); // sets objects
    this.binding = new Binding(this.bind); // sets data bindings
    this.anotherFunction();
  }

  anotherFunction() {
    // here you have access to this.bind.user and this.bind.programming_languages
    console.log(this.bind.user);
    console.log(this.bind.programming_languages);
  }
}

In your html

<script>
  load_component('Example', {
    user: {
      name: 'Sherlock Holmes',
      address: '221b Baker Street'
      },
    programming_languages: ['javascript', 'ruby']
  });
</script>

Or, more specifically in Rails/HAML you can pass in a user object such as @current_user. If you know of a better way to format the data to pass it in that is cleaner, please put up a PR. I would greatly appreciate it.

:javascript
  load_component('Example', {
    user: JSON.parse("#{escape_javascript raw @current_user.to_json}"),
    programming_languages: ['javascript', 'ruby']
  });

Two way data binding

Following the example above, to bind data use liaison-bind="variable_name" as such and it will bind to this.bind.variable_name. In this example this.bind.name is bound to these elements in the javascript

<div liaison-bind='name'></div>
<input type="text" liaison-bind='name'></input>

Base Model Class

The Base Model class serves to give a more strict schema pull from. This schema would work as a contract between front and back end so data is consistent.

To untilize the base model class, create a model class that extends the BaseModel class and pass in the schema with the following format

import BaseModel from './BaseModel'

export class ViewModel extends BaseModel {
  constructor() {
    super('view', {
      single: {type: 'string', value: 'from schema'},
      user: {type: 'object', value:
        {
          id: {type: 'number', value:88888},
          name: {type: 'string', value:'Sherlock Holmes'},
          address: {type: 'string', value:'221b Baker Street'}
        },
      },
      programming_languages: {type:'array', value: ['javascript', 'ruby']}
    });
  }
}

To use this one would run the following code:

let myModel = new ViewModel();
myModel.set('user.name', 'new name');
myModel.get('user.name'); // returns the user's name
myModel.set('doesnt_exist_in_schema','value'); // wont add it to the model
myModel.set('user.id',{}); // wont set it in the model because its not the correct type
myModel.get(); // no params returns the whole model

Working on using setters and getters to see if it's cleaner.

Then you can put helper functions in your model class (eg getFullName that returns first+last name). Working on utilizing an XHR library to handle fetching/updating/deleting model data.

When using BaseModel with data binding you may need to force refresh your bindings with the refresh function on the Binding class if you are updating the root of the data binding object (eg this.bind) by running: this.binding.refresh(this.bind)

Running Tests

npm run mocha will run the Mocha tests npm run pioneer will run the Pioneer tests npm test will run both mocha and Pioneer tests

Compiling

It is recommended you compile this with babel using the --modules ignore flag

Contributing

Information about contributing can be found here