Truss is an opinionated scaffolding tool for node.js that originated from bumm. Bumm is great but I wish to take Truss in a different direction.

Generated projects rely on express and mongoose without any persistence abstractions, additional libraries or frameworks. Just plain express and mongoose!

Roadmap

• Switch to Bootstrap 3.0
• Update JavaScript code to conform to standard style guidelines
• Use latest Jade syntax
• DRY up the code as needed
• Authentication
• Ember.js

Installing Truss

npm install truss -g

Mini Tutorial

First cd to the directory where the project should be created

cd /path/to/projects/root

Create a project skeleton via

truss app testapp

Next cd to testapp

cd testapp

And install required packages through npm

npm install

Scaffolding

Create a model, route and views via scaffold command. The model should have two properties "title" and "description" where title is required.

truss scaffold test title:string:required:true description

Model validators are specified after property name and type in plain mongoose syntax. In case no type is specified the property will be of type string.

Mongoose types 'String', 'Number', 'Date', 'Buffer', 'Boolean', 'ObjectId', 'Array' are supported. Additionally the types 'DateTime' and 'Textbox' are supported which result in a datetime html 5 input tag and a textbox tag. Types are case insensitive.

Now start node app.js and navigate your browser to http://localhost:3000/tests

Scaffolding restful routes

You can create a JSON REST endpoint by scaffolding a model and its corresponding routes. The arguments are the same as above, but instead of scaffold use scafffold:rest like this

truss scaffold:rest post title:string:required:true description

Usage

Project generator for node.js using express and mongoose

Usage:
  truss [options] command [arguments]

Options:
  --help, -h                 Output this usage dialog
  --version, -v              Output the version of truss

Commands:
  app <name>                 Create a new application
  scaffold <name> [attrib]   Create a new route, model and views for <name>
  resource <name> [attrib]   Creates a model and route for resource <name>
  view <name> [attrib]       Creates views for a <name>
  route <name> [attrib]      Creates a route for a <name>
  model <name> [attrib]      Creates a new mongoose model for a <name>

name:
  Name should be provided as singular, so use `item` instead of `items`. For
  `scaffold`, `view`, `route`, `resource`, `model` commands name
  accepts a path prefix. For example `admin/item` will create model, routes and
  views in an admin directory. Routes will then point to `/admin/items`. This
  option can be useful if you plan to add some authentication based on routes
  later on.

attrib:
  Attributes are used to describe properties of models used in routes, views
  and of course models using the schema:

  name:type:validator:validatorValue:validator:validatorValue...

Examples:
  truss app todo              Generates an express app skeleton
  truss scaffold item         Generates item model, route and views supporting
                             basic CRUD operations
  truss view item             Generates item views

  truss scaffold item name:string:required:true

                             Generates item model, route and views with a single
                             property "name" that is required.

What truss creates

After executing truss app someappname you'll find the following structure in your file system.

|   app.js
|   helpers.js
|   package.json
|   README.md
|
+---config
|       defaults.js
|       development.js
|       index.js
|       production.js
|
+---lib
|       model-mapper.js
|
+---public
|   +---css
|   |       custom.css
|   |
|   \---vendor
|       +---bootstrap
|       |   +---css
|       |   |       bootstrap-responsive.css
|       |   |       bootstrap-responsive.min.css
|       |   |       bootstrap.css
|       |   |       bootstrap.min.css
|       |   |
|       |   +---img
|       |   |       glyphicons-halflings-white.png
|       |   |       glyphicons-halflings.png
|       |   |
|       |   \---js
|       |           bootstrap.js
|       |           bootstrap.min.js
|       |
|       \---jquery
|           \---js
|                   jquery.min.js
|
+---routes
|       index.js
|
\---views
    |   index.jade
    |   layout.jade
    |
    \---mixins
            form-helpers.jade

Application structure explained

app.js

Creates and initializes an express app with a mongoDb connection configured. Routes will be setup by requiring the routes directory directly. See routes below.

helpers.js

Defines some jade/html helpers for displaying error messages and displaying values.

package.json

Initial package with value entered in the prompt dialog

README.md

Empty readme to silence npm

config

The config directory is required by app.js to load the configuration files. Truss assumes that you have three config files

• defaults Defines defaults that are used in development and production mode
• development Defines configuration values used in development mode only
• production Defines configuration values used in production mode only

Truss loads defaults first, then loads the configuration file development or production depending on the current NODE_ENV environment variable and overrides all default values with the development or production values.

lib

Truss ships with a single library file that is responsible to map values provided in request body to a mongoose model.

public

The public folder contains a quite up to date version of twitter bootstrap under vendor/boostrap, an up to date version of jQuery under vendor/jquery and a custom.css file under css.

Truss organizes all shipped 3rd party css/javascript libraries are placed in the vendor directory and follows a js, css, img schema for vendor libraries. You are free to place your libraries wherever you want :)

routes

All generated routes will be generated under routes. After creating an app with Truss, you'll find a single index.js file in this folder. Index.js requires all files that are in or routes or a sub directory of routes to initialize the route. In case you require a route to be defined before another route you can always require that route in index.js or load routes manually in a defined order.

index.js also defines a route to / to render a nice getting started page. This functionality can be removed without harming the system!

views

All generated view will be generated under views. After creating an app with Truss, you'll find an index.jade that is a welcome file to display some help text or defined routes, a layout.jade file that defines the layout used by all generated views and a mixin folder that defines mixins used in Truss generated views.

Truss Change Log

0.2.0

• Added Bootstrap 3 support
• Errors on forms now use Bootstrap 3 class "has-error"
• Mixin invocation uses the now standard "+" symbol instead of "mixin"

Bumm Change Log

0.1.5

• Add option to use mongodb session store
• Support directories when scaffolding models, views and routes
• Render a nice start page
• Support rest resources for api services

0.1.4

• Express and Mongoose updates
• Fix startup scripts
• Provide better error messages
• Use mixins to render forms

0.1.3

• Add npm init like prompt to specify generated package.json values by thomas peklak

0.1.2

• Minor bug fixes in views
• Basic support for array types
• Reorganizes public assets in vendor folder
• Disable 'x-powered-by' header

0.1.1

• Bootstrap update
• Mongoose update

0.1.0

• Initial version